The world has become married to Google. Everyone uses Google Search on a daily basis. Web sites everywhere live and die by Google’s hand. I’m wondering — if I had the kind of money Google has, and I was designing a search engine, wouldn’t I make the actual target of the search query turn up on the FIRST PAGE? I certainly would. Any good designer would — at least you think they would. If you go to a restaurant and order the $35 Steak, wouldn’t you expect to get steak? Google seems to disagree
The world has become married to Google. Everyone uses Google Search on a daily basis. Web sites everywhere live and die by Google’s hand. I’m wondering — if I had the kind of money Google has, and I was designing a search engine, wouldn’t I make the actual target of the search query turn up on the FIRST PAGE? I certainly would. Any good designer would — at least you think they would. If you go to a restaurant and order the $35 Steak, wouldn’t you expect to get steak? Google seems to disagree.
I searched for a person named : “Lynn Wegley”
Lynn is noted person in the world of computers and Apple user groups. He has published the “InfoManager” newsletter every Monday morning since 1990 . . . maybe several thousand articles or more. (2,000 plus in his site now, since 2006) He also happens to be my friend, at the same web site I write for in my spare time.
But if you search for him, Google gives you “yellow pages” type sites, all of which charge you for the results for $$$ charge — and, of course have lots of AdSense ads. The first reference to Lynn’s web site or InfoManager is on page SEVEN of my results.
Yes, you run into Lynn’s FaceBook page on the second or third page of Google results, but why would that take precedence? In fact, I even saw rubbish sites and junk sites where he’s NOT EVEN MENTIONED. How does that happen? Why do those sites turn up when the names aren’t even found in the content or code of those pages? Junk pages should never show up BEFORE the actual, “honest” target of the search
I was so puzzled, I searched for “searching” kinds of keywords in YouTube and found numerous videos of Google’s Matt Cutts and Murat Yatağan bragging about how Google’s scientific search algorithms have really cleaned up and improved the search results. I wonder if those guys truly believe what they say? It’s certainly not true. Do Google searches no longer work? Have the Black Hats and SEO hacks ruined Google’s search?
If you had the money and resources that Google has, wouldn’t you concentrate on delivering search results? What bothers me is that Google knows all about this. They’ve got to. If this is the result, then it’s the result they want you to have.
So the results are clearly compromised for Google’s benefit rather than the person searching, or that which is searched. When a utility’s self-serving benefit overtakes utility, then it’s time to get a new utility. If a search engine is no longer delivering proper results, it’s time to find another search engine.
Okay, I cheated. Before, I searched just for his name. However, if I find a characteristic phrase at UGNN, and include “at the site UGNN” (at right) then I get 2,340 results and none others. But someone else would not know to do that specific search. Did you ever search for yourself? Try it!
Google should be better than this — the search functions are smart, but when they stop benefiting your constituency, they’re no longer necessary. Test this yourself. Search for the name of your town, or your school or an old school friend — see what results you get. See how many false results you get. Remember, if they give you junk, then they’re not your friend — friends don’t send friends junk!
Thanks for reading
Editor/Publisher : DTG Magazine
+FredShowker on Google+ or most social medias @Showker
Published online since 1988
Oh by the way, you can read Lynn’s columns, and mine through the User Group Network News Service at UGNN.com
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