Imagine the Google search results grouped by category. Let's say we do a search for DVD players and up comes two results per category. The categories include:

• Comparison Shopping
• Reviews
• Stores
• References
• Forums
• Blogs
• News
• Manufacturers

That is exactly what more and more people are seeing in the Google results. Here is a screen shot taken from Lee Odden, note Philipp Lenssen spotted this also.

Not only are these results no longer ordered by pure "relevancy," they are now first grouped and then ordered in relevancy.

For example, using the case of DVD players above, if we have ten results on the page, they are all ordered by relevancy. Then Google decides to group them. Now, the most relevant result will probably be the first result, which is it in the dvd players case (i.e. bizrate.com is number one in both examples). But what if the next relevant result is the 6th most relevant result but the only other result on the first page that falls within the same group as the most relevant result (i.e. videohelp.com in our example)? So the top two results, in the grouping case, will be the 1st relevant result and the 6th most relevant result. Is this an issue?

Here is an image illustrating the example above, for a full size image click here:

There is even a WebmasterWorld thread on this and I also posted a summary at Search Engine Land.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Like The Story? Vote For It On Yahoo Buzz! Or On Sphinn!