Testing Google Search “Caffeine” Update

Google have announced their latest update, next-generation architecture for Google’s web search to improve indexing speed, capability, accuracy and comprehensiveness of the search results. This new architecture appears to include crawling, indexing, and ranking changes.

From the Google Announcement:

For the last several months, a large team of Googlers has been working on a secret project: a next-generation architecture for Google’s web search. It’s the first step in a process that will let us push the envelope on size, indexing speed, accuracy, comprehensiveness and other dimensions. The new infrastructure sits “under the hood” of Google’s search engine, which means that most users won’t notice a difference in search results. But web developers and power searchers might notice a few differences, so we’re opening up a web developer preview to collect feedback.

Unlike other updates which suddenly appear without warning Google has provided a preview of the new search results and are asking webmasters and power searchers to try it out and give them feedback.

It’s essential to note that The Caffeine update is not an algorithm change planned to change the SERP. Google’s Caffeine search is only infrastructure related and includes no User interface(UI ) changes. So the average user trying to find a new digital camera or directions to the pizza restaurant likely won’t be surprised by how the results are presented.

Testing New Search

I just tried out the new version of Google, and we will say this: the results are different. Let’s compare, using the keyword “Swine flu India” as a reference point.

A search for [Swine flu India] on the existing infrastructure, however, returns news at the top, and blog post at the bottom of the page.

A search for [Swine flu India] on the new infrastructure, for instance, returns video and news results midway down the page.

Result

This search is not only faster, but in some instances in our few tests, seems more capable of producing real-time results.

• Speed:

Major difference is speed. 0.33 vs. 0.14 seconds. I had tried few keywords and New Google was fast every time.

• Real Time Searches:

Google Caffeine gives emphasis on Real-Time Indexing. Real-time searches such as Tweets results pushed up.

• Wikipedia:

Wikipedia gets demoted in new Google.

The new Google will only get better as features are implemented and developed. The end result is a better search experience for the user. Competition really does breed innovation.