Google – Social Marketing Experiment
According to TechCrunch, Google has been experimenting a new system which ranks sites through votes by the users themselves. Does this voting system sounds familiar? Well, if you are a Digg user, you'll definitely realize that Google has taken bits of Digg's most popular feature to their advantage
Google allows you to enhance the search results yourself by making the necessary changes such as moving, adding and even removing a certain search result. If by any chance that you want to undo your changes, Google also allows you to do so. Also take note that this "experimental feature" will only be available for a few weeks only.
As you can see from the image below, you can vote and hide sites from the search results. Take note that for the meantime, this feature are not applied to the general search results. It will only be available to users who has a Google Account.
How to use the feature?
Basically, to use this feature you must have a Google account. A Google account can be registered for free but also take note that not everybody will see this feature, only certain user base from certain countries will be selected for this experiment. For those who are chosen to join the experiment, here's how you do it.
I like it! If you think a particular site has been useful or interesting to you, you can promote it by clicking on the "arrow-up" icon just next to the search result.
I don't like it! If you do not like a certain search result, you can remove the site from appearing when you search for something similar in the future.
Here's a direct quote from Google Labs:
…..this is an experimental feature and may be available for only a few weeks….
Now, all we have to do is just wait and see how long would it take for Google to implement this feature has a default or normal feature withing the Google search engine. This feature is definitely the best way to give users a chance to make a contribution on the search results.
Popularity: 6% [?]
