Google: Will Universal Search Mean Universal Domination?

Marissa Mayer writes in The Google Blog that “Back in 2001, Eric asked for a brainstorm of a few "splashy" ideas in search. A designer and product manager at the time, I made a few mockups -- one of which was for 'universal search.' It was a sample search results page for Britney Spears that, in addition to web results, also had news, images, and groups results right on the same page.”

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The Wall Street Journal adds that “the move is likely a prelude to Google introducing new types of advertising, such as video ads, on the search results page, which to date has carried text ads. ‘Ultimately we'd like to deploy these richer formats in ads,’ said Marissa Mayer, vice president for search products and user experience, though she declined to specify when that might happen.”

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A Search Engine Watch article suggests that “this innovation will be hard for others to follow, as it involves some major infrastructure changes, and Google got to this day only after years of investment.”