I guess this is subjective. But I have been doing everything they ask: adding new fresh, original content, building backlinks from good pr sites. And I have been rewarded for my efforts. But I see so many "What's wrong with Google?" threads lately. I just want to chime in and say good job Google. Of course, if I were getting my backlinks, pr, and serps cut, I'd probably honestly be one of those people, but I'm not so I just want to check to see if there are any other people that agree that Google is not broken, it is in fact the webmasters that are not adding fresh content and so forth that may have a problem. It might be webmaster hubris for all I know. You have enjoyed your positions for so long that you are shocked to see them disappear. Just my opinion, but keep up the good work Google. *I am not a affiliated with Google in the least.
Lots of webmasters get all that, yet their site(s) are still outranked by other sites with inferior content in the G organic SERP's. Right now, the only major engine that responds well to fresh, original, first-class content and high quality links is Y! As always, IMO.
Interesting arguments for sure especially xeno. I can't see that I necessarily agree with you though, because as a person with multiple websites, dealing with similar topics, Google does not treat every site fair. In teh sense that it does not treat all sites fair in terms of SERPs with very similar SEO efforts, it is broken. Is it someting to bitch about, no, is it something to try and learn and overcome, yes.
I agree that google is not broken at all. One among the changes I have noticed recently is that Google seem to give weight to the keyword present in the domainname where as Yahoo seem to have temporarily stopped giving it. As far as fairness is concerned every one has their own rules ( google: backlinks, age of the domain etc - yahoo: directory listing, paid inclusion into SERPs etc). So either all of them are fair or none of them.
Google is still the premier in SE industry. Google still produce the best result. Yahoo and MSN is way behind google in terms of their results.
www.ask.com is going to have google for lunch. The tides are turning. Yahoo! offers real people to talk to, G has the stupid and impersonal automated system. I've been wrong before, hell, I'm wrong all the time. But the days of saying google it are gone according to the lay people I talk to. They are tired of looking for help for their kids homework and getting sites that want to sell, Purchase the artic tundra here. That one always kills me, no matter the keyword, google will sell it to you as if it's a product. That's good technology? :/
I listen to my members, that's all that matters to me. If google works for you, fine. I have no beef with that.
I'm not trying to start an arguement with you. You say "the tide is turning" like it's on the horizon or something. Your "members" may all be Ask.com users, but the rest of the world hasn't caught on yet.
I know for a fact that if you have a site with high quality, unique content, and a decent number of quality backlinks, you can rank well in Y! without a directory listing or paying for inclusion. That's a fact.