Last Wednesday I referred to Google v.3, the third unique version of Google. The thought was prompted by an expansion in the scope and influential range of results culled from Google Base. This week, two more snippets of evidence showing changes in the way Google operates emerged in the forms of the experimental search engine SearchMash and the release of Google Base Store Connector. While the two features were separate at birth, like most Google products they are joined as parts of a much larger body.

SearchMash is a new, non-branded search appliance owned, operated and informed by Google. It appears to be a place where Google can test-run new ways of interacting with its users, starting with the way results are displayed.

A query at SearchMash produces both organic and image results displayed side by side. The organic results are numbered in groups of ten with a live-scroll moving up and down a continuous list (as opposed to directing the searcher to subsequent lists of ten site references). The results include a feature that allows users to manipulate the order of placement by dragging useful ones higher in the scrolling list.

Google is also using SearchMash to request and test user feedback concerning features and functions of their search appliances. Thus far, the results at SearchMash appear to mirror results at Google.com but will likely change from time to time as Google uses the area to safely test alterations or tweaks to their ranking algorithms.

Danny Sullivan wrote a long piece examining SearchMash on Monday at SearchEngineWatch.

While Google, by design, is constantly altering and upgrading itself, search engine marketers; advertisers and users should anticipate a number of obvious changes in the way Google produces results in the coming months. The continuing mega-expansion of Google Base guarantees a flurry of new and often unpredictable factors influencing general Google search results.

Google Base is basically a searchable database of products, services and other items. It is, currently, of greatest interest to online merchants wanting mention of their products to be included in Google’s results. A deal with Intuit in September and the recent launch of Google Base Store Connector demonstrate how serious Google is about incorporating shopping and product search in their future planning.

Google Base Store Connector is a handy application that could either tempt or terrify online rivals like Amazon, Yahoo, or eBay, as well as local shopping malls and other micro-ecommerce facilitators by allowing users to easily catalog data from those online stores into Google Base. In other words, the Store Connector gives Google access to index information from other online stores, display that information in Google general search results and reference the searcher back to the online store the results originated from.

What Google is doing with Google Base is a radical change in its known methods of gathering information. This happens because the web from which Google extracts information has changed radically over the past three years. While Google Base cannot be seen as an end-all-be-all product-search application (like Google version 2 proved to be), it is indicative of the direction Google is going. Similarly, developments and redevelopments at SearchMash show Google is looking to test visible and algorithmic changes in a safe, controlled environment.

The basic interface and product-shopping search are only two ways Google is moving to rapidly reinvent itself. Two years ago, Google executives such as Eric Schmidt and George Reyes started referring to Google as a media company instead of as a search engine company. Moving into the New Year, Google is striving to show what being a mega-media company means. More on that next Wednesday.