Many search engine users liked the sandbox search as it was faster and with no noise in the form of advertisement and additional search results that Google likes to add to their normal search engine include results from Google News, Youtube, Google Images or Google Maps.

Users who wanted to load the sandboxed search engine today were greeted with the following text:

Thanks You! We appreciate all the feedback from people who searched on our Caffeine sandbox.

Based on the success we’ve seen, we believe Caffeine is ready for a larger audience. Soon we will activate Caffeine more widely, beginning with one data center. This sandbox is no longer necessary and has been retired, but we appreciate the testing and positive input that webmasters and publishers have given.

So one Google data center is already serving the search results based on the new search algorithm while the large majority is still serving the old. Many users who compared search results between the old and new search engine were not able to find any serious differences. Those that did believed that the search results were better targeted to the search phrase of the user. Google on the other hand seems to be convinced that the caffeinated search algorithm is the better one. Time will tell if that is true.

Google Sandbox Search

This search engine comes close to the standard Google search engine. It makes use of a similar user interface with the main difference that the search result pages do not display advertisements or other elements that Google likes to add to those pages. [link]

Google XHTML

Google XHTML is a search interface for mobile devices. It can be accessed by desktop computers and normal web browsers. The benefit is a faster interface that displays the search results without additional noise. The search result listings are aligned to the left and contain titles and short descriptions of the contents. [link]

Google IE

Another interface for mobile devices. The IE suggests that it might be related to Microsoft’s Internet Explorer in some way. This one the most barebone of them all which especially becomes apparent on the search results pages. The results only consist of the page titles with no description or other information thrown into the mix. This can be confusing if many of the websites listed in the results use the same or a similar title. [link]

Got anything to add? Let us know in the comments.

Webmasters who want to compare search engine results can open the old and new Google search engine in two tabs to compare results. A more practicable solution is the use of a tool like Compare Google which displays search results on one page.

Users can enter a search phrase and an optional domain name on the search page. The tool will then display the old and new Google search results next to each other on the same page which makes it easier to identify ranking changes. Domain matches will be displayed in red so that ranking changes for a specific domain name can be identified on first glance.

Compare Google is a free online tool that can help webmasters find differences between Google’s old and new search result ranking algorithm.

Some users might therefor like to switch to the new Google Search engine. The sandbox search engine can be opened directly by pointing the web browser to this url: http://www2.sandbox.google.com/

The manual approach works nicely but there is also the option to add the Google search engine to the web browser’s search box. The following guide will show how to add the new Google search engine to various web browsers:

Firefox

Firefox users can download the Add To Search Bar extension for Firefox. This add-on makes it super-easy to add new search forms to the search box in the Firefox web browser. All they need to do after installation is to visit the Google Sandbox search engine, right-click it and select Add to Search Bar from the context menu.

Opera

Opera users can right-click the Google search form to add the search engine to the Opera search box. The entry Create Search opens a menu that can be used to add Google Search to the search box. Users need to add a keyword for the search which will then appear as one of the search engines the Opera user can pick from.

Google Chrome

Google Chrome users need to right-click the address bar of the Google browser and select Edit Search Engines once they have opened the sandbox search engine. Google Chrome will automatically detect the new search engine and display it as one of the available search engines. The Google Sandbox search engine can then be added as a default search engine.

Internet Explorer 8

Internet Explorer 8 users need to open the following website in Internet Explorer [link]. The Google Search engine can be added by pasting the url of a TEST search in the Google Sandbox search engine in the URL field on the page and selecting a name for it. A click on Install will open a menu to add the Google Sandbox search engine to Internet Explorer.