Google tweaks mobile search offering

Published by Rafe Blandford at 16:57 GMT, January 30th 2008

Google has launched a revamped version of its mobile search for
select markets. The service is available in the UK, USA, France,
Germany and Canada. The new system offers blended results and has a
stronger location-based element. Blended results mix in local and news
search results with web search results. In practice this means that
Google shows the result type that it thinks is most relevant first.
Read on for more and lots of screenshot examples.

The new version also features a redesign which gives the service a
cleaner look and feel and closer association with the PC version.

A single search box replaces the previous search box with radio option (for search type).

The
results that appear depend on the keywords used. Many results will be
pure search results, as shown in the N82 example above. However other
results will blend in other information. For example a search for arsenal
will bring up information about the last match that Arsenal Football
Club played, then some related news (second screenshot below) and
finally some pure web search results. Similarly a search for darling news will feature recent news stories about the UK Chancellor Alistair Darling first and then present general search results.

Some
results will automatically trigger a local search (location must be
entered manually but is remembered between search sessions). You can
see an example of this with garage search shown below. The local results are shown first with, lower down the page, general web search results second.

Location
based search has been improved. You can enter a location and it will
subsequently be remembered and used in later searches (as in the garage
example above). Location services are presented in a different format
to regular searches, with pertinent information (phone number and
distance) displayed on the search results page, and you have the option
to view the results on a embedded Google Map. Clicking on a result
takes you to a page showing a detailed map and further information (if
available). Phone numbers are hyper-linked to allow for direct dial
from the browser.

News
and image results are still available separately via links at the
bottom of all search results, as demonstrated in the screenshots below:

Rafe Blandford