A New Tool From Google Worries Brand-Name Sites

Google has quietly introduced a new feature, called search-within-search, that is alarming some big-name Web publishers and retailers. They worry that users will be siphoned away through ad sales to competitors. What Google is doing is offering a secondary search option if the user initially searches explicitly for one of the brand-name destinations that Google has identified, such as “Best Buy.” This secondary search lets users refine their query entirely within the pages of the desired site — but using Google’s search, not the site’s, and showing Google ads on the result pages, quite possibly ads from competitors — via Slashdot