Google beefs up Web services

Google is continuing to refine its offerings by beefing up how users can customize its search services.

some of the changes being made at the company's annual Searchology gathering, which include a way to "slice and dice" search results, a "Wonder Wheel" for exploring new topics, Google Squared, and rich search snippets.

The slicing and dicing will come via Google Search Options. It is a set of tools that will help users put together a variety of media—coming from search results, news, blogs, images, and more. The point of this is to enable people to combine their specific interests with "recency," creating an all-in-one way to find information on a given topic.

Google Squared, on the other hand, will act as a search engine for facts—not webpages. The tool will fetch and organize facts from across the Internet, allowing users to find information quickly and easily without having to click through numerous links.

Similarly, rich snippets will aim to provide more complete information in the small block of text displayed under each search result. The goal of this is to provide users with the answers they're looking for right away—again, letting them avoid clicking through to numerous sites that may or may not be useful.

Individually, the changes don't seem like much to the casual observer, but they are reflective of a continued push at Google to stay meaningful and relevant among an increasingly crowded Web.