Google released a new Labs product called Google Squared today, allowing users to view search results in a spreadsheet-style manner in the hope of saving users time and giving them the ability to compare results.
By typing in a query such as [mars] you receive key information (which you can customize) on the topic in '''boxes'' hence the name Google Squared.
At this stage in time, there is no real technology for computers that can easily gather such facts from web pages, but Alex Komoroske, Associate Product Manager for Google Squared
claims this is a stepping stone to achieving a solution.
It (Google Squared) essentially searches the web to find the types of facts you might be interested in, extracts them and presents them in a meaningful way.
The results allow you to compare information, as well as reorganise and customise what displays. It's unclear at this stage any future plans for the service, but eventually Google will probably implement it or a similar technology into their search engine.
The idea of Squared is similar to that of recently launched Wolfram | Alpha, in that it aims to provide users with information without using the "10 blue links", although has been technically implemented on a different and somewhat smaller scale.
This new way to search using Google is now
available on Google Labs for all to try, but be warned it isn't a final product and as such is not perfect at displaying applicable results.
