Google's Secret Lab

Voelspriet writes "The mystery behind eval.google.com should be solved soon. It's a secret lab of Google. Real people, from all over the world, are paid to finetune the index of Google, reveals Searchbistro, a new weblog of the Dutch reporter Henk van Ess. A Flash-movie shows some screens of Google's 'Rater Hub', Full details about Eval.Google will be published later this week.

Comments

Eval?...

[Jambon]

...I thought they said they wouldn't do any of that?

Re:Eval?...

[Anonymous Coward]

yeah, i read evil.google.com too...

Whew!

[TripMaster Monkey]

<sarcasm>
Finally...past noon on the East Coast and still no Google Slashdot story....I was beginning to get worried.
</sarcasm>

From TFA:

What is it? It's a lab of humans from all over the world (from China to The Netherlands, from Korea to Brasil) They are paid to check search results of Google every day. Most of the employers, called international agents by Google, were recruited through universities all over the world. The aim is to avoid spam, to get the right sites at the top of the listing and to test new features, not shown to the public yet.

OK...so the best search engine is people. Well, as long as you have the scratch to pay these international agents (which Google certainly has), it seems like a great idea. If this arrangement can cut some of the spam, hallelujah, although I'm wondering just who chooses which sites are the 'right sites' to ocupy the top of the list...

Anyone know where I can put in an app?

Re:Whew!

[Naikrovek]

They've had these at Yahoo! since the beginning - they're paid surfers. Their title is "Surfer".

This is just a plain-old good idea, I'm not surprised that Google is doing it, or that Yahoo! did it first.

Disclaimer: I used to work for Yahoo!

Also, the majority of the female Surfers at Y! were gorgeous when I worked there. But that's neither here nor there.

Re:Whew!

[pizen]

so the best search engine is people.
</Charlton Heston voice>

Google is the Soylent Green of search engines!

Evil

[Anonymous Coward]

Thought it said "evil.google.com" for a sec then instead of "eval.google.com".

Do no eval

[tehshen]

This is proof... Google is slowly turning eval!

</bad puns>

Hey, wait a minute...!

[Junior J. Junior III]

I thought Google was all about NOT being eval. What gives?

Secret Lab?

[grassy_knoll]

Don't tell me it's in a supposedly inactive volcano on a south-pacific island, perhaps guarded by large numbers of minions in silver jumpsuits.

'Cause while I'm sure there are many Phd's there... I'd like to think none of them went to evil medical school.

NB: Not responsible for the reactions of the humor impaired.

Re:YAGS

[c0d3h4x0r]

I'm sorry, but "Jesus Christ on a Stick" has already been patented by my company. Prepare to be sued.

Mirror!!!

[Cavalkaf]

Managed to get the files just before it got slashdoted :-D http://cavalkaf.frihost.net/mirror/secret_google/ (Entire Page) http://cavalkaf.frihost.net/mirror/secret_google/s ecretlab.swf (Flash Movie) Oh, and visit my forum http://forum.scuzzstuff.org/ while you are at it ;-)

Oh My God!

[tfaust]

It's made out of people! eval.google.com is people! It's people!

A few years old

[m00nun1t]

http://www.webmasterworld.com/forum3/11972.htm discusses people getting referrals from eval.google.com back in 2003, so it seems this has been around for a while.

Re:Unfortunately...

[Morgahastu]

Eval.google.com isn't down, it just doens't respond to you unless you're a known ip.

Soylent Google

[DuckofDeath87]

Google is made from people!

Re:Raters

[geekoid]

"... I want to spout off, not critique...."

So it works just fine.

Re:Google Rocks!

[GraZZ]

Insightful? WTFBBQ?!

Agggh!!!

[MightyMartian]

Google searches are made out of people! They're people!

Re:Biased lab.

[moonbender]

Are you kidding? He obviously knows about the phrase-feature - doesn't everybody? - the problem he describes is that it doesn't really work properly. Try the example queries he quotes. Result 2 when searching for exact matches on "montana mountain ranges" is indeed Montana's Mountain Ranges (put in bold so there is no doubt it's this phrase that triggers the hit).

Of course, this isn't so much a bug as a documented feature - Google automatically searches for morphologically similar keywords. But what typically is useful can be annoying when you really do want exact matches and nothing else.

Re:Google Rocks!

[coopaq]

Insightful? WTFBBQ?!

Dude, I don't know, but shutup about it.

If the people find some infinite wisdom in it then more points for me :)

Secret lab discovered? Time to call in...

[IronChefMorimoto]

...Brock Samson (http://www.adultswim.com/shows/venturebros/index. html ) to kick the sh*t out of this guy running the blog.

IronChefMorimoto

Re:Oops!

[Eric604]

I don't know, I suggest you reread the article.

Way to toot your own horn.

[Anonymous Coward]

Voelspriet -> henk@vaness.nl

Henk van Ess

Domain Name: SEARCHBISTRO.COM
Registrant:
voelspriet.nl
regenboog 36
amersfoort 3824ED
Netherlands

Registered through: GoDaddy.com
Domain Name: SEARCHBISTRO.COM
Created on: 22-May-05
Expires on: 22-May-07
Last Updated on: 22-May-05

Administrative Contact:
van ess, henk henk@vaness.nl
voelspriet.nl
regenboog 36
amersfoort 3824ED
Netherlands
(084) 222-8995 Fax -- (084) 222-8995
Technical Contact:
van ess, henk henk@vaness.nl
voelspriet.nl
regenboog 36
amersfoort 3824ED
Netherlands
(084) 222-8995 Fax -- (084) 222-8995

Domain servers in listed order:
WSC1.JOMAX.NET
WSC2.JOMAX.NET

I wonder how many ads are on that page when it's not /.ed

Flash animation on second server

[Voelspriet]

I've put the Flash-animation of eval.google.com on a second server.

Proof of the Evil Bit

[sbowles]

This seems to be one of the first documented uses of the Evil Bit (RFC 3514):

eval -> 01100101011101100110000101101100
evil -> 01100101011101100110100101101100

Google has obviously turned off the Evil Bit.