• The Wall Street Journal, Wednesday, May 30, 2012 11:38 AM

Besides driving a few marketers to the brink, what has Google achieved with its recent search changes? According to the tech giant, it is experiencing a noticeable increase in related activity. Indeed, people are “doing more searches as a result” of the revamp, a Google spokesman tells The Wall Street Journal’s Digits blog, citing internal data.

In place of relevant search ads or content boxes with Google+ info, Google recently began showing searchers Web searches big boxes of information and photos related to their queries. “Early indications are that people are interacting with it more, learning about more things…and doing more [search] queries,” Amit Singhal, a top Google search executive, tells Digits. “It’s stoking people’s curiosity.”

Among other sources, the new feature draws from data-rich sites like Wikipedia, along with music and movie catalogs that Google has previously licensed. “Perhaps more importantly, Singhal said that an increase in searches means there also will be an increase in visits to non-Google sites whose links appear in search results and in the new boxes of information that are appearing as part of the change.”

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