Google Squared is an experimental search tool that collects facts from the Web and presents them in an organized collection, similar to a spreadsheet. If users search for roller coasters, for example, Google Squared builds a square with rows for each of several specific roller coasters and columns for corresponding facts, such as image, height and maximum speed.

"Some information is easy to find. If you want to learn the rules of golf, you can search Google for 'golf rules' and we'll return a list of relevant Web sites right at the top," said Alex Komoroske, an associate product manager for Google Squared. "But not all your information needs are that simple. Some questions can be more complex, requiring you to visit 10, perhaps 20, Web sites to research and collect what you need."

Search Gets Smarter

Continuing with the roller-coaster theme, Komoroske drills down into Google Squared's value compared to the market leader's traditional search box. In the past, Komoroske said he has used Google to search for information about roller coasters, such as which ones are the tallest, fastest and have the most loops.

"Finding this information used to take multiple searches -- I'd find roller-coaster sizes on one Web site, heights on another, and speeds on a third. By manually comparing the sites, I could get the information I was looking for, but it took some time," Komoroske said. "With Google Squared, a new feature just released in Google Labs, I can find my roller-coaster facts almost instantly."

Komoroske pointed to the technology behind Google Squared. While gathering facts from across the Internet is relatively easy for humans to do, he said, it's far more difficult for computers to do automatically. He called Google Squared a first step toward solving that challenge by searching the Web to find the types of facts users might be interested in, extracting them, and presenting them in a meaningful way.

"This technology is by no means perfect. That's why we designed Google Squared to be conversational, enabling you to respond to the initial result and get a better answer," Komoroske said. "If there's another row or column you'd like to see, you can add it and Google Squared will automatically attempt to fetch and fill in the relevant facts for you. As you remove rows and columns you don't like, Google Squared will get a fresh idea of what you're interested in and suggest new rows and columns to add."

Squared Is No Bing

Google Squared's approach may sound somewhat similar to Bing's organizational capabilities from a conceptual standpoint, but Squared's results aren't up to par with Bing, according to Greg Sterling, principal analyst at Sterling Market Intelligence.

"Squared is very interesting as an alternative way to display and compare information. The fact that it can be configured both in terms of the content that you compare horizontally and vertically could be helpful in many ways," Sterling said. "But it's definitely an experimental project."

If Google Squared does catch on, Google would have a different challenge: How to integrate it into its classic search results. Hypothetically, Sterling said, Google could allow users to conduct searches and then offer a prompt box to open a window that would show the results through Google Squared.

"Google has proven that it can integrate new features into search. That is something that over the past year or so Google has done well," Sterling said. "But this is still very much of an experimental project."