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Search Engine News Jan 29: Google+ is Everywhere!
The Invasion of the Search Result Snatcher: Google+
When preparing this week’s search and social news wrap-ups, we found an endless number of blog posts and articles about Google’s social network Google+.
Google Plus links appear in Google ads, as links on web sites, as invitation to coversations in Google search results, and — above all — as regular, “personalized” search results in Google search.
It is abundantly clear that Google is now willing to do anything to force both searchers and search engine marketing people to establish a presence on Google+. The goal is clearly to turn it into one of the major social sites on the web.
You might say that since Google owns the Google search engine, it must be allowed to do whatever it likes with the search results.
Maybe. What worries us, though, is that this does not make much sense business wise, either.
Here is why: Google’s success is founded on quality.
Google won over long forgotten search engines like AltaVista and Excite because they constantly focused on helping the searcher find what he or she was looking for. AltaVista, for instance, lost because it stopped working on the search algorithm, focusing on building a portal instead.
Now Google is sacrificing the quality of its search result by including links to inferior content on Google+. These links appear above much more relevant pages from Twitter and Facebook.
To me it does not matter if the relevant Google+ pages link to Twitter and Facebook. I do not want to be forced to take a detour via Google+ to get to the most relevant results. Nor do I want to be forced to establish and uphold a company page on Google+ just because Google controls the mighty Google search engine.
It is true that history never repeats itself, but there is something about human hubris that make people do the same mistakes over and over again. By sacrificing quality on the altar of market dominance, Google may — like AltaVista before it — soon find that the searchers go elsewhere.
Ironically, this time it is the old monopolist, Microsoft, who provides the most likely alternative: Bing. Search engines like Duck Duck Go and Blekko may also benefit from the strategic errors of Google.
Here are some of the search related articles we have found interesting lately, including some very interesting posts about Google+ and the quality of Google search results:
The Pandia Search Engine News Wrap-up
Dear Google: Crappy Results Like This Don’t Give The Impression You Care About Search
Danny Sullivan: The debate about what should — and shouldn’t — show in a Google search result for “santorum” has been well-documented, at this point. But I’d like to use this now famous search to illustrate something else: how it appears Google is taking its eye off the ball of being a search engine.
Google+ Spreads to AdSense, Will It Spread to the Whole Web?
Battelle: I’m thinking Google can differentiate itself by not acting like Facebook, but instead allow any advertiser to integrate “+1? into their ads, regardless of where that ad runs – be it a direct buy on ESPN, an independent web player like FM, or, as seen above, a buy on Google’s own AdSense service.
How Google+ Could Threaten Google’s Core Search Business
SE Watch: Antitrust implications aside, are searchers, in fact, better off for having personalized results in their search results? As Manjoo states, the reason we turn to a search engine is to get the collective view of all Web users, and that has worked particularly well until now. “Not once”, he says “did I get to a Google results page and lament that I couldn’t see my friends’ ideas about the car I should buy or the hotel I ought to book.”
Google Keeps Mum on Don’t Be Evil Bookmarklet
Google Watch: Ever since Facebook Product Director Blake Ross unveiled his Don’t Be Evil bookmarklet, which uses Google’s search indexes to show what Google Search, plus your world would look like if it included results from Facebook, Twitter and other sources, the tech world has been waiting for Google to respond.
Pandia’s comment: The Don’t Be Evil Video demonstrates clearly that Google is now clearly favoring inferior Google? pages to much more relevant profiles from Twitter and Facebook in search results. In other words: The company is sacrificing search quality on the altar of Google+ promotion. That is a serious strategic error, as people use Google because of its perceived quality, not on its ability to deliver relevant social results.
Two Weeks In, Google Says “Search Plus Your World” Going Well, Critics Should Give It Time
SE Land: Two weeks ago, Google launched Search Plus Your World. Since then, Google has faced strong criticisms that SPYW is making its search relevancy worse and favoring its Google+ social network too much. Not so, says Google search chief Amit Singhal.
Google choosing between advertisers and searchers. Guess who is losing?
VentureBeat: Now, with the introduction of Search Plus Your World earlier this month, Google has shown us it may believe it has enough clout that it can more or less ignore its original customers, the individuals who use search engines to find relevant content. Instead, it appears intent to focus on building its marketplace, expanding its audience, and delivering ever-better results to advertisers — even if that means degrading the experience to search engine users.
Google to Shut Down Picnik, Social Graph API and Urchin, Open-Sourcing Sky Map
SiliconFilter: The program that Google’s users will likely miss most is Picnik, which was among the first web-based online photo editing tools.
“Ask On Google+” Links Appearing In Google’s Search Results
Search Engine Land: Now Google’s encouraging people at the end of its search listings if they “Want to ask your friends about” what they were Googling.
Google+ Invades Earth
All Things D: The search giant has rolled out the latest version of Google Earth, and while it boasts much improved graphics, the big enhancement to take note of is its integration with the company’s Google+ social networking and identity service.
When Larry Met Sergey – Interactive Infographic
Online PhD made a interactive infographic which starts with “When Larry Met Sergey”. The guide, embedded below takes you through the history of Google highlighting al the major milestones starting at the moment that Larry (22) and Sergey (21) meet at Stanford University in 1995 when the internet just had 16 million users.
Created By Online PhD
Russian Search Engine Yandex Adds Face Recognition Technology
SE Watch: Russian search giant Yandex has added facial recognition technology to its photo hosting service, Yandex.Fotki.
New iGoogle Layout Live For Some
SE Roundtable: The new iGoogle is less colorful, and more the new bland white dull feeling of the new Google look throughout the various properties.
Professor Resigns From Stanford To Launch Online Education Project
Slashdot: “Professor Sebastian Thrun has given up his Stanford position to start Udacity — an online educational venture. Udacity’s first two free courses are Building a Search Engine and Programming a Robotic Car.
Udacity teaches you to build a search engine in seven weeks!
Find hotels by travel time
Google Inside Search: Last year we introduced Hotel Finder, an experimental tool to help you find hotels, and today, we’ve extended its functionality with a new way to search: ‘Hotels by Travel Time’. Now if you go to Hotel Finder and enter [Empire State Building] in the search box, you’ll see the hotels that you can get to by public transport within 20 minutes.
SOPA Is Dead: Smith Pulls Bill
Mashable: Lamar Smith, the chief sponsor of SOPA, the American online anti-piracy act, said on Friday that he is pulling the bill “until there is wider agreement on a solution.”
Google Public Alerts: Innovative System Provides the Public with Emergency Alerts
SE Journal: Google launched its new Public Alerts page, which provides emergency information and warnings related to floods, tornadoes, winter storms, earthquakes, and other natural disasters.
Google Exposed: Federal Government Used Con Man in Google Sting Operation
SE Jorunal: The Wall Street Journal recently published an article that provides additional details of last year’s sting operation against Google AdWords. The federal investigation, which alleged that Google was aware of online pharmacies illegally selling drugs such as Steroids, HGH, Oxycontin, and Ritalin to individuals without prescriptions, used a convicted felon by the name of David Whitaker to build a strong case against Google.
Is Google Selling Investors Private Search Data?
SEOBook: Private investors get to see that search data before anyone else does. If you have a retirement plan invested in stocks, then you are at an asymmetrical information disadvantage because Google is providing an in-depth look at that search data to competing investors who can trade on the information before it is public.
Your Privacy On Google: Don’t Panic, Do Think
Discovery: Alarming news arrived this week about your privacy online. Your Gmail messages, your YouTube viewing habits, the Google Maps directions your Android phone provides and numerous other online activities will get fed into a giant algorithm that shapes the search results you see on Google — as if one company were seizing control of all those products!
EU Releases Broad Internet Privacy Recommendations
Inside Google: The recommendations include allowing users access to their personal data, creating a single international protection agency for complaints from Internet users and establishing rules for prosecuting crimes involving data.
Google Search Showing Results For Punctuation Marks
SE Land: Alex Chitu reports Google is now showing search results for punctuation marks and other types of symbols. In the past, Google ignored most punctuation marks and didn’t show any results for them that were useful. Now Google is.
Drop-Box files can be indexed by Google
Link to Google translation of Norwegian site Din Side: File sharing tool DropBox’ Public folder is actually open to the search engines and its content may be indexed by Google.
See also today’s social media news wrap-up!
Read more at Confused at a higher level
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