Okay, I know it’s a funny way of putting it. But really, it is.
Have you not noticed? It used to be, when you were looking for something, you could just find it in Google.
That is no longer the case. Recently I’ve been doing a lot of market research and other web digging, and Google just isn’t as good as it used to be. My sister told me about this shocking phenomenon earlier, and I was, naturally, skeptical. But now I am becoming more and more aware of it – you just can’t find everything you are looking for on the first page of Google.
I wonder whether this is an inevitable evolution of every search engine (after all, they were not pioneers in this market), or whether this is bound to happen to every search engine which is overly populated and over-used.
I’m still giving it a chance though, just because it has been so good to me over the past couple of years. And I’m a late adopter (I’m very loyal). But not for long. They must do something and regroup. Otherwise… well, competition is always out there.
July 21, 2008 at 1:56 pm
I suspect it to result from websites optimizing themselves to Google’s algorithm.
What can work in a virgin environment would not work when other parties try to rig the game.
IF this is the point, it would be hard to throw Google off (without having a technology fighting this), because whoever is going to be strong will be manipulated upon.
Another possibility lies in changes in the automaticity of links and web structure. Google relies on various linking calculations, which may have worked better in a less automated world.
July 23, 2008 at 8:34 am
Yes, but if that is the reason, then the manipulating will take time – so that only after several years the competition will be worthless.
I agree re your automation hypothesis. When links are being generated automatically, then the results are not necessarily as relevant as they might have been previously. But this means that Google should adjust itself to that – It sounds like something which would be possible and even pretty straightforward.