Google Updates Search Results With ‘Instant Previews’
Google Inc. upgraded the way it presents search result images to simplify Web navigation and keep competition with Microsoft Corp. and Yahoo! Inc. at bay.
The updated service, called Instant Previews, gives users graphic snapshots of search results, and then highlights the most relevant parts of the websites, said Ben Gomes, an engineer at Google. The features are being rolled out in the U.S. and abroad today.
“What this allows you to do is compare the various results to pick the one that most appeals to you,” Gomes said. Users, who activate the service by clicking on a magnifying glass icon, are about 5 percent more likely to be satisfied with their results, he said, citing early testing by the company.
The company is making the upgrade to keep its lead in the $12.4 billion U.S. market for search-related advertising after Microsoft and Yahoo signed a search-engine agreement designed to help them vie with Google. The company had 66 percent of U.S. searches in September according to ComScore Inc. in Reston, Virginia. Yahoo had 17 percent, while Microsoft had 11 percent.
In September, Google unveiled its Instant service, which gives users search-results pages as they type in queries. The company said that feature can save 2 to 5 seconds per search.
Google, based in Mountain View, California, fell $1.95 to $624.82 at 4 p.m. New York time in Nasdaq Stock Market trading. The shares are little changed this year.
To contact the reporter on this story: Brian Womack in San Francisco at bwomack1@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Tom Giles at tgiles5@bloomberg.net
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