Mountain View, California — Barely a few months back, Google had the SEO industry contemplating over the future of search when it introduced SearchWiki — user controlled search results. Well now Google is testing a SearchWiki for AdWords feature [Do not like it? Shut it down] that empowers users to conceal unwanted ads in search results.
The introduction of SearchWiki for AdWords is being discussed at Search Engine Roundtable and Webmaster World, could pop-up unpredictable complexity for Google advertisers, and besides having no official confirmation from Google at this stage, the rumor mill has been busy speculating on its impact.
Image credit: Rehan, WebMasterWorld.
The screen shot was seized by a Webmaster World user but later edited out, but before long Barry Schwartz included it in his post at SERoundtable.com. The comments about this are interesting as they suggest they could be used to impact paid results.
The service — consists of an [X] icon in the upper right-hand corner of sponsored search results, suggesting they can be hidden — is part of Google SearchWiki, which allows users to customize search results: boosting organic listings most relevant to their query, for example, and burying or removing those they deem less fit.
When a user clicks on the X over the series of ads, the ads will be concealed for that search and for the same search conducted in the future.
Whilst Google surely has to respond with a formal announcement in due course, here is some of the discourses on the potential consequences of SearchWiki for AdWords:
Quality Score: It does calls-out the question such as “will changes to ads via SearchWiki affect AdWords quality scores?” If Google can avoid the obvious opportunity for abuse, it is conceivable that it will feature in the quality score calculation at some point.
User Engagement: So far there are no reports on what degree of user engagement Google is receiving with SearchWiki for organic results. Any user controlled process of a search engine is open to some level of abuse. So, if SearchWiki for AdWords ends up affecting AdWords quality scores and therefore click costs, then the potential abuse will be far more concerning. With that in mind, SearchWiki for AdWords will draw even less user interest.
The addition would empower users the ability to blot out certain paid ads down similar to what they are offering for organic search results. So far, it seems that the tests are restricted to US users, with early reports of the SearchWiki -X- appearing along side AdWords headlines.
Nevertheless, it is less likely that Google is going to tamper with their primary revenue source and upset advertisers.