By Michael Liedtke
San Francisco - Google has fine-tuned its popular online search engine with a new look designed to boost its Froogle shopping service and alert to previously unheralded tools for getting sharper results.
The changes unveiled on Monday are the latest in a series of moves Google has made since Yahoo! broke off their longtime partnership six weeks ago to spotlight its own search engine.
Microsoft executives also have been promising to introduce a search engine on their MSN site later this year.
"Google very much wants to let everyone know that it's still doing some exciting things in search and it's too soon to start making the (company's) tombstone yet," said Danny Sullivan, editor of Search Engine Watch, an industry newsletter.
Before Monday's adjustments, Google recently had expanded its index by about 30 percent to span nearly 4,3 billion Web pages and introduced technology to make it easier for users to find things in their own neighbourhoods based upon zip codes or cities.
The company said on Monday it also is experimenting with a system that enables Google users to enter personal information about themselves so the search engine might deliver more relevant results. For instance, users that let Google know they're interested in music are less likely to get results related to fishing when they enter the term "bass".
With its latest revisions, Mountain View, California-based Google appears to be grooming Froogle for a much bigger role in its business. Froogle has been operating as a separate site since Google launched the shopping service in December 2002.
Google's redesign gives Froogle one of the coveted links located just above its search box. To make room, Google dropped a tab formerly reserved for its list of directories. As it did before, Google's front page continues to feature prominent links to focus searches on "images," "groups" and "news".
Froogle attracted 472 000 unique visitors in February, placing it far behind the biggest shopping comparison sites, according to comScore Media Metrix, a research firm. Yahoo's shopping channel drew an audience of 19,7 million visitors in February and Shopping.com, which focuses exclusively on product comparison, attracted 17,2 million visitors, comScore said.
The links above Google's search box are powerful magnets. For instance, Google's "images" link attracted 14,2 million visitors last month, comScore said. Google's total audience exceeded 61 million last month.
A boost in Froogle's traffic would likely increase Google's profits as it prepares for an initial public offering of stock - a widely anticipated event expected to happen later this year. Shopping sites make money from the referral fees that merchants pay when one of their links is clicked upon.
Google's redesign also introduces a "more" link above the query box and a more accessible "what's new" link to open pages that provide tutorials about the search engine's different dimensions, such as its ability to track mail shipments or airline flights.
The timing of Google's recent improvements "has mostly been by accident," Larry Page, the company's co-founder, said in an interview on Monday. "We have been working on most of these things for a long time to improve the end user experience."
Page declined to comment on Google's IPO plans. - Sapa-AP