Are people in google shooting themselves in the foot?

[gworld]

I am reading these threads about all the new patent and algorithem, new updates, bans,.... and I wonder what is google doing?

2 years ago, Google was the GOD of search, you needed to find something you would use google and you didn't even need to look in any other search engine but since then it has been on contstant downhill.

When I do a search in Google just now, it produces so much garbage that I have to look past page 10 result to find something reasonable or relevent.
I have noticed lately that after search in Google, I ususally go to MSN, Yahoo,.... to find other results that are more relevent.

Now I wonder how long it will take before everybody else gets tired and start using other search engines as their first choice?

It reminds me of the saying, if it is not broken then don't fix it and it seems google just keep on breaking what was working before?

[obiztek]

Google keep on updatig it alogrithm in a structred way.

Most it prodcues good result but there are many cases where mnay garbages sites appreas on top due to the fact they have done SEO intelleginetly and folled the engine. Instead of top 10 search looking for top 30 sites will help

[jestep]

Now I wonder how long it will take before everybody else gets tired and start using other search engines as their first choice?

It wont ever happen. The average consumer doesn't care what sites are on top as long as they find what they are looking for.

Even though google is off a bit, it is still way better than MSN and Yahoo. Those two are way easier to spam and the sites ranking well have much less relevance than in google. I have seen a single site have 4 or 5 of the top 10 spots for a search term.

[gworld]

Now I wonder how long it will take before everybody else gets tired and start using other search engines as their first choice?

It wont ever happen. The average consumer doesn't care what sites are on top as long as they find what they are looking for.



This is exactly my point, lately relevent results starts in page 5 or higher, how many people will go through 5 pages and 50 results to find what they are looking for? How long does it take before people start to look for alterantives?

In regards to it won't ever happen, I just say:

Novell, biggest in networking
Word perfect, Biggest in Word processing
Lotus 1-2-3, biggest in spread sheet


Where are they now? When was the last time you heard anything about these companies?

[MathsIsFun]

I remember when Novell was THE network. Microsoft had about 3% of the network market but growing.

I suggested to the people I was working for at the time that they should take a look at replacing Novell with Windows networking. They looked at me like I was an idiot, so I shut up ... but a coupla years later they were all Windows, and couldn't even remember Novell.

Moral: When you live in one environment, it is hard to imagine another. Till it happens.

[brian.mark]

The real problem with Google's results is that every time they make an update, people find a new way to spam their SERPs, so they have to update again, then more spam, more updates, more spam. People don't target MSN or Yahoo as much for spamming because it doesn't give as much traffic as Google on a good day, so questionable tactics (SPAM = Sites Positioned Above Mine) are used that get rankings in the highest payoff engine.

After so many updates and so many new SPAMming techniques, everything hits some sort of a red flag, so nothing is relevant any longer and the SERPs become less consise.

Eventually, all the updates will make Google consider itself obsolete. I hope not, since we still make a ton of money from having good rankings in their SERPs, but at some point I think they're going to have to reinvent the google wheel.

Brian.

[adbart]

You do sit down and wonder sometime, "has the SEO race gone far enough?"

Are search engines yielding increasingly irrelevant results because everyone has become obsessed with optimisation rather than real content?

I think the sad truth is that we really are getting to that stage. In the next couple of years, the main search engines (whoever they are then) are going to have to think very hard about the future of searching, and an entirely new way to tackle the problem.

I quote Brian:

"I think they're going to have to reinvent the google wheel."

[Sapphire]

(SPAM = Sites Positioned Above Mine)

THAT is a classic. ROFL!

I personally am getting better results from MSN than Google or Yahoo lately, but I'm a power searcher. Is the average person thrilled with the results she gets from Google, or is she just assuming if she can't find what she needs on Google, it doesn't exist?

We probably are already at a point where the SE's need to make some drastic changes to avoid redundancy and obseletion. I wonder if "persistent search" will play a part in that. If so, we could have a whole new crop of players just around the block.

[adbart]

"persistent search"
What do you mean?

[Sapphire]

"persistent search"
What do you mean?

This article explains it better than I can: http://www.emergic.org/archives/indi/011166.php

The basic idea is that the current search engines are archival, ranking the best and proven sites highest. Persistent search aims for the newest, latest content, like movie schedules or news events that just happened a few minutes ago.

If it takes off, it seems to me if would impact both the way the current SE's rank sites, and our strategies for SEO.