Has Google Gone Mad?

By Edahn Golan

A recent ‘update’ in Google’s algorithms has sent shockwaves throughout the computer industry but hardly stopped there as it reverberated through industries completely unrelated to search engine technologies. Florists, car dealers, jewelers and diamantaires alike were shocked to find that their top listed websites were all of a sudden found in the far away neverlands of the 100th or lower position on the ever so popular Google.

 

To be fair, we should remember a number of things. First, Google adjusts its algorithms on a regular basis to improve search results and circumvent attempts by malicious site owners to push their irrelevant sites higher up the results (in all honesty, I couldn’t care less about the vicious vixen bent on leather and spanking when I’m looking for a hotel room for my next vacation).

You can’t blame Google if a jeweler bases the majority of his business on Google generated traffic either. Google, at the end of the day, is a private business that can choose to run itself anyway they choose. But here lies the problem: Jack the Jeweler is a cautious business man, perhaps with limited resources to spend on marketing, so he spends it wisely and concentrates on a major venue - search engines. That is a legitimate strategy.

However Google is the dominant search engine, the tool of choice for millions of web surfers around the world and as every dominant business knows - domination comes neatly packaged with increased responsibility to the Market. Ask Nicky Oppenheimer or Bill Gates if you doubt this.

Let me illustrate this dominance: Of the eight search engines that sent traffic to IDEX Online during one week in December, over 80 percent came from Google. A recent search for the words ‘diamond exchange’ on the search engine produced a myriad of over 1.4 million results, most had nothing to do with diamond exchanges - the third item was an article in Pravda, another result was about Marilyn Monroe, yet another had to do with baseball and the Belgium, Israeli, Indian and NY diamond exchanges appeared far, far below. And while Monroe and baseball are relevant results to ‘diamond’, they are not to ‘diamond exchange’ together. To make a long story short, not only that the results are not relevant, they harm businesses and Google alike.

Why? Why did Google do this and not correct it? Is it really a mistake, a bad analysis of search terms, or perhaps it was done on purpose? The rumor mill among the SEO (Search Engine Optimization) folk is that Google is interested in pushing its product search service Froogle. To state it crudely but accurately, if the top businesses are pushed to lower ranking hell, and they are relying on Google for income, will they hesitate to spend money in Froogle or AdWords if it will help advance them up the ranking? Your guess here is as good as mine, but I have a strong feeling that we all have the same answer in mind.

If this is the case, and I hope whole heartedly that it isn’t despite indications to the contrary, then Internet users have suffered a blow. The importance of a “clean” search result, not effected by commercial influences but rather by relevance is not only widely needed, but was exactly what made Google so popular in the first place.  Moving away from it will harm us all.

To be helpful and not just immersed in criticism, below is a short list of alternative search engines you might find useful, if you can’t find what you are looking for on Google these days.

Keep those emails coming in. If you have a question, suggestion or a comment to make, by all means drop me a line at Edahn@idexonline.com.