Google SearchWiki: Early Tasting Notes from an Online PR Perspective

POSTED BY: Roger Warner   /  CATEGORIES: Online PR Agency, SEO, Social Media Agency, Social Media Marketing
POSTED ON: 22 Nov 2008
TAGS: Online PR Agency, SEO, Social Media Agency, Social Media Marketing

Google made another one of its gut-busting technology service announcements yesterday with the introduction of SearchWiki.

SearchWiki is a piece of ‘social web’ functionality that has been layered on top of Google’s standard search interface and user experience. In Web 2.0 terms, it’s a ‘Digg for search.’ In layman’s terms, it allows anyone with a Google account to compliment their normal searches with the votes and comments of other searchers.

In other words, SearchWiki allows you to click a link on your Google interface and find out which web sites other public users have ‘voted for’ in relation to your search term.

It also allows you to restructure your results pages for your common searches by placing your favourite web sites at the top of the page and displaying any comments that you’ve pinned to them.

Here’s how Google’s technical team describe it…..

And here’s your C&M early tasting notes…

What does this all mean to Online PR….!?

Functional Overview

• Google SearchWiki adds x2 new things into the search experience mix:  the ability to vote on a web site in relation to a search term and the ability to contribute a comment against that web site (in relation to your search term – on both counts)

• Importantly, you have to be signed in to your Google account in order to see the ‘SearchWiki’ tools and to use it (if not, then none of the buttons/links/functions will appear)

• When you vote for a site, this site will be elevated to the top of your results page. If you also comment on it, then this comment will be displayed under the site listing. Importantly, this funky new presentation will only apply to your results pages, and not those of other people (!!)

• When conducting a search (and logged in to your Google account), if you scroll to the base of the page you can click on ‘See all notes for this search Wiki,’ and you’ll see all the sites that have been voted for and commented upon by other users in relation to your search term

• When you’re at this ‘SearchWiki’ screen, you can click on the ‘Comments’ link that’s listed under each site, and all the comments that other users have made about that site will be displayed

• You’ll also see the number of ‘Votes’ that each site has received in relation to your search term

• NB:  the default view on the SearchWiki page is for comments NOT to be displayed.  You need to take the time to click the ‘Comments’ link in order to show them.  However, you will be able to see all of your own comments on both the normal results page and the SearchWiki page

• The comments and votes are rendered in relation to your exact search term.  eg, if I search for ‘Online PR’ and contribute a vote/comment for the C&M web site, this will be shown in relation to all other searches for ‘online PR’ but NOT in relation to the search term ‘online PR firm’

• Importantly, according to Google, all of this ‘social’ data is NOT being used to inform/alter the public search rankings and what gets presented on its standard search engine result pages (SERPs)

What’s the Benefit?

• In its first release, the way that SearchWiki has been compiled, and the way the interface works, it appears to have been designed primarily as a personal search aid – to help people structure their own searches more effectively. (And it’s being pitched as such. Check out the Google blog entry that describes the new functionality – it’s described as something that’ll help ‘make search your own‘)

• ie, when you’re logged in to your Google account, and performing a common search (ie, for something you’ve searched for before, using the same keywords), you’ll be able to see all those sites that you’ve commented on and/or voted for promoted to the top of the pile on the results page (and you’ll also see all your comments, in line)

• As such, at first glance, SearchWiki is all about making it easier for you to cut through the clutter and zoom in on your favourite sites for your most common searches

• The second order of business for SearchWiki is to compliment your search experience by way of a syndicated ‘phone a friend’ basis…. in much the same way that Digg works for news stories

• ie, if you’re not happy with the standard Google results… or if you’d like to supplement them with the findings of other people, then all you have to do is click ‘See all notes for this search Wiki’ and you’ll get a view of the sites that other people think are helpful in relation to your search term

• Clearly this is very, very helpful (and interesting)

What’s the threat of Spamming / Gaming the System?

• We’ll all use this ‘phone a friend’ functionality as a means to filter our search results and (one hopes) to get a more social steer on how to find the most relevant site for our search needs. As such, there’s obvious value to voting/commenting and contributing to the system. It’ll work – just like Digg works

• However, at a very basic level, this leaves SearchWiki open to some fairly easy manipulation in more obscure (‘long tail’) keyword markets (like UK Online PR Firm), but less so in competitive markets (like Tom Cruise) where the social/crowd effect will separate the good comments and votes from the bad

• So, for niche search markets there will be a motivation to game the system and generate lots of votes and comments for any given term. This may or may not be an expensive exercise – depending on how this gaming is done

• Will this gaming of the system be worth it?  Well, that’s debatable. It depends on the context of the search activity. As argued here before, this type of social media gaming gives a questionable benefit. But when it’s applied to the mechanics of search, then that could change…. Vote and comment spamming will no doubt be widespread in a very short space of time. (For example, my wife just voted and commented on the C&M site. Spam? Maybe!? But she does have some funny things to say and whether or not she slammed us is beside the point…. she did find it easy to do.)

• My view is that the value of SearchWiki will lie in the system’s ability to filter out the crap. As users, we all have the ability to approve or disapprove of comments and we can all vote a site down as well as up. This ought to make for happy communal policing in hot search/keyword markets…. But in the backwaters of search – where narrow (ie, longer or more obscure) search terms are concerned, I’m not so sure….

POSTED BY: Roger Warner   /  CATEGORIES: Online PR Agency, SEO, Social Media Agency, Social Media Marketing
POSTED ON: 22 Nov 2008
TAGS: Online PR Agency, SEO, Social Media Agency, Social Media Marketing