Google invites feedback on super-secret search upgrades

Google is upgrading its search infrastructure and it's being really shady about it.

In a post on its Webmaster Central blog, however, Google engineers Sitaram Iyer and Matt Cutts insist that ordinary users won't even see the difference.

"For the last several months, a large team of Googlers has been working on a secret project: a next-generation architecture for Google's web search," the post reads, making it all sound vaguely like some kind of elf workshop. "It's the first step in a process that will let us push the envelope on size, indexing speed, accuracy, comprehensiveness and other dimensions." The user interface is unchanged.

Developers are encouraged to try out the new technology on a "sandbox" page and then offer feedback by including the word "caffeine" in Google's feedback text field, secret-password-style.

The company acknowledged that "some parts of this system aren't completely finished yet." But the industry buzz is obviously a huge part of it: There's a legitimate new contender in the search engine market, Microsoft's Bing, which is fueled by heavy marketing dollars and has begun to inch its way up in market share since its debut earlier this summer.

Google CEO Eric Schmidt gives the impression that he isn't particularly worried about Bing. But it's hard to not look at a shadowy blog post about under-the-radar upgrades to Google's search index and not take it as a Googly way of saying, "game on."

[kingkorgo]

Google really needs to step up their game, notice how they are leaking information out about 'upgrades' soon as Microsoft jumps into the playing field! thats why having companies fight for position is a good thing!

~
Kingkorgo
http://www.eightforums.com

[kxmmxk]

Bing isn't that great, the tour doesn't even work. Of course I am on a mac using firefox :D

The google changes do seem to improve searches a bit. We'll see what the end result is. What I would like to see is a way to filter out or organize the kind of results. It seems when I'm looking for information on something, I get a bunch of merchant results. Or when I want to buy something I get a bunch of info type results, etc. To be able to organize the kind of results would be nice

[Super2online]

I would have to say more like: Wow, I guess these Microsoft guys do know a thing or two about what makes a great search engine. Yeah, and we lost the Yahoo deal to, and Microsoft got it. Looks like it's time we get up off the sofa before we find ourselves out of a job. Cause everyone knows we are a one trick pony where income is concerned.

[t8]

Ha ha. Hi Steve Ballmer or Microsoft employee.
Nice shilling.

[EvanSei]

I have tried Bing and it really isn't bad the search results are almost exactly the same as google's except when opening bing the homepage shows a picture with different facts on that picture, it's kind of neat but a little out of the way because who actually goes to a search engines home page?

[alexcnovak]

I'd like to see better filtering of results and/or more options to manually filter. Of course, there is a certain balance between offering more options and having the user ask the Google search engine better queries.

The logical syntax of constructing a query "Google-style" is not intuitive nor obviated by any sort of direction on the Google search page.

Google engines such as Google Squared (http://www.google.com/squared) or Google custom search (http://www.google.com/coop/cse/) lack robustness and are too literal. There is simply too much out there to sit there and comb through for what you want.

Even Google Advanced Search (http://www.google.com/advanced_search?q=robots&hl=en&num=100&tbo=1) is inconvenient due to the fact that it is outside of the direct page flow.

Google search algorithms supposedly improve search results as more search queries are filed and analyzed. This seems to be done on a group scale. I wonder if its time to do this on an individual level ...

[mf393]

I feel that there's no thing new. Bing is really great, Cuil is great too. Google needs to understand that its old-fashioned engine is not anymore useful. Something's telling me that Google does not want to make real changes to its engine. They only add some easy-to-make stuff like Timeline and Options panel.
I think Yahoo! and Bing are going to move search engines to a new level making getting information much easier.

[t8]

Thanks for the comment shill.

Please come to one Microsoft Way to pick up your pay.

[eltoro2827]

Google suxs

[doubleshotweb]

comparegoogle.com has been helpful in finding difference in search results for the two algorithms. Just put in some keywords and see what changed. Could be helpful for SEO engineers.