Google Web Search Goes Completely AJAX
Posted on January 30th, 2009 at 10:28 am by Michael VanDeMar under Google, SEO, coding, nerdiness, web design
Yes, I know… Google has been offering AJAX driven results through the API and other services for ages, but now they have rolled that out to the main Google Search. It appears to be only on Google US (I tried manually switching to Google UK, and it redirected me from the AjAX version to a static HTML page), but that of course could change in the future.
I noticed this as soon as I started searching for stuff today, from almost the first query I typed in. When I looked at the url, instead of seeing the normal /search?= at the beginning:
I found myself looking at this:
You can see that the query string, the portion of the url that sends parameters such as what keywords you are looking for and how many results per page you want to see to the server, has been removed, and that Google has replaced it with a hash tag, the part or the url that is normally only read by the browser itself (everything after the pound or number sign, shift-3 on the keyboard: “#”). This was what first clued me in to the fact that they had changed over, as this is a common visual way to indicate a “page change” to the user, letting them know that they have gone from one page to another in AJAX (which can perform the changes with no url change at all), and allows the Back and Forward buttons to still trigger AJAX calls.
I verified that this is indeed what is happening by performing a search, viewing the source of that search, and then looking inside that source for some text that I knew was on the page. For example, if you perform a search for [bad neighborhood]:
![Google AJAX search for [bad neighborhood]](/images/google-search-bad-neighborhood-sm.png)
and then view the source, and search for [Search Engine Optimization] (which is clearly on the page):
![Google AJAX search for [bad neighborhood] highlighted phrase](/images/google-search-bad-neighborhood-highlighted.png)
you can see that it’s nowhere to be found:
So, what does that mean for us as searchers? To be honest I’m not sure of the full impact of this yet. I do know that AJAX can use more memory than pages generated by flat HTML, especially in Internet Explorer, so some older machines with fewer resources (such as those that might be prevalent in struggling businesses during economy strapped times) will possibly have performance issues. Also, certain Greasemonkey scripts will break with this change, like the handy Number Google Results, the script that allows you to insert sequential numbering into Google results, so you know where a site ranks at a glance without having to count.
As Google does with so many of it’s roll outs, there is no way to turn this feature off, either… so if it does affect you, tough. Google apparently doesn’t care. For now you can manually change the url by hand, but that is of course a pain in the keister. If anyone else finds other issues with this new change, or ways that it impacts us as searchers (or as seo’s, for that matter), please chime in.
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January 30th, 2009 at 11:04 am
Interesting catch, I am guessing that this is being tried out via several different data centers, because I still get the classic .com/search, even though I am in the US.
January 30th, 2009 at 11:04 am
I wonder if this will have an impact on things like Aron Walls Ronk/Rank Checker program…
January 30th, 2009 at 11:11 am
I just checked, and it looks like for now anyways Internet Explorer users are being redirected to the non-AJAX results pages, even if you try and go directly to the AJAX ones. Same with Google UK, like I mentioned. Which browser are you using? John Mueller mentioned that this may of course just be another test, and not something they will keep. With all of the hype lately about their AJAX API’s though, I’m guessing this is something that they want to do in the long run.
As to Aaron’s rank checker, for now it is still working. I don’t know about any of the others yet. Of course, if they switch completely over to AJAX this could change.
January 30th, 2009 at 11:26 am
I checked using Firefox, Firefox with IE tab, and Chrome. Via all three I didn’t get the AJAX. Of course, I’ve seen “bucket” tests on things like Search Wiki that were indicators of things to come, but also had “bucket” tests that just went away.
While I don’t think that just yet its something to be concerned about, it is something that gives us a peek into the current thinking over at Google. Certainly, if they’re rolling out random tests like to various data centers, they’re going to gather info and analyze it for a while before we’d see a change like that…
January 30th, 2009 at 11:39 am
Also not seeing it. I’m always searching unpersonalized, but went back to the regular ole’ crappy search results to see it and couldn’t. Using Firefox. Didn’t try different data centers, because I had to squash a rep management issue on Twitter about me and porn…
January 30th, 2009 at 11:45 am
And for those who don’t know, when Rhea says she was squashing porn rumors, she means this:
Rhea, if you click on the search link in the post, which goes directly to the AJAX results, does it redirect you back to regular search?
January 30th, 2009 at 12:05 pm
Yep
January 30th, 2009 at 12:23 pm
Safe search off, you cheeky monkey.
January 30th, 2009 at 12:36 pm
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January 30th, 2009 at 1:00 pm
Hey Michael, not seeing it from here on FF, ie7 or chrome, logged in or out.
January 30th, 2009 at 1:14 pm
Not seeing it on IE6, IE7, FF, Chrome, or Safari (figured I’d check). I’ll have my sales guys at the office check. They are always on a different DC then I am here at the house.
January 30th, 2009 at 2:01 pm
I’m seeing the same behavior in FF2 on OSX this morning
January 30th, 2009 at 2:35 pm
@Luke – no clue what you mean, I see the same thing with all flavors of safe search and with it off completely.
It looks like it might be a geographical issue, combined with browser. I do not see it in IE6, FF1.5, Safari, or Chrome, but I do see it on FF 3.0.5. However, when I sent the link using the same dc that I am hitting to Rhea, her FF 3.0.5 redirected. Donna sees it too though, by default, so I know it’s not just me. I don’t know what the magic combo is, however.
January 30th, 2009 at 3:15 pm
It may simply be a matter of Google sending tests out in such a way that we can’t predict who gets it when, but for a machine, it’s very logical. And since it looks like they are just testing at the moment, maybe it’ll go away like so many of G’s tests do. Or maybe not. We’ll see…
January 31st, 2009 at 2:07 am
Seem to be throwing everything bar the kitchen sink out at the results at the moment. Have tried it on three browsers from here with little success, as Michael says it may be confined to certain geo-sets at present
In terms of impact, my first thoughts would be that scraping pages is immediately going to be difficult (results pages that is), so that could potentially throw the cat amongst the pigeons for those automating rank checks (although that is said without looking at code
January 31st, 2009 at 12:29 pm
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February 1st, 2009 at 8:42 am
I’ve spotted this for the first time back in November. Given the low amount of blogs reporting on it there appears to be just a very small test group.
I like it though, it’s extremely fast.
February 1st, 2009 at 8:48 am
Ulco, you noticed this initially in the Netherlands? So, this definitely is not a US only testing situation then? Interesting.
February 1st, 2009 at 12:19 pm
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February 1st, 2009 at 7:57 pm
I haven’t been able to reproduce the results here from OZ.
I hope it doesn’t affect the way all of the great SEO tools work.
Only time will tell I guess.
February 2nd, 2009 at 7:06 am
The Netherlands is quite popular with these kind of tests, small but highly active online population. Google usually tests things first here (oh privileged me
).
The fact that you’re seeing it in th US now is probably a sign of a bigger test which makes it more likely that this is something serious.
I’ve actually just spotted another one funny: Google with only 8 results per query. Think that’s just a glitch, though…
February 2nd, 2009 at 7:47 am
You could wait few days before posting this, I think it is only you and other few people are seeing this, the other thing with Google doing that none of the tracking software will work anymore “I think Google needs that at least for Analytics”
February 2nd, 2009 at 9:28 am
Google is clearly looking for ways to open up search and their index, and ajax is one technology that will make this work. A more transparent and democratic approach to internet search is in the works.
February 2nd, 2009 at 10:45 am
Google is really making use of ajax
February 2nd, 2009 at 3:19 pm
Google?????????HTML??AJAX?????…
Google??????????HTML??AJAX??????????????????????????????????
……
February 2nd, 2009 at 3:49 pm
@Ulco re: 8 results per query… you forgot to count the 2 Youtube results in there.
Those count in the number of results that they show, even when side by side like that.
February 3rd, 2009 at 4:08 am
Do not dare to change it into full ajax.
I can’t stand it
February 3rd, 2009 at 2:27 pm
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February 4th, 2009 at 9:40 am
I’d be surprised if Google would radically change its search algo overnight, and limit it to some data centres, so maybe it is just experimenting with more efficient methods of displaying search results. Maybe it is a sign of something big, but then again, maybe it means nothing. Anything spotted on Google’s blogspot blog yet?
February 4th, 2009 at 10:23 am
I really don’t understand why google would do this, other than to purposely affect rank checking devices or to force companies to use Google Analytics to track their keywords –
oh, in case you are affected already and have to check your ranking manually (ack!), here’s a link to a css user style sheet that will auto number your results without using javascript. http://seodenver.com/2008/09/30/seo-stylesheet/
February 4th, 2009 at 1:01 pm
I wonder if this is why on some of my sites the “direct traffic” reported in Google Anlaytics has gone up by 300-500%. This strangeness started on Jan 27th (with absolutely NO changes on my part) on some, but not all sites. My UK and FR sites were affected, but not IT or DE. These all use country TLD’s and get the majority of their traffic from the corresponding country.
February 5th, 2009 at 1:18 am
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February 5th, 2009 at 12:29 pm
Good catch. I’ll have to do some research on this change. It definitely seems like there is some interesting possibilities with the change.
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February 6th, 2009 at 11:31 am
this had very serious negative implications for a range of services including competing analytics apps. Google responded that it was only a test. luckily things are back to normal now. let’s see for how long.
February 7th, 2009 at 9:17 pm
This is so stupid. Why do they change it to ajax. I hate ajax.
I love google but if they use ajax…. forget them
February 9th, 2009 at 10:23 am
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February 18th, 2009 at 1:32 pm
Why haven’t I seen this yet? When I do a search on Google it is the same as it was before. :C
February 19th, 2009 at 3:29 pm
Austin, it was only in certain browser versions and from certain parts of the country. Firefox updated their browser to a newer version so it is appearing in the logs much less often. Plus they may have cut way back on testing it due to all the attention it generated.
February 20th, 2009 at 8:04 am
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February 27th, 2009 at 11:51 am
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May 13th, 2009 at 1:47 pm
interesting completely Ajax, not a big fan of Ajax at all wonder how many people really like Ajax? or am I the only one?
June 28th, 2009 at 4:40 pm
Good you noticed. I’ll have to do some research on this as I use a lot of ajax on my pages. It definitely seems like there is some issues with this especially when it comes to SEO..
July 21st, 2009 at 2:39 am
I’ve also witnessed this change, it broke some javascripts that i worked with.
I did however found a solution for it and wrote about it in my blog – bit.ly/BunTi hope it will also help you.
Amir
August 9th, 2009 at 11:01 am
I’ll have to do some research on this change. Thanks
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