Google, Yahoo!, Live integrating various content in search

Google has revamped it's search interface, a major upgrade after a long time according some analysts.

Major changes include:

• Universal Search: where one search will include snippets of news, videos, photos, maps, etc depending on where that search returns a good amount of results
• Navigational links have been moved to top left. This allows those links to always be available even when viewing results
  
• Google Video Search now includes videos from other sources apart from Google Video and YouTube
  

Google announced these new features at Seachology day on May 16th that was held at the headquarters.

A few days before Google's announcement, Yahoo! announced the integration of Flickr pictures of famous landmarks in its search results. Yahoo! alpha is another test interface by Yahoo that searches various types of content.

Not willing to be left behind, Microsoft Live is using another site called Imagine Live Search to test new search ideas. Imagine Live Search includes results from Image and Local Search. This is similar to Google's searchmash and Yahoo's AlltheWeb

I've become so much interested in the integration of various content available on the web with search since I started developing SearchWith, a search tool for Firefox and Mozilla-based applications. Follow the discussion on Techmeme.

Googlable Names

The Wall Street Journal recommends giving out baby names that do not return too many results in Google Search.

I also use Google when coming up with a name for a software project to make sure it does not return anything else; so that it's Googlable in other words! ConfiGuru is an example.

Being African, low internet penetration gives us an advantage that our names are not very common on the web. That's probably true with other non-English languages out there, but I can't speak for them.

In my case Google even suggests my name when you misspell it. Google is so sweet, isn't it?

Huh! I wanted to coin the word Googlability. Just googled it and found out it has a whole Wikipedia entry for itself!