Googling
Published November 20, 2003
I find it amazing how quickly "Google" has become synonymous with with "web search." For me, it's as simple as Google was the first search engine to really work. When I was researching The Encyclopedia of Record Producers in the late-'90s, especially the discography database part of it, I used many different search engines and none of them had anything like the reliability, logic, and comprehensiveness of Google.
Of course, when you're on top people mess with you:
- FOR many people, ordering a gift online goes something like this: type a few words into a search engine, click on a few of the top results and place an order.
For this reason, being among the first few links in a list of search results is critical for many online businesses. Falling off the first page of results can mean a sudden loss of customers. So companies have tried for years to manipulate search engines so they land in the top ranks.
But lately a new strategy has emerged that is raising questions about business ethics and the nature of online competition. Because search engines like Google give weight to sites that are linked to other sites, companies set up networks, creating or encouraging others to create large numbers of sites that sell the same products and then linking them together. If the strategy works, what the searcher sees is a list of links that lead back to the same product or company.
....The practice has roiled the gift-basket industry, where several online shops have noticed in recent months that their rankings on Google have suddenly dropped. No longer do they show up in the top 10 listings. Instead, a company called Gift Services Inc. has taken their place.
"We cannot be found anymore," said Michelle Wiesel, president of Cesta Gift Baskets in Los Angeles (www.cesta.net). "We have not sold one fruit basket" in two months, she said, adding that before, when Cesta showed up in Google's top 10 results, her business was doing fine.
Gift Services, based in Vancouver, Wash., has created dozens if not hundreds of Web sites to market its gift baskets. (It will not say how many sites it has.) Last week, for example, a search on Google for "fruit baskets los angeles" returned 8 seemingly different sellers in the top 10 listings. But most were Gift Services sites offering many of the same baskets. [NY Times]
- Googling
- Published: November 20, 2003
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- Section: Sci/Tech
- Filed Under: Sci/Tech: Internet
- Writer: Eric Olsen
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Whoa, that's a problem many wish they had!
I'm number one for my name, too. I never know if people find my site because they want to see my site or if they're looking for the composer Tom Johnson (I assume the latter, more people know him, I think.) I believe there may be a photographer with my name too. We're everywhere.
Indeed, there's an exceptionally talented photographer named after me, too. We all have our own reasons for blogging and while I don't mind who reads my blog, I don't necessarily want them there because Google led them there with a search for "Yao Ming's Penis" or "stinky farts", ya' know?
I have no such compunctions whatsoever - every Google straggler is another potential reader.
I google all the time, but not without keeping a wary eye on 'Google Watch' and the like while I'm at it. You never know what they're doing with you while you make use of them. ;)
I think part of your point is made, Eric, by the very fact that I can't think offhand of any other places apart from Google and Amazon which have Hack books in their own right as sites.
Google is great for doing research on software technologies. the funny thing about it is that i can be looking for some info on, say, how to use microsoft .net remoting...and it's easier (and faster) to google it rather than use micosofts pathetic search tool inside of a locally installed MSDN.
funny, but not surprising.
I find it amazing how quickly "Google" has become synonymous with with "web search."
Actually, it's not so amazing. They became obsessed with the concept of relative searches. When people use the search it is kind of important that they get results that mean something. Yahoo became all too concerned with being a portal and being the jack of all trades and thus became the master of none.
Ok, well, they probably have a few good services but I rarely use them for anything.
Google, on the other hand, well I have their deskbar and toolbar running and use them frequently.
Yahoo! still uses Google for their searches, but that is supposedly coming to an end
another odd search angle: since our own search engine only works on text within posts, not comments, not author names, I'm not sure about post titles, sometimes the best way to find something in our own site is to "google it."
Eric, point noted. Will consider switching our search box to use Google's engine instead. While I've always thought that searching the titles and bodies of posts would be what I would want, I did find myself wanting to search for a particular comment the other day myself. ;-)
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I really dig Google but I do have a peeve with them as a blogger. Do a name search for me and the number one result is my blog. Fine and dandy, but I've placed a robots.txt file in my index directory and have anti-robot metadata on my index page. Google has a delisting service but it's only good for 90 days. Supposedly, after delisting if you have the anticrawler measures in effect you should be left alone, but my experience has proved otherwise. Some people like the exposure their blog gets from Google, but I don't necessarily want my own information that readily available.