Today Google announced the release of a new product (is it a weekday, does the moon revolve around the earth?!) called SearchWiki. It allows searchers to re-rank, comment and delete search results while logged into their personal Google accounts. These customizations are only viewable locally, but it’s hard to believe Google doesn’t have some grand scheme planned using all this data.
L&S web team members weigh in …
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EC: Too many questions come up to even know where to start, but #1 is how/when will this effect clients? (We don’t change the way we optimize pages, but all of a sudden client links can either be promoted really high or removed from the list altogether.) Do they plan on modifying their formula in the future to give higher rankings to links that have been promoted? Is this part of their master plan to know everything about everyone? Honestly, I think it will help them get more paid advertising (Would they do that  ) It would be a good way to weed out some of the crap that has accumulated over the years. |
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RT: Very interesting – I’m with you, EC. I can’t help but think that Google will build this into their algorithm. If we’re doing our due diligence and optimizing sites for relevant search results, this will help us – people will find our sites useful, rate them and position the real sites above the junky sites out there trying (many times, successfully) to trick Google into believing their content is relevant. Google keeps adding body parts, brain, eyes, ears, what’s next? |
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MR: This seems like a slightly uncharacteristic move for Google. Does anyone know if this lived in the labs first? Normally they beta test a feature, until it hits a certain popularity / critical mass, then they integrate it in. This thing seems to be going straight to the people, which either means it’s something very valuable to Google’s customers or it’s something very valuable to Google. Should be interesting… |
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RT: It’s such great intelligence for Google – my bet’s on “what’s in this for them” while also improving search engine results, hense a better user experience. Win, win. |
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KG: I love the idea of Google eventually building this into their algorithm – consumers replacing robots to determine relevance. Like EC said, it could clear out a lot of the junk pages … as well as render any remaining black hat SEO tactics obsolete. Power to the people! |
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Here is the link: http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2008/11/searchwiki-make-search-your-own.html :if anyone’s curious.