Search engine results pages — known as SERPs in the search engine optimization (SEO) world — have gotten increasingly complex over the past few years as search providers look for new ways to help users reach their destination in fewer clicks. Google is leading this effort, with its standard “10 blue links” — which have long-defined SERPs — taking a backseat to real-time stock quotes, news articles, pictures and sports scores, allowing users to go right from the search box to the information they’re looking for, without having to click on any results.

Search for “Weather Boston” on Google, for example, and you can get the current weather and a 3-day forecast right on the results page, saving an extra click to Boston.com/Weather, the top “blue link.” Benjamin Schachter and Thomas C. White, analysts with Broadpoint.AmTech, write in a research note issued today that going forward, while search functionality itself is unlikely to change much, we will continue to see changes in how search results are presented.

The four key upgrades they see coming to SERPs are:

• The integration of data or applications from third-party web sites will appear within the search engine. Bing does this extensively for some results, particularly on the “reference” tab.
• More search results that lead directly to commercial transactions. Google has been doing this for years with Froogle (now Google Product Search), and Bing puts a huge amount of focus on shopping, offering product reviews and pricing information right on the SERP.
• New interfaces for finding and ranking search results, like Google Squared and the Wonder Wheel, which Schachter and White “believe more and more search properties (particularly smaller ones fighting for share) will begin to experiment with.”
• The option for real-time search. In an attempt to provide “fresher” search results than “static web” search engines, real-time search would kick newly created content like news articles, sports scores, Tweets and Facebook status updates higher on SERPs than older articles that perhaps have not changed in a while. A search for “Kobe Bryant” on the day after the Lakers won the NBA finals could provide links to video and commentary on the night’s game, for example, rather than a link to Kobe’s official NBA.com player profile.

All of these are evolutionary innovations, rather than revolutionary ones — and all can be made within the confines of traditional search engines. However, as Schachter and White note, “[A]ny meaningful change to how search results are presented creates risks and opportunities for all of the major players.” Microsoft is making a good attempt with Bing, and Google is playing with lots of stuff in “beta,” though they may never make it to the main search page. “Google has the most to lose if search evolves in a way that allows competitors to gain share,” the analysts noted. However, Google is so synonymous with “search,” and the company “has the development talent and resources to almost instantly mimic any innovations that do gain traction,” that the company is well positioned to respond no matter what happens.