Search Wiki: Make Google Your Own

Some logged-on Google users may have noticed a few changes to their Google search results. You may see two buttons with every listing in the results. This is the new Google SearchWiki. This new feature adds two buttons to the right of each result that let users move their favorite or most relevant results to the top spot or kill out a result entirely for their page only, as well as add notes for yourself on certain results and add entirely new results to that crucial first page.

The two light-colored icons next to each listing lets you reorder the search results. Just like on Digg, an up arrow lets you move a result higher on the page; an X will remove the result. After you’ve moved a result higher, a down arrow shows up so you can move it down the page. After you’ve edited the result, the said icons will turn bright green to remind you that you previously edited the result. A fourth icon in the shape of a text bubble lets you leave comments on any listing; anyone can see the comments you make on a separate page.

There’s also an “Add a result” link at the bottom of the search results page that lets you add web pages to the search results. So if you want a site to show up for a search and it’s not there, clicking on “Add a result” will modify Google search results for you. You can also restore restore listings you’ve removed, and you can see all other SearchWiki changes and comments made by other users.

SearchWiki will remember changes you make when you google for one of your previous searches. Sometimes, though, it may also remember changes when you search for a very close match. Let’s say you re-order the search results for the word Google, SearchWiki will likely show you the re-ordered results again if you search for Google. But, if your next search is for Google Tutor, it will probably not show the changes you already made for Google.

If you’re worried about the SEO implications of SearchWiki, Google insists that it will have no impact on the traditional ranking of web pages. Logging out of your Google account will show you the traditional search results.

SearchWiki should be turned on by default for everyone logged in to a Google account. If you don’t like it, you can either ignore the icons or you can log out of Google for your non-wiki searching bliss.