On the utility of Google Web History
Summary: it isn’t.
Background: Most of my Google searches are for useful websites that I’ve visited in the past but have not bookmarked because I visit the site so rarely. These sites are often marked by Google Web History, which lets me know which results I’ve clicked on in the past. Ideally, this allows me to quickly identify the site I’m looking for. Unfortunately, it doesn’t.
Problem: Most of the results I click on end up not being useful. Google telling me I’ve visited a site is no guarantee that the site was relevant to my search, since I visit many that aren’t.
Recommendation: A quick “was this site useful” button after clicking through. Maybe it could be a little floating thumbs-up/thumbs-down in the top right-hand corner. Clicking thumbs-up would let Google know that next time I have a similar search, I’d like to see that page marked as “useful”.
Discussion: The way that I describe using Google above is kind of like bookmarking-lite. The sites don’t clutter up my browser’s bookmarks, and I get full-text searching. Google’s usually good enough that it works, but there’s still too much noise, for my liking. It’s possible that del.icio.us has this kind of functionality, so maybe I should just try using that; but I would really like it integrated right into my web search.