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Quote:Google yesterday unveiled a radical upgrade of its search engine, called universal search, that now integrates video, news, blogs, images, maps, books and Web sites into the main results page. Previously, all these content sources had been separate.

Marissa Mayer, vice president of search products and user experience for Google, demonstrated the upgrade yesterday for analysts at a briefing at Google headquarters. She also wrote in her blog: "With universal search, we're attempting to break down the walls that traditionally separated our various search properties and integrate the vast amounts of information available into one simple set of search results."

Google also announced the introduction of a universal navigation bar and contextual navigation links, making links to other Google services more accessible...

Quote:Marissa Mayer, vice president of search products and user experience for Google, demonstrated the upgrade yesterday for analysts at a briefing at Google headquarters. She also wrote in her blog: "With universal search, we're attempting to break down the walls that traditionally separated our various search properties and integrate the vast amounts of information available into one simple set of search results."

Quote:oogle's new universal search format, which blends news, blogs, video, books and the company's other vertical searches into the main query results, is now a few weeks old, and e-tailers are wondering what impact this will have on their search engine marketing and optimization. We've talked to a few search experts to find out. The good news is that the adjustments you need to make aren't that complex. The bad news is that it does mean you have to work harder to get high rankings on the main results page.

Now that the main search page is going to include video, local listings and so on, it will be more difficult to get listed in the top 10, because there will generally be only three or four "regular" result slots left. This means e-tailers must expand their marketing so that they are included in the other platforms, said Bill Hartzer, who manages the search engine marketing division of MarketNet Inc., is an administrator at Search Engine Forums and founder of the Dallas/Fort Worth Search Engine Marketing Association.

And, while competing with fresh content from these other sources may seem overwhelming, Hartzer sees it as an opportunity for Web shop owners to get an edge over the competition — if they act quickly...

Quote: Whereas searching for "red raincoats" in the past would have produced a list of sites that sell, discuss or manufacture red raincoats, Universal Search will provide a listing that includes links to videos, blogs, images, maps and press releases.

Savvy use of new forms of content thus becomes more critical, Castle says. A video produced by a retailer or manufacturer that draws lots of viewers could turn up among the top results for a product or topic...