Okay, maybe I am overstating it, but I can’t be the only one that is noticing a vast change in Google over the last few months? So I ask the question; Is Google Slipping?
The last decade or so of my career has been on the internet. Over those years, I’ve seen search engines come, and go. I have at various times seen my peers swear by YAHOO, Alta Vista, Dogpile…even TEOMA! It was started by an alum of my college (Rutgers) so I was rooting for that one… But at some point, Google became king. Even many of the most hardcore of the Yahoo folks made the switch. Why?
Results.
It was widely regarded that Google was just way ahead of its competitors, especially directory based search engines like Yahoo. And ahead they stayed for a long time. And they are still ahead. This post is not about me recommending something else, or implying you should. Instead it’s about how the results I am finding in Google these days seem to be changing. Changing a lot.
Blogs for one are pervasive in the results. For a while there, it seemed like NO blogs entered the Google top results. Now? They all do. It seems like NO search can yield a top ten that is free of some sort of blog result. I work in marketing and I search Google for various things over the course of a day way more then the average person. And the blogs that I used to have to use Technorati to seek out, I now find in Google. Even my own blogs! Even my own stupid personal blogs that I have for no other reason then to entertain my family and friends and to take advantage of WordPress’ easy to use formatting tools and free bandwidth come up. Instantly. When I posted a video of my niece and then googled Tony Romeo niece? I came up number one. THAT DAY.
Having Google index something that fast goes against the conventional wisdom I was taught. The whole, “It takes the Google spider weeks, even months” to index new content” is being seriously challenged by how fast Google indexes blogs. Yet my regular html pages I make for client sites, STILL take the weeks that they always have. With the amount of stuff indexing on such an increase however, the rankings are certainly going to change, and possibly be readjusted to make what Google users get, less “garbagey” for lack of a better word. The web is “world wide” by definition so perhaps what I find not helpful, like obscure blog listings or pdfs, others may be really happy to see littering the top results. Maybe I am just spoiled by the Google I have known for years that had the uncanny knack of returning EXACTLY what I wanted based on my term entered. In far too many cases, Google is simply not doing that like it used to.
Sometimes Google is doing it “not like they used to” in DRASTIC fashion. An example that boggles my mind is this one. I recently did a search for “WEB DEVELOPMENT TOOLS” and the first result I got was this page. (I realize these change all the time, but try it yourself!) Anyway, the page went on to tell me all about the NEW development tools like PHOTOSHOP 5.5, Flash 4, GoLive… all from, 1999ish?!?! You mean to tell me no web geek out there optimized a page for “WEB DEVELOPMENT TOOLS” that could beat a page from 1999??? ESPECIALLY for a term like WEB DEVELOPMENT TOOLS? That’s unfathomable, isn’t it?
So with all the changes that are happening in the Google results, it makes it rough on those that make our living on the web. Many of us question why it’s happening. I discussed this phenomenon with a reputable seo firm and the person I spoke with offered interesting insight. We both agreed we have seen major changes and inaccuracies in Google and each offered theories.
He to seemed to think, Google is crazy like a fox, and that they use the world to test stuff, and keep their algorithms sharp. I have two theories. One is the title of this post! That the Google day has come and gone, and they have jumped the www shark. The second, far darker and evil! I think that maybe, just maybe it behooves google to make their regular, or organic results, not as reliable as their PAID results.
It’s estimated the VAST majority of people ignore paid results. We know Google is aware of this. They have tried changing the colors of the paid section, they have tried moving them around, etc. People are paying top dollar for those clicks, but not getting enough return because people ignore them. BUT…if Google slowly makes the organic results sketchy…and the PAID inclusions better…people may slowly migrate to the paid results, and the organic will be looked at the way google ads are on other sites now..
Hmmmmm….. What do you think?
