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Ask HN: Is Google responsible for returning 'fair' results or 'good' ones?
By now most regular readers of this site have heard about how Google has bombed Rap Genius from orbit after they sought to game the system[1]. Beyond this specific case, do you think that Google should be prioritising the punishment of those who seek to inflate their search results over whether or not the results are of high quality? After all, Google is much more than simply a search provider, it's an institution for almost everybody who uses the internet.
In their public begging for forgiveness[2], RG submits that they want "to create an amazing experience for users and hope they prefer us to all other lyrics sites," which they appear to have done. Certainly I prefer RG to other sites for lyrics; the UX is generally just better and the additional functionality of the annotations would appear, in my eyes, to only increase the value. I've gotten malware from other lyrics sites in the past, and I've had to deal with other sneaky tactics from other sites (like embedding a link in the lyrics when I copy them). I submit that RG is almost categorically a better result for if I Google something like "whoa lyrics earl sweatshirt" than another site.
Does Google have a responsibility to the users the best possible results even if they tried to mercilessly self-promote? Or does such blatant gaming of the system deserve such a crippling blow?
[1]http://searchengineland.com/google-has-officially-penalized-rap-genius-for-link-schemes-180777
[2]http://news.rapgenius.com/Rap-genius-founders-open-letter-to-google-about-rap-genius-seo-lyrics
- mattkrea 13y agoThey clearly have a responsibility to return the most relevant links and in this case they've gone pretty far but in my opinion they also have a duty to do things like this as negative as it may seem. What Rap Genius did is why SEO companies exist. I've never been able to tolerate them for the reason that, for a price, you can "game" the system and rank higher even if your content is no better. In the long run, this type of behaviour is dishonest and damaging. By making a great example out of Rap Genius I think they've put it out there very clearly that you will be punished if found doing this like this.
- sejje 13y agoI don't believe so, no. I think it's in their best interest, but I don't think they should be held accountable in any manner. This whole RG thing is about protecting their results, though. They're returning, probably temporarily, poor results in one specific type of search, but it will likely have a net benefit result overall.