Google are at it again!
They’re not content with just offering up search results that they think you’ll be interested in, they are now giving you the choice of altering the results, saving them and remembering your favourites so they can serve you better in the future.
For example, if you searched for ‘Sandwich Shop’ and you weren’t happy with the results, you could promote the results you preferred above the ones you didn’t. Sounds odd, here’s it in action:
Easy huh? But what effect does this have on search engine optimisation, and importantly the whole industry?
Interestingly enough, it’s being welcomed by many, including us. You see we concentrate on what the consumer wants to see at the top of the search engines, not what we think Google wants to see. It’s ultimately the consumer that buys from your site and so they should be the ones that benefit from search. If a company manages to promote a poor site so well that it appears above good sites then the consumer is missing out. Now they can redress the balance by pushing out the poor sites and promoting the good ones.
In essence, it makes the job of good SEO companies easier and those of bad much harder.
3 Responses for "Google personalisation – the end of search?"
This is worrying news. Surely larger/richer companies could employ ‘comsumers’ to rate their site en mass. Where does this leave us small businesses? at the bottom I suspect.
It seems that the results you promote won’t be seen by others, they’re just saved for when you are logged in yourself.
However, comments may be a different matter. These are apparently seen by everyone so people could make positive/derogatory comments about companies and these would make their way into the public domain.
When i first heard of this i was delighted, fearful for some sites i know that rankings are built solely on link exchange – anything that alters the ranking in favour of quality sites is good with me.
The user experience has to be enjoyable, making a good website is more than just throwing together information, careful linking and structured information is what will attract users to re-visit the site.
there are so many factors involved but at the heart should be quality content.
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