Visualizing Search Results

A recent Yahoo patent application aims at exploring the possibilities of visualizing search results.

I think that the major change we will feel in our general web experience in the future will be around the way we search the web.

Up till now, search engines have been in competition over the quality of their search results - with Google being at the top (at least until recently when their serps are clogged with old pages...). Since the gap between the relevancy and quality of results between major search engines slowly closes, they will keep evolving in new direction - their interface. Google already came up with the universal search concept - blending any type of results in the results pages (pics, articles, news, video etc). The next step would be in the way the results are presented. Graphically - how else?