Google Likes It Bi(n)g: Increases Search Box Size, Creates More News and Blog Posts To Crawl

Last night I changed a the height of a content box in one of our websites and even added a new page but nobody noticed. Google’s Marissa Mayer who is the VP for Search Products & User Experience there posted on the Google blog that they have changed the size of Google’s search box on the home and results page and it lands on Techmeme. A lot of people are downright confused and to an extent agitated why this piece of news should get so much attention. Though there are quite a few voices who consider it important though for no particular reason other than the fact that Google is doing it.

Let’s hear it from Google first, so Marissa Mayer blogs that

For us, search has always been our focus. And, starting today, you’ll notice on our homepage and on our search results pages, our search box is growing in size. Although this is a very simple idea and an even simpler change, we’re excited about it — because it symbolizes our focus on search and because it makes our clean, minimalist homepage even easier and more fun to use.

Very simple idea indeed, but certainly mine and Marissa’s idea of fun certainly don’t seem to match. And it is a thought echoed by Matt at Search Engine Land.

What are the possible reasons for this move if it is not for fun’s sake?

The initial reaction was that it is the Bing effect. Bing introduced a whole different look to searches and has a considerably long search box among many other things. While it would be callous to pronounce that Google increased its box size simply to outdo Bing, it is interesting to note all other search engines have comparatively longer search boxes than Google’s. It is still not bigger than Bing though.

Nathania Johnson of Search Engine Watch thinks it is to cater to the senior citizen demography in USA. ” If I had to guess, it would have been that search terms are getting longer and that senior citizens are one of the fastest growing demographics on the web. Plus, with tens of millions of Americans set to enter senior citizen-hood in the next decade, it makes sense to cater to that demo.” I must admit that was my first reaction as well, but this doesn’t hold true for a lot of other markets, say for instance India where the demo isn’t going anywhere above 50 for good couple of decades from now. And Google has implemented this change all across its regional sites as well so the reason perhaps has to be different.

Many believe it is just a statement from Google that it is commited to search. I don’t see how making CSS changes enhances or sends an assurance of commitment to its core product. Exactly the reason why even Google’s officiall announcement seemed a bit out of sync. Why not have a bigger, wider and taller box then, shut up all critics once and for all.

My mind bends more towards those who opine that this move is targeted towards the further long tail of long tails in search. And if you put a couple of things together everything begins to make sense.

Google on its part had a conference call with Wall Street, and one of the points of discussion was summarized as this:

Overview of the search market. 20% of queries have never been seen before. Additionally, 10 terabytes of new data are created each day. Speed is very important in search behavior. In a map search, Google found that increasing the speed of a search almost doubled usage of maps (increased from 4 pans to 7).

The important point here is 20% new queries. In Google’s search planet that is a huge number, and this when you look at from the angle of the long tail with perhaps longer phrases and more niche keywords, a bigger box would seem a more important move than otherwise. Another important factor here would also be newer users on the block as Google expands into newer markets and demographies. Local and regional characters like say Chinese, or Tamil might also be an important point in this regard. For we are talking about a company which when it increased its search results from 10 to 20 in a page saw a dramatic drop in usage (can’t find the link) and all for a few seconds of slowness.

So while it might be a small cosmetic change without any serious implications in terms of revenue or algorithm, it offers another glimpse to the changing ways of the web. One perhaps that publishers probably should notice in my mind.

On the other hand I have serious reservations of this move considering most of search is going to happen on mobile in future and a larger box isn’t a convenient option really on smaller mobile screens.

PS: The headline doesn’t add up to the story a lot, while it isn’t misleading, it doesn’t paint an accurate picture either..just an experiment thanks.