Google Personalises Search Engine

By Author: Roger Over
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Google, in a press release on its official web site last week, said a new feature known as SearchWiki allows users to personalise search results by promoting or demoting according to their own preferences.

SearchWiki lets users who have a Google account rearrange their search results, re-ranking websites by moving them up or down in the results page.

Useless or spammy search results can be deleted and others added.

"With just a single click you can move the results you like to the top or add a new site;' Google said. "You can also write notes attached to a particular site and remove results that you don't feel belong."

The Mountain View based, organisation said the changes in rankings will be shown the next time users log on and will not change searches done by others.

Search Engine optimisation (SEO), experts are fearful that announcement could lead to the fragmentation of their SEO markets with search results being inconsistent across user profiles.

SearchWiki marks the first time that Google has allowed users to modify their search results.

A video explaining the new ...
... feature is online at googleblog.blogspot.com.

Google dominates the internet search market, being used for more than 80 per cent of all Australian searches in October, according to industry monitors.

The company also announced in another blog posting that it was killing off Lively, a virtual world website similar to Second Life, at the end of December.

"In July we launched lively in Google Labs because we wanted users to be able to interact with their friends and express themselves online in new ways," Google said.

"But we've also always accepted that when you take these kinds of risks, not every bet is going to pay off," it added.

"It has been a tough decision, but we want to ensure that we prioritise our resources and focus more on our core search, ads and apps (applications) business."