• CNET News.com, Thursday, May 17, 2007 10:32 AM

Make no mistake, yesterday's unveiling of Google Universal Search was a massive announcement for the Mountain View, Calif. Web giant. Information Week says the bigness of the press event was underscored by the appearance of so many senior company officials, including Elliot Schrage, vice president of global communications and public affairs; and Craig Silverstein, Google's technology director (and first employee). Google now has integrated each of its search products into its core results, a process which began several months ago, but today received a major upgrade with the addition of video, maps, news and book results.

Search executives were mixed on the news, but just about everyone agrees this is a monumental change. Greg Sterling, principal of consultancy Sterling Market Intelligence, says the move encourages users to spend more time in the "Google Universe," and will more than likely result in greater usage of underutilized products like Video and Book Search.

Indeed, with multimedia results on Google.com, the Web giant has turned into something of a search portal--its goal is no longer to send users elsewhere quickly. But the biggest bomb of all, Sterling said, was Mayer's hint that display ads would soon show up in Google search results. There's big ad revenue there.

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