Whether you like SearchWiki, the new voting and commenting feature for search results Google introduced last week, or not, it was undeniably a bold move for the company to turn on the feature for everyone with a Google account at once instead of gradually releasing it.
Granted, they had been bucket-testing the feature for a while, but for Google to let users mash up the results they are presented with when searching is a big deal. So it’s a bit of a surprise that while everyone was focused on SearchWiki and what it means for the company, Google next to Lively also decided to kill its search sandbox SearchMash (it went “the way of the dinosaur”) instead of using it to test SearchWiki.
SearchMash was an experimental, non-branded search engine that Google used to be able to play around with new search technologies, concepts and interfaces. It was first introduced in October 2006, and unveiled to the public exactly one year after that. Some people actually traded in Google’s search engine for SearchMash, were apparently quite pleased with the experience and are now sad to see it go.
The service wasn’t meant to attract a mass of users, but rather for Google to play around with meta-search features (results for web, images, video and Wikipedia were blended together), third-party integration (it used Snap for previewing landing pages of outside links), user interface experiments (like ‘infinite scroll’ that allowed you to view as many search results on the same page) and technologies (it had an Ajax and Flash / Flex version).
There’s something inherently strange about Google not having used SearchMash as a playground for trying out the SearchWiki features, and even more so that they decided to quietly kill it while at the same launching the latter.
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To me it seems Google changed SearchWiki slightly. They don’t display “the most relevant” comment under the search result when in “See all notes for this SearchWiki” mode anymore.
I guess it’s because they found out they need to tweak the algorithm that picks the most relevant comment to display there. Since some like the “most relevant” TechCrunch search comment was porn spam..
Also, SearchWiki for now only lets people see 10 random comments it seems, and those 10 always kind of are the same, every few hours or so you get to see a couple other comments among those 10 random ones. I’d like them to add a “View all” link to see all comments. And some ways to sort comments by most relevant at the top, most recent at the top and more stuff like that.
And I also think they should make “Flag as innapropriate content” a much simpler process, then having to fill out your name, email and more. They know your name and email, otherwise you wouldn’t have a Google account..
Otherwise, I still think Google SearchWiki is awesome, and I can’t wait until Google mixes it up with Knol pages and Knol debates.. The product manager for SearchWiki is the same guy as for Knol, and no matter what Calcanis says about Knol and no matter what Michael Arrington says about SearchWiki, I think those features have huge potential to revolutionize the Internet as we know it.
Just cause Google are the best at search doesn’t mean they should rest on their laurels and not revolutionize search even more..
searchmash was great, but universal search deals with what you’re calling “meta search” in a much more appropriate manner. i have to give google credit, they’re doing a great job with universal search, a lot of queries have a great blend of helpful, comprehensive results. good stuff.
well I do see a merit in google trying out the semantic & CrowdOpine concept in its core search philosophy. The knol rocks indeed; I am tired of people defending wikipedia as they just seem to be interested in deleting content giving all sorts of obscure reasons.
SearchMash is very much like MSE360.com, and I must say I’m quite surprised they didn’t market it as something worth using. Feedback I get about MSE360 indicates the meta layouts such as SearchMash are very suited to certain groups (eg researchers).. It’s a shame.
SearchMash mostly didn’t meet their profit margins
Guess even Google can’t defeat it’s own search engine popularity. People are not taking anything else than current Googl
Lively, Searchmash, and what’s next that Google would like to kill?
Gmail? Maps? Hope not…
Lively seems still alive, though I do vote for shutting it down.
Gmail and Maps are great successes of Google unlike SearchMash so I wouldn’t think they will close it. I was too sad when they closed Google API
“Gmail? Maps?”
Look, they are killing whatever DOES NOT work out for them, NOT WHAT KICKS A#$!!
On SearchWiki, despite what Arrington, Blodget and all the other sworn google-haters have to say, I love it, and so do all the people I asked. As long as Google doesn’t mix the SearchWiki results with its normal search algorithm, and as long as they figure out - quickly - a way to filter out invalid comments (like porn), I believe its gonna be used a lot…
http://the-anti-google-baloney.blogspot.com/
Oh.. this is the google webapp with the “fishy” logo?
http://www.ideasonideas.com/2007/10/google-logo/
Yeah.. this is it.
Good riddance.
Try my weekend project SearchQuilt instead… http://searchquilt.com/
Instead of tabs like SearchMash, with SearchQuilt you can search for videos, images, websites, blogs, news, discussion, auctions, and products all on one page.
Try it for iPhone… http://searchquilt.com/search/?q=iPhone
Or a sports team… http://searchquilt.com/search/?q=Dallas+Cowboys
Or your favorite band… http://searchquilt.com/search/?q=Metallica
Plus the home page includes popular searches from Yahoo, Google, Ask, and Icerocket (updated hourly) so you can also use SearchQuilt to see what’s buzzing.
It was nice using you, SearchMash!