Google Running SearchMash
Google is running an alternate search engine called SearchMash, which includes some useful and “out there” features that might not be right for Google.com, but could make a really interesting search engine. Of course, if any of the features turn out to be huge hits, who knows? Google hasn’t commented on SearchMash yet, but they admit they own it in the privacy policy (and their name is in the WhoIs, anyway).
So, what does SearchMash offer?
Type in the search box without actually clicking in it. The idea? There isn’t exactly anywhere else to type, so any typing should just go there. Sounds like a good idea. This one could work on Google.com, if it doesn’t affect page loads too much. Doesn’t work in Opera, and only on search results pages.
Menu of options by each result, letting you click to get “Open in this windows”, “Open in new windows”, “Open cached copy”, “More from this site”, “More similar pages”. Another great idea that would work well on regular Google, and the code already exists there as part of the “More” tab above the search box.
Image results shown next to regular results. Never gonna happen, that’s where the ads go on Google.com.
Reorder results just by grabbing and dragging the number next to them. Cool idea. Currently does little, but could become part of Google Personalized Search, which already lets you remove results, so reordering is the next step.
Clicking for more results loads them in the current page and scrolls it down. A much more natural form of an idea Live.com had (and eventually junked), and a great implementation. I was able to load 90 results in a single page.
Someone at Google must have been jealous as Microsoft designed a cool AJAX search engine, one Google can’t afford to try, and made the great suggestion to just let them experiment on a second site. Kudos to Google for trying new things, and I hope some of them turn into brilliant features.
Also, note there is no “Search” button. That button has always been useless, just there to guide along less savvy users, and you just know it was the first thing the engineers removed.
Read more at:
Philipp
Gary Price and Gary Price
Ionut Alex., who notes a recent Marissa Mayer interview may hint at future features
Also worth pointing out is that you can give feedback via the Is this useful? yes/no links on the features page
Comment by Ken | October 3, 2006
This looks like Google’s answer the criticism they’ve been taking that their search is loosing its way. They’ve just jumped ahead of everyone, again. How much of a CSS overhaul would it take to turn searchmash into the Google front page? Probably not that much…
http://www.babilim.co.uk/blog/2006/10/google-goes-web-20_03.html
Comment by Alasdair Allan | October 3, 2006
Reminds me also of when AltaVista put out Raging Search. Same backbone, but more room to test new ideas.
Comment by Loren Baker | October 3, 2006
What they should really do is offer an API, of sorts, and then let others build the interface.
Comment by Rick | October 3, 2006
Rick, wouldn’t that defeat the purpose? SearchMash is for Google engineers to experiment (presumably).
Now, if Googlers were competing against web users to see who could make the best interface, that would be really cool.
Comment by Nathan Weinberg | October 3, 2006
[…] Google is playing around with a new Ajax interface and novel search ideas at SearchMash. It gives you image results on the right, and you can drag results around if you think, say, the fourth result should be the top result instead. Click on the green URL and it gives you options such as "open in this window," "open in new window," and "more similiar pages." Click on "more web pages" and it scrolls the page down. Pretty nifty. […]
Pingback by Project Syndicate » SearchMash: Google’s Ajax Sandbox | October 3, 2006
[…] Anyone see the Searchmash search engine by Google. It takes Google’s simplistic design and adds some nice do-hickeys such as an AJAX-based scrolling mechanism similar to Microsoft’s Live Image Search. Obviously, Google’s search will probably stay simplistic for a long time and they may be doing what Microsoft did with Start.com…a testing ground for various concepts. Permalink […]
Pingback by Where Are All The Posts, Google’s Live Search, Local Search Goes Mainstream » Emad Fanous | October 3, 2006
[…] Hacia dias que aparecían noticias de que Google estaba cogiendo una serie de dominios relacionados con la palabra ‘mashup’. No quedaba claro para qué era, aunque parece que el misterio se desvela: han lanzado en semisecreto un buscador llamado SearchMash con una serie de carácterísticas menos convencionales que las del Google de toda la vida, según cuentan en InsideGoogle. […]
Pingback by SearchMash, el buscador secreto de Google « Ondas, cables, luces, cacharritos y cachivaches | October 3, 2006
[…] Nathan Weinberg has written up a nice piece on Google running SearchMash, which covers the nice rich features: […]
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Pingback by rxbbx - news, gadgets and other fun stuff » SearchMash | October 4, 2006
[…] A post by one of my regular commentors, Google Success, recently posted about SearchMash.com and it seems that many in the blogosphere are talking about it including SEW, CyberNet News, and Inside Google. In his post, GS says, Google has silently launched a new ‘Search Sandbox’ (not to be confused with Google Sandbox) at SearchMash.com. The privacy policy and Whois records reveal that the site is owned and operated by Google. […]
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Pingback by SearchMash: Googles playpen > Archives > Web 2.0 Stores | October 6, 2006
I like the search button, pressing enter may be easy but i’d leave the button in.
Comment by Fred | October 18, 2006
another site that google might be running seekpod.com
Comment by Josh | October 20, 2006
I think the drag-able search results will definitely play in with personalized search. I wrote about it here: http://www.playingwithwire.com/2006/10/true-purpose-of-googles-secret-search.html.
Comment by Alexander Ljungberg | November 2, 2006
[…] Google has updated its sandbox search engine with some new features. Searchmash now has at least four collapsible sections on each results page: web search results, image results at the bottom of the page, and in the sidebar, Wikipedia articles, and a more prominent place to leave feedback. Each section has a +/- button to collapse it and stick with the sections you want. Also, what usually are OneBox results get their own collapsible box. Kudos to Ionut Alex for spotting the changes. Posted: November 7, 2006 by Nathan Weinberg in: […]
Pingback by » SearchMash Gets New Features » InsideGoogle » part of the Blog News Channel | November 7, 2006
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[…] A limited number of users are also being offered this experiment, which allows them to delete and re-order search results. It’s been described as almost a Digg-like system, in that the eventual goal would be to improve Google results through the wisdom of crowds by changing the results for everyone based on a mass consensus in the voting up and down (and deleting) of search results. This feature was originally developed on Google’s SearchMash test engine. […]
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