What is Blended Search?
Blended search, also called universal search, is when search engines like Google show more than just website links.
Instead, the results page mixes web links with videos, images, news, maps and other types of content. This creates a blend of different formats all related to the search term.
For example, searching "cats" would bring up web links, cute cat images and videos, news on cats, etc. The search aims to directly answer the query in many formats.
When Was Blended Search Introduced?
Google first used blended search back in 2007. Other major search engines adopted it too. Now, showing a variety of content formats is common across different search engines.
Why Does Blended Search Help Users?
Blending content types into search results provides more useful information to people. It evolves how search engines answer queries from just showing simple link lists.
The goal is to directly satisfy the search intent with multimedia options. This offers a richer, more engaging experience for users.