Google new interface tests

Every smart marketer and brand alike know testing is the key to keep you on the top of the game.

Google understands it as much as all of us and “just” launched 4 new interfaces to play with on “Google Experimental“.

Interface 1: Timeline and map views
Allows you to see your search results on a timeline or map. According to Google Search it works best with people, companies, events and places. As an example when typing Dell as a search query it gives you a timeline with events related to “Dell’s life” like when it started, how it evolved, different quacks….
This interface is also putting Dell “factories” on a map if you click Map views.
From a marketing perspective, brands can be using this interface to share more than product data with their customers / prospects, it is also kind of cool for retailers to point to the nearest store.

Interface 2: Keyboard shortcuts
Navigate search results quickly and easily, minimizing use of your mouse. Current keyboard shortcuts include:

Key	Action
J	Selects the next result.
K	Selects the previous result.
O	Opens the selected result.
<Enter>	Opens the selected result.
/	Puts the cursor in the search box.
<Esc>	Removes the cursor from the search box.

From a search experience stand point, it will give the user better comfort of navigation. From a brand or marketing point of view, it may help poor SEO ranked pages to be looked at

Interface 3: Left-hand search navigation
Search deeper in a particular type of content—patents, products or news, for example. Google searches across all kinds of content, then ranks results by relevance.
This interface is really interesting as an example the query “antivirus“ returns not only paid for results but if you look at the left nav, you will find related search like reviews, ratings, free…. It would give brand and marketers more flexibility and more creativity if Google associate a related search pricing a bit like what they are doing for contextual advertising.   Marketers may have the choice now between three types of Google campaigns ppc, contextual and related.

Interface 4: Right hand contextual search
Similar to the left-hand search navigation, right-hand contextual search navigation allows you to search deeper in a particular type of content or to search related terms.

Test them for yourself and let me know what you think!