Google is always trying to provide more relevant search results as part of its strategy to be the best in the field. Now, a new search experiment is being conducted as announced this week on Google Experimental Labs. In this experiment, Google is mimicking its usual search results in a Digg-style way that allows users to remove, reorder or add better search results. This feature, if launched globally, would have a drastic effect on search results, since individual preferences will be saved for the next search and these individual preferences could influence the relevance of a website on a specific search term.
Each search result comes with two buttons at the right hand side with the labels "like it" and "don't like it". If a user clicks on the "don't like it" button the search result will be removed from the list, whereas the "like it" button will effectively promote the result by moving it to the top of the page. More importantly, the user will be able to see the flagged search result every time the same query is entered on Google. These promoted results have an orange asterisk to distinguish them from the algorithmic results.
The most exciting feature of the experiment probably lies in the possibility to include those results that the user thought would have been useful. This option is available from the bottom of the page, with a link including the anchor text "Know of a better webpage". By clicking on the aforementioned link, the user can specify a website that is relevant to the specified keyphrase.
The user has to be logged in during the experimental Google search, and the results of the personalized search are saved and shown again if the visitor enters the same search query. It is also possible to revert the changes made and look at the original search results. The changes are unlikely to influence the general search results for the time being and the experiment will only last for a few weeks.
Other Google Experiments include: alternate views for search results, keyword suggestions, keyword shortcuts, left-hand and right-hand search navigation. Users are only allowed to join one experiment at a time.
Although they are all very interesting, the alternative views for search results experiment stands out from the rest. You can see results on a timeline or map, which creates a fairly accurate description of when a search query has been more popular, with the minimum level of granularity being one week. It's very similar to Google Trends, but provides further insight in terms of popularity versus time.
This new experiment is closely related to Google's intention to provide better and more relevant search results. Could this Digg-style version of Google be the future of search? It certainly promises to be controversial if the experiment becomes the mainstream.
