Over the last couple weeks, Google implemented its new SearchWiki feature. I’ve seen a lot of complaints about it, and I’m not so sure I understand the alarm.

I first noticed it when Chris Hope posted some screenshots of it on his blog. I then realized that I saw the same little icons that morning, but I just didn’t realize what they were for.

Over the next few days, Google made the feature live for all users with a Google Account, and there’s been a lot of complaining since. Mike at Tech Crunch complained that it was a new outlet for porn spam and ripe for abuse. Ben at Tech Savvy Educator just noticed it a couple days ago, and he doesn’t want “other people’s opinions affecting my search results.” It’s a common fear repeated elsewhere.

Straight from the Horses’s Mouth

Well, the good news from my perspective is that most of the complainig about SearchWiki is off-base and due to misconceptions. Before anything else, watch Google’ official video about SearchWiki (posted on the official Google blog).

One important thing to keep in mind: the promotion/demotion only affects your search results. When someone else hits the big up arrow, it has nothing to do with your search results. You can only impact your search results.

Nobody is messing with your search results, and there is no gaming the system here. In this respect it’s a personal tool much more than a collaborative search tool.

Second, the commenting is unobtrusive. Extremely unobtrusive. When I read Tech Crunch’s article about spam, I thought this would be bad. But then I wondered why I hadn’t seen any comments at all in my Google searches.

That’s because you won’t see any comments in your search results. In order to see other people’s comments, you need to scroll to the bottom and click on “See all notes for this SearchWiki” link. Then you’ll see other people’s comments, and you’ll see sites in the order that they were preferred by other users.

I don’t know if I buy the need for this part of SearchWiki, but it’s easy enough to not see it. Just don’t click the link. If you don’t want to read someone else’s comments about a site, no one is forcing you to.

But Is This a Good Idea?

I’d say it’s pretty clear that the original mass hysteria about SearchWiki was overstated. People can’t use it to game the system and affect real Google search results. Nor will your Google searches be muddied with spam comments.

But is it a good idea?

I think the personal aspect of it is quite useful. Sure, you can tag pages in delicious to make your bookmarks available at multiple computers. But to me, that’s a hassle.

When I sit down at the computer in the school library, I don’t have the delicious bookmarklets on the toolbar, and I often don’t go and sign in to my account. To bookmark a random page in delicious takes more steps than I’m willing to take.

I do however almost always log into my Google account. That’s because I use it for everything. Usually I check my e-mail and my reader, and sometimes I’ll use Google Notebooks to take notes about research I’m doing.

More often than not I try to find a page that I’ve visited before by repeating the Google search. Not necessarily the most effective or efficient method for re-finding a site, but SearchWiki certainly makes that easier.

If I want to catalog the sites I found interesting about Jackson State, I can just promote them all in my SearchWiki. Then I can  use the “See all my Searchwiki notes” to review what I’ve tagged as useful.

Since it’s rolled into an account that I use regularly (unlike delicious), I’m more likely to use it on a regular basis and it’s much more convenient.

As for the comments, useless in my opinion. I doubt I’ll ever use that part of SearchWiki.

Bottom line… don’t over-react. It’s not as obtrusive as people have made it out to be, nor is it a threat to the integrity of the almighty Google.