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Google Changes Search URL Hierarchy
Google has announced two changes to its digital platforms today with improvements to URL displays in its search results and new options in YouTube for news organisations.
New URL displays will be rolled out today in Google search to give users more information about the items they are searching for. How a URL is presented in Google’s search results “can provide valuable context when deciding whether to click on the result,” according to Google software engineers Harvey Jones and Daniel Rocha who posted in the official blog on Tuesday.
What Google is talking about is string URLs which add relevant information to the search. For example, a search for Bill Gates, brings up a number of URLs, some of which are simple: www.microsoft.com/BillGates; and others which are more descriptive: www.microsoft.com/PRESSPASS/EXEC/BILLG/BIO.MSPX.
If you didn’t know who Bill Gates was, the indications from the second URL would help you identify him as an “exec” of Microsoft. Each sub category in the new green text of Google’s search will be a link that takes users to broader pages. In Google’s example of Spidersapien toys,listings of “Toys & Games” and “Robots” help define the product within set categories.
“This way if you realize that you’re interested in a more general category than this specific product (there are a lot of cool robot toys out there) you can easily access information on broader topics,” wrote the Google engineers.
Google also introduced this week YouTube Direct, a new digital media tool which grants news organisations access to YouTube clips to broadcast them directly from YouTube users. YouTube direct will give the likes of ABC News and the BBC the option to broadcast YouTube clips on natural disasters or elections more easily.
Google News posted by Frank Hudson on 19 November 2009
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