Search engines from Bing to Google to AOL  to now Yahoo! have been debuting redesigned search pages. The changes have ranged from cosmetic, to, in the case of Google Instant, a fundamental shift in how search is delivered. No matter where on the spectrum the changes are, though, marketers can find both opportunities and possible challenges.

Yahoo! is the latest search engine to tweak its user interface.  Entertainment-related searches will pull up richer content results by combining images, news articles, videos, tweets, events, and ratings. News searches will be organized with videos, images, articles, and tweets on a single page. Also the Trending Now lists on Yahoo.com and across the Yahoo! network will be accompanied by slideshows beginning in the fall. To see the slideshows, click on a trending term on Yahoo! A search results page will appear, featuring a slideshow of the top images related to the term in the center of the page and a list of other trending topics on the left side of the page.

New Formats, Rich Media

Some of the interface changes may create additional marketing opportunities because new formats will be available, Greg Sterling with Sterling Market Intelligence tells MarketingVOX. There is the potential for larger display ads with some of the design changes in Yahoo! he noted.

In general there is a movement in the search community away from the Spartan look of the early 2000s to a richer page - which also lends to more marketing opportunities in what type of content can be used, he said. "Search is becoming much more of a branding medium than it had ever been. There is a school of thought that being in the top of the search results provides a brand lift. Now that is even more true with the search change. We are going to see images in Google Adwords and rich media modules."