The Evolution of Web Search User Interfaces -- An Archaeological Analysis of Google Search Engine Result Pages

TL;DR

This paper systematically analyzes the two-decade evolution of Google Search Engine Result Pages, highlighting increased diversity, richer content, and new interface design patterns that enhance user experience and information access.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive, data-driven archaeological analysis of SERP evolution over 20 years, filling a gap in the literature.

Findings

SERPs have become more diverse with new elements

Content from multiple verticals is increasingly aggregated

Features providing direct answers are more common

Abstract

Web search engines have marked everyone's life by transforming how one searches and accesses information. Search engines give special attention to the user interface, especially search engine result pages (SERP). The well-known ''10 blue links'' list has evolved into richer interfaces, often personalized to the search query, the user, and other aspects. More than 20 years later, the literature has not adequately portrayed this development. We present a study on the evolution of SERP interfaces during the last two decades using Google Search as a case study. We used the most searched queries by year to extract a sample of SERP from the Internet Archive. Using this dataset, we analyzed how SERP evolved in content, layout, design (e.g., color scheme, text styling, graphics), navigation, and file size. We have also analyzed the user interface design patterns associated with SERP elements. We found that SERP are becoming more diverse in terms of elements, aggregating content from different verticals and including more features that provide direct answers. This systematic analysis portrays evolution trends in search engine user interfaces and, more generally, web design. We expect this work will trigger other, more specific studies that can take advantage of our dataset.