Google Puts Songs A Click Away In Search

RYAN NAKASHIMA

LOS ANGELES (AP) — A new music feature rolled out by Google Inc. Wednesday will bring its U.S. searchers one click away from listening to a full-length song.

The simple design brings up to four songs to the top of search results. Once one is clicked on, the song will play on pop-up players from MySpace or Lala. The search results are also accompanied by album art and links to music sites Pandora, imeem and Rhapsody.

Internet users can search by artist name, album or song title and can even access a song by typing in part of its lyrics.

The clutter-free box pushes down other search results, such as the artists' home page and fan sites, and reduces what Google Inc. calls "time to result," in this case meaning how much clicking one has to do to hear a song.

"Within that mission of trying to make music search easier is to keep it simple," said R.J. Pittman, Google's director of product management. "Exercising great restraint in the design of this is what's going to maximize its adoption."