It seems as if Google, the leading search engine has taken another step in providing users with just what they are looking for. Google has just announced SiteSearch, which is a feature that allows users to search within a single site. The Google SiteSearch Box is a search within search feature that enables users to stay on a Google results page, but allows the user to refine their search even further. The Google blog declares that the feature will only occur when there is, “a high probability that the user wants more refined search results within a specific site.” Popular sites like AETN Television Networks, Restoration Hardware, and Wal-Mart are amongst the brands in which SiteSearch has been introduced on. So far the New York Times has been critical of the modification.

The search box appears when a user queries the name of a specific company or web address. A good example may be if someone is searching for, “A&E Television.” The results of the initial search are exactly the same as a standard Google search with the addition of the SiteSearch Box underneath the company’s web page. In order for the SiteSearch Box function to appear the exact term must be the top return for the query. The SiteSearch Box offers users the chance to then further advance their search within the company’s site and will provide even more Google search results from within the company’s site.

The introduction of SiteSearch could cause a problem for sites that sell advertising space because the impressions they are promising may not be generated if fewer people are using the search functions on the site. Also problematic is that sites will lose the ability to capture people in their own site search with features such as; you may also like, or related products or stories that show up when using a site’s internal search function. All in all, for Google, this is great because increasing numbers of ads will be served whereas for the advertisers whose site Google is navigating will be losing ad impressions and in turn dollars.