A Universal / Global Search Engine Remains an Elusive Target

Terminology, with a uniform and consistent meaning of any word, where is it???? 'Universal search' for instance, as a key word means different to different people, so also for the geeks. Ideally speaking, universal / global search, refers to searching deep, searching far, and searching wide--i.e., searching all databases, all formats, and all possible corners. A single company that declares has an audacious plan to organize everything we know is, Google. How complex and how difficult, semantically, it is to organize everything we know, is now a common sense--ORGANIZE in order to identify, store, retrieve, administer, and facilitate the use of local, remote, and networked databases.

Mighty Google (the world's most popular Internet search engine) does not display a uniform, consistent and systematic approach (in all domains that it owns). See an example of search results (number of search results look alike, but see the preferences for text, videos, Sponsored Links / ads, etc.) in google.co. in / google.ca / google.co.uk / google.com--additionally, each site has much more (to add whatever you like): Images Maps News Shopping Gmail more ▼. [Note: To avoid any error in search results, the above sample does not use the alternate button: pages from the ...]

And, this pattern is precisely revealed by Randall Stross, in Planet Google:

"Not only did Google fail to give consistent attention to products after they had been released, it also neglected work on bringing its disparate collections of new types of information--such as books, scholarly journals, maps, videos--together so that a single search could rummage through all of its new information silos, in addition to its database of Web pages.
Users could, of course, go to the various Google sites and do separate searches, but the sites had been developed separately, in haste, before Google could figure out how to make all of them accessible in a single search..."
"Between 2001 and 2006, several Google engineers briefly took on universal search as a project. But they lost interest before making progress." (p. 182). "In May 2007, Google was ready to announce a limited version of Universal Search.
The search results that users now saw were changed only subtly--only a few non-Web items were added to the first page of search results...." (p. 183).

Some other quotes on Universal / Global approaches:

"Universal Search is still one of those buzz words that keeps coming up within the world of search. By now, many of you probably know that Universal Search refers to search results that blend videos, images, news, local listings and more. Each of the major search engines are taking a stab at their own interpretation of Universal Search. From an online marketing perspective, Universal Search presents many new opportunities to explore and learn what works best in each platform for a site..." continue reading: Ask universal search • Google universal search • MSN universal search • universal search • Yahoo universal search

"Just so I'm clear, I don't care if Google automatically skews the results on google.co.uk even if I do NOT change to see "pages from the UK."
I'm in the UK. I know most people will automatically be redirected to co.uk, and many won't change to .com. I also know many will benefit from having the results be skewed, since they won't do it themselves.
But if I tune into Google.com, that's where I find it strange to have the skewing happen anyway. As far as I'm concerned, Google.com is the international channel that many people all tune into from various locations. Having it broadcast different results is inconsistent, I feel. But that's my take, of course" @ What Do You Hate About Google? - Search Engine Watch Forums

See also:

Google Universal Search vs Yahoo and Microsoft Live - Part 1 » SEO ...

Whaddya Call It? All-a-do-about terminology management   

Google in Jeopardy: What If IBM’s Watson Dethroned the King of Search?  By Vasant Dhar, 10.05.13 Wired Opinion