New Promo Video on Google Search

[Brett_Tabke]

Worth a watch:
How Google makes improvements to its search algorithm
[youtube.com...]

keywords: quality raters, sandbox, escape hatch, 200 signals,

[googleblog.blogspot.com...]

[aleksl]

nothing new here, just an ad, move along.

oh, the sandbox...nobody new (sarcasm)

oh, they compare results side by side...I would be surprised if they did not and just launch it.

oh, escape hatch, heh..did someone do an actual field test on that javascript page replacing feature a) on a dial-up in another country, b) when it suggests something it should not, c) when you can't click "back", d) when you do something and javascript "x" button disappears, etc? there' maybe 10 bugs I alone can name on that interface.

Oh, and not to forget, with the left-hand side now I see exactly 1.5 "free SERP" results on that page without scrolling - that is indeed a "user experience".

200 signals, yeah.... old news.

Anything new?

This search is getting so paid, that pretty soon they'd have to resort to drug types of advertisements - "feeling dizzy? don't know where your SERPs are? just ask your DR. Google which paid ad to click".

[Freedom]

It reminds me of mega chemical corporation with a feel good tv ad about how they are making the environment a better place.

They only launched this for one reason, a PR move against the backlash of stupidity they've demonstrated in 2011. It's a self-defense move.

Running YouTube listings for Widgets that sold years ago (making the video obsolete), is not a good idea, unless you are trying to keep traffic within your own network.

In Europe, they used to throw eggs at MS execs who gave public talks. PR only goes so far with people and is not as effective as it was 20-30 years ago. People are too cynical of little Evil Empires.

[johnhh]

In Europe, they used to throw eggs at MS execs who gave public talks

<rant>Can't do that to Google in the UK as a director of goggle uk is married to a guy at No.10 so probably get arrested ! - anything to make sure they don't pay UK tax at the normal rate. Google UK is the second biggest market outside the USA. </rant>

[trinorthlighting]

Quality must equal amazon, lowes, home depot , ace hardware, target and all the other big box stores that are dominating google these days....

Way to invest in quality raters Google....great job

[inbound]

The problem seems to be the "average" user that they aim at, and you can't blame them for setting up their system to suit 80% of the people. Unfortunately, that's where the money is so no-one's going to build an engine that serves the rest of us in a hurry - the recent article in Nature that lamented on the lack of better search technologies can be explained by the limited needs/demads of the average user.

[Freedom]

My developing philosophy for their "big box" move, their "Wal-Marting" of the web, is to get into Niches they have absolutely no interest in or concept of.

The quality raters suffer from Group Think and lots of meeting where "quality" is "hinted" and "inferred" to them.

Try hiring an outside quality assurance team. Oh, it's already been done and MSN kicked their ast.

[Sgt_Kickaxe]

The video suggests Google is unbiased?

Unbiased views are an impossibility, your brain does it faster than you can grasp. Besides, after the video says they are unbiased they go on to describe how they want to please the visitor which in and of itself is bias since its based on human decisions.

Our sites have all been visited by a real google employee (or outside person doing a job for google) and its very likely that the split decision they made has lingering effects. That's hardly unbiased.

My response to Google would be this: Google, when you send me fewer visitors because of one of your changes you force me to increase the number of ads I display in order to compensate. Fewer visitors = more advertisements to those you send. You may do well to consider that in your decision machine. Your changes not only impact webmasters, they impact the very websites you covet.

[Bennie]

LOL at Matt Cutts sitting there thinking "Dude, you have no idea what you are talking about"

Nice to see the Eval team making regular FAIL for all the USER base. Of the 500 or so changes, how many are taken back and spliced with old data to keep some sort of relevance I wonder? They sure put a lot of trust in their evaluators, which is amusing :D

[loner]

In ten years or less they'll all be replaced by an algorithm that evaluates and adjusts itself.

[robzilla]

Ugh, so much unwarranted, irrelevant Google bashing going on here (and in pretty much every post-Panda thread related to Google), and this is just about a simple video. Admittedly, there's not much news in it, but I thought it was nice to have it explained visually for once. Thanks for sharing.

[jimorandy]

I think they are overestimating the intelligence of the average Google user when talking about the "escape hatch". I think most people simple will not see it and will think "Google is broken". So, if it's 1 in 50 who clicked it - it's more like 1 in 10 who are not satisfied.

Also, did anybody notice the "results that have miss-spellings are usually of the lower quality" comment? Maybe I shouldn't make those targeted pages for misspellings?

[J_RaD]

the stuff google pays people to do, then pays people to redo, then check, recheck.

I wouldn't be surprised if they are hiring nose pickers at this point. Oh i mean "analyst" .

[jmccormac]

It should keep the fanboys and fangirls happy since that's its general level.

Regards...jmcc