4 ms·

Google SearchWiki Vanishes

13 points by nreece 18y ago

vaksel 18y ago
good, the feature was pretty annoying. Although can't say I used it that much, once I figured out that once you logged out it would go back to normal. + I can't help but think that this thing would be ripe for abuse, think SEO but instead of optimizing your page, they'd just use bots to vote up your site, or vote down your competitor
- briansmith 18y ago
  A person's SearchWiki input doesn't change the rankings that other people get.
  - amichail 18y ago
    Actually it does! Take a look at what you get when viewing everyone's notes for a search query.
    - briansmith 18y ago
      "The changes you make only affect your own searches." -- http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2008/11/searchwiki-make-search-your-own.html http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2008/11/searchwiki-make-searc...
      - amichail 18y ago
        They are talking about the main ranking. There is however a secondary link ranking when viewing everyone's notes that is affected.
vaksel 18y ago
oh, and didn't really vanish, it just moved to http://www.google.com/experimental/ http://www.google.com/experimental/
- gojomo 18y ago
  I don't see it at /experimental/, so it looks like it's been put on ice to work out some kinks that turned up with the big launch. Some guesses at what might have happened: () failure to provide an easy way to turn it off drove user satisfaction down; workaround of logging-out is against Google's tracking interests () some part of the system behaved poorly under full load () futzing with the natural results distracted people from clicking on ads putting a noticeable dent in revenues () something about the commenting system brought in embarrassing content (hate speech, etc.) faster than they could control I suspect a slower rollout to follow after some adjustments.
  - kwamenum86 18y ago
    I think the comments are a horrible idea and could really ruin the Google brand. You can use Youtube as a case study. They have an active community and a flagging system but there are still several- ahem - questionable comments on that site. Attaching use generated content to search results just seems like a bad idea all around. The ability to switch the feature on and off is good but maybe the comments should be left out altogether unless they have a great moderation system- which they do not.
    - deleted 18y ago
      [deleted]
tlrobinson 18y ago
If Google can prevent SEO abuse and spam I think it's a great idea and would like to see it come back. But that's a huge "if".
- briansmith 18y ago
  it is easy to prevent SEO abuse and SPAM: Don't let people's rankings affect the search results for anybody except them. That isn't to say that they have to ignore all the feedback they get. They can still analyze the feedback and use statistical analysis to help find places where their ranking algorithms are doing poorly. Once they discover problems, they can fix the ranking algorithms. Eventually, they might be able to spam-proof this feedback system to an extent where they could incorporate it directly into the ranking function. However, this isn't happening now. As far as I've heard, this is exactly the plan they have.
  - amichail 18y ago
    It was already used for ranking. Just take a look at the ranking when viewing everyone's notes.
shimi 18y ago
In a perfect world that would have been a great feature. But I can't see google preventing abuse. In the past I worked for this company and we all (200+ of us) gave our product a 5 start rating review at download.com. This rating system is more open to abuse
- gojomo 18y ago
  You have to be a logged-in user to rearrange results, and (at least initially/officially) only you see your own rearrangements. As a logged-in user, Google can view your entire activity to judge your trustworthiness before propagating your judgements to others. Compared to link spam or click spam (on ads or via toolbars), that's easier to evaluate.
paddy_m 18y ago
I added about 6 things to search wiki, 3 related to sites that I own, 3 that were generally helpful. Google can figure out that I own the sites because of google analytics. When searchwiki disapeared I thought it was because I was flagged for abuse. Apparently not.
- paddy_m 18y ago
  nope, I wasn't flagged for abuse. Search wiki just reappeared.

13 points by nreece 18y ago

good, the feature was pretty annoying. Although can't say I used it that much, once I figured out that once you logged out it would go back to normal. + I can't help but think that this thing would be ripe for abuse, think SEO but instead of optimizing your page, they'd just use bots to vote up your site, or vote down your competitor

briansmith 18y ago
A person's SearchWiki input doesn't change the rankings that other people get.
- amichail 18y ago
  Actually it does! Take a look at what you get when viewing everyone's notes for a search query.
  - briansmith 18y ago
    "The changes you make only affect your own searches." -- http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2008/11/searchwiki-make-search-your-own.html http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2008/11/searchwiki-make-searc...
    - amichail 18y ago
      They are talking about the main ranking. There is however a secondary link ranking when viewing everyone's notes that is affected.

vaksel 18y ago

oh, and didn't really vanish, it just moved to http://www.google.com/experimental/ http://www.google.com/experimental/

gojomo 18y ago
I don't see it at /experimental/, so it looks like it's been put on ice to work out some kinks that turned up with the big launch. Some guesses at what might have happened: () failure to provide an easy way to turn it off drove user satisfaction down; workaround of logging-out is against Google's tracking interests () some part of the system behaved poorly under full load () futzing with the natural results distracted people from clicking on ads putting a noticeable dent in revenues () something about the commenting system brought in embarrassing content (hate speech, etc.) faster than they could control I suspect a slower rollout to follow after some adjustments.
- kwamenum86 18y ago
  I think the comments are a horrible idea and could really ruin the Google brand. You can use Youtube as a case study. They have an active community and a flagging system but there are still several- ahem - questionable comments on that site. Attaching use generated content to search results just seems like a bad idea all around. The ability to switch the feature on and off is good but maybe the comments should be left out altogether unless they have a great moderation system- which they do not.
  - deleted 18y ago
    [deleted]

tlrobinson 18y ago

If Google can prevent SEO abuse and spam I think it's a great idea and would like to see it come back. But that's a huge "if".

briansmith 18y ago
it is easy to prevent SEO abuse and SPAM: Don't let people's rankings affect the search results for anybody except them. That isn't to say that they have to ignore all the feedback they get. They can still analyze the feedback and use statistical analysis to help find places where their ranking algorithms are doing poorly. Once they discover problems, they can fix the ranking algorithms. Eventually, they might be able to spam-proof this feedback system to an extent where they could incorporate it directly into the ranking function. However, this isn't happening now. As far as I've heard, this is exactly the plan they have.
- amichail 18y ago
  It was already used for ranking. Just take a look at the ranking when viewing everyone's notes.

shimi 18y ago

In a perfect world that would have been a great feature. But I can't see google preventing abuse. In the past I worked for this company and we all (200+ of us) gave our product a 5 start rating review at download.com. This rating system is more open to abuse

gojomo 18y ago
You have to be a logged-in user to rearrange results, and (at least initially/officially) only you see your own rearrangements. As a logged-in user, Google can view your entire activity to judge your trustworthiness before propagating your judgements to others. Compared to link spam or click spam (on ads or via toolbars), that's easier to evaluate.

paddy_m 18y ago

I added about 6 things to search wiki, 3 related to sites that I own, 3 that were generally helpful. Google can figure out that I own the sites because of google analytics. When searchwiki disapeared I thought it was because I was flagged for abuse. Apparently not.

paddy_m 18y ago
nope, I wasn't flagged for abuse. Search wiki just reappeared.