It appears, as expected by many webmasters worldwide, the Panda update has started in a wave of layoffs by small businesses. Reported layoffs include online ergonomic-products retailer Ergo In Demand Inc, One Way Furniture Inc., Mahalo, Morris Rosenthal Foner Books, and many more. Digg CEO has recently announced big layoffs, which some webmasters doubt are related to Panda update. Overall, it is expected to shake the worldwide search market, and it is to be seen whether Google can retain it's No.1 search engine position for the decade 2011-2020 as it had enjoyed during the period 2001-2010. Some references to discussions at other forums: Wave Of Layoffs in Wake of Panda http://www.elearninglikecrazy.com/hot-trends/ranking-in-google-is-now-panda-has-become-a-global http://www.disqusin.com/2011/04/18/...anda-update-when-will-the-effect-end/?amp& As of now bing is throwing consistent results, and webmasters are hopeful that bing won't be going Panda way. On the positive side, it appears that some content farm sites have been downgraded by Panda update. This is definitely a good thing for searchers (search engine users). http://mados.wordpress.com/2011/04/22/panda-update-targets-content-farms/ However, the update opens up the search market for other search engines due to the following reasons: a. Google thinks that its search results (prior to Panda update) are widely off the mark, and hence made a major update to the search algo that effected a majority of sites. b. The update gives out a clue that the search algo is far from providing desired results for the searches. c. Google, considered one of the best search engines, is unable to provide a consistent search results by effecting major algorithm changes. It may be required to have search engine verticals (SEV). A SEV is one that focuses on a given vertical, such as health, real estate, education, government, technology, etc. This is because, a generic algo may not work for different verticals. How other members see search market during the decade 2011-2020?
google has changed algorithms over the years for checking website relevance and popularity but for the most part all search engines do the same when ranking sites higher than others.
lololololol. I gotta say, I think that is a little bit funny. But I hope that those who lose their jobs are alright. Hmmm
Agree that Google has been updating its algo from time to time. But, changing the algo to such extent in one go, that most of the websites that were doing good have been affected adversely show that Google is loosing sync with the things.
ForgottenCreature, Just read the posts elsewhere (like webmasterworld) that have been posted above. Any comments on who will dominate the search engine market in 2011-2020, apart from Google?
lololololol. I gotta say, I think that is a little bit funny. But I hope that those who lose their jobs are alright. Hmmm
You are generally correct, and specialized apps have been taking a run at Google. In real estate, there's Trulia, for example. For travel, there's Kayak. Google seems to have most dificult with commercial segments prone to exploitation by people like the users of DP. For niches where no profit is involved, such as academia, science or government, Google still does outstandingly well. Same is true for very small hobbyist niches which are too small to have commercial value. You can find obscure stuff very easily. I think the coming years in search will be defined by how well search engines incorporate social media data. Google is set to dominate this decade too.
It is sad that a webmaster of an established quality site still thinks about "survival", and not about expansion. This is what being discussed precisely at ww.
It is surprising that Google had survived for the past decade despite competition from yahoo, MS, and others. It is very unlikely that Google will be a dominant search engine at the end of the decade 2020. The search area will get diversified, and specialty search engines will take their own positions. Or advanced non-linear algos need to be developed for next gen search engines. Some of the products/sites were once very dominant but subsequently failed to keep their positions: 1. IE of Microsoft has ceased to be a dominant browser. 2. Myspace ceased to be a dominant Social media site (already over taken by others) 3. Yahoo and MS had to put their strengths together to survive search war 4. Many search engines (like altavista, askjeaves, etc.) and directories (DMOZ was once very popular, and used to influence the search results greatly) have lost their prominence. The next gen search engines are likely to use AI (Artificial Intelligence) or similar advanced programming techniques. The one that comes out with innovative search product will be dominating the market.
I agree that Google isn't going anywhere anytime soon but they are spread thin these days. That often (not always) puts a company at risk of not paying attention to their core product. In addition, the bigger they get, the less people trust them. In fact, I've had a "very" negative experience recently. Not Panda but something big where we needed individualized attention. We received nothing. After spending tens of thousands of dollars with them through the years, they can't even return a call or email. We even wrote letters to upper management with no reply. Name me one other company that would completely ignore a business that has spent that much money with them. They are simply too big to take care of their customers (think they are). I can't wait until the next competitor knocks them out. - I'm over Google!
Agree!! No matter what happens with the search engine algorithm updates, the quality content sites will always rule.
There is a discussion on WW on Google Panda. Reno, a WW veteran says Quote: "Eight years ago I liked & respected Google; three years ago I still respected them; now, I neither like nor respect them, and in fact, in conversations with "civilians" (non-webmaster types) I go out of my way to warn people about Google, using their violation of privacy as my argument, because I have found that gets the most attention from those folks. I hope others are doing the same. There was a time when I wished Google well. Now, I wish them anything but well, not because I "expect" or think I "deserve" anything from them, but rather because of the way they dropped Panda on the webmaster world." Obviously, the update has evoked widespread criticism from a majority of reputed webmasters, and likely from web users. Source: Wave Of Layoffs in Wake of Panda
As per recent article on Bloomberg, http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-...probe-into-web-search-industry-dominance.html Google faces FTC investigation (FTC stands for US Federal Trade Commission) or a probe of Google Inc. (GOOG)’s dominance of the Internet search industry. Eleanor Fox, a law professor at New York University said "An FTC investigation “has the potential to be very significant, It could be ‘Google as the next Microsoft". James Grimmelmann, an associate professor of law at New York Law School who specializes in Internet law says: “They’re doing stuff to try to take control of markets that may be fodder for an FTC antitrust lawsuit" Thomas Rosch, a Republican who is one of five FTC commissioners, said in an interview last month he supported a probe of the dominant players in the Internet-search industry, without specifying which companies. An FTC investigation of Google “is long overdue,†said John Simpson, consumer advocate at Santa Monica, California- based Consumer Watchdog. Simpson called for Google’s breakup saying that “Google is the Standard Oil Company of this century,†The EU probe is examining whether Google discriminated against other services in search results and stopped websites from accepting rival ads. A complaint from Microsoft last month may expand the investigation to online video and mobile phones. The above are excerpts from the Bloomberg article and the link for the same is given above for reference. The timing of FTC investigation is significant that it comes in wake of Panda update and it's not known whether it has anything to do with recent developments at Google Search. Any comments from DP members?
If you follow the discussions at Webmasterworld and other places, it is not just the spam sites that are hit. May authority web pages have been hit by this update.
Google search market share for April 2011 has gone down despite several webmasters using Google search to determine the website rankings in wake of Panda. See statistics at ComScore April 2011 U.S. Search Engine Rankings Further, several webmasters in other forums had reported increased visits by Yahoo and MSN searchers, did any DP members observed similar activity?