Google Search Wiki - a solution in need of a problem?

Google’s recently launched Search Wiki, a feature which allows iGoogle users to customise their search results, represents a huge toe dip into community-driven peer recommendation tools.

If you’ve not tried it, Search Wiki activates when users are signed in to iGoogle, placing buttons next to search results which allow you to edit, add notes for other users and re-rank results according to how you feel they should have appeared. Users can even delete results they feel aren’t relevant to the search.

While Google has said that the results of users’ re-rankings aren’t being shared with others, it’s natural to assume that some of the data might be used to some way improve general results pages - for example, if high volumes of users show a trend of ranking one web link over another, then why not share that insight and improve everyone’s results.

Google, as ever, is unlikely to admit just how influential its new peer recommendation tool will be in steering general search results (if at all).  If it did, it might open the floodgates for unethical online marketing types to try and game the system. By mobilising an army of users to skew results, we could see another Googlebombing manipulation of ‘miserable failure’ proportions.

Search Wiki presents a problem for the search giant. Unless it admits how much Search Wiki helps improve the quality of everyone’s general results, its new peer recommendation tool might die a quick death. Are users really all that keen to invest time into refining their own results pages. Unlikely, but they may if it helps improve the search results of others.

As the success of Wikipedia and Yahoo! Answers continues to show, users are happy to invest significant amounts of time sharing their knowledge and opinions - but only if they feel their insight has benefited others.

According to Google, Search Wiki’s personalised results only helps one user - you. But why would users spend time rearranging search results for themselves? For future reference? But once a user’s searched for something and found it, are they likely to search for it again and again? Or will they just bookmark it locally on their machine or save it to one of the countless social bookmarking sites that exist.

Alas, Google are in a quandary when it comes to explaining how (and if) its new tool benefits the greater good. They can’t come out and say it will be used to help refine overall results  for fear of system abuse. But if it doesn’t help refine overall results, then they’ve missed out on a huge opportunity - something Google is not in the habit of doing.

Of course, Search Wiki could be the next evolution in social bookmarking or indeed, Google’s answer to Yahoo! Answers. But if Search Wiki is to reach a tipping point anytime soon, Google could simply bite the bullet and reveal how Wiki’s trend data might improve the search results for millions of users.

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