Google Caffeine - search on stimulants

Google released a new version of its search engine earlier this month which promises to make searching faster and more accurate.

Code named 'Caffeine' the new technology takes place behind-the-scenes, so there should be very few immediate changes but the increase in speed and flexibility means that future upgrades can happen more efficiently.

Google's Matt Cutts explains, "We're shooting to get results identical to previous version. We'll open up a few datacenters with it first and then roll it out."

"Caffeine will be more powerful, flexible and robust - allowing Google to index faster."

"(Caffeine) builds a powerful foundation for including any changes we want to do with indexing. Not so much for taking advantage of semantic, real-time indexing, but for getting good infrastructure in place for growth and unlock more power."

For more information see Matt's Google Caffeine blog post.

In my tests the results seem to lean a little more towards real-time search, returning pages like blog and forum posts that are only a few days old. Social media also feaures heavily, with sites like YouTube and Facebook prominent.

Compare it yourself

Google Caffeine is available to try at www2.sandbox.google.com

Or try these comparison tools online:

• Facesaerch's Caffeine Compare
• Black Dog's Compare Google Caffeine
• Doubleshot's Get Caffeinated