Posted by: Tanya Vaughan, Global SEO Manager, HP.com

First let me define Google Site Search in the context of this post. What I’m not talking about: (1) Embedding code into your site to enable Google site search on your site (2) using “site:domain.com” commands in Google search boxes to see how many of my domains pages are indexed. What I am talking about specifically is the site search box that is embedded into a company’s branded, number one search result in the Google SERP. For example, see how a search for “Time Magazine” has an embedded search box below?

Ok, now that we’re on the same page, let’s talk about this new feature Google has implemented – not for every site, and in fact for seemingly very few. I imagine they are still testing and learning. It seems, in fact, that the embedded search feature is only being tested for new sites for now (I only found examples on Washington Post, Time Magazine, New York Times and Forbes – notably missing the embedded search box: Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Newsweek Magazine).

First, how does Google decide when to embed the site search box in the search result? I haven’t seen anything official from Google discussing the feature so please share if you have anything.

Second, though, is the question as to whether the embedded search box is intended to better the user experience or is it to generate more revenue for Google AdWords? I think that is the debate among advertisers and bloggers but how about we ask basic searchers who aren’t so entrenched in search as to be thinking about motive or intent?

Recognizing I’m entrenched in search and may be biased, I’ll share my opinions/thoughts (subject to change) about this new feature.

If HP branded search results included an embedded search box I’d probably suggest to HP that we request Google remove it. Why? Several reasons:

• HP has invested far more in our on-site search experience than Google has.
• We have our own spider and internal rules for what we want indexed and served both organically and in our one-click and HP recommends sections (for more popular search queries) to our customers.
• We’ve done our own usability studies, have analyzed our on-site data and click paths and we’ve built that into our search experience.
• We also know that someone intending to search for content on a site, is expecting results only from that site. That is not the case with Google’s site search feature.

In the example above, if you type in the search box in the Time Magazine result above and select the button that says “Search time.com” you would expect that results will all come from time.com right? Well, not exactly. Several paid ads may also come up in addition to the organic results from the domain time.com. This is the part that is confusing and seemingly up for debate. Why present additional paid ads to a user looking for content on a particular site?

Some people argue that a searcher can type the function “search query” site:domain.com to get the same results so it’s not really a new feature and what’s the fuss anyway? You can also click the “more results from domain.com” link in some brand results that performs a similar function but doesn’t seem to return any paid listings.

Some propose it’s a poor user experience. Some marketers are unhappy about the potential of losing a customer who was clearly interested in their brand to a paid ad that came up after using the site search functionality. Others contend that if the user is distracted by the paid ad they weren’t that loyal anyway. But what about those people who just don’t know the difference between a paid ad and an organic ad and simply trust Google to provide them with the content they are looking for. The button did say “Search time.com” after all.

I suspect that several users don’t realize that the sponsored listings across the top are paid advertisements. And if they do realize this, they still think that those premium placements are still more relevant than the ones down the right column. I hear all too often that people ignore the listings on the right but not the ones at the top because those are “more relevant”.

So who really cares if there are clicks on the ads after a site search is performed? Well, Google does because they get paid more. The advertisers who are both getting the clicks and losing the clicks care too. But does Google care more about the user who trusts their results are the most relevant? Maybe. It seems less and less ads are being served the more I test this new site search feature. Like HP has more information on users of our site I’m sure Google has more info on their and will use that to determine how they want to move forward with this feature.