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Putting Google’s new search engine to the test
GOOGLE today released a preview of its overhauled search engine, with an “under the hood” infrastructure upgrade.
But what does all that mean for us? If it looks the same and works the same â€" at least on the front-end â€" is there any difference?
Mashable has reported the new engine has a slight speed increase â€" though it’s not really noticeable. Google Search is already pretty fast.
The main difference is that some of the search results have been tweaked, presumably to increase accuracy and compete with Microsoft’s Bing engine which has been growing in popularity.
To find out what impact the overhaul will have on users, we tested the three engines â€" old Google, the new version and Bing â€" on three search terms.
Search terms
First, I went searching for general information on Australian author Christos Tsiolkas by entering his name.
Second, I looked for the details of a concert I want to go to on Friday night â€" Sixfthick playing The Gaelic Club in Sydney supporting X.
Third, I looked for the name of the actress who plays Tony Soprano’s shrink in The Sopranos.
Yes, these are the sort of things I Google.
Results
christos tsiolkas
A mix. All three engines return the author’s profile on Wikipedia as the first result.
After that Google lists the site of Tsiolkas’s management, Smart Artists, and Readings bookstore (which includes an interview and link to buy his novels), as well as links to interviews and reviews in several magazines.
Bing has Smart Artists as well but pushes the Readings link further down the page. It does include some things I didn’t know about, including an article by Tsiolkas for Flash journal. It also links to his entry in the Australian Literature database (AustLit).
sixfthick gaelic club
Bing wins this one outright. Then Google and, in last place, the new engine.
The new Google engine goes heavy on YouTube results for the band, then a review of a gig from 2005 and, eventually, a rudimentary listing for Friday’s show on a website I’ve never heard of. Normal Google has the same listing, but as the third result.
Bing has better links. The third result is a listing for the gig on MySpace. The fifth is even better â€" a listing on Time Out Sydney that includes the time, price, address, phone number, Google Map, YouTube video and related gigs.
The show listing on Time Out is actually for X â€" the band that Sixfthick are supporting on the night. Bing is the only one that’s smart enough to figure out the connection.
the sopranos psychiatrist
Google wins this one. The results on the current engine and the new one are almost identical. They begin with a page on HBO’s site that has everything I need in the title: “HBO: Dr Jennifer Melfi, played by Lorraine Bracco: The Sopranos”.
After that Google links to an interesting excerpt from Bracco’s memoir and several excellent essays about the show.
Bing includes some of these links, but they’re not as prominent. It focuses on an episode of the show called “Guy Walks Into A Psychiatrist’s Office” instead of the actual character. Not as useful.
Conclusion
There’s no huge difference for everyday users between the current version of Google and the new engine the company unveiled today.
However it was surprising to see how useful Microsoft Bing can be for some searches â€" especially, it seems, for local events.
More reading:
“Google’s new search has a focus on increasing speed, relevancy, accuracy, and the index volume, things that Microsoft really hit on when it released Bing. The end result is a better search experience for the user. Competition really does breed innovation.” â€" Ben Parr on Mashable
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