Google has announced the release of a slew of new search options. One of the most promising features for students is Wonder Wheel. Wonder Wheel graphically displays search terms related to your original search. This is not a new concept, Eyeplorer employs a similar concept, but it is new to Google search.

Another new option from Google is the timeline option. Using the timeline option, you can narrow your search results by dates referenced in the content. For example, using the timeline option if I’m researching “steroids in baseball” I can narrow my results to articles published in the last month or find articles written during the 2005 Congressional hearings on steroids in baseball.

The video below gives a short overview of Wonder Wheel, the timeline option, and other new options.

Applications for Education
As of this writing the new options aren’t available to everyone, but Google says they should be available to all users in the next 24 hours. These new features will be very helpful to students in need of assistance in refining searches or help in thinking of alternative search terms.

Here are some related resources that may be of interest to you:
Worio Search – Discover More Search Results
Search Cube – Six Sided Visual Search
Googlepedia – Google and Wikipedia Side by Side