User voting on search results could kill Google
Dramatic title I know but If Digg style voting on Google Search results becomes mainstream instead of experimental then I fear the end for Google.
Don’t get me wrong, this could be great from the iGoogle point of view allowing you to tailor your search results to suit yourself.
However, if Google decide to incorporate the data generated from iGoogle user voting into the ordinary search results (or worse incorporate the yes/no voting into the main Google search) it could result in a field day for spammers
Spammers, virus and malware peddlers and other such miscreants are generally organized and ahead of the curve. They’re certainly quick to find new ways to abuse a feature such as search result voting.
It’s not beyond any conceivable realm of possibility that one or a group of these nefarious types could organize enough iGoogle profiles to influence search results in their favor. The result being that you end up being sent to virus and malware laden pages instead of the result you expected.
It’s not as if we don’t have enough problems with that already.
I know the big brains over at Google have already thought about this sort of thing, but I do believe that if the results were incorporated into the regular SERP’s I would loose some confidence in Google’s ability to deliver unbiased results.
Some folks may say that if Google did this it would make results better as votes from real people would help filter out the nefarious crap in the SERPs.
I’m not so sure.
How many folks actually use iGoogle? Now be honest when answering that!
Most folks outside the geek sphere don’t know it even exists and of those that do, there are vast swaths that simply don’t use it or prefer another solution such as netvibes.
With that in mind, it’s easy to see how a spammer may be able to organize enough people or bots to influence the results.
If folks loose confidence in Google SERPs they’ll move elsewhere and that means a drop in eyeballs viewing adverts and the SERP adverts sold through AdWords are among the most valuable to Google.
Here’s hoping this particular feature only ever makes it as far as iGoogle and that’s where the data stays.
It’s well known that I hate software bloat but today I came across one that while not necessarily bloated is definitely packing way more stuff than it needs to be.
