Some blogs have been recently talking about switching on Google keyword suggestions. But Google Labs has an even better experiment in the works - alternate search views - and you can take part in the experiment to give Google valuable feedback.

By going here, you can see Google’s latest search innovations and you can join in, one at a time. Everyone seems to be flocking to keyword suggestions but my attention was instantly drawn to the “alternate search views experiment”. I was particularly taken by the “timeline view” (I am a sucker for graphs and charts!). So I clicked on the button to join up.

Using “Albert Einstein” as a search term, I saw right away that the page design was now slightly altered :
The list view gives you your usual Google search results :

But if you click on the other views, you will get your search results presented in different ways. For example, if you click on “list view”, you will get your usual results but with the following option :

This enables you to filter your results by specifying particular dates, measurements and locations. The Images option allows you to see images in a list view.

Now for the “timeline view” :

This option is really only good if you are searching for people or events. It gives you the results in chronological order so by searching for Albert Einstein, the results start with his birth and his death is at the end. You also get a bar graph at the beginning showing in which time periods Google has found results matching your query. So again, using the Einstein example, Google has nothing pertaining to the 1880’s but quite a lot for the 1900’s. The timeline view is also good if you are researching a period in history and you are trying to make sense of it - by seeing the information in chronological order, it may help you to gain a better understanding.

Last of all, the “map view”. This option allows you to see on a map the places referred to in the search results. So on the left of the page, you have the results :

and on the right hand side of the page (I had to split it up because the page was too big) is a Google Maps-powered map showing the places mentioned :

You can easily leave this experiment if you tire of it and oh one little tip - you can easily get around the “one experiment at a time” rule that Google lays down by using different browsers. I have Firefox, Opera and Safari browsers and using all three, I was able to sign up for three experiments on Google Experimental.