“Query intent can be classified, according to Google, as Action (“Do”), Information (“Know”) or Navigation (“Go”)”

Well, it turns out that Google’s “quality raters” checklist got leaked, and while it wasn’t a bombshell of secret information, it does provide some useful insights (thanks for the 16 points of insight SEOMOZ!)

Do you have information on your website for all 3 different types of intent on your website? Here’s some ideas to be sure you actually cover with content on your website, this example is for a real estate site, but just think it out for your own industry.

Action: Search for a home, Get CMA, List a home, get a buyers agent, get a sellers agent
Information: Learn about community, learn about home buying/selling
Navigation: Your Office/business location, contact info

2001 vs 2008 Google Result for SEO

For Google’s 10th Anniversary they released access to their oldest index. This allows you to search like it’s 2001. By doing a search for the verticle term “SEO” we can see many, many differences in usability, depth and intent in the Google platform.

The differences are facinating! First and foremost is the evolution of SEO as a concept…it didn’t even exist in 2001! Now a good portion of business hinges on the forces of search engine optimization. There are 280,000,000 results in 2008 for the term SEO, and in 2001 there were 148,000…the kicker is that the number one site for the term SEO was for “Sponsors for Educational Opportunity“!

It’s incredible to look at the old SERP result page and compare it side by side with the SERP for the same term in Google 2008. Looking at them you can see the expansion of Google’s capabilities. You can access Image search, Maps, News, Shopping, Gmail, News, Blogs and groups as options for more refined types of searches. This obviously represents a gigantic expansion of the capability of Google to understand and sort information into relevant verticle entities. It’s also an indicator of the explosion of content available through the search engine.

As for the serps themselves, though Google still utilizes the Title and description as the main result, but we can see a difference in usability. Cached pages and similar pages are accessible for each result. There are also indented results, of additional pages from the same site that match that query which gives individual sites a wider opportunity to dominate the SERP by providing multiple pages of relevant content.

We can see the evolution of search, and just by looking at the development of an entirely new field of work that has been created through this sytem we can see a profound impact on our society.  The way that people look for local businesses, find information, find and enjoy video,  has all been changed forever. I think that It makes it even more important for us to look to the the future of search as envisioned by Google. I’m quite sure that in 10 years when we look back at our search engine results we’ll be surprised and startled by the dramatic changes in the way that we live our lives.

Marissa begins by talking about some basic questions she had today that could have been answered by searches. Musing about how limited queries are based on just keywords, she jumps to the possibility of using photo, video and audio input to trigger searching. Google is looking for their search to have total immersion in your world to be able to provide the best results. In order for this to happen, Google is going to need eyes and ears on you at all times, because it would be a shame if have to “break out an awkward, slow device to do a search”.

Since location is relevant to a lot of searches, incorporating user location and context will be pivotal in increasing the relevance and ease of search in the future.

Several of the questions she had were specific to a particular area, such as “What Times does J.C. Penny open”, their answer is that Google needs to know where you are… Well naturally, how else are they supposed to supply local advertising to you!

You should note that Google is seriously contemplating the Google results page even further in it’s attempts to further integrate Universal search into the search concept. She muses,

What if results pages pulled the best media together and laid it out such that the most useful content was not only first but largest?

This isn’t just idle thoughts though… according to Marrisa,

 For the past year, our goal has been to take advantage of these new types of results and evolve the interface design and user experience in response. You’ll see the fruits of this experimentation in the coming months, but even these changes are just the beginning.

I had the good fortune to be one of the accounts selected to try out a “bucket test” on a new google account I was creating. Below is a screenshot of “Digg like” icons that appeared next to search results that allowed me to promote and banish different sites from the SERPS.

This type of addition will most likely be a further addition as google attempts to acheive intimate personalization. There are several other varients on this theme that harness user experience in a new way. However, Google has a much more detailed level of personalization in mind for the future.

maybe, search could analyze my social graph and realize that one of my friends works at LF, that I saw that friend this weekend, and that in that context “LF” refers to her place of employment.

Because this Google of the future would have eyes and ears on you at all times, of course it would know who you talked too and everything about that person, including details such as employment. To make their search more relevant of course!

[W]hat’s our straightforward definition of the ideal search engine? Your best friend with instant access to all the world’s facts and a photographic memory of everything you’ve seen and know.

Ok. So this is Google’s vision of search in the future…a Google buddy who is with you at all times. Where your Google buddy goes with you everywhere, Google Buddy knows who you talk to, Google Buddy knows what your associates do in their lives, and Google Buddy can answer any and every question that you might even possibly ask. I hate to come off as a paranoid person…but isn’t that just a little bit creepy? I mean, utilities are good, and search is an excellent tool, but the…intimacy needed to allow search that type of power is… frightening to say the least. I don’t know though…have I gone off the deep end and read too much into this?

This morning I was pulling up the google external tool to find that Google has insufficient data to display search volumn information.

I’ve checked the blogosphere and haven’t yet seen anyone else picking up on it, and it isn’t in the Google Blog yet-

UPDATE: The external tool is once again pulling data -

UPDATE: Here is Google’s customer support response to the issue: Received 8/12/2008

Thank you for your email. I’m sorry to hear that you were having difficulty with the Keyword Tool. I checked into this and found that our technical team has identified a technical issue affecting a limited number of users. However, I am happy to report that the issue you reported has now been resolved.

Thank you for your patience, and I apologize for any inconvenience caused.

If you have additional questions, please visit our Help Center at

https://adwords.google.com/support to find answers to many frequently asked questions. Or, try our Learning Center at http://www.google.com/adwords/learningcenter/ for self-paced lessons that cover the scope of AdWords.