Considering the many kinds of information Google aggregates and the individual tools it has built to visualize all that data, one could easily argue that its primary and decidedly bare-bones search portal got long in the tooth some time ago. As search competitors like Yahoo and Ask.com have introduced new ways for users to display and organize search results, Google only showed the first official signs of improving its search results UI in May 2007. Now, finally, Google has unveiled some opt-in experimental search features that allow users to find and reorganize more kinds of search results. The days of being limited to simple lists of ten blue links may soon be behind us.

At Google's new experimental search features page, a total of five projects are available for users to try: Alternate view for search results, Keyword suggestions, Keyboard shortcuts, Left-hand search navigation, and Right-hand contextual search navigation. Users can only elect to use one experimental feature at a time, and the only reason that explains this choice is Google's focus on simplicity. After all, its main portal of entry has been a calculatedly simple search box and a link or three since the company's inception. It isn't about to suddenly offload a dump truck of new features on a user base that, by the latest numbers, largely still prefers its services to the competition.

Alternative views for search results

Google's first search experiment, plainly named "Alternative views for search results," could perhaps be the most appealing to users who want to view more kinds of search results inline with the standard list of text links. This Timeline View, for example, will visualize search results on a timeline, highlighting specific periods that contain links relevant to your query. You can allow Google to pick a range in history with the most relevant results, or you can specify a specific month and year, or a range of years to hone the scope of the timeline.

The Alternative views for search results experiment also offers an "Info View" and a "Map View," both accessible under the search box on either side of the Timeline View. These two views will present extra information filters and maps, respectively, to the right of search results. The Info View above, for example, allows you to filter text search results with dates, measurements, and location information, as well as specifying images instead of text for results. These filters are a good start at offering a GUI to many of Google's search features that have existed for some time, and it will be good to see more filters added to this particular tool.

The Map View of the Alternative views for search results experiment more or less mashes the functionality of Google Maps to the rest of Google's index. Users are able to view basic map data relevant to their search results, but many of Google Maps' other and more recent features, such as saving and organizing locations in My Maps or simply getting directions, are missing.

Keyword suggestions

Keyword suggestions is a simple, though handy assistant that matches what Yahoo and other engines have done for some time. Begin typing into Google's search box, and a list of additional terms will help you to fine-tune your query. This is especially useful if you aren't that sure about the topic or what terminology you're using.

While the accompanying list of the number of results on the right may initially seem useless large when querying with basic terms, adding keywords to your query will quickly whittle down the number of results to a more telling number.

Keyboard shortcuts

Perhaps most appealing to keyboard junkies, the "Keyboard shortcuts" experiment simply adds Gmail-like keyboard shortcuts to the standard Google search results. Keys like J/K will select the next/previous search results (with the marker highlighted in the image above), pressing O/Enter opens a result, and the standard "/" to bring typing focus to the search box still applies. Aside from the general benefit for some users who can work faster with a keyboard, we did notice that you can scroll through to another page of search results by scrolling past the bottom of the current page with the J key. If you've ever needed to quickly scan through multiple pages of Google results to find the perfect one on page 5, this could be the fastest way to do it. Otherwise, this experiment, though handy, will probably be a sleeper feature to Google's UI if it makes it at all.

Left-hand search navigation and Right-hand search navigation

Th Left-hand search navigation UI is more like bringing the advantages of the Keyword suggestions experiment along to your search results browsing in real time. The first section of this GUI allows you to query a particular Google section like Video or Shopping. The bottom portion offers keywords in real time whether you refine your original search, click through to other results pages, or click on a keyword to hone your search further. This is a great way to help users better understand the topic they're searching for and to find other topical avenues with a real-time, unobtrusive UI assistant.

The Right-hand search navigation experiment is just like its left-handed brother, aside from obviously being positioned at the top right of search results. It also offers fewer related searches and keywords, probably to prevent it from cutting too much into Google's coveted Sponsored Links sidebar.

Altogether, these experiments are all successes in their own right, and we don't see much of a reason not to include them all in a future update. A good case could perhaps be made for not enabling every one by default, but these are all great tools that could easily gain wide enough appeal to justify their inclusion in Google's primary portal. The search giant's features have needed an upgrade for a while, and these are the perfect tools to help users traverse the mountains of data in Google's index.