Google does a Digg on search results (and C64 fanboyband)

Click the thumbs-up now for IT Blogwatch: in which Google experiments with search-result voting. Not to mention the Danish boyband who love their Commodore 64s...

Haochi Chen reports:

Google Experimental is currently running a ... Digg-style experiment ... On a result page, you can choose move a search result to the top ... [or] if you don’t like the page, you can hide it in future searches. [more]

Life gave us MG Siegler:

[It's] particularly interesting, as it appears to be using a Digg-esque up-arrow button called 'Like It' and a Digg-esque bury button (an 'X') called 'Don't Like It'. [more]

Scott Gilbertson drives home the point:

In short, it more or less takes a page from social news sites like Digg or Reddit and applies it Google searches. [more]

Duncan Riley is wise after the event:

If you saw this one coming, give yourself a very large prize ... At the moment the results of the program will only be stored per user and not applied to the general search index. [more]

But are you pondering what Alice Marshall's pondering?

Presumably if this reached critical mass it would alter overall search results. [more]

Abhijit Nadgouda's not so sure:

Will Google risk quality of its search results, which is a product of years of research, loads of time and money, be affected by laymen? I doubt that it will let the user override its search results, they can perhaps complement the machine calculated search results. [more]

And Mathew Ingram just scoffs:

This just sounds like just another step in customized search, which Google has been experimenting with for some time ... Google is going to start letting people vote on results in the Google index as a whole? I think the odds of that are approaching zero. After all, PageRank already effectively does that. [more]

Wayne Smallman compares with StumbleUpon:

It’s a wonderfully neat idea ... Not everyone will want to join StumbleUpon and install their toolbar. But if such functionality is part & parcel of the search experience, the number of people such functionality would be exposed to is colossal. [more]

Marshall Kirkpatrick is frustrated:

Voting has been around longer than Digg, so even if you see voting happening, it's not necessary to call it Digg-like. Ok? ... The US Presidential election, for example, is based on voting - but is nothing like Digg. [more]

And finally...

• PRESS PLAY ON TAPE, a bizarre Danish boyband, sings about the Commodore 64
  

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Richi Jennings is an independent analyst/adviser/consultant, specializing in blogging, email, and spam. A 20 year, cross-functional IT veteran, he is also an analyst at Ferris Research. You too can pretend to be Richi's friend on Facebook, or just use boring old email: blogwatch@richi.co.uk.

Previously in IT Blogwatch:

• Le iPhone et 3G (but is it art?)
• Verizon's open plan surprises and delights (and messy rabbit)
• Monday's online shopping: HUGE (and Brit beer spot)