Here Comes Google on “Caffeine”

MOUNTAIN VIEW, CALIF.: Google’s upgrade to its golden-goose search algorithm is noticeably sleeker, faster and more efficient. What’s less obvious is a change in how results are rendered. Google is issuing a caveat that search-engine optimized results could change with its revamped app, code-dubbed “Caffiene.”

“For the last several months, a large team of Googlers has been working on a secret project: a next-generation architecture for Google’s Web search,” Google bloggers said. “It’s the first step in a process that will let us push the envelope on size, indexing speed, accuracy, comprehensiveness and other dimensions. The new infrastructure sits ‘under the hood’ of Google's search engine, which means that most users won’t notice a difference in search results. But Web developers and power searchers might notice a few differences, so we’re opening up a Web developer preview to collect feedback.”

The preview is available at http://www2.sandbox.google.com.

Google engineers said they only want feedback right now on the difference between results from the preview and the current Google engine, as well as how sites rank. Comments can be left on the Google Blog Web site.
-- Deborah D. McAdams