Thank goodness Google’s working on the really important stuff, like adding sound effects to SearchWiki, instead of releasing the promised off button to that dreaded service.
Although, I have to admit it’s pretty cool. To add the sound effect, turn this Google experiment on and delete a search result in Google search (you have to have SearchWiki turned on). It makes a Desktop Tower Defense like sound, recorded by co-founder Sergey Brin himself. Check it out in the video below.
Of course I’m now deleting search results like crazy to make the sound, which has wrecked my search results. I guess today’s a writeoff for SearchWiki data collection procedure.
Good thing I don’t log in to google, that way I don’t have to see the SearchWiki feature.
I just launched a startup TipsBase (www.tipsbase.com): A social network for sharing tips and tricks on any subject.
That, ladies and gentlemen, is known as a failed segue.
nicely done though.
How can you possibly hate Search Wiki so much? Start using Yahoo and stop complaining then…
It’s just what I do. I hate search wiki.
Michael, I really like it when you hate SearchWiki. It’s fun and one is not alone!
I got much love for SearchWiki.
I just wished they’d enable me to block certain domains wholesale from my search results.
swik.net has gotta go, for instance. That thing is like the biggest bucket of wiki-based spam I’ve ever seen.
Oh, so agree. If it does that, that would be pretty good.
But they could also do a lot more to the regular search to improve it. It’s not like that’s perfect yet. Just look at all the duplicate content crap – like people mirroring wikipedia, linux man pages, other manuals and similar.
That is an excellent sound effect.
What are the implications of SearchWiki on sites like Mahalo, or human edited search engines? Any thoughts? I somehow feel features like these make it 10x harder for other search engines (propagating human centric search results) to compete. Google is personalizing search to the extreme and learning about people faster than any site out there.
My guess: This is a great feature that in the long run will have a huge impact.
We launched Stumpedia.com in Jan 2008 with the notion that human-powered search was the future and our differentiating factor over google and other traditional search engines was the Humans vs Algorithms approach. SearchWiki will definitely make it 10x harder for us to compete.
Nice game for my 6 years old brother. I am sure he will enjoy it. I think there are many others issues that they should concentrate with rather than this !
Doing a lot of posts lately Michael. Techcrunch experience any layoffs lately?
No dude. The main reason is Le Web, since Mike is not going to be invited next year, he is trying to survive. JK
I know change is difficult to deal with. But I HATE THIS.
Google’s sense of humor? Anyone?
You mean that in the video they are making yahoo search results disappear? I found it entertaining for a sec.
I am not sure why you hate SearchWiki so much. I really like it and have no reason for me to turn it off. I started using google instead of bookmarks with search wiki (too many bookmarks to navigate to). Almost everyother day I look up ferry schedule from Larkspur to San Francisco but instead of bookmark i moved the right result to top.
The ferry schedules from Larkspur to San Francisco don’t seem to change. How about printing the schedule and storing it in your pocket?
I already have a G1 in my pocket – why would I want another piece of paper, when I already have the internet?
I use searchwiki to abbreviate searches I do a lot like [gr] for [google reader], [hn] for [hacker news]. I guess it saves me about a second a day
have you noticed how the video looks (and sounds) like the user is “shooting” yahoo services, like a video game? Pow! there goes Yahoo.com, Pow! there goes Yahoo mail, Pow! there goes Yahoo Search. Oh, the fun the google geeks must had had with that…
So it’s just sound effects?
How about Wiki text-to-speech are they able to pull that one off?
Even better, find a Wiki article you like, click the “download to my iPod/MP3 player” button and listen later!
Now that would rock!
Take care,
Michael
Maybe they should let you customize sound clips. Maybe, just maybe, they should have customized sound clips depending on what you searched for. Moooo
This isn’t recent news anymore, they launched this November 22nd. http://blogosco...-11-22-n19.html
Yo mikey i might be moving down the peninsula. Can i stay at your place in atherton?
for like 2 days.
?
This is old, if I remember correctly. This experiment has been around for quite a while.
Not the sound… In fact I’m thinking this is a joke, I don’t get any sounds when I delete.
Seems that not only is Google adding useless features to search, they are also “borrowing” from others creativity.
The “up in smoke” effect was first used on the Newton platform when the “rubout” or “trash” functions were executed.
Very unsporting, but what do you expect from a company that co-opted the work of blogger Paul Ford against his wishes, and started using the “I am Googlebot, I control earth” illustration on T-shirts and posters.
-avi
That SearchWiki might be a good idea, but some thing that 98% of peoples wont use.
Who is dumbifying (word?) Google. Stand up and be shot now.
“Dreaded service”, I wish people would stop moaning. Yeh it sucks and I’m not going to use it, but I don’t even notice it, it doesn’t affect my web experience AT ALL.
Well, I don’t particularly find it to be a bad service, but I don’t use it, and like you said, it doesn’t affect my web experience at all.
On another note though, who says that a big corp like Google can’t add absolutely useless tools? You can play Snake while checking your email, people. How’s that for productivity?
>Thank goodness Google’s working on the really important stuff
No, thank goodness Techcrunch is covering the important stuff
Easy way to turn off SearchWiki results http://blog.viv...thout-wiki.html