Google are constantly experimenting with new features which we always enjoy checking out. Some work, some don’t. This latest one really struck me as being a feature that they will most certainly adopt. Borne out of the popularity of sites like www.digg.com and www.reddit.com where users can vote a story up or down (indicating whether they liked it or didn’t like it), comes this little experiment where users can essentially indicate whether or not they like an item contained in the search results. The next time they search, that site will be removed from their results.
The current system requires the user logging into their Google account and it doesn’t appear that it will affect regular results but I wonder if that’s in the back of their minds….if so, how would they tackle abuse of that system?
Rather than get ahead of myself, I like this experiment more from a personal perspective than an Internet marketers. iGoogle is my home page, I use Google docs, Gmail etc and would appreciate the ability to flag sites that I know are Adsense spam, junky or just plain useless. My only issue is, other than for marketing purposes, how often do I use the same keyword or keyword phrase to warrant the effort that I would put into making these customizations of my search results? If I don’t get the results that I want, I’ll use a different keyword phrase.
Personally I like that they’re always experimenting. I just don’t know if this is a real winner in my books. They might like to look towards a system like www.stumbleupon.com to bring a more social element to the personalized search results.
PaulFleming is co-founder and VP of Interactive Services for Dinkum Interactive. A trained teacher, Paul has worked in a variety of forms of Internet Marketing but with a focus on SEO. Originally from Australia, he now resides in Philadelphia with his wife and 2 ankle-biters.
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February 8, 2012. Posted under: Blog.
In the past two weeks, I attended two conferences that were world’s apart but linked. One was focused on large, profitable companies. The other involved nonprofits. They both discussed social media. The first conference featured CEOs, many of whom are grappling with the use of social media within their organizations. Each CEO had a bit of a different take on
I could not agree with you more. Google should look into a system like stumbleupon.com. Here is a great resource to take your business to the next level: http://portal-feeder-review.com I like the idea that Google is always experimenting, always trying to provide more.
See the latest post. I wasn’t aware of Google’s Dice concept. It’s a little weak but certainly gives further insight that Google keeps trying.