Google SearchWiki: Major Changes for Google Search Results...Maybe

For those of you who were logged into your Google account over the past few days, you may have noticed a major change in Google search.

It's called Google SearchWiki and it's causing waves in the world of search engine marketing.

The brief is that if you're logged into your Google account you'll see a few new icons next to each result on the search engine results page: an up arrow, an "x", and a speech bubble.

With these new icons you can rearrange the search results by moving a result up, removing it, or adding comments.

As the official Google blog states:

The changes you make only affect your own searches. But SearchWiki also is a great way to share your insights with other searchers. You can see how the community has collectively edited the search results by clicking on the "See all notes for this SearchWiki" link.

I have a few issues with this new approach by Google.

Google SearchWiki is the new default. Anyone with a Gmail account is going to see these new icons. I don't know that the average user is ready for this/asked for this/wants this. And, as reported by Michael Arrington, once you agree to it, there's no going back. I was also surprised to see that by boosting a site, it is boosted for all your relevant searches, not just the search you performed.

I've never really wanted to mark up my search results. If I really liked a particular result I bookmarked it. If I was feeling generous or sharing I might add it to Digg, Delicious or StumbleUpon. However, I rarely go back to run a search again unless its to find out how flyte is doing for a particular search. Which leads us to point three.

Although Google claims this won't affect anyone else's searches, let's be reasonable here: why wouldn't they want to add user-feedback once it gets to a critical mass to their popular search algorithm? If millions of searchers prefer the #3 result for "cheap airline tickets" over the #1 result, wouldn't it make sense to work that into the algorithm?

And it's this thinking that has already struck both white hat and black hat search engine marketers alike that will cause them to create dozens of Google accounts and pump up their own (or clients') sites and dump the competition.

I can only imagine the number of productive hours that have been wasted by search engine marketers on this endeavor already. Wait a sec, maybe that's Google's evil plan to strike back at the search engine industry?

Nah, this is the company whose motto is "Don't Be Evil."

So what's a small business owner/Web site owner to do? I'd probably sit this one out for a little while, but there's no harm in boosting your own rankings next time you're doing a search.

Rich Brooks
Search Engine Marketing

Comments

[Josh Hurley]

How is this an improvement to a bookmark or a favorite? I see the largest impact on the users who are not going to view "fresh" content because they added older content as higher value. If you're looking for the latest review, option or [fill in the blank] this will reduce the quality of the search experience.

[Matt McGee]

Hey Rich - on your last point, the Google product manager I spoke with even admitted they're "not closing any doors" when I asked about whether all this user data would be used to affect traditional search rankings. See his quotes in my SEL article:

http://searchengineland.com/google-searchwiki-launches-15561.php

[Steven Leung]

That comment about "not closing any doors" is chilling. I do agree that business and site owners don't need to jump on this bandwagon, but given Google's market share and the lack of accountability when posting, owners probably need to monitor their SearchWiki graffiti.

http://www.integratedroi.com/businesses-adjust-to-google-searchwiki/

[KT]

Thanks for the insight. Google hits for my (thus far non-commercial) blog on the Pittsbrugh Steelers were soaring until about the end of November. Then they dropped like rocks.

I am talking from 30-40 per day to two or three.

I guess I know why now.