Is Google a Grinch or a good guy?

[Divisive Cottonwood]

Article in todays Guardian:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology...nternet.google

December is the cruellest month for companies that rely on their rankings in Google results for sales. The reason: it's when the dominant search engine - with 85% of the UK search market - often decides to rejig its algorithm and to downgrade links to sites that it judges are only there to give them a high placement in search results, so-called "link spam".

If Google decides your site's incoming links aren't a spontaneous or "honest" expression of that site's desire to link to you and it reduces their value in its algorithm, your site will fall in the search result lists. For a company that relies on business from such so-called "organic" search results, that can mean a dramatic - perhaps fatal - drop in trade because while the number one spot in the average search results will attract roughly half of all clicks, at the bottom of the first page sites can only expect 2% of clicks. Fall on to the second page and it's less than 1%.

[Funk-woo10]

Good guy ! I saw this today, great article.

[letsoc]

i think that google is somewhere in the middle ...

[cool_78]

Google's a bit of both but that why I love them

[wisdomtool]

Google is in the business of making money or maximizing revenue for its shareholders. I do not think it is good or bad. It is just business.