Adding an aspect of personalization and quasi-semantic enhancement, Google has recently launched its SearchWiki feature, to customize search results as they appear to one specific Google Account.

The move by Google - to open up its search results to annotation, alteration, and public comment – is aimed at deepening user engagement and enhancing ad revenue potential. A signed-in user’s search results can be re-ranked, deleted, added, or commented upon.

In the SearchWiki feature, three small icons have been added to the right side of normal Google search results – namely ‘promote’, ‘remove’, and ‘comment’.

Users also have the ability to see the rankings and comments from other users. Through the ‘See all notes for this SearchWiki’ link, a user can cross-reference his query results with those of some other user. This way, the repeat searches yield the answers that people most want.

Google product manager, Cedric Dupont, and software engineer, Corin Anderson, explain in a blog post: “With just a single click you can move the results you like to the top or add a new site. You can also write notes attached to a particular site and remove results that you don’t feel belong. These modifications will be shown to you every time you do the same search in the future. SearchWiki is available to signed-in Google users.”

Hence, the ‘2.0’ nature of SearchWiki allows the efficacy of search results to be tested against other users’ satisfaction and preferences, like in a product review. By allowing searchers to see what others are saying about a specific search term, the associated site, and how it’s ranking it, Google is likely to see users remain on its search results page for a longer period of time and click on more ads.