Businesses depend upon the quality of Google searches delivering useful results, and in turn, Google’s business depends on companies finding useful search results. However, if smart SEO techniques push up lower value websites in the search order, it distorts the usefulness of search for the user, putting Google’s business at risk. No wonder, Google continuously improves its search algorithms – 500 times a year. Referenced article quotes: “Hitwise, an analytics firm, measures how happy users are with their searches by looking at how many are successful, meaning the user stays at the first site they click on. At Bing, 82 percent of searches are deemed successful. At Google, the figure is 66 percent.“ Google’s latest change in algorithms would raise the rankings of high-quality Web sites and reduce those of lesser sites, affecting 12 percent of search queries.
Social media runs a similar spamming risk and can distort our ability to interpret the social media. This makes social media monitoring a business critical area since businesses make decisions based on what the social media buzz is telling them. What is a good way to make social media monitoring insights more trustworthy?
This cat and mouse game is inherent to our business and it will not end since smart people work on both ends. It is like doping in sports, virus spread and hackers on computers.
Reference: Seeking to Weed Out Drivel, Google Adjusts Search Engine, NYTimes. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/26/technology/internet/26google.html?partner=rss&emc=rss
