ReadWriteWeb

On the heels of some major search improvements earlier this week, Google has announced another round of search-related updates today - this time to its "related search" feature. On the surface, these changes are simply meant to make the display of related queries much easier for users to navigate.

Starting today, if you perform a search on a particular category, Google will display some of the most popular and referenced items within that category. It will also include the three top sources of this information.

Google just announced that it has started to integrate some of the research that makes Google Squared work into its core search engine. When you perform searches that have factual answers like [empire state height], Google will now highlight the answer to this question in the search results. If you are looking for the height of the Empire State Building, for example, the search engine will now display a snippet from the site that highlights the answer to this question.

Google Squared launched to a lot of hype earlier this year, but the initial reaction from most pundits was rather negative. Squared, which gathers and displays structured data, often returned rather nonsensical results, and we would venture to guess that only a few people are actually using it now. Today, Google announced some updates to Squared that should make it more useful. Now, if you do a search on Squared, for example, the results will contain up to 120 facts - up from 30 in the initial release.

Three weeks ago Google demonstrated a new product in Labs called Google Squared; it's a search engine that creates structured data from big piles of information and lets users compare various things by their attributes. There have been suggestions that Google Squared will crush Wolfram Alpha. Well, Google Squared went live today and while it's a great idea, in reality the service doesn't look very useful. It doesn't look like it's going to crush anyone.

The user interface is inflexible, the data is odd looking and it's hard to imagine using Squared regularly. It's a great idea but we'll see where it goes.

Yesterday at Google's Searchology event, which we live-blogged, the search market leader announced two significant features to its search product: Search Options and Rich Snippets. It also previewed a new fact-finding search product called Google Squared. The first two features are already live on google.com and they've notably extended Google's core search product. As we sit back and reflect on the meaning of this, one thing is starkly clear: the core Google search experience is now much more than a simple search box on a plain white background, which it was for so long. Just how far has Google evolved its search experience over recent years? And has it become too much of a shift from its core focus? Let's explore that.

At today's Searchology event in Mountain View, ReadWriteWeb had an opportunity to talk with Marissa Mayer, VP Search Products and User Experience at Google, about the new products the company announced this morning.

The event, which we live blogged earlier this morning, is the second Searchology event; the first one that was held two years ago introduced Universal Search. Today, Google announced Search Options, Google Squared, Rich Snippets and a whimsical but brilliant new Android application named Sky Map.