Google Gets High on Caffeine

Yes, we know: Google's (GOOG) already about as fast and accurate as you need it to be. That's what all the customer surveys show. But Larry, Sergey, and the rest of the GooglePlex geeks will never stop until they've built the perfect search engine. And two days ago, they unveiled a beta version of their latest creation: Caffeine.

What, exactly, is Caffeine? Nothing that you'd particularly notice. It's a slightly faster version of the old Google that also includes more Twitter feeds; in other words, it's Google's latest attempt to reach real-time search, the mythical brass ring that every tech company is chasing at the moment. Google's given you a chance to test it out here, but you won't find much difference between the old and the new search. Instead of a search taking 0.9 seconds, for example, it may take 0.6 seconds. A few thousand more search results will crop up after each query, and the order in which they appear may change, although Google engineers won't explain how they've changed the ranking criteria.

Some media outlets are already wondering if this is what the New York Post had in mind when it reported that Bing had panicked Sergey Brin into ordering a new, top-secret project. ChannelWeb blogger Brian Kraemer suspects that this project has more to do with the rise of Twitter and real-time search, pointing out that Facebook's acquisition of FriendFeed has put new pressure on Google to deliver the fastest results possible.

Whatever the cause, users are already praising Google's new, improved service. Information Week has collected a sample of the comments users have sent Google's way and reports that aside from complaints that the beta site doesn't work well with mobile devices, customers are declaring the new engine a smashing success. But not everyone is so happy. As BusinessWeek's David Coursey cleverly notices, companies have sunk considerable cash into search engine optimization projects, angling to be among the first few pages of relevant searches. Now that Google is going to revamp its ranking infrastructure, they may have to start all over again.