Google is reportedly experimenting with a voting system for its search results.  Users who are logged in to their Google account would then be able to vote up or down on various results returned for a search query, letting the company know which results are deemed worthy and which ones are deemed useless.  Then, over time, future searches would have some of the “useless” results weeded out and would return more tailored suggestions. 

This is sort of big news.  Anyone who uses Google with any frequency will tell you that there are still a frustrating number of first page listings that aren’t terribly accurate.  Searching for real estate agents or attorneys, for example, still yeilds a disproportionate number of “spammy” link farm and directory sites.  I don’t know about you, but if I’m searching for a real estate agent, I don’t want a site with a gigantic list of real estate agents, I want the site of an actual agent.  Maybe you’re different.  I’ve always felt that sites like these are redundant, adding just another step in the filtering process that keeps me from getting the results I want.  So now, presumably, I can log into my Google account and vote those listings down when I see them. 

What does this mean for your site’s SEO (Search Engine Optimization) campaign?  Well, not a lot.  It’s still just an experiment, and Google is even saying that we shouldn’t be surprised to see this function disappear soon.  It’s just an idea they’re goofing around with.  But if it eventually becomes a permanent fixture, it’s still only for logged in users.  SEO isnt’ going to go away just because users can customize their results.  Those customized results will still be ranked and ordered by Google’s algorithm.  It will continue to be very important to have your site’s structure and content laid out in a way that best communicates with the engine’s spiders. 

But it’s exciting to see the leader in search experimenting with letting their users have some measure of control over the results they see.