Have the rules of SEO changed with Google and Searchwiki

[masteronlineprofits]

Hi

Just saw this article, that allows users to tweak seach results and move websites up and down on the results page.

Google lets you tweak its search algorithms - BizTech - Technology - smh.com.au

Thoughts?

[Ray Abraham]

I was just about to create a new thread about this... but you beat me, lol.

Yeah, I just noticed that this morning... pretty cool feature, indeed.
I think maybe Google collect the data and in the end take it into consideration
for the next Google SERP update.

What do you think?

[Jeremy Kelsall]

I think about the only thing that it will really affect is how YOU see the results. Meaning, you can bump a result up and it shows changed for YOU but not for other searchers.

I'm sure Google is smart enough to know that it is only a matter of time before someone would come up with a software program to abuse the hell out of it.

[Ganceann]

If I remember Google had a patent surrounding this (I can't find the link now)... but it was around personalized search and using social interaction to determine part of the displayed search results.

With the growth in social media sites, social bookmarking and general interaction of the web it isn't surprising to find that it could be possible to have an impact in serps positions for any site you visit or interact with.

The logical first step is to have it affect only personal results so that you get a better search experience (as perceived by Google). However, the biggest flaw is that it will not mean you get the right information on things, just the information you think is right - basically can lead to a nonsense generation where the facts about anything could become obsolete or so hard to find. I believe it could even come to the point where there is a new structure to the internet... a social internet and a commercial internet.

The social internet will remain freely accessible as it currently is while the commercial internet will have a subscription system (either website owners would be charged or consumers would be billed by ISPs etc).

[WinsonYeung]

Hmmm, i have no idea what will happen to the SEO.... SInce people can change the position that they want the ads to see....

[Kunle Olomofe]

I think this pretty much answers the question...

Although the revisions won't affect Google's closely guarded formulas for ranking websites, the company isn't ruling out eventually tapping into collective wisdom of the crowds to tweak its internet-searching algorithms.

For now, Google simply wants to make specific sets of results more useful to each individual that comes to its search engine.

The decision to let people tinker with their results is a tacit acknowledgment that not even Google's seemingly omniscient search engine can possibly divine which websites will appeal to specific users. It also underscores how frequently people use Google to search for the same thing, such as "San Francisco hotels," over and over again. Source

Basically, from that it seems clear this is only for personal use and will only possibly affect organic searches later down the line when and if google decides to use your personal data and that from millions of others to decide which sites should get the boot... I don't see this as a way to make your SEO marketing any better for you, unless you know a thousand or more people willing to sign up and PREFER your sites regularly on your behalf.

I see it as another personal assistant tool to help you work faster that's all.

[bgmacaw]

In the worst case, it's part of Google's attempt to get marketers to buy Adwords and not 'sponge' off of search results. In other words, a way to use monopoly power 'block the tracks' like John D. Rockefeller did over 100 years ago with Standard Oil.

In best case, average people won't use it so it won't be important for quite some time, if at all.

[Eric Stanley]

As a user who has access to change the rankings in the wiki with my google account, I think its a decent idea.. but your SEO practices at the moment aren't threatened. Only as others have said.. if Google decides to use the aggregate data to alter rankings.. thats a whole other can of worms..