Techcrunch continues posting Google’s new test search interface which has a ton of social features.  TC goes so far as to say “Google Continues To Test A Search Interface That Looks More Like Digg Every Day”.
Do you guys remember that dude who said that Google would eventually find a balance between the algorithm and social voting?  Ohh ya that was me!
They posted a new screenshot today:
BTW If you have not seen this video showing the new Google interface with all the social bells and whistles I highly suggest you watch it.  I think its pretty awesome.
Hi Shoe. I do search on google and nothing happens? Did I miss something?
That is some pretty wacky change in my opinion. To be honest, I don’t know how that would really help me or change the way I use Google. After all, with Google’s search, I only use it to search some info up, not to use it as a Digg-like site.
I think that this could also possibly be abused?
its just being tested
Well it depends who you let influence your results…
As it stands now, without being logged into my google account, the website I’m building now is within the top 100 search results. When I’m logged in and google uses my search history to help better match what I’m searching, the same keywords don’t give me a hit until 200-300 range. I don’t like the idea of search results manipulated by the engine.
With this the whole China and Pakistan will be employed. I bet on this. Maybe another RAC should be coming up just for this purpose 😛
Comment system does look a lot like digg’s. I like the idea of voting up. I wouldn’t want voting to take much of a charge in it though.
Any way to get a real test of the test???
I think the digg like system of voting a site up and down is a good integration for Google search results. But I certainly do not want to see comments on them.
That would be so tiresome!
Not sure how all of this is going to turn out. But I really feel that Google’s strong point is the quick and easy interface. No bullshit, like Altavista used to be back in the days. Just simple results. I’m not sure what adding social voting might do to the usability.
Maybe they’ll add it as a second entrance to Google, just like Google Suggest.
I also wander what this will do to your Click Through Rates, both for organic traffic and ppc traffic.
Is this test public yet ?
I really just want google to stay how it is, they can change the algorithm all they want but I don’t want the interface to get any facelifts.
john chow doesnt need another way to game google! 😉
bad move by google.
down go all the seo optimized mfa sites.
down goes their revenue.
Seriously, one of the good things about GooGle is that it was so simple and so concise at the same time. I don’t need comments on my serp’s, that would just clutter the whole damn thing.
Wow, SEO specialists will be happy more work opportunities for them. Another facet of the black box that has to be demystified.
nice, that’s pretty cool
the same goes for me…in fact that’s why they are so successful, because it’s simple and easy to use and gives you what you are searching for…I don’t think that search results based on social votes is the way to go.
Anyway, Shoemoney was right about the future of SEO.
if it’s in testing, how can we test it ? Do we have to apply for it, like it was for Google Ad Manager ?
it’s going to be something like SU ? At SU when you add someone as your friend you will start stumbling their stumbles too.
so, we would be able to let people(friends, our community) to influence our search results ? that’s interesting.
Cant wait for this in real time 🙂
Pretty cool !
At google: http://www.google.com/experimental/a840e102.html
i think its because it was a “techcrunch favorite”
Nice idea!
Try on eval.google.com , maybe you run into their testings.
Well its Diggification of google.Iam all for it
I would have dugg it but I’ve been banned yet again. What a bunch of wimps those people are.
It is very interesting. Digg it -))))
Exactly. I agree. The reason Google became so popular because of it’s simplicity. This is just too much.
Ew. I hate the comments thing. People would just spam on them and it would be useless. They’d have to moderate a billion comments every day.
I agree with the earlier commenter that said they used google to find stuff not spend time making google’s results better for other people. A good compromise might be to just have a “this is web spam” button that goes into a queue for the Cutts team to take a look at.
Besides, don’t they already have this data? They know what search result you click on, they know how long you stay on the clicked link before you hit back to go another result, they know which one eventually leads you to NOT click back.
Long live social SPAM!
Looks like it could change the landscape of SEO
still sitting on the fence as to whether this matters to me or will matter to me from a user perspective. It definately matters from a webmaster perspective if you depend on g for traffic.
what is up with the “unknown” commenters
It doesn’t seem clear from the video that the social voting will actually impact overall search results. It looks to me like it’s just a way to customize your own search result display – almost combining search with bookmarking (after your first search, each subsequent search for a term shows first the sites YOU fell are important for that term). This, I like. Impacting overall search results by social voting, in my opinion, is a really bad idea that will lead to severe gaming, and effectively create search placement brokers. I doubt that Google wants to go down that road.
I think this could level the playing field a bit between mega sites/pay sites and smaller, free content sites. I work in the genealogy niche and a lot of people frown upon charging for genealogy resources. I could see people in the hobby voting down pay sites and voting up free sites. I would assume that these votes would eventually influence Google ranking of pages in search relevancy. This could turn the current system upside down. Google always stresses content and that sites should be made for visitors. This is allowing the actual visitors a way to express their vote.
The voting and remove feature is nice but I agree the comments is too much.
I think Google has reached at the peek (at least as a search engine) so they need to be what they are, if they pretend to what others are (digg like) they will end up being jack of ….
Peak not “peek” slip of finger 🙂 (in my above comment)
It’ll be the best social netwrok in the world.
I just wonder how many down arrows wikipedia will have in the first day this goes live.
No it didn’t work for me. Is it random or something. I just got standard google.
I’m not really a fan of this…
lol..
Look at those 2 comments.. looks spam 😀
Not really liking this idea. Gotta keep it simple, stupid.
I dont think that this is open to everyone and probably only to a small percentage of chosen beta testers.
I agree, even though I really like this setup, the concept of commenting and such can make Google search obtrusive in my opinion.
I’m sure that there is an impact on global search results based off the social voting. Obviously, we will have to wait from official word from Google with regards to that.
I agree with you that the simplicity is what keeps Google going strong. Adding this improved functionality is certainly a step up but maybe not what most Google users are looking for.
I think they’re saying that comments will be “nested” but its still going to be a pain. Obviously, after reading all the comments, we are definitely not creatures of change when it comes to our search engines. Nobody really seems to be complaining about the Google Search so let it be!
I’m sure Google will have some sort of anti-spamming feature but then again, they can’t control everything so it would get annoying after a while.
I think what I would like, in the case of keeping everyone happy, is allow users to pick on the search page from Search or an Enhanced Search and that way, both options are available. I think we’ve all just gotten used to Google Search being simple, quick and user friendly.
WOW. This should make SEO 100x harder… >_<
Sounds interesting, it will impact everything related to SEO I think! Can this affect SERPs and sites ranking? As I notice in the video, people will comment and add feedbacks, Interesting.
Yes, If people can have an impact on search results by feedbacks and comments, Google will face a new big wave of spam, people will create millions of account to vote or promote people that pay!
Now we have to think of ways to get massive amounts of people on different IPs to rate our articles like on Digg… Hmmm, this will be interesting.
Looks kinda fun but I just wonder, imagine sites competing on niches down voting against each other even worst paying people to down vote and write negative comments. Scary…
I dont know…
I think this new idea will create too much spam of the internet results
Pretty Cool!
Great tool, however, it will crush google’s organic searches. On the other hand, at least it ‘should’ bring more relevant sites and more quality sites up to the top of listings which should be in large part, better for surfing and finding info.
What cool features!
Yeah, it can definitely get ugly between competitors
I agree Archie.
So 4 people voted down Google…I wonder if they got insta-banned? 😉
Shoe where can we have the test engine or is it with google only now.It somehow is not looking good as more and more info put in a search engine may result in a bad influence as it looks so much garbled
It’s being tested at present, but rest assured that we will be seeing the results of this testing reflecting in returned search results short before long!
because of their recently policy regarding not following external links ? maybe…but they will get tons of thumbs up from people that don’t use them to build links…
Google should do so well.
I wonder if they’re going to do any moderating on the comments or if it’ll just be a free for all? Could end up being very very messy – like YouTube but much worse!
This would get out of hand if we end up getting Power Googlers that influence our results. On the other hand, if we can filter it out, then it wouldn’t be a problem. But even so, there is a problem there in itself. By filtering, it means we will have to take extra steps, therefore making Google not the search engine it used to be. Even so it would be fun to see it in the works. Lets hope it doesn’t go to waste!
Real users don’t have time for this bullshit. Only internet marketers and geeks. Google is going to be a crappy search engine if they continue down this path, and it will be filled with spam.
(Also, look at those people who voted Google down for “Google.” That’s just to be funny, but they will do that for other keywords as well.)
As mentioned above, I think this will create more problems than it will benefits. Just from the comments above, you can tell that everyone has already started thinking above “Who can I hire to write comments”. That’s when it just becomes a popularity contest and not a true targeted search result.
I’m sure Google has some combination to account for this but I guess we’ll have to wait and see.
That looks really cool!
Great interface but I dont think it will work
idea is very web 2.0
Yes, very cool.
However, so far unknown, that will turn out eventually.
yuck. it’s so ugly.
It sure does. How is Google going to differentiate between quality comments and ones that are used to try and game the system?
Similar to what we’re already getting with StumbleUpon reviews and votes showing up in returned search results if you’ve got the StumbleUpon toolbar installed and active, I take it?
Let’s face it, the search engines need to consider the popular votes that are being cast for web pages via social media. Whether this will be the final product is open for debate, and I am sure Google is taking note of our comments and responses, and will tailor their offering to appeal to the broadest segment of the search market.
This is the future of Digg Googling. You’ll soon see a DIGG or BURY button next to each result.
Wanna bet?
This would be a disaster! Everyone will be out to game Google just like they currently do with Digg. However, I think the voting may only effect personal search results, this is something that would help stop it being gamed.
This is asking to be gamed, without doubt. Google will be using the ban hammer a lot haha.
Yep. They don’t need any changes to their search engine, we aint after search 3.0.
Wow… When is the last time you searched? 😉
how come i didnt get that ever is that for US only
That seems very good however , i’m just still not too sure that I like it. In any case will look far more into it and decide for myself! 🙂