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Why Google+ Will Fail at Improving Search Results
Yesterday Google unveiled their latest “improvement” to social networking; Google+. Here is the info (pasted from my adsense account) straight from Google on how the new system works: “Adding the +1 button to your pages allows users to recommend your content to friends and contacts on Google search. As a result, you could get more and better qualified traffic.” It seems like a good idea, but ultimately this could be a major misstep for Google. This system, unless closely monitored, is ripe for manipulation – just like Facebook and YouTube – and will ultimately prove unreliable in providing better search results.
Now before you start going crazy about how Google+ is so much more than a glorified “like” system and that is supposed to be the new Facebook, I’m not referring to these features. I’m referring to the fact that Google has specifically stated that these results and opinions might – and most likely will – have an impact on their actual search results. My critique is on this angle, not the content it provides in its pseudo-wannabe-Facebook-anti-wall system. This is purely aimed at search results and their ability to be manipulated.
Look at YouTube, the site has quality content, but more often than not, top videos for any search query are not the best quality or most relevant, they are just the most heavily promoted. When you search for any given topic on YouTube – especially trending topics – you are bound to get mislabeled and poorly made advertisement videos, stolen videos with affiliate links, and videos with the most “views” or “likes”. The truth is you can spend $5 to promote a video by hiring outsourcers to watch and rate it with their YouTube accounts. How do I know this? I’ve done it, but for free.
When Michael Brea, an actor from the series Ugly Betty killed his mother with a sword on November 23, 2010 the news story was trending like crazy. I had seen a technique on how to get a video to the top of YouTube when a trending topic began so I decided to try it out. I simply turned on the news, took out my video camera, and filmed the TV. I then uploaded the story, used some simple manipulation, and received 15,000 views in the first day. It cost me $0. The video now has nearly 27,000 views and shows up nearly at the top when you search for Michael Brea on YouTube. Want proof? Michael Brea kills mom with sword. I’ve since sold off that account – but the hits keep coming.
So what’s my point? Well if Google+ works anything like YouTube it will be easily manipulated and simply gamed by marketers and advertisers. No trending topic is safe and no organic search using Google+ can be trusted; it’s just a terrible system that has not been refined enough to warrant utilizing it for search purposes. When it comes to Facebook the same thing rings true. I don’t get updates from friends, they are all updates from pages I never signed up for, or put a “like” on their fan page, but thankfully no more Farmville or mafia war updates. But the truth is, Facebook is now dominated by advertisements – and I didn’t even sign up for them! These posts have the most “likes” and comments, and thus shoot to the top of your update list. Marketers can also pay outsourcers, just like YouTube, to like and comment on their posts and therefore push them up in your update list – Facebook has gotten so out of control you can literally just pay for friends now!
This system has failed. It is merely a way of getting more advertisements into your social media. It seems like a great idea, and sometimes on Facebook and YouTube it works, but more often than not, it’s merely a gamed and flawed results system; it’s is too easily manipulated to be trusted. When Google performed their Panda update they effectively killed content farms and article directories because they were providing bad results and people were complaining. How long before your entire search results are merely paid Google+ manipulations and people start complaining about it? Just look at the SEO game before Panda came out, it was a joke, I could write an article and have it pop to the top 5 results for a competitive keyword in 72 hours.
While this won’t be the utter disaster that Google Wave was, it will ultimately fail to produce the results Google wants. In the rush to make everything social-media-ized companies like Google and Facebook keep forgetting their reason to exist. When it comes to Facebook, people were seeking refuge from MySpace and their relentless advertising – only to be inundated with ads on Facebook; it makes you wonder if eventually we will have to switch to a new social media platform. All people want from Google is the best results possible for a given keyword, they don’t want ads, they don’t care about if someone “plused” a page; they want results. With this approach Google is getting further and further away from what made them so popular in the first place – great search results. If the technology and know-how was these to make this ranking system successful, then I’m all for it, but at this point the technology and ability to improve results is not there.
Google Vs. Microsoft – The Search War Continues in 2010.
2009 was definitely an interesting year for search engines. We saw in implementation of real time search results, Microsoft unveiling Bing, and Yahoo giving up on search.
But if there is one thing that was made predominately clear in 2009, it’s that Microsoft is serious about competing with Google. After buying up Yahoo, Microsoft is claiming a much larger portion of online search results and ad revenue.
Currently Google takes up about 70% of all online searches, Yahoo claims around 16% and Bing claims about 10% (source HitWise). One thing that is interesting to note is that Bing’s numbers have actually dropped since the their launch buzz wore off – they were initially seeing about 12% of search results (as of June 2009).
Despite the drop in numbers, I think most people would characterize Bing as a success. Google didn’t start out a giant, it grew into its position by innovating search results with a more advanced and refined algorithm than its competitors, they also gained popularity by not focusing on ad-based results (which is definitely not the case now), and a unique look.
Bing doesn’t offer much in the way of an improved algorithm, less of a focus on ad-based results, or looks (Bing definitely used Google as a source of inspiration on all of these). Microsoft’s game plan is to set itself apart by expanding search related services, integrating with social networks, and generally spending lots of money.
In terms of search results, Microsoft really doesn’t offer any improvements from the Google algorithm. The search results are similar but nothing especially different or more useful. I think that Google is a better and more friendly search engine than Bing; I get much more traffic from Google, their business listings are much easier than Bings, and Google’s suite of Webmaster Tools, Analytics, and PPC advertising is top notch.
Microsoft was the first to announce a partnership with Twitter for real-time search results (although Google quickly responded with Twitter search of their own). And with the introduction of real-time Facebook results in searches, it’s clear that both search engines view social networking as a burgeoning frontier. It’s still unclear where and if this integration will effect marketing online, but it’s exciting to see the expanse of social networking.
Things started to heat up when Rupert Murdoch spoke out against Google and their “stealing stories”. Microsoft answered the call and began offering publishers money for search results. With stories like these, it’s easy to tell that the search landscape will continue to change in 2010; for better or worse.
While Microsoft seems intent on pressuring Google to spend money in order to compete, it’s unclear on whether or not this tactic will work. Google hasn’t necessarily been open on whether or not they would pay for search results, but it seems contradictory to their nature. Google is known as a search engine where the best site wins, by opening up search results to large publishers this could effectively phase out smaller news sources (like yours truly) from ever gaining the recognition we currently receive through organic search results.
Overall, the fight continues. Microsoft will no doubt try and reclaim more of the search market in 2010 (they still have plenty of fight and money left before they back down). The big question that remains is if Google will set itself apart from Bing. At this point, they seem to be mirroring each other’s innovations and services and not offering anything unique. I think once the Facebook and Twitter search fizzles out the focus will be on content. Will Google pay for results? Will Microsoft even pay for results? I think this will be the key issue that dominate search engine news for the majority of 2010. If one things clear, Microsoft has an uphill battle in front of them, and they will need to provide something unique from Google to stand out and ultimately succeed.
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