Searching within the search, what this means for webmasters

27 Mar, 2008 | Google

Recently Google unveiled 'search within search' (officially called teleportation). Although you may have come across it before as it has been in the works since 2006. The purpose of his new feature is to enhance user experience and the "likelihood of finding the exact page they are looking for". So what exactly does this mean for webmasters?

Specifically, this feature seems to show up for well known brands and the search box is displayed below the sitelinks as seen below:

Possible drawbacks of 'teleportation'

I'm sure most of us have heard of SEEK (www.seek.com.au) one of the oldest job directories in Australia and a brand that has invested a lot of money into advertising for brand recognition.

If i do a search within the search results for SEEK for the term 'Hospitality Jobs', here is what would be shown in the SERP:

If i had've click on the seek website, this is what i would have seen:

Paying attention to results page google showed me when i did the search within a search:

• The first page was just a link back to the SEEK search box
• The second links to an advertisement that is no longer available
• The third links to the SEEK home page
• The forth is another closed advertisement
• etc

So most of the links are irrelevant and i am redirected back to the search box to find more relevant results - hang on didn't Google say 'teleportation' increases "likelihood of finding the exact page they are looking for"?

A golden rule on the internet for a long time has been if a user cannot find what they are looking for within 3-4 clicks then they will look else where. Google just cost SEEK two clicks.

But thats not even the worst part in my opinon. Not only is the user served up non relevant results, the SERP page is covered in advertisements from competitors (see the red box on the SERP image above). So is this just another way for Google to keep users on their site longer, so they can serve up more advertisements and hence make more money?

Further Reading

The Age: Google search-within-a-search ruffles feathers

Google search Within Search Box Hurts Affliates

Google offers secondary search boxes

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