Posts by Rob Bromilow

Google has introduced a new way of personalising search results. We have noticed personalised results as part of being logged into a Gmail account and also depending on IP address Google will show results it knows you have chosen to go to before. The new stars that are showing in results will allow users to save preferred results for future reference (bookmarking essentially), so that they show up at the top of the listings when making the same search next time.

How it Works

The new method of bookmarking will show a little star outline next to the search results. If a user clicks on the star it will save the result so that when the user repeats the search they get their favoured results listed above the organic, regular results. The starred results will synchronise with Google Toolbar and Bookmarks so that they can be managed and organised in one place. Google News will also see the Star feature incorporated so you can save favourite articles.

The introduction of the Google Stars bookmarking feature has also spelled the end of Search Wiki. This feature enabled users to customise the rankings and make notes on each one. Google obviously see the star feature as a dramatic improvement on Search Wiki, completely replacing it and now allowing even more customisation for search results.

It is yet to be seen how popular this feature will become but there is nothing to suggest it won’t be widely used and be the benchmark for search engine personalisation.

Rob Bromilow
Natural SEO Programmer

Google have announced recently that they are still a few months away from rolling out their new search infrastructure to all users. Many people are anxiously waiting to see the changes from the update, but the recent news means we will have to wait a while longer. The IP address of the only data centre where Caffeine was up and running has changed, and users can no longer access Caffeine results knowingly.

A spokesperson from Google said: “we expect to roll it out to all data centers over the coming months.” This is a complete change of mind by Google, as in November Matt Cutts wrote a blog post explaining that Caffeine would be rolled out after “the holidays” – presumably Christmas. “We run lots of tests with this big a change to our infrastructure,” the Google spokesperson said: “We want the new system to meet or exceed the abilities of our current system, and it can take time to ensure that everything looks good.”

Where Can We See Caffeine Now?

There is no obvious way of finding Caffeine anymore as Google doesn’t want people to know. All of this is a big change from last summer when they first announced Google Caffeine. They also allowed developers to provide feedback on the infrastructure with the sandbox version of the site. The sandbox was closed by Christmas and now we are waiting even longer to see the new structure and results from Caffeine.

Rob Bromilow
Natural SEO Programmer