We've talked before here about the sameness of standarized search results. As we've pointed out in the past, and Google pointed out today, "the appearance of results themselves have been pretty constant -- 10 or so web pages in a vertical list." There's obviously something right about this standard format. It works (although some Mashable commenters argue against my terming of it as intuitive).
Since last May, I've been periodically participating in a limited beta test of Google's new experimental search pages. Today they formally introduce it to the public, refined based on the feedback of myself and presumably many other Google users.
There were quite a few experimental views available during the testing phase, but they've narrowed the field of alternative views down to three: Map View, Timeline View, and Info View.
Timeline View is perhaps my favorite. It includes dates of upcoming or historic events coupled with biographical information gleaned from the results of the search terms. There is a nifty little graph that appears across the top of the page mapping out the dates along a timeline.
The Map View does the same thing, but instead of graphing them along a timeline, places relevant results on maps centered around your geographic location (or another specified location).
The Info View is the odd man out, and doesn't at first appear dramatically different from typical search results. Along the side, though, where your ads would typically appear is a control panel that changes what follows the link in the search view, allowing you to see dates, measurements, locations or images from the search result.