5 ms·

I just don't understand the problem that Google is having. Why can't they simply penalise sites/domains that are full of rubbish? Or manually boost domains and

I just don't understand the problem that Google is having. Why can't they simply penalise sites/domains that are full of rubbish? Or manually boost domains and sites that aren't. The lack of innovation in search worries me - there are big commercial incentives for Google's results to be poor. Though the emergence of viable alternatives will change this. I'm sure I read that the average revenue per search was $0.08 or something around that mark. At that level it's worth having some human intervention. Perhaps Yahoo had something after all!

locopati 16y ago
With the amount of cash they have in the bank, it would behoove them to spend a little on human oversight to protect their reputation as the go-to search site.
jsz0 16y ago
From a cynical point of view it seems to me that Google doesn't mind one bit if you have to click through 5 pages of links or modify your search query a few times. It's all page hits/ad impressions for them. Since there's very little competition in search they don't have to worry much about people going elsewhere.
- brudgers 16y ago
  >"Since there's very little competition in search they don't have to worry much about people going elsewhere." Google search has become increasingly biased over the years, to the point where identical searches by two different people can yield significantly different results depending on each person's geographic location, previous search history, and previous web activity. Google may not be evil, but they often appear to be creepy. That's why over the long haul, the billions spent on Bing probably make sense for Microsoft. They can run it and scale it without total dependence on ad revenue and the inevitable pressure to skew search results to create impressions for their ad network because it is not their primary revenue source. Unlike Google search, Bing is not primarily a business model, it is another technology in Microsoft's portfolio. Ad sales are secondary to the added value of search when incorporated into other Microsoft products.

locopati 16y ago

With the amount of cash they have in the bank, it would behoove them to spend a little on human oversight to protect their reputation as the go-to search site.

jsz0 16y ago

From a cynical point of view it seems to me that Google doesn't mind one bit if you have to click through 5 pages of links or modify your search query a few times. It's all page hits/ad impressions for them. Since there's very little competition in search they don't have to worry much about people going elsewhere.

brudgers 16y ago
>"Since there's very little competition in search they don't have to worry much about people going elsewhere." Google search has become increasingly biased over the years, to the point where identical searches by two different people can yield significantly different results depending on each person's geographic location, previous search history, and previous web activity. Google may not be evil, but they often appear to be creepy. That's why over the long haul, the billions spent on Bing probably make sense for Microsoft. They can run it and scale it without total dependence on ad revenue and the inevitable pressure to skew search results to create impressions for their ad network because it is not their primary revenue source. Unlike Google search, Bing is not primarily a business model, it is another technology in Microsoft's portfolio. Ad sales are secondary to the added value of search when incorporated into other Microsoft products.