Changes at Google: Caffeine Update

[vangogh]

Yesterday Google announced that they've been working behind the scenes to on the next generation architecture for how they'll do web search. The project has been code named Caffeine and the best part is you can test it right now:

Google (Caffeine Update) (http://www2.sandbox.google.com/)

It won't look any different as this isn't a change to the user interface. The changes are behind the scenes.

From the Google Webmaster Central Blog (http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2009/08/help-test-some-next-generation.html)



For the last several months, a large team of Googlers has been working on a secret project: a next-generation architecture for Google's web search. It's the first step in a process that will let us push the envelope on size, indexing speed, accuracy, comprehensiveness and other dimensions.


Depending on what you search for you may or may not notice any difference in the results between Caffeine and the regular Google search. My guess is in time you will and those changes will make their way into the main Google search. I would expect at some point in the future we'll see changes to some of the ranking algorithms.

Some SEOs are already reporting that they're seeing less spam in the results of Caffeine, though for the most part not a huge difference.

Matt Cutts added a few thoughts in More Info on the Caffeine Update (http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/caffeine-update/)

[Dan Furman]

Yay - I love it when they do this and make all the "tricks" less effective.

My SEO philosophy has always been very simple: be the best, most useful site you can be for the industry you serve.

Because, when you really think about it, Google has one real goal when it comes to search - to provide the end user with the most useful links. Not the links that figured out Google's system, but the best links period.

[vangogh]

I haven't used Caffeine a lot yet, but when I have it does feel faster to me and I think I'm seeing less spam. Hard to know without the direct comparison. I won't be surprised if before the week is out someone will create a page that compares results from both side by side.

[KristineS]

I've read some blog posts and such that say that people who've tried it are really liking Caffeine, but I haven't tried it yet. I'll have to give it a whirl and see if I see a difference.

[vangogh]

So far my use of the new Caffeine beta is still limited, but my initial impression is that it's pretty good. It definitely feels faster, which alone is worth an update.

By the way one reason Google is let us publicly view the change is so we can offer feedback. So don't be shy about sending them feedback.

[KristineS]

I did some searches with Google Caffeine that I've done with regular Google. I did see less spam and crap results. So that was nice. Wasn't a huge difference, but I did see one.

[rezzy]

I actually did see a comparsion between the two. One thing that was noted was on the new one, they cleaned up business search. Which makes it look a bit neater.

The good thing is, the common person wont ever notice a change. If anyone will notice it, it will be IT people.

[vangogh]

I think Google pushed this out for the tech people. IT, web developers, SEOs, etc so they could offer feedback.

Seems I was right about a comparison tool being not too far off. Here's one I found. Google Caffeine Compare (http://www.facesaerch.com/caffeine/)

[Steve B]

Well, I noticed there wasn't a "sponsored links" section.

[vangogh]

I'm sure it'll be there in time. Google isn't planning on getting rid of that since it's how they make nearly all their money.

[orion_joel]

Looks interesting most notable results for me seem to show that the a very big difference in the number of search results return. Searching for my site "No Fixed Office" as the search term. Original Google search return 33.6M results, where as the new caffeine update returns about about 14.3M This really is still many more then i think you would ever want to know about. But the top 5 results are identical for both, then they start to differ.

[vangogh]

I haven't noticed much difference in the results yet either. It's going to depend on the type of queries you do though. Most probably won't see any differences, but some people who are testing it seem to think there is less spam in the results. Maybe we need to try some searches for things where we'd expect to see some spam and then compare the results.

[rezzy]

part of the returned results could be based on if you are logged in or not... google tracks your searches and returns searches based on your history.

[Spider]

Yay - I love it when they do this and make all the "tricks" less effective.
My SEO philosophy has always been very simple: be the best, most useful site you can be for the industry you serve.
Because, when you really think about it, Google has one real goal when it comes to search - to provide the end user with the most useful links....I wish I could be as magnanimous. I believe Google has one real goal when it comes to search - to provide themselves with as much money as possible, and if the most useful links serve that purpose then most useful links it is. If not, not! If permitting some "tricks" and refusing others earns them more money, then "most useful links" is out the window!

Which is why I don't use Google for my searching and why I own Google stock!

But, certainly, I agree that being the best, most useful site you can be for the industry you serve is the wisest course of action.

[vangogh]

Frederick you make a good point about Google. People do need to understand that they are a business first. Now I do think their goal with their search results is generally to provide the best results they can, or rather the perception that they deliver the best results of any search engine. It's in the interest of their bottom line to have as many of us as possible searching their site as often as possible.

At the same time we should never forget they are a business and have shareholders to answer to. There have been many accusations over the years that some get away with much more than others when it comes to results. Google current algorithms seem to favor big brands and big business and many speculate it's because those same big brands spend a lot more money on AdWords than you or I.

There have been several examples of big names who very obviously did things in violation of Google's guidelines and they were given a slap on the wrists. You or I would have been banned for months from their results if not forever.

They do still have some pretty good results. And search in general is much better since they came along. I don't use Google exclusively, but I do still use them often.

[orion_joel]

Frederick, what you say about google and making money as their primary focus is exactly why i think they make the show they are trying to remove junk from the search results but then allowing that exact same stuff in the sponsored links. What benefit is it to them to get rid of the spam in the links they make money when someone clicks

[Business Attorney]

Well, I just got around to try it and it is "undergoing maintenance." :(

It will be interesting to see how it develops. It is interesting to me that they would feel the need to restructure the architecture rather than continue to tweak what appears to be a very good search engine. I wonder whether there is more to this than initially meets the eye?

[vangogh]

They took it down for a time Wednesday night I think. It was supposed to be back up yesterday afternoon though. Maybe it's going to be on and off for a few days.

I think the architecture changes will have more to do with getting the results to you faster and help them with server resources etc. Google has made it sound like this is more about that kind of thing than algorithm changes, but the algorithm changes will be in there as well.

I've seen so many posts talking about Caffeine with all the usual speculation and nonsense. Sometimes it's funny to watch people blog about things when there are little to no facts.

The public viewing seems designed for a couple of goals. Getting some feedback from the seo and web development community who are the ones mostly likely to test and send feedback. Also it's a nice way for Google to take media attention away from Bing and Yahoo becoming one and bringing some of that attention back on itself.

[Dan Furman]

I wish I could be as magnanimous. I believe Google has one real goal when it comes to search - to provide themselves with as much money as possible, and if the most useful links serve that purpose then most useful links it is. If not, not! If permitting some "tricks" and refusing others earns them more money, then "most useful links" is out the window!


Google is done for if they don't provide the best searches. It's their backbone. They know this. And I agree - they don't do this as a favor to anyone. They do it because it is in their best interest to.

They even put a stop to adwords campaigns that they deem spammy.

[Spider]

Am I correct in feeling that leapfish.com is already doing "instant search" ?

LeapFish (http://www.leapfish.com)

I was a bit puzzled what Leapfish was, at first -- a dialog box without a "search" button -- but the search terms entered are acted upon instantly. And you can choose between YAHOO, MSN and Google.

Very interesting.

[vangogh]

Looks like they basically added an Ajax search interface on top of your choice of results. Google, et all also let you have the search suggest as you type, but they don't have the results themselves appear until you hit the search button. It's kind of nice to have them show up as your typing. I think I've seen a few others doing the same or similar.

One thing I did notice is you aren't seeing exactly what you'd see going to Google or Yahoo or Bing. The extras like videos embedded in the results are missing. That may be a positive or negative depending on your preference of course.