by Matt Kluemper
The Online Search market is the epitome of the saying “stay ahead of the game.” In the recent past, Google has been the trend setter - coming out with personalized search, blog search, map and image search, even a 1-800 number and text messaging service (Goog 411 ) to stay one step (or more) ahead of its competitors.

And Google is at it again. This time, the impact is going to shake the foundation of the search market, and it is already an extremely popular topic amongst everyone who is anyone involved in Search Engine Marketing, including the SEO Team at PlattForm.

The keyword?
Universal Search.

Behind the scenes, Google has been working endlessly to continue their domination of the search engine market. Sometime within the next few months (roughly November), Google plans to exclusively implement their bright and shiny “Universal Search” feature. Google’s Universal Search includes many different facets of search technology rolled into one search engine results page.

You may have already seen Universal Search in some of the Google search results. Videos, maps, images and even news stories have been showing up randomly in the Google search results since about May of 2007.

For example, when searching for olathe, KS, a map from Google Local of Olathe, Kansas comes up as the first result:

Or, when searching for snl iphone, a Saturday Night Live Weekend Update skit on YouTube (which happens to be owned by Google) shows up in the search results:

Are these better results? Google thinks so, and will be rolling it out very soon.

Whether it makes the search results better or not, Universal Search is going to have an impact on the way everyone in Search Engine Marketing strives for successful results.

The PlattForm SEO Team is here to explain the basis of the major sections and how Universal Search will impact different businesses in the search results, because – like Google – we like to stay at least one step ahead.

Over the next month, the SEO Team is going to explain the most important sections of Google’s Universal Search. Expect the following topics about Universal Search:

Part 2: Video and Universal Search
Part 3: Maps and Universal Search
Part 4: Images and Universal Search
Part 5: Products, Books and Universal Search
Part 6: News, Google Scholar and Universal Search

So, tune back in soon to learn more details about the impact of Video in Universal Search. Because before long, Universal Search will happen to you…