Yesterday I noticed my Google search came up with these little arrows and Xs next to the results. Clicking the up arrow is a vote to “Promote” the search result, and clicking the “X” is a vote to “Remove” it.
I’m not sure how I feel about this social option being added to my old, familiar Google search. Somehow, I’ve become comfortable with the ever-changing, mysterious, mighty mathematical algorithm. I like to think that it produces pretty fair results, although there are certainly plenty of people with gripes over Google’s ranking system.
I hope this Promote/Remove system doesn’t turn Google search into something like Digg or StumbleUpon. I’m not an expert on these systems, but I think they can be a bit cliquish, or even fraudulent at times, with voting exchanges and paid Diggs/Stumbles. I still enjoy stumbling, but I wouldn’t depend on it for my search results. Sometimes I want people’s opinions, and sometimes I want a robot’s unemotional, calculated result.
I guess it’s too early to tell what effect this new SearchWiki will have on the Google gamers. We’ll have to wait and see. What do you think? Is this a good thing?
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{ 19 comments… read them below or add one }
Tyler @ Building Camelot.com 11.24.08 at 12:49 am
I noticed this the other day and thought the same thing. On one hand, I think Google can do a better job with some search results, but I don’t think it should turn into any sort of social voting system. Digg & SU are heavily influenced by a relatively small amount of people and I want unbiased search results from the big G.
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JEANNE 11.24.08 at 1:43 am
I agree totally… although unless I am wrong, I think that the changes you make when you “x” or move up a listing are visible only to you? If that’s not the case, I’m not sure I like it either.
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Jaffer 11.24.08 at 3:11 am
How was your move to Colorado ? Hope you are settling in well !
Google’s SearchWiki is available only to those who are signed in. The promotion and deletion buttons will affect only your results !
The Internet is not happy with this new feature. Steve Rubel calls it Google’s biggest gaffe while TechCrunch has exposed a serious exploitation with the new comment feature.
I don’t like it either and I hope Google removes it soon or atleast give us an option to turn it off !
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Rose Works Jewelry 11.24.08 at 12:08 pm
Wow - I’ll have to keep an eye on that - thanks for the heads up!
Genesis 11.24.08 at 4:19 pm
I`m not impressed. It seems too likely to be abused to me. I mean, the average person won`t use those buttons, but you can bet anyone who is SEO savvy will be recruiting huge crowds to do so!
Lisa365 11.24.08 at 9:41 pm
Wait- what?!
*does a Google search*
NOOOOOOO! I don’t like it!! I have to agree, I like the unbiased Googlebot search!
BigPappa 11.25.08 at 12:38 pm
Hey, that’s not showing up on my Google. Maybe they don’t like me.
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Catherine 11.26.08 at 8:22 pm
I have to agree. For those who work with SEO on their blogs. I’d hate to see hard work get kicked to the bottom of the list because your not in “The Group”
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Roxy's Best Of... 11.26.08 at 11:50 pm
I noticed this the other day when I was doing a Google search for something local to add to my Mendham, NJ web site. After adding the content to my site, I of course went back to Google and promoted myself. I wonder if it is similar to Stumble, or whether it is really only customizing the individual user’s search…so that when I search for something that happens to be on my site, Google gives me Roxy’s Best Of… as my first choice, but if a random visitor Googled the same search terms, my self-promotion (or a spammer’s much greater efforts) would have no impact on their results. Guess we’ll have to wait and see.
Roxy
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Roxy's Best Of... 11.26.08 at 11:52 pm
Hmm…I just left you a nice lengthy comment on this subject. I’ll hope it is just that you’re moderating and it’s not lost forever!
Roxy
Roxy’s Best Of…´s last blog post..Cats Creates Memories at NJPAC in Newark, New Jersey
Roxy's Best Of... 11.29.08 at 12:23 am
I wonder if it is some weird/unlikely partnership between Google and Microsoft…the arrows/Xes only seem to show up in Google on Internet Explorer for me, not Firefox or Safari. Weird.
Roxy
Roxy’s Best Of…´s last blog post..Roxy’s First Reader Poll: Planning the Menu for PostBoy and MathGirl’s Rehearsal Dinner at Il Palio in Shelton, Connecticut
Jennifer 11.29.08 at 7:32 pm
I think they have the right idea because I hate having to go through a bunch of add sites to get what I am looking for but I do see your point about it becoming like stumble or digg.
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Shelly 11.30.08 at 9:09 am
I hadn’t noticed it yet. I’ll definitely be looking for it today though. I think people will definitely self promote, but we’ll have to see if this plays into the already way to complicated google algorithm.
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BigPappa 12.03.08 at 12:48 pm
Yep, no I don’t like it. They CAN’T be doing this. It can’t have an effect on the SERP’s. It must just cache them for your use only.
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Gini 12.05.08 at 8:46 am
If you go to the bottom of Google’s home page and click “Learn More” there is a whole explanation there. Here’s an excerpt from the page .
“Your rankings and comments are associated with your Google Account, so they affect only your search result rankings. A listing of your changes is visible on your ‘SearchWiki notes’ page, which is visible only to you.”
So from that, I don’t think Google is changing the way they rank to a more social site. Thank goodness! I want them both to exist, but seperately.
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Nelson 12.07.08 at 2:44 pm
It’s weird. I’m a heavy Google user and never have seen such arrows. but if it’s something that Google is testing on random users, that will suck. big marketing players will be the one that will show up on Google now.
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Kim 12.08.08 at 12:26 pm
I would much rather they didn’t do this. I think it would skewer the results.
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Maricris 12.14.08 at 7:17 pm
Digg and stumbleupon-like was what I thot of immediately when I saw this feature. I think to an owner of a website like me, this is an advantage. Not sure how it works tho but I like it.
GeekMom 12.16.08 at 12:43 am
Thanks for sharing your opinions and tips. Sounds like the voting won’t affect the public search results, so it’s not so bad. phew!