Google Search

Problem: It seems to me that one of Google's strengths is also a big weakness. Google returns search results virtually instantaneously. It is pure and immediate gratification. But this begs the question whether Google is really giving you the highest quality results. Clearly, the results you get are based on some massive indexing that Google is doing on a regular basis.

Solution: I am not here to second-guess the secret algorithms generated over years of research by the geniuses at Google. It just seems to me that you should be able to tell Google that it can take more time and give you some higher quality results. Two features one might expect are (1) change the time Google may take on initial search from "immediate" to "n seconds". This way, if you are willing to wait n seconds for your results you can get higher quality links returned. ("Quality" can be based on personal preferences you have configured, or perhaps going beyond the standard index to look at more recent articles that are not yet fully indexed). (2) While you are reviewing results, there could be an option where Google continues to run in the background. You can click a button to "upgrade" your results whenever you like, which would potentially give you better results that have been found since your initial query.

I'm not sure what Google's incentive would be to implement the above, since they own the market on search. However, perhaps they could include a randomization element in the "upgrade" option. This would mean that the same search could yield different results each time (if the randomization option is enabled my the user). This could potentially increase revenues for Google by giving access to a broader number of advertisements for a given search.