Last week was dominated by numerous changes at Google. GoogleGuy weighed in to varying degrees on each.
Personalized Search Demo
GoogleGuy was quick to point to the personalization service: “It’s a pretty fun demonstration. And even though this is just a demo, you can see that we’re playing with lots of ideas on how to improve the future of search.” He made a point, on several occasions, to refer to it as a “demo”, rather than just a “beta” service. This suggests that the level of personalization
(and associated algorithms) are fairly basic right now, with expansion to come in the future.
Numrange
GoogleGuy seemed most excited by this feature, which 99% of people will never use. The features enables search for ranges of numbers in the format 100..151.
Demotion of Google Directory
Obscured by some other other Google changes, the demotion of the Google Directory did not cause much of a stir. Previous to the new Google interface, pages in the search results, which were also in the Google Directory, included the directory description and category link below the search result. Webmasters enjoyed the extra prominence in the search results for sites with Directory listings. As of last week, these descriptions and links are no longer displayed. To get to the directory, you now have to click on the “more>>” link at the top of the page. In response to a few complaints, GoogleGuy said “I believe that relatively few people clicked on those links“. Even fewer will use the Google Directory now. I believe this signals the beginning of the end for the DMOZ-based Google Directory.
Gmail
The biggest news of the week was the new Google email service, Gmail. As the April Fools Day debates raged, GoogleGuy put on his best poker face. “I am really enjoying all the news coverage of Gmail on April Fool’s Day” was a typical post on April 1st. After April Fool’s Day ended, GoogleGuy came clean, confirming that the Gmail service is no joke. He provided little new information about the service, expect perhaps the first public Gmail user testimonial: “Now I only need to remember a few words from the email and a quick search brings it up. I never realized how valuable my email was until I had a great search over it.”
In a week full of new features and services by Google, there wasn’t any significant comments by GoogleGuy with respect search algorithms and updates. On a lighter note, he did incriminate himself in the replacement of Eric Schmidt’s photograph in company directory, in a past April Fools Day joke.
Mark Carey is a blogger, web site developer, and search engine optimizer. Through his company, Mark Carey Consulting, Mark provides SEO, blog design, and other web presence management services. Mark’s GoogleGuy Says web site is a popular webmaster resource for Google information.