A friend showed me the following page a few hours ago:

http://www.google.com/experimental/a840e102.html

This is an experiment Google is conducting which allows users to “rate” web pages directly in the search result area.  You can bet they will use this data in their algorithm.

People will tell Google when a “spammy” site is found.  But this sort of data is already being collected by Google.

When you click to a site in the search results, then immediately click the “back” button due to the poor result… Google knows.

When you linger on a page and never return to the search results because you found what you were looking for… Google knows.

You can bet they are already using such data in their algorithm.  If certain sites have a lower than average “stick” rate, they are likely given a negative mark for that keyword.

So this seems to be more of a user interface change than an algorithm change.

Time will tell.

- Chris