It’s been a busy week in the Google camp, with a range of tweaks, new releases and enhancements.

The first range of enhancements involve tweaks to Google’s web search engine results pages (SERPs).

Users will now be greeted with 2 new navigation options integrated directly into the listings area.

• 1. Brand Refinement in Search Results.

Now when users go searching for products, Google will include “Brand” links above the rest of the organic results for common queries.

“…we wanted to make it easier for you to find the brands other people consider useful for popular product searches. So this week we launched a search refinement that calls out brand names related to your query in a single line above the rest of the results.”

It’s prime search real estate for brand marketers, so if they become a permanent fixture of the SERPs – expect to see some heavy research into optimizing for this placement.

For businesses want to feature in the Brand links, Google suggests that they are determined “algorithmically” – so the key to being featured is ensuring your “brand” is searched heavily in conjunction with relevant products.

Example searches: [wedding dress], [digital camera] and [stroller]

• 2. Similar Pages in Search Results.

Google have been providing similar pages links for quite some time, but they have been somewhat hidden up until now.

Google offers the similar link to help users identify other websites that offer similar content/relevance to a particular listing in the results page.

Now Google will automatically show a handful of similar page links related to the top listing in the results page. The similar listings will feature under the organic results as below:

• 3. The Mobile Changes

Google has also released some mobile enhancements, continuing its efforts to maintain an ascendency in this burgeoning space.

iPhone’s and Android devices are getting a new image search functionality. Driven by the goals of improving speed and the quality of images displayed, the new image search will standardise thumbnails, providing easier previewing, and allow users to scan through much faster.

Google’s Place Pages have also gone mobile. Google released place pages last year, which organize useful information about places on Google maps. These have now been optimized to simplify viewing on the go.

Google has been prolific to say the least with its ongoing schedule of new tests, enhancements and releases. Let us know what you think of these latest improvements via our comments below.

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