Negative SEO blog : SEOassassin

Interesting - Google now offer an additional internal search box as an alternative to the “More results from…” option in their results. On current evidence, it seems to only be triggered for sites that already have the SiteLinks behaviour, and without a scrap of solid proof, I’m going to assert that it effectively represents an additional level of dominance over and above SiteLinks.

Now, Google have made an official comment on the new behaviour, and as usual, I think they are talking shit. Specifically, they say :

we found that presenting users with a search box as part of the result increases their likelihood of finding the exact page they are looking for

If you look at some of the terms where it happens, I fail to see any appreciable correlation between sites showing the box and the likelihood of users wanting deeper page data.

Examples :

Cambridge vs Oxford

Tesco vs ASDA

Adidas vs Nike

So users want to deep search the Cambridge University site, but not Oxfords? Or Adidas but not Nikes? It is of course entirely possible that there is some deep, complex algorithm in place that makes these determinations using a depth of rich data I cannot fathom. Or maybe they just slapped in on top of the existing stuff. Who knows?

As a further test, try actually using the function - put “pint of milk” into the Tescos box for instance. How helped do you feel now?