Google's search chief Marissa Mayer still thinks data-driven design should prevail
Yesterday, at Google’s Searchology press event, I caught up with Marissa Mayer, the company’s search goddess.
Despite the short time I had with Mayer, she managed to talk about tons of topics (yes, she speaks that fast!); and I’m glad I had my camera with me, and it’s all on tape now… I mean YouTube, for your enjoyment 
So let’s start rolling.
Google and Twitter
Google is looking to index Twitter traffic, because that’s also information and because Tweets don’t lie! Mayer thinks that Twitter searches could be particularly “powerful” (she likes that word) and useful; and is an important “signal” that she liked to include in Google’s search engine the collective wisdom of the real-time Tweets.
Data-driven design vs. Pure design
Some designers have left Google because of the data-driven, engineering mentality. This is the first time Mayer openly defends Google’s data-driven culture in making design decisions. Basically, she tells designers to swallow their pride and follow the flow: data wins!
Google moves beyond keyword searches
The new “Search Options” is an example of how Google wants to simplify search and even make it fun to do. For Mayer, search is not anymore, put a keyword in the box and wait for Google to return a URL. “It’s not just URL anymore. Videos matter. Maps matter,” says Mayer. Now with richer results thanks to Google’s Universal Search, it’s even more important to filter that multi-dimensional information. “That’s a different search now,” she adds. And the good thing is that you don’t need to be a search expert to do those complicated queries. Google will do it for you!
New Search Options feature could become the default
“There are few obvious ways that Search Options will expand over time. One is that we will apply to more and more genres. So for example today, the Search Options panel is launching on Web and on Image search but it makes sense to also have a Search Options panel on Google News, Products, Books and some of other properties to help users slice and dice the results on those properties. On other ways it could expand, you could imagine for some searches that panel may be particularly useful. So it may be decided over time that for a particular set of queries we want it open by default. Or for particular type of searches, we actually want the settings already set to what we think Google users will likely set them to. And I think those elements are really powerful”, explains Mayer.
Google, a dominant player?
That’s interesting to hear Mayer talk about this quite sensitive topic that could trigger a lot of attention from the regulators. Mayer denies that Google is a dominant player or force, but admits it’s an important player. How is that different? With over 80%, it’s a monopoly, right? And it’s ok to be a monopoly as long as you don’t abuse your position.
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