Google’s Search Wiki
Hey, anybody notice the new goodies in your Google search results? You can manipulate the rankings of returned hits by using the quiet little arrow and x buttons that now follow each hit’s title. I’m guessing that, besides allowing customization, this is a new way to train relevance calculations. Using click-throughs alone to test relevance would include a certain percentage of pages that appeared from the results page to be useful but turned out not to be what the user was after. It would also necessarily include side trips initiated by curiosity rather than search refinement. Now, with a feature that explicitly allows users to refine how pages rank in their own results, Google is getting information much more clearly tied to what users consider to be relevant to a given search. Since human relevance rankings are the standard for training automated relevance rankings, this seems to be a win for Google as well as its users.
Sarah Van Wart Said,
November 23, 2008 @ 7:53 pm
Jinx! Was just writing a blog on this, but I’ll add a comment instead
I agree, Annette — I think Google’s using it to train relevance calculations (since it claims these preferences won’t affect page rank). But is this really a win for users? I can see how it works for some things. I typed in “movies el cerrito” and moved the “Speakeasy Theaters” hit to the top of the list. Now, every time I type in “cerrito,” “Speakeasy Theaters” rises to the top. A few thoughts, though:
- How helpful is this feature if you don’t later remember the search terms you initially used when ranking hits? Wouldn’t bookmarking be more effective?
- What if you rank a lot of hits for a particular search term when the subject is extremely dynamic (say, the war in Iraq)? Does ranking searches actually inhibit your ability to find current, relevant information?
- Lastly, I feel my digital shadow growing exponentially! If Google’s tracking all of my search terms and how I assess search relevance in a database, what kind of digital profile am I inadvertently building for myself? As ubiquitous as Google is, and having acquired DoubleClick (a large internet profiling and marketing company), should I worry about expanding my own profile by telling Google more explicitly the details of my search activities?
INFO 202 Fall 08 Blog » Google, IR, and Preference Data Said,
November 23, 2008 @ 8:50 pm
[...] I remarked in my comment to Annette’s post on the Google Search Wiki, in order to personalize a search and persist it across time and [...]
Annette Greiner Said,
November 23, 2008 @ 10:32 pm
I just wanted to also point out that Google will show the usernames of those who indicate Search Wiki picks, so you also reveal info about yourself to other users of the Google site. And then there’s the question of whether you will want the same thing to come to the top the second time you run a search with the same terms. It’ll be very interesting to see how this plays out.
Ryan Said,
November 24, 2008 @ 11:20 am
Google posted to its blog about SearchWiki.
A few tidbits:
Annette Greiner Said,
December 13, 2008 @ 1:25 am
I think Google’s point about changes affecting only one’s own searches is intended to dispel any expectation that one’s reordering will appear as the official Google search result for others. I don’t think we can assume it means Google will never make changes in its algorithms based on patterns it finds in searchwiki usage.