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I see a lot of these articles; someone feeling cheated because Google takes them off some or all search results. Google did not "mug" anyone - it is the reason

I see a lot of these articles; someone feeling cheated because Google takes them off some or all search results. Google did not "mug" anyone - it is the reason for your traffic to begin with. The fact that you even ever had discoverability among a billion or so websites is a beautiful thing. Additionally, have some perspective, the search is a free tool that is very tough to get right. This might sound harsh, but I believe the effort in complaining could be better allocated into promoting the authors' sister's business. To emphasize, Google search is a FREE tool - use it to get business but don't make it your bread and butter because it is optimized for users, advertisers - not the content creators. To accept this is not optional, it is simply reality.

eurleif 13y ago
>it is the reason for your traffic to begin with No, people searching for "photo quilts" are the reason for the traffic. Most of those people happen to be using Google, but if Google disappeared, they would switch to another search engine. The site owner has a legitimate interest in Google doing its job better, and so do we as Google users. The point of this post is that Google isn't serving anyone's interests properly here (except, perhaps, its own). As a Google user, I want to know that.
- wtetzner 13y ago
  > The point of this post is that Google isn't serving anyone's interests properly here I'm not sure about that. When I search for "photo quilts", I find plenty of relevant sites. They seem to be at least as good as www.portraitquilts.com. I would say Google is doing a fine job serving it's user's interests. It might just be that www.portraitquilts.com isn't as relevant as the other results.
latj 13y ago
In one sense you are correct that Google is "free" because one does not pay cash directly to Google to be listed in its results or to preform a search. But in another sense, Google is not free at all. The fact is, Google lives and thrives off of the data generated by the public. Yes, Google employees smart people. But its real value is derived from the underlying public data that Google gets- for free. Google search works because the world allows Google's bots to traverse their websites freely and index their content. Google translate works because the EU and other governments translated their documents into many languages and then gave them away to the world. Google Maps works because of GIS information gathered on the public's dime. Gmail is able to operate because users allow it to mine their personal messages to better tailor advertisements. Google is built on top of and depends on the public- both to be its customers and to be the source of its products. It has taken the market in search, email, browser, and mobile. And, for the most part, it has created some great tools for people to use. But there is a minority of people whose lives are affected by Google for the worse. Its important not to marginalize these people. This is a non-democratically elected institution whose policies and actions have more effect on people's lives than the governments of many nations. Those policies and actions ought to be looked upon critically by the people.
- thrill 13y ago
  Google does not get its data for free - what do you think the 50,000 people employed there are doing? The vast number of servers, the ridiculous power bill, the research efforts - all these are so they can not only gather the same data that any of us can also gather with a simple bash script, but also present it in such a way that is significantly "better" than the competition that some people are actually willing to pay them money.
  - latj 13y ago
    The vast majority of Google employees are not downloading public data or working on Googlebot. They are working on either converting public data into better advertising algorithms or creating a product that will capture peoples' attention. Yes, it is true that Google pays a lot for infrastructure to download the data. But it is a drop in the well compared to the price of actually generating the data. Otherwise they would just do that.
MichaelGG 13y ago
Free has nothing to do with it. Even if you paid Google to be included in the index, Google's results indicate Google's current opinion. There's no useful, natural, way to order search results. They are an opinion. If Google wanted to, they could randomize results every day or query just to see what people prefer. No one is owed any particular result. Users are literally asking Google what Google feels is a good answer to a query.

eurleif 13y ago

>it is the reason for your traffic to begin with No, people searching for "photo quilts" are the reason for the traffic. Most of those people happen to be using Google, but if Google disappeared, they would switch to another search engine. The site owner has a legitimate interest in Google doing its job better, and so do we as Google users. The point of this post is that Google isn't serving anyone's interests properly here (except, perhaps, its own). As a Google user, I want to know that.

wtetzner 13y ago
> The point of this post is that Google isn't serving anyone's interests properly here I'm not sure about that. When I search for "photo quilts", I find plenty of relevant sites. They seem to be at least as good as www.portraitquilts.com. I would say Google is doing a fine job serving it's user's interests. It might just be that www.portraitquilts.com isn't as relevant as the other results.

latj 13y ago

In one sense you are correct that Google is "free" because one does not pay cash directly to Google to be listed in its results or to preform a search. But in another sense, Google is not free at all. The fact is, Google lives and thrives off of the data generated by the public. Yes, Google employees smart people. But its real value is derived from the underlying public data that Google gets- for free. Google search works because the world allows Google's bots to traverse their websites freely and index their content. Google translate works because the EU and other governments translated their documents into many languages and then gave them away to the world. Google Maps works because of GIS information gathered on the public's dime. Gmail is able to operate because users allow it to mine their personal messages to better tailor advertisements. Google is built on top of and depends on the public- both to be its customers and to be the source of its products. It has taken the market in search, email, browser, and mobile. And, for the most part, it has created some great tools for people to use. But there is a minority of people whose lives are affected by Google for the worse. Its important not to marginalize these people. This is a non-democratically elected institution whose policies and actions have more effect on people's lives than the governments of many nations. Those policies and actions ought to be looked upon critically by the people.

thrill 13y ago
Google does not get its data for free - what do you think the 50,000 people employed there are doing? The vast number of servers, the ridiculous power bill, the research efforts - all these are so they can not only gather the same data that any of us can also gather with a simple bash script, but also present it in such a way that is significantly "better" than the competition that some people are actually willing to pay them money.
- latj 13y ago
  The vast majority of Google employees are not downloading public data or working on Googlebot. They are working on either converting public data into better advertising algorithms or creating a product that will capture peoples' attention. Yes, it is true that Google pays a lot for infrastructure to download the data. But it is a drop in the well compared to the price of actually generating the data. Otherwise they would just do that.

MichaelGG 13y ago

Free has nothing to do with it. Even if you paid Google to be included in the index, Google's results indicate Google's current opinion. There's no useful, natural, way to order search results. They are an opinion. If Google wanted to, they could randomize results every day or query just to see what people prefer. No one is owed any particular result. Users are literally asking Google what Google feels is a good answer to a query.