Google search "not fair"

[WG2010]

Interesting article on Yahoo today, not really domain related but still something I think would be of interest to most people here. Maybe we need a general news section?

Google Inc.'s methods for recommending websites are being reviewed by Texas' attorney general in an investigation spurred by complaints that the company has abused its power as the Internet's dominant search engine.

On the flip side, being buried in the back pages of the results, or even at the bottom of the first page, can be financially devastating and, in extreme cases, has been blamed for ruining some Internet companies.

Google has a good track record for delivering relevant results but lately (past 6-12 months) I've been seeing a lot of junk rank over above sites that provide more value so I can see why a company would be annoyed that they've lost their ranking to some scraper shopping review site.

Then again, there is other ways to get traffic such as Facebook etc which is picking up a lot of momentum.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100903/ap_on_hi_te/us_tec_google_texas_search_inquiry

 

[FirstPageResults]

The review appears to be focused on whether Google is manipulating its search results to stifle competition.

That is the key. The rest is sensationalism

 

[Simon Johnson]

Its not fair? Last time I checked, Google was a company, not a charity.

 

[djuqa]

Its not fair? Last time I checked, Google was a company, not a charity.

exactly
If they don't like then don't use

 

[WG2010]

Just to clarify, I'm not suggesting it's unfair. I thought it was mentioned in the article but it must have been another one I was reading at the time.

 

[shags38]

this may be of interest

http://www.steverubel.com/google-instant-makes-seo-irrelevant

 

[TroyW]

this may be of interest

http://www.steverubel.com/google-instant-makes-seo-irrelevant

Good find Shags. I don't think the author has any idea what he's talking about though with respect to the update killing seo. The results are mostly the same. If anything, the update make seo even more important - short word combinations get first look in, which will increase seo competition in this area and should give shorter, keyword domains a real boost in the arm.

One of the areas that may be hit though is mis-spellings - Google appears to show the correctly spelled results for mis-spellings, rather than show the mispelling with suggestions.

 

[WG2010]

The results aren't the same and I will show you an example from one of my own domains where my #1 result is not showing as number #1 any longer, depending on how you wish to look at it.

Keep in mind, this is one the very first sites I ever made and it's been neglected for quite some time although it makes for a good example of how things have now changed because of instant results.

http://www.photoelectricsmokealarm.com/

Go to Google.com and type in the exact match - photoelectric smoke alarm but don't hit enter!

Now, if you don't hit enter, it appears as #3. If you do hit enter, it appears as #1. It was #1 prior to Google Instant. So which is it? #1 or #3 now?

Prior to instant, the site was receiving 20-30 visits a day but since the change, 5-6. I've lost 75% of traffic for this exact match. It was making $3-4 a day from Adsense but not since the changes.

Imagine if you had an exact match .com, high volume and the very same thing happened! It's quite possible that this happened to some people with domains that have real value.

 

[TroyW]

Good find. When you type photoelectric smoke alarm (and don't hit enter) it's showing the results for photoelectric smoke alarms - the plural. When you hit enter, it shows the result for photoelectric smoke alarm (non plural as per the search text).

 

[TroyW]

It makes assumptions, I'd say linked back to it's most popular search data for certain word - like the mis-spell. Just found a related article here: http://searchengineland.com/seo-is-here-to-stay-it-will-never-die-50192

 

[shags38]

you guys may have seen this http://adwords.blogspot.com/2010/09/google-instant-more-innovative-approach.html - the big G's official intro - note the way it is worded to impress advertisers. As I said in an earlier post it is all about money - note the phrase "natural and paid results" - an English major would interpret that as being that the paid results were not natural, if not natural then they would be un-natural - does that really fit in with the supposed ethos of G ?
cheers,
Mike