Google under investigation by European commission over Panda update

[pokeraussie]

How Google's 'Panda' update put some websites on endangered species list | Technology | The Guardian

I think some of the comments are more interesting then the story.

[cernus11]

Always interesting to read through the comments - but they are typically opinions rather that facts. With that being said I think I will give my opinion on the way search has moved over the last year and will continue to move in 2012 (read the news post posted by MJ here which I thought was interesting as well: Google Will Change Web Marketing in 2012 - Brian Whalley - Harvard Business Review).

Personally I feel like the barrier to entry to get into the search market is going up - I think we grew our businesses in the era where anyone could get online with low quality sites and after a few months see SOME results to push them forward. This resulted in people making cookie cutter websites rinsing and repeating and clouding the SERPS with poor results that didn't help the user but made the website owner money. We got very used the swiftness of ranking and gaming the system - now I believe times are changing - sure there will always be ways to "exploit" the system however they get closed up very quickly now adays. The real barriers to the search market and creating a long term business are now quality and functionality, these are two things that you can either strive to do yourself (though it might be slightly unrealistic to think you can cater to all these yourself) or push money at the right resources to do it for you.

Look at the losers and winners from Panda and you will see that quality of search results definitely went up (Ye there were some exceptions but there always are). If you look at most webmasters bitching about what Panda did to their network you see a common trend of outdated sites and networks that got complacent doing what was working for them instead of trying to cater towards innovation. I think what the past year has taught me to stop trying to cater towards the Google algorithm but towards the people that use your site. If you do a good job at that Google will follow suit and show you some love as well.

At the end of the day everyone will always bitch that Google are all about themselves, all about their profit - while I believe this is true, you will also find that the quality networks and sites will always make money as well. I am sure a lot of people will disagree with this post or nitpick it but this is how I am going into 2012 and I am fully confident it will work out for me.

James

[Mr-AJ]

Great post! I think it's just the beginning. There are still plenty of junk sites in highly competitive niches like casino even after a couple of Panda updates.

[pokeraussie]

Great post! I think it's just the beginning. There are still plenty of junk sites in highly competitive niches like casino even after a couple of Panda updates.

Different verticals get different treatment. Google really couldn't care less about casino and the quality of these results. Also the highly competitive niches have the biggest spammers so there will always be ones that fall through the cracks. That's never going to change.

The point of the article wasn't just about lower quality sites getting hit by the panda update and google considering them irrelevant overnight. Ohh really. So a site that has been on the first page of G for years is all of a sudden completely irrelevant? Makes sense. It's obvious this was a band aid solution that was rolled out in a rush. The mistake is they are focused on pushing brands to provide artificial quality search results while more relevant sites have taken a hit. Look at how many SERPs wikipedia is dominating now it's ridiculous. You can't seriously tell me they are relevant for most of the queries they're ranking now.

But the more interesting point of this article was the suggestion of the anti-competitive nature of google now they are allegedly a monopoly. Let's face it they own 80+% market share in all but emerging markets its actually probably closer to 90%. It's a similar situation to the case about MS bundling IE with their OS. This is what the EC is investigating, and if they are found guilty of being anti-competitive, they will not be permitted to implement the panda algo in Europe.

[leporello]

Aaron Wall has been covering this subject almost exclusively on the SEOBook blog for as long as I can remember. Funny that they talk about fines of millions when Google's promotion of their own results - Google books, price comparison, news etc is all making them billions.

[pokeraussie]

Yeah he's been anti-google for a while, didn't stop him from purchasing G stock though. This was bound to happen you really didn't need much foresight to predict this. Fuck I wish I had the capital to invest when they IPO'ed.

[CaseyM]

This was the best comment! "This has to be one of the most biased, one-sided pieces of journalism I have encountered from you" spot on!

[bopo1959]

I think the entire "Panda Process" was intended to make webmasters who own dozens of sites, stop and concentrate on one or two sites and provide the viewers with the best experience possible. No more ignored or out dated information clogging up the net. Make it worth the viewers time!

Google is like everyone else, out to make money..........not defending them, but their tactics are the same as anyone who had the same position would do! If you want gain position, you must make it better or pay the price!