As a follow-up to the under the hood of search video detailing the “methodology behind search ranking and evaluation”, Google today released “The Evolution of Search” walking us through the history and evolution of search in six minutes. The video aims to highlight key milestones of search over the past decade, specifically Universal Results and Quick Answers, but also touches on the future of search with Google Instant and Voice Search.

Our goal is to get you to the answer you’re looking for faster and faster, creating a nearly seamless connection between your questions and the information you seek. That means you don’t generally need to know about the latest search feature in order to take advantage of it— simply type into the box as usual and find the answers you’re looking for.

In addition to the above video, Google put together the timeline below of search features they’ve added since the service first launched. Click for high-res.
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Google has just released an update to their Google Search iOS app bringing with it a brand new design for iPad and full-screen mode for search results and pages on iPhone.

The new iPad interface is noticeably inspired by the design recently rolled out across the majority of Google’s web services. The main search page now has four grey icons as shortcuts to History, Applications, Voice Search, and Goggles, while a new side-by-side view allows you to browse webpages and search results simultaneously. Also included in the update in a full-screen browsing mode for images and a new visual UI for history allowing you to  thumb through results as pages. Instant Previews and Google Instant are now also baked into the iPad version.

As for the iPhone, the update only lists the usual minor bug fixes along with the full-screen mode mentioned above. As always, you can grab the updated Google Search app as a universal download now (iTunes link).  More screenshots below:
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