Hallelujah. Google Search Wiki will soon have an off button.
I spoke with Google’s Vice President of Search Product and User Experience Marissa Mayer this afternoon at the Le Web conference in Paris, France. Among the topics we discussed: Google Chrome (it’s coming out of beta) and Google’s new social and wiki features.
I’ve been fairly negative on Google Search Wiki. In particular, once a user has opted into the feature, it cannot be turned off.
Mayer defended the feature today on stage, arguing that it has a minimal visual impact and that many users are finding it useful to move search results around on the page.
Mayer also said that it is “very likely” that they will add a toggle button to allow users to turn the feature off. When pressed on timing, she said “early Q1.”
Mayer also talked about Google’s use of user data created by actions on Wiki search to improve search results on Google in general. For now that data is not being used to change overall search results, she said. But in the future it’s likely Google will use the data to at least make obvious changes. An example is if “thousands of people” were to knock a search result off a search page, they’d be likely to make a change.
The full video of the interview should be available soon, and I’ll update this post with an embed shortly.
Hallelujah very interesting name!
Amazes me that big companies keep launching features like this without opt-out … it’s not really hard to code in an off/on option.
Thanks..
and expecting the video sooner!
- Mani
http://ExcuseMeWorld.com
MIke, You should be hired by Google!
Agreed!
Yeh… I’d use an off button. It’d be better than having to log out.
Thanks Google for giving us some choice otherwise in most of the cases either it’s your way or highway!
“it’s likely Google will use the data to at least make obvious changes”. Imagine this new headache for millions of homebred webmasters )))
Wow, I think we’ll have extra SEO tasks…
Of course they’re going to start using search wiki information to influence their non-wiki serps. Good to hear them say it, though. Thanks, Michael.
The off button can’t come soon enough. It’s absurd to launch a service (and the accompanying privacy implications) without an off switch.
Absurd? They do it all the time! One of the more recent examples being the new iGoogle canvas view along with the inability to collapse the sidebar, most likely because they want to integrate things like chat into it in the future. Google usually makes changes without an off switch, and you either get used to/put up with it, or you go elsewhere.
My guess is that the Search Wiki will go the way of Lively and other Google failures. The Search Wiki is an open admission that the algorithm is failing. If the Google Search system was good at its job – why on Earth would we need to play around with the results. The fact is that most of the time Google actually fails to deliver what we are searching for, which is why we have to search again, using different keywords. Google knows its results are inaccurate and poor – it constantly “tweaks” things to try and make it better. So, because they can’t provide the results we want, they give us a Wiki device so we can personalise the results…! Yet as the comments here already show, people really dislike the Wiki. When Google notices how many people are switching it off, they’ll do the same too. The Search Wiki is a temporary item, I reckon, and is one of the first indications we have that Google is beginning to flounder now that social bookmarking and social search is starting to take hold. I’d sell that Google stock pretty soon…!
Well this is a great way to tweak it, by making the engine learn about user’s preferences. The only problem is the missing off button.
Thanks for bringing it up. Google has been my favorite internet company for most of the last decade but they have lost focus the past few years, Simple and Clean will always win out now and in the future. Leave Microsoft to make simple things complicated.
“The full video of the interview should be available soon, and I’ll update this post with an embed shortly.” – I’m still waiting Mike!
Google: Hi everyone! Here’s a new search feature! It’s called search wiki. Use it to tweak your search results or don’t use it at all; it’s barely noticeable.
Mike Arrington: !#@!@#() THIS IS CRAP! WORST THING ON TEH INTERNET!
Everyone else: Chill out Mike. It’s barely noticeable.
Mike Arrington: BUT YOU CAN’T OPT OUT AND THEY’RE SPYING ON YOUS!
Everyone else: Of course they’re gonna use the data to tweak their search results. It’s inevitable. They’ve been using user information for years. What’s the big deal?
Mike Arrington: YOU CAN’T TURN IT OFF.
Google: We will soon provide an opt-out button.
Mike Arrington: THANK YOU! THEY ARE DOING IT BECAUSE OF ME.
“Mayer also talked about Google’s use of user data created by actions on Wiki search to improve search results on Google in general. For now that data is not being used to change overall search results, she said. But in the future it’s likely Google will use the data to at least make obvious changes. An example is if “thousands of people” were to knock a search result off a search page, they’d be likely to make a change.”
Spammers Delight. What a joke. Come on Google. Is your algo really that bad that you need us to tweak it for you?
Hey mike, I don’t know why you trash so much google search wiki. I just made a search for a specific topic in finance and I would have loved to have some tips from other users. So when I found what I was looking for, I commented on the best site to use for this topic.
What’s the deal with it?
Another neat motto (since “don’t be evil” is hardly plausible anymore) might be:
“We Are Experiencing Technical Difficulties; Please Stand By”
I LOLed when I heard Ms. Mayer said stuff like Google is focused on “choice” (i.e., allowing users to choose which elements to turn off or on).
Let’s go to the videotape! :O … sorry, um, Google says they want to organize all the world’s information, but, um, well, “please stand by”….
;D nmw
Come on, even I know SearchWiki is a bad idea.
Damn, I hope it’s early in Q1. Like, say… Jan 2.
I detest searchwiki. I had no idea I was opting in, I thought I was getting more freaking info, and I’ve felt over the past weeks like I have an STD… you know, practicing unsafe computing or something.
Thanks for the information, it’s the best news I’ve heard in a while. Since I do like to stay logged into google in order to be able to comment on blogspot, I’ve been exclusively using live.com for searching… and that isn’t pleasant.
Google’s SearchWiki:
upside=another methodology of thrusting a trust/authority index into the results.
downside=opportunity to game the system; user indifference and apathy; distrust that voting interrupts “clean” search on user’s desktop; potential for Google to mastermind blacklists of results ala digg.com; tragic downfall of Google’s ability to “internally” manage SERPs and provide accurate 1st page results; physical manifestation of hopeless desire by Google to recapture their “media darling” label.
Have I got that right?
I love their knol.google.com, similar to wiki
Yep, google KNOL technology is great.
That on and off feature sound great.
Google’s Wikipedia competitor, Knol, was opened to the public on Wednesday morning.
The web stream(s) is a downmixed version of the broadcast stream that is created in the on-air studio. The original stream is decoded, then re-encoded at a different quality and presented to the listening public.
Google announced that it had also acquired JotSpot, a developer of wiki technology for collaborative Web sites.