Ever wonder just how often you use Google in a day? Soon you may be able to get an exact count thanks to a Google search counter the company has been quietly testing with a small group of users.
Although it’s not generally available yet, the counter has been the subject of discussion in several online forums, such as Webmaster World. The counter is displayed at the bottom of Google’s home page, and shows both a numeric count and a color bar to represent the frequency of your searching.
Unlike the Google toolbar, the counter requires no special download to function. Rather, a cookie is placed on your computer to keep track of your searches.
The cookie is not associated with you, personally, so if you share your computer with others the count represents the total number of Google searches done on that machine. This also means that the counter can’t be used to track your total Google searches if you use multiple computers.
Google says it’s not trying to encourage compulsive or competitive searching with the counter. Counting stops after 100 searches in a single day (one search every 14.4 minutes), though your cumulative totals are not reset.
Google has been testing the counter with a small group of users, automatically displaying the counter and offering a brief FAQ page explaining the new feature. It’s not unusual for search engines to test new a feature with a small number of users before rolling it out to all users.
Users seeing the counter were not offered a choice to opt-out of the test, though the FAQ did suggest deleting the cookie used by the counter to reset your homepage to Google standard.
Beyond being an interesting gimmick, what’s the purpose of the counter? Though Google has removed the counter FAQ page, its answer to the question “What do I win” was the zenlike “There is no winning. There is only self-awareness. The search is endless.”
However, when the editors of Search Engine Watch were shown a prototype of the counter last August, Google product manager Marissa Mayer suggested that token prizes might be awarded to the most frequent searchers, though we could not get confirmation from Google of any planned reward program prior to publication.
When will the Google counter be available to everyone? No official word on that, either. Best bet is to watch the Google home page and it may appear without warning, just as the recent index size increase appeared without warning last summer.
Search Headlines
NOTE: Article links often change. In case of a bad link, use the publication’s search facility, which most have, and search for the headline.
Related reading
What will Google’s expanded policy on harmful content mean for SEO companies?
Google recently announced that it will be expanding its hate-speech policy for publishers that use the company’s ad network. How does this affect SEO companies, and what can we do to make sure we and our clients stay on the right side of the policy?
Pump the brakes: SEO and its sweeping statements
Search Engine Optimization is an imperfect science, and the sheer amount of sometimes contradictory information available about Google updates and SEO best practices has led to a tendency for knee-jerk reactions and sweeping generalizations among the community. Here's why you don't need to panic.
What do we know so far about Google’s new homepage?
Google has released a new, feed-based mobile homepage in the US, in perhaps the most drastic and significant update of its homepage since 1996. We take a look at what the relaunch entails, and how it might change things for marketers.
How to effectively combine online and offline lead generation
In today's world we are mostly narrowing in to online leads, thanks to the Internet essentially opening up the entire world for us to peruse. But offline leads should still be a factor we consider moving forward. Here are some clever ideas and tools you can use to combine the two.
