Inventor of the Wiki Responds to Google Search Wiki
Google put on a full court media push tonight for a major change the company is making to its search experience. According to the Official Google Blog and a very unusual email the company sent out to press, a new feature called Google Search Wiki will launch soon.
We're not seeing it yet, but read on for an explanation of what the feature will do and a reaction to the announcement from Ward Cunningham, the man who invented the wiki.
The feature will allow logged-in users to change the order of search results and mark up search results pages with notes. Only their own results will be changed - unless they click a link to view all Search Wiki notes on a search's page. Very few details are out yet, nothing regarding vandalism, libel, history, messiness, collaboration or other wiki matters. Those are pretty important concerns given that this could become the biggest and most important wiki in the world.
This isn't Google Labs, this isn't a little project off to the side, apparently there's a Google Search Wiki team and they have access to the primary search results page. We expect this to be a very big deal.
Reaction from the Inventor of the Wiki
We asked Ward Cunningham, inventor of the wiki, what he thought about Google Search Wiki. This was his first reaction.
I think it looks pretty sharp. It's simple and powerful - it will respond well to scale. I'm surprised that they called it a wiki. When I heard they wouldn't call a wiki a wiki [Jotspot was renamed Google Sites -ed.], then I decided I wouldn't call my searches Googles. Now that they are calling a wiki a wiki, I guess I'll call my searches Googles again....or should I call them wikis?I can't tell if they have a wiki there or not, it might just be a forum. Collectively editing thoughts is what leads to the unique wiki behavior and I didn't see that demonstrated in the video.
They are going to get a lot of data. They obviously have the ability to wield information, let's just hope that we will all benefit. I don't think it's obvious that we all will benefit - but I guess I have enough trust in the behavior of a large number of people.
Photo of Cunningham by Joi Ito
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Yes! I love wikis. Thanks for bringing this to my attention, Marshall.
Posted by: Daniel J. Pritchett
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November 20, 2008 5:47 PM
Marshall,
Great post. How do you expect this to change the SEO business?
Best, Tim Reha - Seattle.
This is radical.
That is a big move!
Posted by: Jay
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November 20, 2008 6:02 PM
This reminds me a lot of Wikia Search: http://search.wikia.com/
I hope it is a huge sucess.
It happened randomly for me yesterday: http://friendfeed.com/e/2000e8da-9cae-437c-b66a-d432fc2c00d3/Google-s-testing-something-new/
Posted by: Benjamin Golub
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November 20, 2008 6:07 PM
I got thrown in a bucket test for this a few months ago:
http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/07/16/is-this-the-future-of-search/
It's pretty slick, I'm definitely a fan.
Adrian - good to know. Next time send that to us, would ya? :)
This is definitely interesting, but unless they start using the up/down votes for general rankings and not just your own the term 'wiki' is a bit of a misnomer. Yeah, so I can read peoples' comments about the search results...but how often are you going to click the little bubble to see what others have written instead of just clicking on the link to see what the page is?
Posted by: Louis Simoneau
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November 20, 2008 7:47 PM
pretty big deal, also GREAT way for them to build sites quality scores for standard search
Posted by: sean percival
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November 20, 2008 7:51 PM
I can't help but think this data could or will be used to augment the algorithm and placement. maybe they'll just sell ads contextual to your notes though!
Posted by: Marshall Kirkpatrick
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November 20, 2008 7:52 PM
This reminds me of the night they turned on the Google Ads...I stayed up all night wondering how it would change the landscape of search and how to leverage it. No doubt tonight will be the same. Wish we had a poll on here to measure people's thoughts. Guess I'll be refreshing a lot tonight to read everyone's comments! :)
Happy searching and pondering,
Jay Lohmann
Ok...after playing with it and commenting on a few sites, I see some good and really bad applications of this feature. Great that happy clients can rave about you, but what about negative comments, especially "spamming" comments from competitors who set up "fake" google accounts and post negative comments. Or for that matter, disgruntled employees...Think "Walmartsucks.com/org" or "disney-sucks.com" etc. This could open up a pandora's box for misuse. I'm SURE Google has thought this through..right? Will be very interesting how this shakes out.
....more thoughts....will the comment text get indexed? Again, might be a good thing if they are positive... and circling back on the negative comments (especially under unscrupulous circumstances) could ruin years of SEO efforts, not to mention potential sales....but I guess that is probably those peoples' intent.
Snore.
Until the Google algorithm takes into account what sites are ranked higher via Google Wiki impacting the average computer user, this is just a really neat toy for tech geeks like us.
This is an important and probably influential move by Google, though in person I look for a bigger step by Google. ;-)
Anyway, great post for an important new action.
Yihong
I wish rankings could be affected by your GMail Contacts / GReader Friends. Would be FF-like.
Posted by: Dave Gilbert
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November 20, 2008 10:21 PM
I think its live now. For the first time I have a clickable up arrow, a clickable x and a button to click and add comments.
and of course my test search was "rww" :)
Really big news from Google, bravo. I like how you have covered it, Marshall.
Google SearchWiki will probably be fed back into the algorithm. Human feedback mechanism makes the algo smarter. No Digg needed.
Posted by: AJ Kohn
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November 20, 2008 10:30 PM
This has started showing up for me.
Posted by: David Potts
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November 20, 2008 10:48 PM
I have it too. Thought it was some unknown Firefox add-on at first.
Posted by: Gus
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November 20, 2008 11:40 PM
I think it sounds very interesting. Looking forward to trying it out.
Who will ultimately benefit from this? Google.. Doh! More data to eat up.
Not sure if this is a good or bad thing.
We'll see what transpires over the next few days ;)
Looking forward to this!
Oh btw
Check out http://www.jobstaxi.com
New Jobs. CauseForce. Strands. Carbine Studios. NCsoft.
I haven't tried this yet...and I'm not sure I want to. It seems like this is only useful to those who repeatedly run the same search (unless I misunderstand).
Posted by: Scott from Canada
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November 21, 2008 3:31 AM
I wonder how Eurekster will respond to this...
I did not see any post from them in http://www.eurekster.com/blog/ but even if I don't see Google proposing "collaborative Google Wiki" so far, it seems pretty close the how Swickis get updated. Only think is, even if it actually is different for the trained eye, for the average user Google obfuscate the rest.
Anyway I don't understand why they used the term wiki but I will try for a while first and will see.
For those who wonder if the data will be indexed or not, you need to read again what Google mission is and also the Term of agreements. The goal IS to have human supervision and direct input. Of course it will be indexed, that is the whole point.
By the way I recommend reading a bit more on stigmergy and stigmergic collaboration for those interested on how this could be leveraged (for the users and for the clients, advertisers)
It would be nice to remove the advertising at the right too! :-)
eager--- waiting for this.. google does all the wonders. likely to make search easy...----
This looks very similar to Microsoft's U Rank prototype.
http://research.microsoft.com/projects/urank/
man, I don't know about this. It seems like a spammer's heaven. Who is going to moderate the comments? Can a website's owner moderate his or her own comments?
Do the comments get indexed? Does the amount of people clicking to rank the site higher affect natural rankings of google searches from people that don't have a google account?
There are so many problems and so many beautiful things about this. Seems ripe for exploitation. Seems great for eliminating junk results.
I just wonder how this will effect their algorithm. For all the upsides of a social search format, now were potentially relying on our friends + neighbors potentially more.
To me this might be analogous to the difference between:
Technorati Authority and Technorati Fans. If this affects the overall Google algorithm, we have more of the later than the former.
I think a you get to pick the type or a nice melding like Google did with Universal search makes the most sense.
One thing for sure: Google and search may never be the same.
If Google starts using the results from Google Wiki for normal searches, they will just kill themselves as Adsense has no value anymore.
Then a company just hires a company (India or China) having their employees promoting all the website links on searches.
Here is the difference, Google is a private company unlike wikipedia. Why would anyone be a free worker, generating content for the internet giant ?
Idea of global conversation is not bad provided that all people in the world adhere the google's motto - "Dont be Evil". Reality is opposite.
Cheers for spammers !!!, even though the feature is turned off currently.
Is Google SearchWiki will kill SEO ranking?
Cheers for spammers !!!, even though the feature is turned off currently.
Was playing with this today, wasn't able to find how to view other comments though which was disappointing. Still I really like it and hopefully Google will build on this!
@Joe: View other comments by scrolling to the bottom and clicking "show all notes". @Scott: I agree, I don't see myself searching for the same thing over and over.
Posted by: Daniel J. Pritchett
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November 24, 2008 12:14 PM
Oy! I want my money back! Oh, no, wait, uhhh ....
Anyhow: in a subsequent article on "Google SearchWiki" you quoted Ward and pointed back to this article, viz:
I'd gladly pay twice the price for more of that interview.keep on keepin'on
^5