Skip to main content
Industry Trends

Google Launches SearchWiki, Allows Users To Customise Results

By November 24, 2008July 30th, 20232 Comments

When customers use Google Search, they may often find that they do not agree with the rankings of the search result provided by Google. Now it will actually be possible to change the rankings, to add or delete a result or add a comment alongside a result as may seem appropriate to the user.

Google has launched a feature called SearchWiki that is available to all users who have signed in with a Google Account and searched on the regular Google search service.

Once signed in, users automatically have the option to rearrange the search results provided by Google to suit their needs. To do this they can make use of ‘promote’, ‘remove’ and ‘comment’ buttons provided by Google alongside each result.

Google SearchWiki in action

Changes thus made will be stored in the user’s account and will be displayed every time the user repeats the same search. Users can also alter the changes again whenever they feel the need to do so.

Single user changes will not be reflected in any other user’s search results. However, a user can see all the changes made by other users to a given search result by clicking on a link saying, “See all notes for this SearchWiki”, which is provided below each search page.

It is very likely, though, in time, that Google will start using the collective wisdom of the masses to eliminate irrelevant results and promote results that are consistently voted up by users.

This is the first time Google will allow its users to alter the search results, but Microsoft has already introduced a similar service on an experimental basis called U Rank, while Mahalo also provides results which have been created by users.