Back in August, we were shocked to learn that Google was working on a new version of its search engine. The secret project, known officially as Google Caffeine, wouldn't change the face or design of the Google search engine, but would instead provide an overhaul of the architecture of Google's web search that would improve its indexing speed, accuracy, and comprehensiveness.

Since the launch of the developer preview however, we haven't heard much about it. It's quietly been undergoing testing and tweaking. That's all changing though, as now the developer preview of Google Caffeine has been taken down, replaced with an announcement that Google Caffeine will go live in its first datacenter soon. The new Caffeine splash page says it all. Here's the full text:

"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. "

While we admit that there isn't a lot to go off of, we can discern two key takeaways:

- Caffeine testing was successful. The project is moving forward - Caffeine is going live on Google.com soon, starting with one datacenter

We're going to dig deeper and see if we can't find out when Caffeine will actually go live. The new Google search infrastructure is coming though, and as our previous tests have revealed, there should be a lot of subtle but important changes to search results arriving soon.









Thanks to Arthur for the tip

Image Credit: Mike the girl via Flickr