Cheers were heard across the Internet earlier today when Google’s new SearchWiki search interface inexplicably vanished. Perhaps, just maybe, it was gone for good. Or at least when it returned it would have an opt out feature.
Nope. Neither. It’s back and it’s still impossible to get out of it short of logging out of Google entirely. Lovely comments like the one above now scar Google’s once pristine search results page.
Here’s how you can get rid of SearchWiki for good if you were unfortunate enough to accept it in the first place: use a Greasemonkey script created by Austrian developer Franz Enzenhofer and just click a button to turn it off. Instructions are here.
This should hold you over until Google adds an opt-out button.
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Danke Franz! Grüße aus Tirol!
i thought google opitimized the definition of search. why not “google wiki”. instead we get “google search wiki”. duh. this proof that they dont know what the hell they are doing. blame on the billionaire geniuses and there cohorts.
ExperimentLocator.com - this is only a test
I see it gives the option to promote your search results too, I like that
I see your great search wikilocator.com doesn’t locate shit
Thank god. that feature really sucks
I miss good old miscellaneous posts like this by Mike.
Good times
yea this feature really fucking blows. nuff said
Agreed, dumbest thing i have seen from Google in a while.
Another reason to avoid Google accounts and logging in to them, the members of my non-tech savvy forum are logging out of their Google accounts and abandoning them in droves and switching to Yahoo/Hotmail addys.
Wait, you have to go digging to even see other people’s comments and stuff. There’s a link at the bottom. Unless you click that, you only ever see your OWN comments, etc. How is that “scaring the pristine results page?”
Exactly what I was thinking. Unless i’m missing something, you have to turn on the comments that you don’t want to see.
you know, unless I remember incorrectly that wasn’t how it was yesterday. It showed the number of people who’d voted up and down and one comment. Maybe they removed that today and stopped showing comments unless you click on the link at the bottom. I’ll try to figure that out.
ok, looking back at the original video (above), i think it showed the comment line only if you’d rated or left a comment before, and not otherwise. The video isn’t totally clear though.
Either way, I don’t like it.
Actually, the original blog post on the Google Blog makes it clear that you only see other people’s comments if you want to.
Also, the changes in rankings that you make are personal, and don’t have any effect on the actual results for anyone else.
Okay… mark that second part as wrong. If I choose to view other people’s notes, it changes the order of search results as well for me. So, that bit I said is wrong.
It’s unfortunate that it’s back. Googles Search Wiki is a very unpopular, it needs to be buried for good.
Why aren’t we giving the feature a chance? Seems like it could add even more value to the page. Give them time to work out the bugs.
why won’t they give me an off button while they work out those bugs?
Great question. Another would be why are their major bugs in the production version of the most profitable webpage in the history of the Internet. This single search page generates approximately $5 billion per year in revenue and provides the foundation for all of Google’s current and future revenues. If somebody didn’t lose their job for this screwup, they should!
Options:
http://www.yahoo.com
http://www.ask.com
http://www.live.com
Quit being a pu$$y arrington.
Your definitely passionate about this. What is it,3 posts now in 2 days. I haven’t tried it since your first post, because your said there was no going back once the switch was made. i just wish someone would make up their mind already! I’m sure I see a forth post out of you soon! Thanks for the heads up, on the no switching back issue.
no, i’m done for now. I think you should add it so you can start complaining too.
Third Voice did something similar in the tailspin of the dot-com era, and died for the same reason.
http://bit.ly/asbe
is the Wired coverage.
1% (generous) of users will use Greasemonkey to hide the feature. The rest of humanity will use it. The algorithm wants human intelligence, and it’ll turn most users into mechanical turks.
用户做出的调整或许并不仅仅影响自己的搜索结果，Google有可能会收集用户调整搜索结果的数据，从而改善搜索引擎的整体表现。此外，SearchWiki功能最糟糕的一点是，用户一旦启动该功能，就无法再关闭。
wtf
I agree completely.
amen my brother…. halloo spam!
Google Translation: Chinese » English
User to make adjustments may affect not only its own search results, Google may collect the user to adjust the results of the search data so as to improve the overall performance of the search engine. In addition, SearchWiki the worst feature is that once the user to start the feature, you can not shut down.
can I get some chicken fried rice with that?
Hey now, I’m supposed to be Mr. Anonymous… I can’t do that very well with my photo staring back at me. lol
That’s what you get for being racist scum.
Next time you buy an Intel CPU or an Nvidia gfx card flip it over, read the made in China label and reconsider your attitude.
I like the idea of having up/down votes to improve search results, but the comments are completely useless. Who would spend the time to read comments when its faster to just go to the site and see what it is like
Why does this blog have comments?
I think the comments could be awesome. Good algorithms should enable to highlight the one comment this just resumes the link in a short precise sentence.
You have to go out of your way to see those comments, they are opt-in.
It’s hard to see how this posting has any accuracy at all. Searchwiki is opt-out by default - you only see those comments if you scroll to the bottom and click “show all comments”. Furthermore that isn’t a toggle. Next time you search for the same thing, you don’t see the comments unless you scroll to the bottom again.
What exactly would an off button do that isn’t already done by default?
The only Google-related Greasemonkey script I use is to hide sponsored ads. So I have no idea why I can’t see these ratings in my results.
Oh well.
I agree with Mike and the general sentiment that this feature is just bad. Rating results and having that affect your own searches is one thing. But being able to comment on them and having that shown to other users - there’s just no way for Google to prevent abuse of that.
Well, they can censor comments or trash people’s google’s accounts. What if hate speech appears? I don’t think they want that even if the comments are opt-in. What if thousands of comments appear that damage Google’s brand? I don’t think they want that either.
It’s a matter of time before they begin censoring comments or unloading people’s google accounts for being a searchwiki “nuisance.”
Well, this feature only affects your search results, and at the moment, it appears for only those who have Google accounts, right? I think you can switch this off by logging out of any sign -ins into Google products
What the fuck is the big deal? If you don’t want to see the comments, don’t click on it. Does the revision really suck that bad, or are you people so lacking of a social life that you have to go around “killing” features to feel important?
Awesome that you’re using that kids logo for Google’s logo. I hope it sticks.
for another day or two.
agreed. I think you should leave it until Google offers the opt-out.
can i add something ..about porn..do they really need to advertise about it ?
i believe the only and most searched thing is porn ..no need to advertise..if all free porn sites turn to be paid ..people will pay no worry..like food or water we will buy even if its $ 20 for big mac
lol your google icon
Maybe they should just show comments from those in your gmail address book.
Uggg, ya give me an opt-out option, or toggle switch for this please.
Also greacemonkey scripts don’t do much for us chrome users. Not interested in making my browser heavier anyway.
Chrome? you don’t use a Mac? gasp.
I know scary huh, I’m a PC as they say. I do use a macbook pro but I run windows on it. Ironicly its been the most stable windows install for me *ever*.
http://blogs.zdnet.com/Google/?p=1161
Chrome user here too.
I started getting SearchWiki on my searches, but thanks to TechCrunch I knew not to opt-in.
I could have lived without the comments, but they ARE optional… so I am quite happy with the SearchWiki function. When I explained it to my wife her first response was to exclaim how awesome it was, because of the sheer amount of crap search results that can now be easily buried.
What, never did a search that just led to 99 other search engines and 1 good answer? Granted it is rare, but it happens often enough in some search terms and languages that this feature was actually sorely needed.
But like I said, I couldn’t care less about the comments.
is it the first time u r seeing these crap function … cum’on man go search the web…..
SearchWiki = WORST IDEA EVER!!!!
Is this the best Google can do???? Ridiculous! It’s total GARBAGE! It sucks just like Knol and Lively.
Right now in Arizona it is back up. A few items were new, then they dissapeared. It has been this way all weekend. What real strange is that many Google social Friend Connect features were visable to me last nite and now they are gone again. Kind of like Friend Connect on Blogger in September.
For those who dont use greasemonkey like me. some one has came up with avstyle for the stylish addon for firefox.
http://snurl.com/6h4vc Author calls it “Quck & Dirty”
it does the job is all i can say.
i like it. seems like a good and useful direction. i am sure it will be tweaked to be mo better over time.
Hmmm, for me it is really usefull, as I do often searches for specific terms that are used for more than one context. Therefore I can now filter down my search to more specific context-related results, which is really good. It would be even more awesome, if I could then save that result filtering into a profile and create more than one profile within one google account (otherwise I would have to create several google accounts).
E.g. Search term: “Heavy Metal in China”
could mean the heavy metal pollution in water OR
the heavy metal music scene
for I want to search for the latter one, it makes not much sense for me to further describe the search term, e.g. adding a “music” for it then narrows my search and filters out blogs that are not using the term “music” at the moment (there are some good results I wouldnt find). Now with the result deletion, I can downsize my result page into really useful results and if Google is noticing which results I do not like, perfect! Then the upcoming pages (2-10) would also be prefiltered.
Rgd. the comment system, esp. on such specific searches as mine, there is no spam, but I hereby see a chance on leaving good comments and receiving good comments on various search results before opening them. (esp. good if the pages are somewhere buried in Chinese websites and load slowly)
I love the new Google’s logo. Awesome.
The austrian Google still doesn’t have SearchWiki included and I am happy about it.
I never used it, didn’t opt in, didnt even really know about it that much.
All i have subsequently heard are the moans and gripes about it and now obviously the cheers that went up and all the quick post articles saying Google had removed it. Then I can imagine collective groaning when this was just not the case.
Graham
Hm, Why I cannot see any comments in Search results? Ah, I forgot that I type ‘y stuff I search’ in Opera address bar
It’s much easier for me to press ‘y’ instead of ‘g’ on a keyboard!
I don’t know if google will opt-out, unless it did let’s wait.
Does that Greasemonkey script turn off the SearchWiki functionality or just hide it? Yoast seems to have a solution for disabling it completely.
http://research.microsoft.com/projects/urank/
Google now regularly steals ideas from Microsoft (Chrome has “borrowed” many of the IE8 features); they just ran out of steam. The $200 stock target seems so real.
Yeah, except they pretty much re-invented the entire web browser architecture.
@Steve Bomber: Google re-invented the browser architecture? Yeah, in their marketing materials they surely did! If you use Chrome daily (like I do), you’ll know it’s all just marketing as it’s neither more stable, nor more secure than IE7; not even than IE8.
I think it is useful, I would prefer a bit less clutter and an option to turn it off but you are exaggerating, give it some time.
It seems that they are unfolding by language since it does not work for other languages (just en)
I am not sure, if this is another cool feature of google. I am sure at the end of the day that google will decide how to rank websites upon users comments, which is quite unfair, I think.
hey, I posted that as well, couldnt believe that you could do that to google either. I admit it was about the first one i tried and cant find many entries on other search results, but I can see a whole industry spoolin up on monday to spam everything
I hope they realize that by making the search feature interactive (with comments), schools and libraries will soon be blocking them, as will “concerned parents”. If Congress goes through with forcing schools and libraries to block any websites that facillitate communication unless a parent is there to supervise, it will be illegal not to block Google at school.
I really, really hope they either kill it or provide an opt-out.
No it won’t. Kids just won’t be allowed to sign into their google accounts at school.
I hate this. It clutters my interface and I’m not going to spend my time reviewing search results for google.
First off, I’m not a Google-hater in general but have become dismayed with their business practices over the last several years. While I see some minor value for Google/users in searchwiki (along with quite a bit of useless functionality), the implementation has been extremely poor.
First, why can’t you delete a comment? The functionality to delete is in the UI, but when you actually try to delete nothing happens (at least the last 5 times I’ve tried it). It’s an abuse of my privacy and trust to imply I can delete a comment and then not allow me to do so. This is the type of user experience I expect from a alpha-stage startup run in someone’s spare time, not the undisputed market leader in Internet search.
Secondly, why in the world can’t you opt out — it is incredibly arrogant or naive of Google to assume that because I tried it out that I want to use it forever.
Google has been getting more and more arrogant by the day and abandoned their do no evil mantra years ago (e.g. China censoring, hypocracy over Microsoft-Yahoo anti-trust issues, etc.). I hope this contributes to people seeing them for what they are.
Indeed, it’s very beta, not optional, untested, and for some users it’s completely broken - I’m not the only one that is unable to delete their own comments.
The beginning of the end for google. I don’t want to vote or comment on search results
Then don’t use it.
Fuck you Google!
This would really be a great feature if people could be trusted to rank things honestly. Unfortunately, Google has to spend 99% of their resources to combat spammers.
The feature would be fine if it was OFF by default and had people log in and turn it on for their account. Google would then see the lack of interest rather than forcing it down everyone’s throat.
People say all you have to do is log out? When you manage adwords campaigns for a living and /or utilize webmaster tools as part of your constant work to websites, you don’t just log out every time you want to search.
People say it’s only 30 tiny graphics you have to look at per search results page and 3 additional links, just live with the extra clutter you whiny butts… It’s much more than that, it’s easy to say that for many out there, but say you’re a business owner in an area where consumers tend to research your product industry a lot before purchasing. All it takes is a competitor willing to spend the extra time to smear your name using the comments section. It’s easy to do with how they have it set up. Nobody is accountable for anything they do! Maybe only 1 out of 100 people will even see the comment… words can’t describe the added stress, frustration, and worry that business owner now has while watching someone try to smear their name. It’s not like this is an off site where disgruntled people go to complain, it’s Google, and the source of 70%+ of traffic, leads, and sales for many businesses out there. People will take the comments much more seriously if it’s right there on their search result in Google. You might think people won’t bother looking at other’s comments or let it factor in their choices, but you’re wrong, this has been proven over and over in so many things from Amazon comments on products to iTunes song popularity votes. So if Google’s going to go there, they need to hold those making comments accountable and have some sort of system keeping any idiot from creating a free account and smearing another business without moderation.
So from what I’ve read Google’s official word is it won’t affect SERPs at this point, but they said they won’t rule out using the data down the road. Just from saying that the spam has begun. I have no doubt any search involving a product or service has been tweeked and commented like mad and a far majority of those coming from the companies themselves. I don’t see how this could lead to something positive in any way. Sicne Google isn’t ruling out the possibility of using the data in the future, people feel obligated to try and game the system or risk losing out to competitors who already are and it’s just a big spam fest.
Actually, after using it for a few days I think i’ll miss it if it was gone. This allows user input, whereas without it you feel like you have no control over the results.
BTW I don’t see all the comments/notes mentioned on the search results page.
Garden variety google users, those under 5 searches a day aren’t going to have a clue nor any idea why they’d want to use this feature. Those of use that work online, in some capacity or another… do we really need to ‘markup’ goog results to remind us of what was useful? This is Google marketing to themselves. They are drifting off course.
Why is it that most if not all comments which disagree with you are deleted from this blog? Is that really how you want to run things? Why bother opening up comments if all you will accept is “Gosh, you are sure right Mike!”
Repeating my earlier perfectly reasonable and polite comment:
If you don’t click on the new tiny easily ignorable icons, then this feature is almost invisible and hardly a big deal to get worked up about. If you don’t click on the 5 pixel X 5 pixel “speech balloon” icon at the end of the result, then you already have in effected “opted out”. While I agree with many (and presumably Mike) that this isn’t that hot a feature, and I for one don’t care what the “community” thinks about a search result, I don’t find that it is any problem to ignore. In fact I didn’t even notice it until I saw a post about it somewhere.
Google Bashing has become the new Microsoft Bashing… Sad.
Amen.