Google is notorious for trying not to intervene manually into its search results and instead let the algorithm weed out the non-relevant or spammy sites. That doesn’t mean that Google doesn’t have it’s own team of researchers analyzing and rating their own search results. Google Blogscoped is reporting on a post by Henk van Ess detailing Google’s Evaluation Lab.
If you watch the video you’ll notice a couple of “adult” themed search results lined up for review. I would figure Google would have more important search results to analyze than “free orgy pics”!
Its questionable as to whether this evaluation lab is for real but I don’t see why Google, or any other search engine for that matter, would not want to invest the time and resources into this kind of manual review of search results. What better way to ensure you stay relevant to your audience than by audience testing?