Would You Like SearchWiki More if You Could Hear it?

By Chris Crum - Sat, 12/20/2008 - 15:13

Google Adds Sound Effect to Experiments

The latest Google experimental lab is the addition of sound to its controversial SearchWiki, the recently launched personalized search results pages that allow users to vote results up or down, delete them, and comment on them. Google's experimental page says:

Do you like SearchWiki? Do you enjoy having the power to remove results from your search results pages? Now you can do so in style by having a sound effect play along with the animation whenever you remove a result.

Recorded by our co-founder Sergey Brin himself, this sound effect is sure to please!

The feature appears to be a limited test, which does not work for everybody. It works for me, but Barry Schwartz says at Search Engine Land that he is not getting any sound. Tech Crunch provides a video that displays the sound, which seems to only contain one effect, for when the removal of results. Perhaps in the future they will add more sounds to different SearchWiki functions.

The sound is "cute" and all, but I don't think it's going to win over too many people who are skeptical of SearchWiki's usefulness. The majority of commentary I have encountered regarding it is not very positive. There is basically, an "it wasn't broke so don't fix it" kind of mentality with regards to Google's search results.

Nevertheless, change is on the horizon, and while SearchWiki does not affect regular Google results yet, there is a possibility that it will factor into them in the future, creating reputation management nightmares (as Jill Whalen puts it) for a lot of people.

News Tags: Google, google experiments, SERPs, searchwiki, Google Labs

About the author:
Chris Crum has been a part of the WebProNews team and the iEntry Network of B2B Publications since 2003.

8 Comments

By marius (WPN reader) - Sun, 12/28/2008 - 13:26

Search should be kept to the

Search should be kept to the basic, we are searching for results not fancy features

By Joy-Mari (WPN reader) - Tue, 12/23/2008 - 11:16

Digg users

I'm sure the Digg users will love this feature.

By Kitchen Remodeling Estimates Salem OR (WPN reader) - Tue, 12/23/2008 - 05:26

Does it matter?

I mean who is actually going to use SearchWiki? Does anyone other than SEOs know it even exists?

Will your mom use it? Dad? Wife? Husband? Kids?

Im a search expert and I can tell you 'No.' to all of them for our circle.

People will either go to Google.com (or their country flavor) enter a query (and refine?) then get to clicking on results.

How many more studies do we need to read about people being lazy and just wanting to get to where they are going with the least amount of work and resistance? Are you really going to scroll to the bottom of every search you do, click the SearchWiki link and then click more links to look at comments and then decide what site to visit??

No.

By Sam Nichols (WPN reader) - Mon, 12/22/2008 - 09:59

I really get annoyed when

I really get annoyed when there is unwanted sound at the background of a website, there i no need for google to add a sound feature, it wont make the experience of deleting the unwanted search more pleasant, but only more annoying!

By Host-Best (WPN reader) - Sun, 12/21/2008 - 09:22

I guess it's not the worst thing...

I guess it's not the worst thing to do if it only makes a sound on removal of a result. However I cant see why it matters. As long as it's not like a website that starts playing some sound when I first show up. I do keep my sound on when navigating and when I land on a page that does this I leave right away. I think if you are looking for high bounce rates then a noisy site is the way to go. I am there to look, not listen.

By Affordable SEO Services (WPN reader) - Sat, 12/20/2008 - 19:17

Ya, I don't think a sound is

Ya, I don't think a sound is really the feature that it needs. Most of the time I navigate the web with my sound turned off so as to avoid annoying music on some websites, so I would never even have noticed this. And I can see how it could just be an annoyance to some users.

By JR (WPN reader) - Sun, 12/21/2008 - 00:36

annoying

Not a fan of sound when I'm surfing either, I think it's just annoying. What's the point, unless they want people to get overzealous deleting search results, just to hear the sound effect?