10 replies to this topic

[Aji]

Hi all,

I am happy, new update (few call it brandy, some calling Jason,.....), I call it the third update. Wow I am in top 20 and will get back to top 10 sooner.

Before florida - 88
After florida - nowhere
After Austin - 483
then get back to 402
after brandy - 19

Does User's ever come to know(non-techy users I mean), for them does these updates make sense. How many of them ever notice some changes? I know many of my friends, they are so loyal to G that they never complain, for them google is default search Engine.

Regards
Aji

[OldWelshGuy]

most users are blisfully unaware that anything has changed in the world of search. They are unaware that Google turned worlds upside down, unaware who bought out whom last year, unaware of Yahoo dumping Google.

Tracey (my wife) knew about the updates and problems at Google, but has little to do with the technical aspect of our business, she takes care of the little things like billing .

When I asked her how she is handling the googlepooh, she said, 'if I can't find what I want, i change the term i typed in' she, like many others assume it is THEIR choice of search term, NOT bad results. I assume this is the case for most people not connected to the web and reliant on search results for one reason or another.
OWG

[JamesW]

OWG

I think there's a definite over-reliance on Google by many on the Internet (myself included).

As you say, people use Google to search and if they can't find what they're after they either assume it doesn't exist or that their search terms are wrong.

Would it not be better if there was more viable competition in the search engine field? Anything so long as Google results are no longer the be-all and end-all!

Bring it on MSN!

Cheers

James

[Aji]

but it looks , Google will be replaced one day, with one major player or with many small players.

Lets see what the future of search. Even I will launch my SE.

Aji

[Grumpus]

'if I can't find what I want, i change the term i typed in' she, like many others assume it is THEIR choice of search term, NOT bad results. I assume this is the case for most people not connected to the web and reliant on search results for one reason or another.

I rely on searching quite a bit. And, I, too, have modified my search terms from time to time. It's interesting, I think, that Google asks site designers to change up their methods of getting ranks several times a year (often monthly for the fly-by-nighter types), yet they've never really asked the end-users to change the way they use the product. I can't think of any other product (at least a product that is still in the 'improvement curve' - toasters and things like that don't really count...) that hasn't asked the user to change their habits in some way over the years. Phones, radios, TV's - they used to have "dials". Stopping a car used to take "pumping" (with the old braking systems) and now pumping your brakes in many circumstances is a bad idea. Dishwashers used to load from the top. Milk jug lids used to screw off and peanut jar lids used to pop off. Computers used to be controlled by typing in words.

If you ask me, it's time to ask the users to make some changes to their searching techniques. Unfortunately, it looks like Google's working on getting back towards being able to "make good (results) from garbage (terms)" and folks will slip back into their lazy and often ineffective search methods in short order.

Don't get me wrong, there definitely have been, and continue to be, some garbagy results on Google for certain terms, but it's still a point of fact that 90% of these terms are the wrong terms in the first place. Example "real estate" (one of the first terms to be affected) is the stupidest search term I ever heard of. Real Estate What? The world is a very big place and I can't think of s single reason why someone would want real estate listings that covered the entire world. They are looking for property in a particular place or region or sometimes even country - but they never just want "real estate" unless they are looking for pictures of houses - in which case, they might be better with a term like "pictures of houses".

To me, the updates make complete sense. It's hard to take garbage in and make chewy goodness come out. Yet, they are valiantly attempting to do so. So what if it takes a few months or a year? If they can present good results from crappy terms some time down the road, then they will have performed one of the few modern day miracles. And who doesn't like miracles?

G.

[bwelford]

What I have noticed in my logs these past few days is that people are putting incredibly long sentences as search terms. Some are really just bizarre.

For example, someone searched for:

Your Website must be the strongest selling point of the company. So if your potential customers are not aware of the website or are not surfing in then you have no way to sell them your products or services.

One of my web pages comes up #1 for that, but it's not text from that web page. Perhaps someone was looking for one of their web pages. I guess they didn't find it.

[Ledfish]

Actually, I'm seeing things differently in the last month. I'm hearing alot of people. neighbors, friends, etc. saying that they are using other search engines because of the poor google results. They just aren't being pointed to what they are looking for. Searching to find what they are looking for is becoming a great portion of the overall process.

Intially I thought people were telling me this because they know I'm involved in an internet related business.

So, my wife, who works for a large automotive supplier did a little survey for me. She asked 20 coworkers what site they were currently using for searching the internet and if they responded with something other than Google, she asked why they were using that particular search engine.

Out of 20, only 9 are using Google, 11 are using something else. 4 of the ones using something else stated in effect that they use to use Google but switched because of the poor results they were getting. So basically 20% of the sample thinks Googles results were bad enough to warrant a change.

Now 20 is a pretty small sample and 20% switching seems kinda high to me, I would love to sample a much large group, but even if it were as low as 3-5%, Google would certainly have to take notice.

Although I'm seeing alot of continuing inconstitancy in the Brandy or Jason results, especially double non-indent listing for several sites in the top of the serps, it appears Google is actively trying to fix the overall problem, they just haven't quite gotten it yet. I also believe how quickly they get it fixed will dictate their future role as the dominant search engine. If the stock went public right now, I wouldn't be buying it and if I did, it would be because I would be shorting it, figuring that it would be money in the bag. Most likely this type of mentality is why the IPO probably got shelved.

[Aji]

Actually, I'm seeing things differently in the last month. I'm hearing alot of people. neighbors, friends, etc. saying that they are using other search engines because of the poor google results. They just aren't being pointed to what they are looking for. Searching to find what they are looking for is becoming a great portion of the overall process.

Ledfish , thats pretty true, even I heard few of my friends talking, use altavista it is NOW better than Google.

So things are changing, Big G is under threat, atleast I am sure that Google will not do any floridas or austins for next few months, as they have already lost few loyal customers(searching customers not adsense).

Google do something

Hire me

Aji

[mfogel]

Here is a scenario...I am starting a business, I want to hire a marketing consultant. I search Google, there are two marketing consultants in the town with web sites with information about marketing consulting for local businesses on their site. The search comes up with crap - real estate sites with the word marketing, a sexual aid internet marketing site, verizon super pages with listings for marketing consultants. Nowhere are the two sites that are about.....marketing consultants for my town, my business.

Over optimized or not, relevant sites should be listed. They are not currently doing what they should. Pardon the rant.

[Aji]

>>Over optimized or not, relevant sites should be listed

I agree to it but lets not forget that technologies have limit and a human can always think beyond technology. There are very rare scences when a user complaint about irelevant sites, he/she always blames himself/herself for bad results and tries with other keywords.

Users unawareness is the key behind the Google dominance.

Aji

[projectphp]

Your Website must be the strongest selling point of the company. So if your potential customers are not aware of the website or are not surfing in then you have no way to sell them your products or services.

Perhaps they were looking for stolen content??? Or maybe it is one of the SEOs that sufferred as a result of the recent changes. either way, can't imagine that term will convert!!!