As a way of introduction, I should say that I work for a company that competes in some instances with Google and I specifically work in the group that is building a search platform for apps to use. My point is that my comments aren’t necessarily unbiased.

All of that being said, I enjoyed the article about Google’s search algorithm. It was interesting to see how THE company in search tweaks results and tests new ideas. I did think the article was a fairly obvious tactic for reminding everyone that Google isn’t going down without a fight, no matter how many other applications they launch or how many competitors join the fight.

PR ploy or not, some things to take away from the article:

1. When working on changes to the ranking of results, get people in a room, show two sets of results (before and after) and talk through them.

2. Use previous searches, whether good or bad, as data points for understand user’s intent and future searches.

3. Test, test, test… Especially on actual users in actual search situations. The article mentions that almost every search that is done is happening within some test group.

4. While you don’t want to only solve certain queries, use them as a way to discuss problems and talk about solutions.

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