ONE OF THE BEST features of the internet since 2006 has been the ability to see what others have written alongside some pages and Google has jumped into this space with the public launch of SearchWiki. By logging into my Google account before I start to search for something through Google, I can see the results of my past searches and I can also see comments made by other people on search terms. It's like having a personal Digg account without every leaving the Google search page. I believe I can see through the noise generated by people with bogus accounts and make my own mind up about the relative placement of specific results. I'll gladly accept the fact that some other people might be arguing with a placement that some results achieve by skimming commentary they make about those results. More is better, in my view. More information might not be better in the view of search engine optimisers because when you can see the rabble leaving behind their own little post-it notes, you can change the likelihood of someone trusting what the original publisher has first published.
SearchWiki allows me to change only my own results, unless I click a link to view all SearchWiki notes on a search's page. This could get very messy for people who trust everything they read online. But just the very existence of SearchWiki changes the internet into a truly editable flow of information for everyone. I believe SearchWiki will become bigger than Wikipedia and ultimately evolve into the biggest and most important wiki in the world. SearchWiki isn't an entirely new concept. Microsoft Research’s URank offers a social search function as well, you can edit search results at Wikia Search and people power the results you see at Mahalo. While most people won't leave comments behind, I'm inclined to post notes to myself where I browse, so I think SearchWiki will float my boat. I also enjoy seeing what some of my Google friends have posted to SearchWiki, so I'm appending the &swm2 string to the URL of Google search results to see things like what others think of Ireland (10 notes recorded) and what people think of the iPhone (65 notes recorded).
In a nutshell, here are the features of SearchWiki that are most disruptive:
- Make a public comment gives you a text box so you can leave behind ideas that others will see.
- “Could not retrieve comments for this page” is an error message that occasionally appears when Google cannot fetch results for a particular webpage.
- “Customize your search results with your rankings, deletions, and notes — plus, see how other people using Google have tailored their searches” is the first part of the notice shown when a user first edits a result.
- “Please remember that your SearchWiki notes will be visible to other users, identified with your Google Account nickname” is a reminder that your nic will be visible if others opt to view comments.
Here are some results leading to InsideView.ie. If you use SearchWiki, you might be able to see some of my comments under those results.
Reformat Nokia N70. This Google search term attracts a minimum of 70 people to my blog every day. You might see it near the top of Google results.
Pictures of Christmas in Ireland is a seasonal request, with results going back to the time we made Christmas cards with a Bluetooth pen.
Dell Limerick is a trending topic on my blog, given the likelihood of Dell changing some of its manufacturing arrangements in Ireland.
Cedric Dupont -- "SearchWiki makes search your own" on the Official Google Blog, 20 November 2008.
Marshall Kirkpatrick -- "Inventor of the Wiki Responds to Google Search Wiki" in Read Write Web, 20 November 2008.
Rob Hof -- "Google launches SearchWiki for Customised Search Results" in BusinessWeek, 20 November 2008.
Microsoft Research -- "U Rank: Editing, organizing and sharing searches with your social network"