SearchWiki (aka Google Changes its Search Listings)

It’s not every day that you see a massive change to the way Google results look, but if you’ve got a Google account you’ve no doubt noticed it. Basically you search for something when you’re signed in and next to every result is an up arrow, down arrow and little x with a speech bubble after the result. Basically Google is asking for your feedback, though apparently your pumping things up and down only effect your own results (for now). The comments, however, will be public to all and you’ll be identified with your username (which Google reminds you of when you first use it).

This is all kind of crazy, mostly because I seemed to have missed hearing about it all together. Apparently it only came online today. Clearly search engines are inherently social (rankings like PageRank rely on people linking to one another to work), but this is an interesting and opaquely social development. I’ll be fascinated to see how they keep this from devolving into a giant spam-filled game of FIRST!. (BTW, looks like Google just posted something.)

November 21, 2008