Google announced the beginning of a move toward ‘Universal Search’ today in a press release. Directly from the press release:

Google’s vision for universal search is to ultimately search across all its content sources, compare and rank all the information in real time, and deliver a single, integrated set of search results that offers users precisely what they are looking for. Beginning today, the company will incorporate information from a variety of previously separate sources – including videos, images, news, maps, books, and websites – into a single set of results. At first, universal search results may be subtle. Over time users will recognize additional types of content integrated into their search results as the company advances toward delivering a truly comprehensive search experience.

Of interest elsewhere in the press release is information about a version of Google’s search on Google’s Experimental Lab that provides the option of a timeline or map views of results. Here’s a few samples:Here’s a view of ‘gas prices’ shown on the timeline view:Google Experimental Labs Search: Gas Prices - Timeline ViewHere’s a view of ‘Starbucks’ shown on the timeline view:Google Experimental Labs Search: Starbucks - Timeline ViewHere’s a view of ‘Nato’ on the map view:Google Experimental Labs Search: Nato - Map ViewHere’s a view of ‘Katrina’ on the map view:Google Experimental Labs Search: Katrina - Map View

Tags: Beta, Data Visualization, Google, Search

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