Google has launched a new search aggregator service. The What Do You Love About Google site (http://www.wdyl.com) displays results from multiple Google specialized databases and services all on one page. Like most Google services, the WDYL homepage carries a single box and a search button. Keeping with the "love" theme, the search button contains a heart. 

The order of the databases or services in the results list varies from search to search. Results include Google Maps, Picasa, YouTube, Google Translate, Googel Maps, Google Patents Search, Google BlogSearch, and others. Results from each database or service are displayed in their own individual widget. A button at the bottom of each widget links directly to that database or service.

The blue box on the left-hand side of the results can be used to scroll down the page. The grey squares inside the blue box indicate your position on the page of results.

While the homepage caries the requisite Googel copyright notice, WDYL seems more like a "20% percent project" than an "official" Google service - for a number of reasons. (Google employeees are encouraged to devote 20% of their work hours to an independent project that interests them.)

A look at the domain registration record for WDYL.com indicates that the site has been registered since 2005. Looking at old versions of the page using Archive.org's WayBack Machine shows that in the past the site sold...well it's not clear what the site sold, but it is clear that it was not a Google-affiliated site. 

Digging deeper into the domain registration shows that the site is registered to an individual with a corporate/employee e-mail address at (one of) Google's offices in New York (it's the Chelsea office). Domains for official Google services like Picasa, YouTube, and Orkut are registered to Google's corporate headquarters in Mountain View, CA (or to brand protection/domain management service MarkMonitor on Google's behalf.) Official Google services are also hosted on Google's own nameservers (e.g., ns1.google.com). WDYL.com is hosted on a nameserver controlled by a retail domain registrar/hosting company.

Regardless of whether WDYL.com is an official Google service or not it is an interesting presentation of search results from multiple Google services. Some way to access Advanced Search features would be nice, but feeding advanced searches to the multiple services and databases would, no doubt, be a difficult task.

The post Google Launches ‘What Do you Love’ Aggregator | Or Does It? appeared first on Continuing Legal Education (MCLE) in California, MCLE Los Angeles, CLE Orange County, Irvine & San Francisco.