Google Caffine, Next generation Search Engine

Google has announced its updated search engine, which has been nicknamed "Caffeine".Although still in the testing phase, the firm says it is the "first step in improving the speed, accuracy and comprehensiveness of search results".

The new engine is intended to replace Google's current one after tests are complete. Google are hoping the upgrade is threatening to put Microsoft's new engine, Bing, "in the shade".

Google have Kept Caffeine quiet. It features vertical specific searches while quietly doubling the speed and starts introducing real-time results and news feeds.

Google is still the dominant search engine. According to market research firm Hitwise, Google accounted for more than 87% of the UK search market in 2008.

However,recently, the search engine market has got more competitive. As well as Microsoft's Bing.com - which saw a tie-up between Microsoft and Yahoo - the "computational knowledge engine" Wolfram Alpha and a revamped Ask Jeeves have also entered the fray.

Google is also facing competition from Facebook, which has just acquired FriendFeed, praised for its "real-time" search engine.
This type of search is valuable because it lets you know what is happening right now on any given subject.

Back in May, Google founder Larry Page admitted that the search giant had fallen behind other services like that of Twitter, which boasts nearly 45 million users worldwide.

Caffeine is following a general trend towards real-time web, It will pick up news stories and put fresher content higher up the search results. That said, most people won't notice the change. It still looks the same, it's the algorithms that have changed. However, it is now doing things that would never be possible a few years ago and knowing Google, this would have been in the works for some time.

Google is running a public experiment of a new search technology, There are visible changes in search results, but they are so subtle that you likely won't notice differences between the old Google and the beta Google unless you run queries side by side.