Pixel Position . Conversational SEO, Social Media Marketing

Google’s SearchWiki experiment expired. It’s two-day public life was cut short, but then it rose again. This experimental baby’s tombstone should have read:

Google SearchWiki

Nov. 20, 2008 – Nov 22, 2008

Tested. Lived. Died. Resurrected.

But, just as I was finishing this blog post, Google SearchWiki came back to life on the evening of Nov 22 (or morning of the 23 for some)!

Wiki, by definition, is a platform for universal editing. So Google’s SearchWiki is a way for you to edit or “mark up” your personal search results yet enable other Google users to see what you have done, to see what you added, promoted and demoted for specific keyword phrases.

Is this Search by influence?

Today, we don’t know the full reason for its rise and fall and coming back to life so mysteriously.

SearchWiki – Tested

Google started testing SearchWiki on October 30, 2008 – an experiment. Was this social search coming to pass before our eyes? Many users didn’t know and couldn’t see or modify their SERPs. Only those randomly chosen had ability to customize results.

I discovered that one of my Gmail accounts was part of the experiment on Nov. 14, 2008. Why was a specific Gmail account chosen? Who knows!

I spent that Friday night researching Google’s Promote / Demote feature. I played around a lot with it, took screenshots, etc. It felt like being in a sandbox, playing and playing. Screenshot below shows Promote / Demote icons:

The Promote / Demote icons are initially gray. The icons turned green once you “customize” your results, as shown above.

Options – You can:

• Move results up or down on your customized page;
• Remove or add results to your page;
• Delete or hide results for future searches for the same keywords;
• Show your results on future searches;
• Comment or annotate – make notes, about a search result for future reference.

Your actions are recorded:

Each SearchWiki function applies to your Google account only while logged in. If you don‘t want SearchWiki, you need to search Google while logged out, anonymously. Google’s SearchWiki Experiment page once explained:

Your customization is shared and tagged with the nickname of your account used while logged into Google, usually your Gmail user name.

Customize your search results with your rankings, deletions, and notes — plus, see how other people using Google have tailored their searches. Please remember that your SearchWiki notes will be visible to other users, identified with your Google Account nickname.

Limitations – You cannot:

• Delete Google’s Shopping results in the SERPS;
• Delete Google’s PPC results;
• Turn it off for your account, as mentioned.

Shown below are my original results and my customized, wiki’d, search results for “mac os x.”

Google SERP for “mac os x” – w/o customization:

I deleted the Wikipedia results, played around and watched SERPS change. Finally, I added a result from Yahoo! Search for “mac os x” at the top.

Google SERP for “mac os x” – customized:

Google’s new social search enables us to personalize our preferences. I wonder how Google feels about my deleting Wikipedia and adding Yahoo! to Google SERPs? I’m wondering if they anticipated this?

It is quite easy. From the bottom of each page, I clicked on “Add a result” and entered my desired Yahoo! URL to each future search for “web os x.”

The functionality for those of us in the experiment then carried over to the Google populist.

SearchWiki – Lived

Talk about Google’s SearchWiki abounded throughout the Internet on the “official” launch on Nov. 20, 2008. Not all accounts had access to the customizable search features immediately. Slowly, more account holders were able to add, remove and change the order of their SERPS.

The Official Google Blog announced, “SearchWiki:make search your own.”

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

What is, or was, SearchWiki?

Google’s explanation about the SearchWiki is below. (The page that once explained the experiment is gone. It now redirects to Google’s Help page.)

This feature allows you to influence your search experience by adding, moving, and removing search results. When you search for the same keywords again while you are logged in to your Google account, you’ll continue to see those changes. If you later want to revert your changes, you can undo any modifications you’ve made.

SearchWiki Died

SearchWiki died instantaneously on Saturday, Nov 22, 2008 in the afternoon (PST). It lived 2 short days.

The “experiment” remained available on Google’s Experimental Search page. BUT, when I tried to add it back to my account, the following message displayed:

Your current experiment is no longer available.

This same page reads:

Google is always experimenting with new features aimed at improving the search experience.

Good Bye, SearchWiki. I didn’t like you anyway.

BUT…

SearchWiki Resurrected

Just as I’m about to hit “Publish” on the evening of Nov 22, 2008… YOU’RE ALIVE AGAIN! But you didn’t come back for everyone. However, you took over more of my accounts.

At least you didn’t censor my added Yahoo! listing for “mac os x,” but you did put Google Shopping at the top. You are NOT OBJECTIVE.

I wonder what level of censorship you will add to SearchWiki to stop us from adding Yahoo! or MSN Live results.

• PLEASE add the option for each Google user to turn you off.
• We don’t know how much human behavior will be a factor in search.
• We don’t know how much, if any, our previous searches and online activities
  will affect our search results. But we don’t like it.
• We want de-personalized search!

Why are you doing this? Are you using this information to create buyer and demographic profiles and sell our information? There is some money in this – somehow.

Our personal preferences, and the preferences of others, will surely impact Google search of the future. You have just opened up a whole new can of worms for gaming search results.

Google SearchWiki, please go back to your grave.

Tags: Experimental Search, Personalized Search, SearchWiki

This entry was posted on Sunday, November 23rd, 2008 at 3:07 am and is filed under Google. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.