Universal Search has attracted significant attention from the search community, with some hailing it as the most radical change to search results ever. But what is it and why does it matter? What business problem does it solve? Let’s find the answers the old-fashioned way - by heading to the library. Below is a screen shot from the New York Public Library website. Notice the various catalogs of information and how they’re separated by type and not subject or theme.  Researchers often require different catalogs of information to fully understand a particular topic. A search for cheetahs in books or research would miss a great piece in January 2005's National Geographic. Likewise, a search in just magazines would miss sources in reference materials. We have no choice but to travel the whole library, examining each catalog for information relevant to our need.

Back to Search
Today's Google is much different than the Stanford days of crawling a measly 20% of the web. For one, it's no longer just about web pages. We now have access to many different catalogs, from images and video to books and patents. But we must know what we want. We have to segment our searches ahead of time, just as we had to do in the library. The challenge worsens as new catalogs come online. Google's Marissa Mayer said it best, "You almost need a search engine for all our search engines.”

Universal Search is the Answer
The solution is obvious when you think back to researching a topic in a library:

1. Search each catalog.
2. Accumulate the results.
3. Rank the results in terms of overall importance and relevance to your information need.

The net result of the above is that organic results which were once limited to just web pages now include video, news, images, maps, and books. And this is just the beginning. We expect that more of Google's popular catalogs will come online with Universal Search. Mayer commented, “We’re so excited about taking all these different silos of information and making them all into one.”

It's not a drastic change in the eyes of a typical user. The best way to explain it is this: If you perform a search that is best answered with a picture, video, news, or local results, chances are they'll appear in the top ten. Here are a few examples:

• Star Wars Kid (video)
• Steve Ballmer (an unfortunate video and news)
• Darth Vader (news and video)
• Towaco Train Station (maps)
• New York Best Buy (maps)
• Roger Clemens (news)
• Cheetah (images)

Universal Search handles Google Images differently than the other integrated properties. Whereas video, news, maps, and books are meshed with web results and take residence in one or more of the top ten slots, images remain separated and appear either at the top or bottom of the page.

Google claims this is a feature to help avoid images disrupting the user's search experience. Maybe. My thinking is that it deals more with the lack of structured information required to accurately rank results alongside information-rich webpages. We'll most likely see a shift in direction once Google begins to analyze the image itself versus the text surrounding it in their index. We know this is in the works from last year's acquisition of Neven Vision.

So What Does It Mean to SEO?
There's no one-size-fits-all answer to how Universal Search will affect marketers. The key is to think opportunity.

Our post Deciding Between Paid and Natural Search discussed the importance of dominating both natural and paid search results. Putting a Universal Search spin on the same argument, imagine dominating natural and paid results plus having a video overview of your business. Or a map to one of your locations. Or a press release describing product enhancements. This is the new SEO - and the winners will be those that execute holistic search programs targeting as many of these new opportunities as possible.

Here are some quick tips for targeting Google's other catalogs in your overall search strategy:

Local
Google's Local Business Center gives companies the ability to provide structured information about their business and location. An awesome feature of this tool is the ability to add printable coupons to your listings. Not only does it help differentiate the listing from other local results, it provides a valuable mechanism to track sales which were closed offline but originated through an online channel.

Google supplements what's contained in its Local Business Center with the help of other directories. These include CitySearch, Yelp, and Lilaguide. A solid presence in vertical directories such as Zillow, TheKnot, and ServiceMagic is also important, specifically in terms of reviews.

Just as in web search, links from high-quality, authoritative sites are a key difference maker in terms of ranking well in local search. Work towards getting links from chambers of commerce and city directories. The geographic categories of DMOZ work as well.

Video
The largest hurdle here is actually having video. Once you do, you'll want to upload the content to Google Video, YouTube, MetaCafe, and any other reputable video distribution networks. Pay special attention to the metadata you provide when submitting your video - this will be the first thing used when Google analyzes the submission to determine its topical significance.

Details into how video is analyzed and ranked are still a fuzzy area. Just as with images, expect Google and other engines to continue efforts towards understanding the contents of the movie. This includes text-to-speech and image analysis. Links pointing to the video's instance on YouTube or Google Video may also be evaluated alongside viewing statistics to determine authority.

News
Similar to video, you have to have news if you want it displayed in Universal Search. If you frequently publish newsworthy content, submit the site and associated details for inclusion in Google News. Once your site is included, you communicate your latest articles by submitting News Sitemaps.

Books
Book Search is a baby compared to Google's other properties, but one thing is clear: You need to write a good, authoritative book to be included. Once this is done, work with your publisher to get its text included in Google's index.
 

Images
Google's image search, as previously noted, is flawed in that it doesn't examine the contents of each image to determine relevance. Rather, it derives topical relevance from a combination of the filename and the page the image appears on. Authority is also tied to the parent page, which helps tie success in image search to traditional SEO fundamentals.

If images are core to your business, you may want to take the next step which is enrolling in Google's enhanced image search program via Webmaster Tools. This tool helps Google capture additional metadata for each image, which will then help it rank well for relevant queries.

Conclusion
Universal Search is an opportunity for advertisers to build additional consumer touch points through natural search. While including results from news, video, books, and images has diversified results, success in natural search is still very much dependent on the basics: page optimization and link building.

Remember: Google's goal is to provide the best answer possible. It doesn't matter that the answer takes the form of an image, a video clip, or anything else for that matter. What matters is that the answer is your product or service. That's the key to winning in Universal Search.