Is search 2.0 coming?
We’ve heard of Web 2.0 but are the search engines now working toward Search 2.0. I found the following evidence interesting in this regard.
This source reported that Google has experimental Digg Style Search voting system. Although Google Experimental search is live and there are samples to back up the story at Google. My understanding is that the positive votes will push results higher up on the results page and the negative search results can also be deleted if the user finds it to be irrelevant. Its important to note that these altered results WILL NOT impact Google’s public search results but instead these votes and deletions will only be shown to the user that made them. I was unable to see these features live myself. There are several reasons why this could be happening; this story is a couple of weeks old, its only available to a limited amount of users, the experimental search began in May 07 and its possible that feature is no longer being tested.
Ask
Then there is AskEraser by Ask.com. Released by this source. Says:
Oakland-based search engine Ask.com debuted “AskEraser” today, a feature which can mark all of a user’s queries in the company’s servers for deletion.
This feature differs from Googles experimental search in that there really is’nt any positive voting. However users can mark search results for deletion on the Ask servers. These results again would only impact the individual users results and not the public. What I could not determine is whether or not the pages are every reviewed and deleted by Ask at some point.
My opinion of these changes are that the Search Engines are seeking different ways to improve the quality of Search Results. A staff of millions of Web Surfers will accomplish this much faster and with more accuracy than rooms filled with executives conducting hundreds of meetings and going in circles with theories.
I think the future will dictate greater emphasis on building web sites that contain quality, relevant, content. I also believe that Search engines will begin to have there own personalities and characters. The major search engines will begin to reflect its most active users feelings and thoughts by simply viewing the positive and negative votes. Similar to the way Facebook is being viewed as a place for Professionals and MySpace is more frequented by Blue Collar types. This may or may not be true but its my understanding.
