by SEO Consultant
J. Cave
J. Cave
Google Search Suggest - the drop down box that hints at what you might be searching for - is slowly becoming the latest weapon in Google's advertising arsenal.
Search suggest advertising, which has been in the beta stage for several months, is gradually being rolled out across more and more search terms in both the United States and the United Kingdom.
During the first few months of testing Google initially focused on one or two word search terms. However, now the Mountain View giant appears to be focussing more on longer tailed search terms - like searches for things like 'Pontiac g8 gx'.
Sponsored links aren't the only changes that Google has been making to its search suggest feature. According to the official Google blog there have been four major updates to Google Suggest.
The first of these - suggestions on the results page - is based on Google's behavioural understanding of how users gradually refine search terms. The example given by Google is that if you are searching for roller coasters - and then start to search for something else whilst still on the results page - some of the suggestions will be based on your previous search of rollercoasters i.e. 'build roller coasters' or 'biggest roller coasters'.
If you are signed into your Google account you may find some of Google's suggestions a little personal. That's because - as we are no doubt all too familiar with - Google likes to keep a history of what you search for. So if you are signed into your Google account, expect to see some searches that you have looked up before come up in the suggestions box.
The final suggestion Google will be making is based on navigational searches. If you begin searching for a particular site - presumably a reasonably popular site - you may find that one of the first suggestions to appear will be a link to the actual site itself.
All of these new features are designed to improve the speed and ease at which a user can quickly find what they're looking for. Many people will probably agree these features are useful - although concerns over personalised search and the placement of the sponsored results could cause controversy and some discord with privacy advocates, who may find themselves asking: are Google's ads too suggestive?
