Digg, Flickr and De-licio-us rely on the input of real people and that's what Google hope to do, but with search.

In this way Google Co-op has the potential to really change the way that searches are carried out and performed. Google Co-op brings democracy to search with a little algorhythmic magic thrown in.

To try and explain. Instead of Google searching every page of the WWW when you do a search for say "green blood" it will search through pages from the healthcare section as recommended by contributors.

Results from contributors sites that a user trusts and subscribes to will appear at the top into categories such as "symptoms", "doctors", "medical experts" etc.

Google Labelled and Tagged

Labelling/tagging/social bookmarking is a more commonly associated with Digg, Delicious and Flickr - now Google!

Categories for Google Co-op stem from the labels that the contributor has assigned to a webpage and Google have even developed a special tool that contributors can use to tag pages.

Google have stated that as labels become more in depth they may even appear in the main search engine results pages.

At the moment the company are testing the concept. Therefore, the directory is quite small. However, the wider application of the tool could prove very beneficial for industry or product specific searches.

For instance, a doctor may want to subscribe to the "centre for disease control and prevention" to source information collectively and contribute to discussions on a specialist medical area.

On the other hand, patients looking for information on a particular illness might find the tool useful, too, as searches would be specifically related to their area of interest.

From a business point of view the advantages of this new tool are two-fold. You can:

Anyone with a Google account can register to become a Google contributor or subscribe to the groups.

At the moment I'm subscribing to:

• The SEO roundtable
• Digg
• Search Engine Watch
• Indigo World Destination Guide

Before you start using the programme it might be an idea to consult an online marketing specialist.

A marketing specialist can help you build a community around your website and increase the number of subscribers.

Get in touch and find out MediaCo can get you listed on Google Co-op and put your website in front of more people.