Recently, while performing a fairly routine search on Google, something caught my eye.  My results were being fragmented into what are being called “Google categories.”  As other blogs have pointed out, these results are prompted by broad keyterms like DVD players and lawn care.  Our example shows these results are also prompted by a product model number. 

This SERP (Search Engine Results Page) was broken down into five categories:  comparison shopping, stores, forums, reviews, others.  These categories are meant to give the prospective customer different forms of information to make an informed decision about the product they are interested in.  The categories are described as follows:  

Comparison Shopping

• opposing customer reviews and detailed information about product features

Stores

• online stores selling the product

Forums

• threads from forums where people are talking about the product

Reviews

• The only site that shows is epinions.com, where products are reviewed by professionals

Others

• more online shops

This feature does not occur every time someone performs a search for a product and it only happens for me on my home computer sporadically.  Time will tell if this is just something Google is testing out, or if it will be a permanent switch.