Users hesitating when they enter a search query will be presented with a list of suggested search terms, allowing them to better define their query. A search for Windows Vista for instance can be expanded with words like 'themes', 'download' or 'productivity'.
Yahoo first launched its One Search technology for mobile phones last March, allowing users quickly narrow down their search with a minimum number of clicks.
Google was quick to catch up. The firm in May released its Universal Search, spanning web, local, video and image search. Around the same time, Google also started incorporating an automatic spell check, adding correctly spelled results without prompting the user.
The move towards unified search comes after search engines expanded their services with specialized services that index only one medium, such as photos, blog postings or news reports. Unifying those results marks an understanding that users often don't know what exactly they are looking for, and therefore are unable to formulate the best query.
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