New Look Google Web Search

If you're doing a spot of online shopping research in Google today, you might notice something new.

According to the Official Google Blog, their search results were updated today. I can't see the changes yet mind you, so they must be doing a gradual roll-out across their servers worldwide.

"Using Google today, you may have noticed that something feels slightly different -- the look and feel of our search results have changed! Today's metamorphosis responds to the increasing richness of the web and the increasing power of search -- revealing search tools on the left and updating the visual look and feel throughout. While we are constantly rolling out small changes and updates, today's changes showcase the latest evolutions in our search technology, making it easier than ever to find exactly what you're looking for."

The new-look fixed side panel certainly looks more user-friendly, and Google has made it a lot easier to quickly refine your search, to get more relevant results. The left sidebar was there before, but in a much simpler form, and hidden by default. Google now displays the most relevant tools to match your search results, and you can click 'More' to see others. You'll see filtering options like News, Images, Blogs, Books, Videos, Shopping, and more -- and to view all results again, you just click on 'Everything'. I find the options to filter search results by time to be very useful, you can easily hide older content just by clicking on options like 'Latest', 'Past 24 hours', 'Past week', etc.

This new search results interface is an excellent addition to a great search engine, and I'm sure it's going to be very popular with Google users and online shoppers worldwide.