The Golden Hat

Udi Manber, VP of Engineering at Google and the person in charge of Google’s Search Quality Team, gave those of us in the Search world a refreshing dose of transparency into some of Google’s practices and internal organization. As Udi points out the secrets of their Google search algorithm are treated as the Google crown jewels for a few very simple reasons: competition and abuse.

Of course we can’t expect to be given the key to the lock protecting Google’s “crown jewel”, but as Search professionals or those invested in the quality of online content we can follow the museum rule of look, but don’t touch. So Google is showing signs of extroversion and opening up a bit. As Udi Manber wrote, “…being completely secretive isn’t ideal, and this blog post is part of a renewed effort to open up a bit more than we have in the past. We will try to periodically tell you about new things, explain old things, give advice, spread news, and engage in conversations.”

Something that I would like to have more visibility into as a Search Professional is Google’s steps into improving the user experience. Udi makes it clear that Google’s primary goal is not to improve the user experience, it is Google’s ONLY goal. I find it valuable to see the direction that the major search engines are moving in so that I can evaluate a search engine not only by the quality and relevancy of the content found in it’s search results, but in the quality and relevancy of their new developments, product improvements and innovations.

Udi spoke of the approximately 450 user experience improvements implemented last year by Google’s Search Quality Team, averaging a blistering speed of about 9 user experience roll-outs per week. That’s pretty impressive. Chances are though I’d have to dig and dig to find mention of most of these improvements. One could comb through the Official Google Blog or various other search industry insider blogs, yet I doubt we would find mention of all of these improvements and their anticipated impact on Google user experience.

Maybe I’m just lazy. But Udi, if you’re listening, I for one would find great value in seeing a list of these user experience improvements. With so much evaluation and refinement going on with the Search Quality Team I can’t help but wonder what’s coming out next!?

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