The results on the first page of Google’s search mean that Google has determined that these are the 10 results with the highest probability of satisfying the user’s query, at that moment in time. What we showed at Rank Dynamics, however, is that, depending on the user, the query and the moment in time, quite often the best results are beyond page one.
Between the moment Google receives a user’s query and its search page is rendered, Google will perform an astonishing number of calculations. They take into account all sorts of different bits of information from the query, matching web pages, the user’s search history, other users’ search histories, and more, to then produce the most relevant set of results possible. It can be argued easily that they do a fantastic job.
What they do not use, however, is anything that happens after the search results are rendered. Sure, they’ll store that information away in the user’s profile for use at at some point in the future, but that’s too late for the current query. For the current query, Google’s results are static. No matter what you do, they will not change.
By exploiting real-time signals of user intent (i.e. the results users click and do not click), we were able to dramatically improve the relevance of the results by re-ranking them immediately. We made the results dynamic. Click a result to view a web page and when you come back, we will have used that signal of your intent to product a better set of results.
If you like, you may read about how we did it, and how well it worked, at Blog: Rank Dynamics - Make Your Search Dynamic.
