Today Google has very kindly enrolled me in the SearchWiki program which means that every search result I see has two buttons next to it. One button to move the result higher and another to remove the result from the page.
This is the screen that lets you join the program:
This is what the results look like:
Although very tempting I’m not going to spend all day removing competitors and voting our clients sites higher. Instead I’ve posted ads on Digital Point and will be paying people to do this for me.
Of course I’m joking here but the point is clear – how is Google going to find a way to use this data?
Patrick Altoft is Director of Search at Leeds based digital & SEO agency Branded3. Patrick also runs Blogstorm.You can get our blog posts delivered for free by email every day - simply add your email address to the box below or alternatively grab the RSS feed.
{ 20 comments… read them below or add one }
The problem with this “digg”style voting is that users only know how good a site is when they have visit it, now with digg there are buttons on the actual page for the user to vote, but with this the user has to go back to the actual search which i just cant see happening.
LOL… Once they add that to “Real” google I’ll check for another se.
Well ain’t this going to be fun! I am sure their have been hundreds of people working on how to game this feature since it first showed a couple months ago.
HAAAAAAAAAAA! Loved the Digital Point part.
I wouldn’t be surprised if Google themselves don’t know just how they’re going to end up using this data yet.
While it’s an interesting feature I am not really sure how Google will use this info.
My guess is: if a website is moved upwards by a number of visitors for similar keywords, Google will think the site worth been as no 1 for that particular keywords.
This is anyway just another variable from the pool of hundreds Google uses to rank a webpage.
Surely voting down your competitors would only remove them from your serps though? I can’t see Google rolling out this service to allow us to influence what other people see as it would be open to a whole lot of abuse. I can just see hackers taking over an army of PC’s around the world and setting them to vote down/up whatever site they choose.
Going with what vipey says, a user only votes after they’ve clicked on the search result, then gone back to the search, which obviously isn’t uncommon but I don’t see why your first thought is “let’s rearrange this search result” – unless you have OCD.
And yeah, if Google does use these results, the folks at DigitalPoint will have a new service to sell!
A bit scary if used in an “evil” way. If used by honest search users..it would be great.
LOL! “Instead I’ve posted ads on Digital Point and will be paying people to do this for me.”
“How-To” article like this one is one of the reasons why Google shouldn’t rely on voting system in ranking a webpage.
The manipulation is only for your own personalized search results. Great ideas, though!
Great, now spammers can’t through links and get high PR, human will vote what the value links is:)
Actually I think this feature will be used solely for personalizing the search results and not to influence search results to other google users.
I have a competitors seo company emailing sites that are linking to mine asking them to remove my link because they are redesigning my site and the links will not be valid, they are purporting to be working for me, is this illegal?
Find me on Twitter
Hi Nick.
I sent you an email, this is certainly unethical and I’m sure trading standards would frown upon it.
More comments from Patrick AltoftJust. Not. Cricket. I did emit an evil chuckle when I first heard of that tactic but using it in the space Nick is competing in isn’t on.
If you declare eJihad and need a hand let me know.
It will be interesting to see how Google will use this voting mechanism. I am not too sure how it could be used as a true indication of relevancy. In the end I would assume when Google does use this information it would only be one of several hundred factors in there algorithm to affect ranking or placement in the search results if this was applied to more then just individual results.
I have been using this feathure to see if it will optimize my website but believe me it would have to be reviewed by google and your website can only be optimized when over 100 people does this for you or more.
Amazing does this mean rivals can manipulate google search results to knock competitors off
This is totally unfair as search engine users will only just keep the sites they have already visited and liked. New site owners will have major difficulties letting people know about their site.
More comments from RemovalLeave a Comment (registration is optional)