(7)
In December, we reported that Google was asking searchers to help improve Google. Well, those micro surveys to ask searchers which search results they prefer have not gone away.
Kevin Anchi posted on Google+ more screen shots of Google doing this. Here is a cropped image but feel free to click on it to see the full size image of Google asking "Help improve Google" followed by "Which Result Do You Prefer:"
I find it interesting that Google does this randomly but I guess it can't hurt. Back in December, Google told us:
As you know, we always ask for user feedback in a range of forms - from live experiments to inviting people in to our UX labs - in order to improve our products. This is one of our experiments - one of many signals we take into consideration to make search better.
There is no way this is used in Google's ranking algorithms but I am sure this data does get back to the engineers.
Forum discussion at Google+.
