Google is doing something
Google search engine | November 30th, 2007 | 4 CommentsGoogle search engine is experimenting a new feature for their search engine page results (SERPs). At Google Labs they are trialling this new feature where users will be practically able to vote a site within the search engine page results of Google search engine.
When I did read this story on BlogStorm first question I asked myself was “What in the …. are they doing?”, later one thinking about what happens if users will like this feature everything became more clear. Here is a screenshot of how everything will look like.
To be honest I have already seen a similar feature in a new search engine launched a month ago which was promoted on DigitalPoint forums, since I am not able to reach the forums (site loads blank) I am unable to share the URL of this search engine where you could of determine the ranking in the SERPs by voting a site within the SERPs.
This whole new feature it makes me think that Google search engine has lost something at the latest penalization, and the preferred tool of webmasters PageRank is not a fun game anymore as it used to play. Hence they have to come up with a new toy for the baby boys to play with. With this new feature you will be able to personalize completely the SERPs for your desired keywords and it makes a search engine to look more like a bookmarking site rather than a search engine.
It is obvious that this is a direct hit on the SEO business where search engine optimization experts will no longer have the power to be optimizing websites of their clients to rank higher in the serps, so if a business wants traffic to their website and generate sales they know where they should go, Google AdWords.
Let me know what do you think about this, and if you want to follow up with new posts SEO Optimization subscribe to my RSS feed to read the blog daily.
UPDATE: DigitalPoint forum is back and I could be able to find the search engine that uses voting as part of the algorithm to rank websites in their SERPs, the name of the search engine is Sproose. When you perform a search, you will notice a button on the left side where you can actually VOTE a result.
I think this is a really bad idea… We need both the “mechanical” ranking and the “voting” ranking. Combining them, I can see Google results being warped to much. Just think how big a target Google is right now and they open up there system like this? They are just asking for it.
BTW, where do I subscribe to comments here?
Hi Collin,
From what I understood, moving (voting) results will be for personal screen, and am not sure if it will work also for the public rankings, but if the voting applies for public search engine rankings than they are being opening themselves to get exposed.
How i see this feature is, making it harder for SEO companies and seo experts if users get used to this new feature and can bring up in the serps for a certain keyword when they perform a query, that way, all will look like a social bookmarking site more than a search engine where you get to find NEW sites and not bookmark sites in your SERPs.
I am not using a plugin to let you know when a new comment is coming, and neither have placed links to subscribe to comments, but you can subscribe to comments by adding an additonal /feed/ after the URL, for example on this post the comment rss feed subscription would be: http://www.dnseo.net/google-is-doing-something/feed/
Google is feeling the pressure from the public and they must come out with something quick and good. But they have shot themselves on the foot by ‘copying’ some ideas from ‘some’ place. Haha!
As a user, I think the feature would be useful — as an internet marketer I hate the idea …
I see some major implications throughout the SEO community 🙁
M.