Google Testing SERPS With Infinite Scrolling

[anand84]

Now this could be really helpful in those cases where our pages are listed at the second or third pages and hence aren't seeing as many visits as those pages that are ranked marginally above and are listed at number 1.

[googlesystem.blogspot.com...]

[tedster]

It sure could help, especially now that so many times the organic results are pushed down the page.

[Panthro]

good idea taken out of DuckDuckgo's book

[Alekh]

nice thing.. may it will help much...

[tedster]

Here's a video of the new infinite scrolling in action: [searchengineland.com...]

[Shatner]

This is a great idea. First thing Google's done in awhile that I'm 100% on board with. MUCH better idea than that Google instant garbage.

[brinked]

This is a good idea. Duckduckgo is a great search engine and part of it is from its infinite scrolling.

Infinite scrolling is much less annoying than having to click through pages.

[Shatner]

And people are far more likely to do it. They'll just scroll down till they see what they want, wheras now they stop at the bottom of page one and try a new search.

This could be a huge boon to sites on page 2 and 3 of results.... but also searchers who lets' face it, are missing out on a LOT of really good stuff because so many don't know to go past page 1.

[nickreynolds]

Will this mean no more phone calls from people telling me they can get me on page one of google?

[kidder]

Yes good point, the level playing field. We are all on page one.

[Shaddows]

Some initial thoughts:
Videos don't include Adword-heavy SERPs. How will that work?

Also, penalties will go unnoticed, unless they get more draconian.

SEOs will get less upset by the inclusion of Universal Google Advertising (AKA Universal Search)

Google will suffer near-instant revenue loss from ad-blindness. How many sites do you load up with your finger on the scroll-button, ready to go straight to the content? Add Google to that list.

[nomis5]

If infinite scrolling is implemented then I would suggest that sites with Rich Snippets pictures in the SERPS will benefit hugely.

Many people will scroll up and down the SERPS almost mindlessly, looking for something they want - those pics in the SERPS will stand out a mile.

[walkman]

Look good but let's wait for the implementation. If you think it will be like DuckDuckGo, I suspect you'll be disappointed. Right now Google is running tests on how their earnings are effected, or to put in Googlespeak "testing user experience."

That will determine every how many listings ads are displayed.

[tedster]

Right now Google is running tests on how their earnings are effected

I don't buy that. Even recently, organic search engineers have stated they don't even have a mechanism to gather that data.

[Tropical Island]

Yeah interesting how this will affect AdWords & first page pricing.

They already use infinite scrolling in Image Search

[walkman]

I don't buy that. Even recently, organic search engineers have stated they don't even have a mechanism to gather that data.

Even assuming that is true, page display on Google.com has nothing to do with ranking results.

_{As I've said before they do have the mechanism, they can promote brands which are much more likely to be Google advertisers. It's not 100% but...close enough}

[mrguy]

I don't buy that. Even recently, organic search engineers have stated they don't even have a mechanism to gather that data.

You seriously buy that? The brighest minds don't have a mechanism to gather that type of data yet they figure out what you want before you type it?

Wow Tedster, did somebody spike your coffee with Goog Aid :)

[Shaddows]

Organic Search Engineers are not paid to increase revenue, any more than my company pays me to increase Field Sales revenue.

They do pay someone to do that, but it isn't me.

The fact that we are primarily an online entity, and Field Sales relies on the website to get customers is merely incidental. I (indirectly) generate the leads, they make the sale. We don't compare numbers, we don't have a combined strategy. I do my job, they do theirs.

We might not be a Billion Dollar company, but even we are siloed. There is no overarching strategy. Departmental specialisation is a fact.

That said, Organic Search and SERP layout are not going to be the same team. It makes no sense to imagine Google would willfully throw away revenue for a layout change. Similarly, it makes no sense to destroy usability by over saturating with ads. Crap user experience is going to drive traffic away much faster than a marginal decrease in search quality.

[walkman]

Similarly, it makes no sense to destroy usability by over saturating with ads. Crap user experience is going to drive traffic away much faster than a marginal decrease in search quality.

This is where testing comes in: how much we gain and how much will users tolerate before they leave. And if they leave, what % does leave and what we gain. Losing 1% a year might be deemed acceptable if it gains them an extra $x billion a year, there is more at play than good serps when it comes to users. Plus ads are probably seen as part of SERPS by most, so they matter only to us.

We might not be a Billion Dollar company, but even we are siloed. There is no overarching strategy. Departmental specialisation is a fact.

True, but your department boss and the sales team boss both report to the main boss and there's an executive team that makes certain long term decisions that coordinates everything. You run the website but you may get a memo to maybe try this or that. Doesn't have to be direct.

[anand84]

Google will suffer near-instant revenue loss from ad-blindness. How many sites do you load up with your finger on the scroll-button, ready to go straight to the content? Add Google to that list.

Tedster had posted a video a while back in this thread that shows SERPS having a floating sidebar on the left. I don't see any reason why Google shouldn't make the Adwords ads on the right floating as well.

I think this plan to go infinite has been in the works for quite some time - when they planned to remove the search bar at the bottom of the page. Now, by keeping the left bar, search box and Adwords units floating, Google can ensure that users can perform instant search (and consequently view ads) at any point during the search results viewing process..

[Shaddows]

This is where testing comes in: how much we gain and how much will users tolerate before they leave. And if they leave, what % does leave and what we gain. Losing 1% a year might be deemed acceptable if it gains them an extra $x billion a year, there is more at play than good serps when it comes to users. Plus ads are probably seen as part of SERPS by most, so they matter only to us.

I agree, apart from the 1% loss bit. They need to keep their search volume increasing, or their primary cost (traffic acquisition costs- TAC) increases. When TAC outstrips revenue growth, people get nervous.

Of course Google wants to get as much revenue from their real estate as their content will support- that's what I'm trying to do anyway.

True, but your department boss and the sales team boss both report to the main boss and there's an executive team that makes certain long term decisions that coordinates everything. You run the website but you may get a memo to maybe try this or that. Doesn't have to be direct.

Actually, my primary responsibility is strategy and number crunching (we now have a team focussing on SM, SEO and content and structure- all of which IS co-ordinated). The first goal is traffic acquistion. Traffic, traffic, traffic. Traffic is all. Once we have the traffic, we try to monetise it- but that comes afterwards. We certainly would not sacrafice traffic for some kind of per-head revenue gain. It's against the very notion of scalability.

Look at current IPOs. Valuations are not profit-based.

floating sidebar

Good point. That will drive up bidding costs as there is a fixed limit on how many will fit on the screen

[indyank]

I would even think beyond the floating sidebar...ads could even be popping up in true ajax style, with every page scroll...

[londrum]

I think we'll have to make our titles stand out even more now, because when they introduce this people will be able to speedy scroll up and down the serps.

look at how quickly we can browse through google images now -- we can whizz through ten "pages" in half a second.

people will be able to whizz through the serps far too quickly to read -- so we'll really have to have a title that pops out of the page.

[mhansen]

I would even think beyond the floating sidebar...ads could even be popping up in true ajax style, with every page scroll...

I would have to concur with this line of thought or some other way to fit in the lower bidders. After all, if they only show one sidebar ad unit, there will be no page-2 bidders, etc. Aka... One static group of advertisers per query.

Of course, that would drive revenue up since the highest bidders are always in the first block of ads, right?

[walkman]

I agree that it will probably be a floating ad section with a "load more" option. This might also consolidate advertisers, making them bid up to the wazoo and causing small ones to drop bidding for good keywords.

<sub>As for the rest, Shatner: for people to leave they need to find a better engine and Google /Bing can always change and leave it up to the tipping point. Also, not all traffic is the same. "Home Loan" and "chart of gray shades" have quite a different value to Google /Bing and us.

And after going public, with some narrow exceptions, earnings matter. The Wall Street will put up for a while but even then they will drive your stock so low that you cannot pay your employees with stock options anymore, and you will have many unhappy employees, since their $1 million becomes $700K...or $180K. So Goog, MSFT or AAPL can tell Wall Street to f-off, but it's not smart.

Look what happened to Google's stock on the first quarter and what happened in the second one.</sub>

[Shatner]

Nooooo Google Instant is back today. I thought it was gone for good. I guess that means they aren't committed to doing this and are still high on Google Instant. They can't do both.