So, no one really knew how it worked, or rather had some ideas how it works, but had little influence over the results. And as consequence we had so precise and spot on search results that made Google so popular. If you used other search engines you’d get pages with the most repetitions of your search keywords, with Google you’d get pages that have keywords, but also the number of external references and the “ranking” of those references counted. In other words your top results would be credible pages that have the keyword you were looking for. No one would link to pages that aren’t informative, or would they?
This is where SEO comes in. And spoils everything. People started to create pages full of keywords and link from other pages to them. So creating some sort of mesh of interlinked sites. Yeah, they’d probably get one or another link from external source, but not a lot. Yet each page in this SE mesh has loads of incoming links. And just what sort of pages these are? Well, if it’s not porn, then it’s all about online shops. Or price comparison sites if you’re too lazy to run an online shop.
All you have to do is link to several online shops, get the results (sorting is optional) and that’s it. No, not really, what’s a point in having price comparison site that no one’s using? So you create another 1000-2000 equally useless pages. What happens next? You’re on the top of the Google search results alongside other “competitors”.
All very well and good. For you. But not for me. I don’t give a damn about your price comparison stuff. I don’t even want to buy that stuff. I’m after the information. I used to type in (rather technical) phrase and Google would come back with the manual or some troubleshooting guide or links to forums. Not anymore. First gazillion pages would list price comparison sites. Or online shops.
Thank you Google. You’re not that good anymore. Still quite useful, but not amazing. As you used to be. Alternatives? None as yet.
So that this doesn’t sound like a pointless rant, let me illustrate my point. I’m on Server Fault, trying to give my 2p in the discussion about built-in RAID controllers. This guy’s asking about A6VMX motherboard RAID setup and whether that would work with his choice of Linux. I’ve spent decent amount of my life working with “proper” hardware RAID controllers and never met the built in one. So I’m off to do some research.
I go to the manufacturer’s website, but unfortunately their manuals don’t have enough information. No worries, I’ll google it. There must be someone out there that uses these motherboards. And if they (MBs) sport RAID controllers, someone must have written at least few words about it.
Ok, I’m not that naive, I’m not searching just for A6VMX (although why not???). I use more specific search term: “A6VMX raid configuration“. And what’s the result? Ha ha, surprise-surprise… A list of online comparison sites:
And only the second page of results reveal some posts on hardware related forums. Not very useful, but at least some non-automatically generated content… Mind you, the search was rather specific. Try something less obvious and you’ll be lost. I was looking for my TV reviews. Yeah. I wish there were any…
So Google, you’ve done great job, but failed to keep fighting against the SEO herd. I just hope you’ll find a clever way to fight back and make your search results as good as they used to be.
Related posts:
Try this:
http://www.givemebackmygoogle.com/
It appends the following to your google search keywords to filter out a lot of the crap:
-inurl:(kelkoo|bizrate|pixmania|dealtime|pricerunner|dooyoo|pricegrabber|pricewatch|resellerratings|ebay|shopbot|comparestoreprices|ciao|unbeatable|shopping|epinions|nextag|buy|bestwebbuys
It’s funny you should say all that – I for one am an online marketer – and I don’t produce a bunch of, as you say, crap.
I do produce shopping sites – and I feed my family that way. It’s interesting to hear your take on all of this – the truth is that you just need to know how to use search operators.
A few things that Google does is allows you to use their “less shopping sites” function, or you could use “- .com” in your search query.
It really is the best search engine for a reason – and they pay my bills, so like it or no, there’s an entire industry out there of people like me who live on this.
And before you rant on, it’s what happens when you lose your job and still have a family to feed: gotta think outside the box. Before you lambaste an entire sector of people trying to cope with the vagaries of the really, really shoddy economy, use the tools Google’s given you to modify your own search query…
We shouldn’t have to do that. Just because there is an industry for something, doesn’t mean it’s right. If there was a market for black market kidneys, you, just like me, wouldn’t feel bad those people stealing kidneys and selling them if the market disappeared.
Also, your “industry” is an industry of snake oil. Do you think people actually find the sites you advertise and say, “wow, this site actually helped me find a product I needed,”? NO! People find your sites and say, “crap, this site is useless, why is it in the top 10 on Google’s search results?”
SEO is becoming, like it should be, a dirty word on the internet and with GOOD reason. If you plan to keep “feeing your family”, find a new industry while you still can (maybe learn a coding/programming language, so you can actually contribute something?).