Google's "Digg-Like" Feature

At the Ohio Web Leaders event in August, we delivered a presentation theorizing that Google would be rolling out a "Digg-like" feature that would allow you, the searcher, to interact with search results by "voting" or "unvoting" on the quality of a search result.

And while we hate to say "we told you so....."

Most SEOs out there believe that we already all influence search rankings simply by the results we click on and the time we spend viewing a site. Essentially, your actions--clicking, not clicking, staying on a site or quickly leaving--are already are serving as a "vote" for or against a search result.

The system we've been expecting from Google is much more direct. We think Google will put a "vote for or against this result" right next to every result on a page. Votes for a site, especially from credible users, could raise a site's ranking. Votes against, would lower the rankings.

And I'll be damned if I didn't see it today!

I can't get it to repeat. I've tried multiple logins and computers with no luck. But earlier today while using Google  I was prompted to vote on search results. When I cast a vote, I was told that my vote would influence how results are posted for the next searcher. Take a look at this screencap. 

After doing my favorite search of "Ohio SEO Agency" I was prompted to rate the quality of my results. After assuring Google that the WM was clearly the best result, it was noted that the result was "Picked by Bill."

My thought? This is great! Real humans are still smarter than robots and millions of web surfers will ultimately know the best results. Yes, there are risks of spammers, but the power of a few spammers pales in comparison to the votes of the masses.