Google experimenting with Digg-style voting

[RJD]

Not sure if this experiment is still going on:

This experiment lets you influence your search experience by adding, moving, and removing search results. When you search for the same keywords again, you'll continue to see those changes. If you later want to revert your changes, you can undo any modifications you've made. Note that this is an experimental feature and may be available for only a few weeks.

http://www.google.com/experimental/a840e102.html

 

[theRKF]

It is still in effect - has been for a week or two.

It's a beta (there's a shocker from Google!), and is part of their personalization efforts. There is also a feature that will let you add a site to the serps for a search if it doesn't appear and you think it should.

The changes you make only affect your display, and currently the votes have no impact on the real results. Of course, some of us speculate that Google may track that data and factor it into the SERPs at a later date - even as only a minor factor.

Ryan

 

[RJD]

That was my thought, too, but can you imagine the spam headache if voting could affect the results?

 

[theRKF]

Imagine ... I'm drooling!

Ok, not really ... but it will be interesting to study site placement in niche SERPs when a lot of votes from different users start to flood in.

Ryan

 

[RJD]

Imagine ... I'm drooling!

Ok, not really ... but it will be interesting to study site placement in niche SERPs when a lot of votes from different users start to flood in.

Ryan

Like Mahalo? They have user voting.

There's not doubt lots of votes will be received. Determining whether they come from different users, or the same users, or a rent-a-mob is the problem.