Google Uses Community To Improve Search Results

At Google Press Day, Marissa Mayer launched four products:

* two are available online: Google Trends, Google Desktop 4.0

* two will be available soon:

- Google Notebook will be a little window similar to Gmail Chat window where you can drag-and-drop content from sites. It's like the "Blog This!" button on Google Toolbar, but you don't store the content on your blog - you store it on your Google Account. Google Notebook will be available next week at http://google.com/notebook.

Google Notebook is a simple way for users to save and organize their thoughts when conducting research online. This personal browser tool permits users to clip text, images, and links from the pages they're browsing, save them to an online "notebook" that is accessible from any computer, and share them with others.

Google Notebook is an interactive scratch pad for every website a user visits, offering a single online location to collect web findings without having to leave the browser window. For example, if a user were planning a vacation, she could clip the most relevant materials on the pages she visits and add personal notes to help organize all of her research.

Users can make their Google Notebook public and share the notes they've taken with others. As a result, the time and effort put into their research can be harnessed by the online community as a whole.

- Google Cooperation lets you associate tags with web pages.

Google Co-op beta is a community where users can contribute their knowledge and expertise to improve Google search for everyone. Organizations, businesses, or individuals can label web pages relevant to their areas of expertise or create specialized links to which users can subscribe.

Once a user has subscribed to a provider's content, all of that provider's labels and subscribed links are added to the user's search results for relevant queries. These contributions serve as meta information that helps Google's search algorithms connect users to the most relevant information for their specific query.

For example, a doctor can label web pages related to arthritis, and users who subscribe to that doctor's information will receive options at the top of the results for more specific information such as "treatment," "symptoms," or "for health professionals" when they enter a relevant query.

Related:
You can see a screenshot for Google Cooperation that explores the medical vertical (hyped as Google Health)
Google Notebook review