Google has added Book Search to its Search Options. In case you haven’t been closely following everything Google has launched this year (and that is quite a bit), these options are presented to searchers at the top of the results page when they perform a search. I think the feature can be quite useful, but I often wonder how many people actually think to use it, or even know that it’s there.
The feature was announced back in May at Google’s Searchology event, along with a number of other things. In some ways, it is similar (though certainly not the same) to Bing’s interface. It gives you different categories for searches that affect your results.
Search options give users the ability to narrow results down to specific categories like videos, images, forums, reviews, and now books and magazines. “This will provide easier access to books and magazines by letting you slice and dice your results with certain characteristics,” says Google in a post on the Book Search blog. “For example, you can now search for only books or magazines or for only content that you can preview in Google Books.”
Right now, Book Search is only available in Search Options in the United States.
For a look at how Google came up with the user experience and design of “search options” check this out. If you want some advice on how to optimize for listings within search options, read this.
