Still, I’m not sold on Google’s implementation. I think it’s wide open for yahoo or others to do a better job. Perhaps it comes down to Google needing to use a thesaurus and be a bit more willing to suggest. e.g. “trenton map” suggests the link, but “trenton maps” doesn’t.

Is it harsh to suggest “trenton blog” should link to a blog search on trenton? Given that blog search is only a few weeks old, maybe that’s harsh. But, you know, this is the biggest search company in the world, and they keep on delivering new products. I just seached for “blogs” and blogsearch.google.com came up as a sponsored link of all things, so they’re not entirely shy about promoting it. Why not link to blogs on trenton for “trenton blogs”.

In the back of my mind here is the basics of web design – keeping things sticky by offering relevant links and content at every turn. I think Google has enough data and enough smart people to pull it off better than at present.

Back in what O’Reilly is calling “Web 1.0″, you had to know what kind of thing you were looking for, then once you found the page or site that provides the searching for that particular service, you would then enter your actual search criteria. Very 90s, very out of date according to “Web 2.0″.

Today, the user should know they are looking for something about “Trenton, New Jersey” so they search ALL of google for Trenton, NJ. Once on google’s search page, right at the top are maps (Google first, then MapQuest and Yahoo!) and a list of general web results. Links will repeat the search in other types of data are just one-click away (images, usenet, etc). In Google’s mind, the data one is looking for is more important than the type of data.

In this, it is very consciously trying to go away from what Yahoo! does, where you have to pick your service first no matter how you’re searching. To Google, you can do the old-school search for your type of service first, data second, or you can go their preferred route of data first.

Same thing for maps. Look for “map of new york” and you get a google map as the first result. Again, differently laid out. (paris doesn’t exist according to google maps)