Google fast becoming the worst search engine on the web

[hawkwind dave]

we should have been learning it for at least the last 100 years in schools, along with sign language, why do we make hard on our selves to communicate with each other, it could be soooo straight forward.

(off topic I know, sorry peeps)

[minstrel]

Simon, I may have forgotten the smiley:

:o) <-- there you go

My comments were meant satirically. I may not be a fan of Canada's Official Language Policy, which I think it a clumsy politicial implementation of a clumsy political solution to the real issue, but I am not against bilingiualism or multilingualism.

[sfowler]

Minstrel, no reason to think I took it personally, but it is a real problem in this world. The Canadian policy does not seem too bad to me, there are plenty worse than that. Take a look at Belgium. Better still, try using a map to find your way in Belgium!

I grew up in Britain, so I know the problem, which does not mean that I condone the English-speaking laziness in this direction.

Sorry, we have got off topic here. Have a good one!

[OBR]

This was fun but what about the original topic.

I think Google's deep crawl over the last week has contributed to some weird results. I noticed yesterday that most of my Cache dates were 3 weeks old (they are spidered regularly). Google seems to be sliding old copies of data every once in a while. It probably happens reagionally?

I noticed that their results have sometimes been "under the weather" lately.

[sfowler]

Have you tried the UK, Australian or other versions of google? Yes, sorry, we got way off track there.

[MathsIsFun]

Nobody responded to my thoughts on ending the Google-Webmaster conflict.

Perhaps Google's results would be a whole lot better if they didn't treat the people who develop and maintain websites as "the enemy" who are always trying to spam their results.

Yes, there is a lot of spamming going on - but if Google could open up channels, treat us as friends, give us better ways to understand what is good and bad for them, we could all benefit.

How about some Google-written SEO tools? They give us guidelines, why not some software to back it up?

There could be other great ideas out there if Google were to "open up the channels" to webmasters.

(Perhaps MSN are stepping in this direction, I don't know, but MS itself has always had a "partnering" approach with software developers.)

[sfowler]

You've obviously never tried to get development software that works from Billy's Boys!

[MathsIsFun]

LOL!

I have mixed feelings about MS, too. Have lived with it for years, and have got used to strange errors and stranger solutions :)

And they charge an arm and a leg for their development tools.

And I had to abandon all my VB6 skills when they decided no VB7. On the plus side I learned .net, and somewhat enjoy it.

But their willingness to support developers has "fed back" into their success.

Google could learn from this.

[OBR]

Originally Posted by AvgJoe

Yes, there is a lot of spamming going on - but if Google could open up channels, treat us as friends, give us better ways to understand what is good and bad for them, we could all benefit.

How about some Google-written SEO tools? They give us guidelines, why not some software to back it up?

There could be other great ideas out there if Google were to "open up the channels" to webmasters.

I don't think it would be in Google's interest to open up their business too much. If SEO became an exact science, where it was as easy as following a formula, then G'sarch results wouldn't be that great. Their success is built on keeping us guessing and making our knowledge obsolete quickly.

[MathsIsFun]

Their success is built on keeping us guessing and making our knowledge obsolete quickly.

Ah yes, the Mushroom Theory ! (Google keeps us little mushrooms in the dark and feeds us with, ummm, fertilizer.)

But they reap what they sow - more and more meaningless sites at the top as everyone scrambles to be first for their keywords, with somewhat random success.

I am still thinking that G could give us some tools - maybe not perfect stuff, but something that could point out bad hat SEO, perhaps - I dunno, just an idea in the making, really

[OBR]

Originally Posted by AvgJoe

Ah yes, the Mushroom Theory ! (Google keeps us little mushrooms in the dark and feeds us with, ummm, fertilizer.)

I really like that one.

I just thought of another business reason. Seems like the other search engines (e.g.Yahoo) are looking more like Google everytime I look. I believe that they want to keep the competition at the bottom of the compost heap.

[MathsIsFun]

Thanks OBR, and you are right, they can look AMAZINGLY alike: Check out http://search.yahoo.com !

(TheWebDoctor pointed out that URL in this thread: http://www.webproworld.com/viewtopic.php?t=31035 )