With all the seo’ing I’ve been doing, I’ve realised very quickly how most of the very competitive keywords have been taken over by some very enterprising individuals. Not quite sure what I’m on about? Try searching for Web Hosting, and you get the top result as webhostingbluebook.com - wtf? it’s just a site loaded with affiliate links (not much better than my own web hosting reviews site. hehe :P). I’m pretty new at this but from what I’ve read, it seems this has been happening for years and I’ve only jumped onto the bandwagon a bit late.

Google’s finally starting the fight to win back better search results by recently banning many sites that it deems has participated in link building schemes to unnaturally advantage its own search ranking. (Try searching for Big Web Links and you will not be able to find the bidding directory website I blogged about earlier!). There’s a lot of speculation on whether all this is being done manually or whether they are working on some sort of smart algorithm to catch all the link traders. Frankly, I don’t see how they can distinguish between paid links and proper links. If they do come up with an algo, it will just push webmasters to be more discreet about it.

Well, in what is probably the biggest admission that their search engine is getting very outdated and their search results are beginning to suck, Google has rolled out an experimental search , with a digg-like concept.

What is it?
Google is always experimenting with new features aimed at improving the search experience.

This experiment lets you influence your search experience by adding, moving, and removing search results. When you search for the same keywords again, you’ll continue to see those changes. If you later want to revert your changes, you can undo any modifications you’ve made. Note that this is an experimental feature and may be available for only a few weeks.

How do I use it?

Like it?
This button (fig. 1b) will move the result to the top of the page and add this orange marker (fig. 1a) next to it so you can easily recognize it. The result(s) you promote will appear at the top whenever you search for the same keyword(s) in the future.

Don’t like it?
This button (fig. 1b) will remove the result, and it will remain hidden when you search for the same keyword(s) in the future.

Know of a better webpage?
At the bottom of the search results (fig. 1c) you can give the address of a page that’s relevant to your search. When you search for these same keyword(s) the page you’ve suggested will appear at the top with this orange marker .

Is it permanent?
Your changes will be applied each time you search for the same keyword(s). There’s a link at the bottom of the search results that lets you view the results in their original ordering.

Do you have to be signed in?
Yes. To see your changes next time, you must be signed in to your Google account.

This is almost like the Sproose search engine (see: Human Powered Search Engines), except that Google’s ingenious sleight of hand is that it allows individual users to sort their own search results but this does not immediately affect the general public results. My guess is that once they collect enough results, they will be able to easy filter out the spammy sites and just keep the useful ones. This slight difference between the experimental search and Sproose will mean that Google will be able to better cope with search ’spam’ attacks as they are the ones that ultimately control when they have gathered enough real data to meaningfully alter their search results.

This news has really put me on notice. November has been a great month for me and my keyword domains are keeping my adsense account ticking over on a daily basis. If Google is able to successfully implement this human factor to their search engine though, I will be forced to spend a lot more time on these domains to make them look less ‘made-for-adsense’ (MFA) and more content rich. sigh…

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