Google tests ad placement in its Search Suggest

Google Search Suggest, the predictive text dropdown gadget that suggests search terms, will soon provide direct links, information, and sponsored links.

Search Suggest has been a default feature on the Google home page since the end of August. Now, testing has begun on providing more than just a prediction of what the user is searching for based upon the most popular queries. A random selection of US-basedGoogle users have found that their suggested searches offer slightly different results.

The most popular search terms are regularly just site names that users want to be linked to, so some users have reported that the first suggested term, which is typically a site name anyway, is now a direct link to the site. Entering "betan" into Google, for example, will drop down a link directly to BetaNews.

Some of these results actually yield sponsored links to Google's advertising partners, like The New York Times or Newsweek. Each link is presented in Google's typical yellow field denoting its status as an advertisement, but in tests, links have appeared both at the top and the bottom of the suggestion list.

The service will also provide direct links pertaining to the subject of the search rather than the exact words (for example, linking to stories about football instead of just a link to football.com). Google is also expected to provide more semantic results in the form of answers to questions typed in the search field. This will be similar to the Ask.com's improved search technology that provides a hybrid of semantic and algorithmic answers.