Are you ready for Google to change this Wednesday?

Are you ready for Google to change this Wednesday?

According to CNN, Google is changing dramatically on Wednesday, May 20th.

They will integrate all of the different types of search results onto the home page of Google, including news, images, and even video. They will also be adding a new menu along the top, so people with Google accounts can more easily access all of their different Google services.

Why would they do this? To make more money.

If the search results take you to different Google properties, like news images, videos etc., then you are no longer transported “off of Google property” like you used to be. Instead, you are taken to Google’s video area, or Google’s news area, and this gives them multiple opportunities to present you with more paid advertisements.

After all search is money, and money is search, right? The CNN story quotes Marissa Mayer, Google’s vice president of search and user experience saying…
“For us, ads are (search) answers as well. I would hope that we can bring some of these same advances, in terms of richness of media, to ads.”

Does this seem hypocritical, considering how 30 days ago Matt Cutts gave us a URL so we can report people suspected of buying links?

What does this mean for the organic search results? Will there be any space left on the front page that isn’t paid?

In the past, when you searched for a term on Google, you were shown a list of search results with sponsored link advertisements down the right side, and frequently in the top two spots. This was this pretty much the standard format until last year.

Over the past few, you have likely noticed a lot of changes in the way your search results display.

Occasionally, the top three spots have been occupied by sponsored links

A local search now usually finds Google maps in the top of the search pages, and sometimes listed in the middle of page 1.

Google news items were shown in a “one box” below the ads, but above the search results, in case that’s what you were looking for.

A search for images began showing thumbnails of image searches above the search results, in case that was you what you’re looking for

Products began showing in a “one box” above the search results, in case that’s what you were looking for

And starting Wednesday, we’re going to see video ads there as well, along with a new menu.

Is there really room for all this stuff? Part of the appeal of Google in the beginning was its clean interface compared to Yahoo and others.

The addition of the graphic map at the top of the page already only leaves seven available spots for the organic rankings. How many more spots will be bumped off page one by the images, videos, and new menu?

I guess we’ll find out on Wednesday,

Read the full CNN story here