Understanding Google's New Search Index: Caffeine

A Google expert team has been working on a secret project of “next generation architecture" for Google's web search (read Caffeine index), which is yet to be finished. According to Google, the new architecture focuses on dimensions like indexing, crawling and ranking changes. Google is not incorporating these changes into their existing infrastructure. The new infrastructure lies underneath Google's search engine.

Google says that most searchers will not notice the difference in search results, however, web developers and power searchers might be able to notice a few changes. Therefore, the search giant has recently opened up a web developer preview of the new Caffeine update and urging web developers and power searchers to try out the new system and give feedback on the differences between Google's current search results and the new system. To give feedback, all you need to do a search at http://www2.sandbox.google.com/. Then look on the search results page for a link at the bottom of the page that says “Dissatisfied? Help us improve.” Just click on that link and type your feedback in the text box. Remember to include the word caffeine somewhere in your feedback.

Matt Cutts of Google recently came up with some more understanding of the Caffeine update. Let's go through the following questions and answers that he has compiled:

Q: How do I check out the Caffeine update?

A: If you search on http://www2.sandbox.google.com you can get a preview of how the search results will change over the next few weeks and months.

Q: It doesn’t look any different to me?

A: The Caffeine update isn't about making some UI changes here or there. Currently, even power users won’t notice much of a difference at all. This update is primarily under the hood: we’re rewriting the foundation of some of our infrastructure. But some of the search results do change, so we wanted to open up a preview so that power searchers and web developers could give us feedback.

Q: Is this Caffeine Update because of Company X or Y is doing Z?

A: Nope. I love competition in search and want lots of it, but this change has been in the works for months. I think the best way for Google to do well in search is to continue what we’ve done for the last decade or so: focus relentlessly on pushing our search quality forward. Nobody cares more about search than Google, and I don’t think we’ll ever stop trying to improve.

Q: The url http://www2.sandbox.google.com doesn’t seem to work for mobile phones? I can only test on google.com, not google.co.uk? A: That’s right. For now this is a only a preview, so we didn’t hook up a mobile version or an international version at this point. You’ll have to search on google.com to see the results right now.

Q: How do I give Google feedback?

A: If you want to give us feedback on how the search results are different, look on the search results page for a link at the bottom of the page that says “Dissatisfied? Help us improve.” Click on that link and type your feedback in the text box. Make sure to include the word caffeine somewhere in the feedback.

Q: Is there a way to give feedback in person?

A: Yes! If you want to give me feedback in person, I’ll be at Search Engine Strategies San Jose this week. I’m doing a site review panel on Thursday, or just walk up and say hello!

To read more about the new search index, visit Techmeme.

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