In a world where the phrase “Google search” has all but replaced “web search” it's good to know that everyone's favourite data warehouse firm is still looking to innovate – and the company hopes its latest search enhancements do just that.

Launched earlier this week on the English-language Google sites – with translations due soon – the new features allow users to better customise their search via a range of “search options” which the company hopes will “allow users to dig deeper into their search results” and better narrow down the list to exactly what they are looking for.

The first such feature allows for organising results via the type of content you're looking for: as an example, a search can be restricted to show only forum posts, reviews, or videos. As an example of its usage, the company offered the possibility of users looking for films being able to “easily search for reviews [or only] viewing pages that contain videos in them.”

As if that wasn't enough, Google has introduced the ability to view a list of similar searchers related to your topic of choice. The list even has a graphical representation in the form of the “Wonder Wheel” which presents a spider diagram style view of other topics which relate in some way to your current search.

Anyone looking for historical information will be pleased to see the Timeline functionality, which presents results in chronological order. As well as being able to narrow the search down to a particular date range, the Timeline brings a neat graph to the mix which shows exactly where in time the results are clustered – and can be used to further narrow the search.

All the new functionality is available immediately by clicking on the “Show options” link at the top of the results page on all English-language Google search sites.

Is the new functionality exactly what you've been waiting for, or is there a killer feature Google is still missing? Share your thoughts over in the forums.