Today the realisation of The Matrix got another step closer with Google releasing its largest update to its search engine yet, coined “Universal Search“. Whereas Google’s various search indexes were, for the most part, separate the new system blends results from its news, video, images, local/maps, book, and blog search engines along with those gathered in the traditional way. Along with a new navigation menu and some other subtle UI changes, it’s all pretty cool.
For many Google has become the start of the internet from where we begin the majority of our journeys through its vast maze-like structures. Is there no end in sight to Google’s technological onslaught? I often wonder where this will all end up and, having watched way too many sci-fi films over the years, the answers are not always positive!
All changes take a while to get used to so I'm guessing most people will get familiar with it pretty quickly. I think the changes tie things together quite nicely – instead of Google being a set of disparate tools this starts to bring things together in a more intelligent way.
While the search results seem good I'm not a big fan of the new UI – in particular that ugly white bar across the top of the home and iGoogle webpages.