Check out this article over on Wired.
It seems the Google search algorithm is about to get an overhaul.
According to the article there are about 550 search improvements the panel will be looking at. Could it be they fear the Bing monster up in Washington? I doubt it. While Bing is a decent search engine – it’s no Google Search. Some time ago – I set all my default search engines to Bing for a week to give it a shot. It didn’t go over well. I believe it is a matter of being used to wording in a search engine. I know, after years of use, what I need to type in Google to see the results I am looking for. The article is well worth the read if you are at all intrigued by the Google giant.
Every time engineers want to test a tweak, they run the new algorithm on a tiny percentage of random users, letting the rest of the site’s searchers serve as a massive control group. There are so many changes to measure that Google has discarded the traditional scientific nostrum that only one experiment should be conducted at a time. “On most Google queries, you’re actually in multiple control or experimental groups simultaneously,” says search quality engineer Patrick Riley. Then he corrects himself. “Essentially,” he says, “all the queries are involved in some test.” In other words, just about every time you search on Google, you’re a lab rat.
This ability to be agile – is what keeps Google on the top. They are the behemoth in the search category – but they still have the swagger to back it.
