I agree with most of it. But saying it could be the end of Google is not possible. A billion dollar company wont just let it go under. They will find a way and correct it.
No doubt AltaVista believed that too... and Yahoo, who managed to pull themselves back from the cliff of extinction...
Yahoo cares more about all thier other functions than they do about their search engine though. Google is a search engine. Yahoo is a portal. Thats my opinion.
If Google's investors knew what was going on with the algo I doubt that the stocks would look like this: Still looks like they're going strong. I mean, they've actually gotten worth more since the whole mega spam fiasco. Go figure. -Michael
It all depends on whether or not Google takes appropriate corrective action. If they don't and someone else figures out a way to provide relevant results while Google cannot, then Google is in trouble. If people don't go to Google to search then the whole empire will start to melt away on them. My worry would be that Google is large enough and the original team is rich enough that there could be a lack of required knowledge and concern in combination. However, we must be sure differentiate our woes with the experience of the average web user. If, and only if, the average web user is starting to find that Google doesn't serve their needs, will any of this matter. On another front, it is possible that the leadership at Google has their eye on the next prize and is willing to cede the search arena for some other targets they have in mind. In any case, what I would look for is ego issues. Do the leaders of Google spar with Microsoft a lot, for example, or otherwise develop ego driven goals that could force them to make bad decisions? LOL, pure conjecture all around, but I enjoy thinking about these things...
I agree 100% with the 3 statements above. That's really what it'll come down to IMO. Google can screw webmasters almost as much as they want. But if users start leaving google, well that's when the poop makes contact with the rotating blades...
It doesn't matter if Google is getting bad results in the search engine because people are still going to use them. People are always going to type google.com for search results its a habit that's not going away.
I thought Google was a map offering, email providing, payment processing, video hosting, advertising portal Are you telling me you can search for things with them?
Hmmm. My take on this is that it only matters to communities like ours. I don't think Mr Jones is going to notice a significant change when he uses Google to search for his piles cure. It may get back and users will find they can't find what they want, but at the end of the day, there is nothing catastrophic for typical day to day users here. It's just us lot that Google is screwing around.
Google is much bigger than what Altavista used to be. They offer much more than just Search. No doubt their search results are getting shittier, but i dont think this is end of Google. With GBuy on its way this month, they are sure to expand more. Google in innovative.
Whether they continue to dominate in other areas doesn't mean they'll continue to dominate search. Today, people say "Google it". Before Google, it was "Do you Yahoo?'.
Most important question, John points to this at threadwatch, is whether or not the average searchers sees what webmasters watch daily and what they do about it. Dave
The past week or so the index seems to be getting worse. My son was looking for something today here in the office with me and he was getting pissed... he asked me what was up and I told him just use Yahoo for now. I think Goolge did a great job with their SERPS about a month or two back.. but now it's hard to find stuff. I'm also not so sure about this Gbuy... where are the icons going??? in the search results??? ... seems a bit biased.
I think google is losing market because they are moving their business from just "Searching" to Gbuy, Video, news , Advertising PPC and alot.. i think they must be missing with Employees and yeah due to all junk and spam results on google.. it might lose market but i think it will take time for google to lose market atleast i think 2-3 years because People are use to Google search
I must admit of late, google has been giving crammy results, not just for my site, but other things i would like to search for, on the 1st page the top listing are completely irrelevant and provide no answers to my search query. Very very annoying, so i jumped ship and used msn instead, not alot better but better.