Google launched their SearchWiki which is a way for users to customize results to best meet their individual needs by re-ranking, deleting, adding, and commenting on search results. Check out this video from Google Official Blog

This move certainly has implications for search engine marketers like Valeo as well as for the average Google user. For online marketers, teh ability to have our sites ‘voted’ up or down could have some pretty important ramifications for anyone who relies on organic traffic to drive people their sites.

In order to use this new feature you have to have a Google account and be signed in when you perform a search on Google. You can easily see this in the top-right corner of the page when you go to Google.com and it will show you which account (if any) you are signed in with. This brings up another good point that it is surprising that how Google has made the SearchWiki feature active by default for every Google account. A survery by Search Engine Roundtable suggest that most people (83% at last check) are not ready for the SearchWiki feature.

Google has put the power in the hands of the users on this one, Dave Fleet has some interesting points that the SearchWiki represents the “Diggification” of Google where people can promote, relegate and comment on results; and the unique implications for online marketing and PR:

1. Another place to monitor
2. Increased customer interaction
3. Control by the customer
4. Advantage goes to the existing players
5. More expensive Adwords
6. (Unconfirmed) SEO potential

So why is Google pushing this to all users? Because so many people (roughly 60%) start their searches on Google, so Google has empowered their users. We all know that Google became the 800-pound gorilla of the search engine world by being the leader, so maybe this is the next step. Regardless, we are going to watch this closely because of the implications it could have specific to our customers.