Frontier India Technology

If you read my recent posts, I have hinted that most of you cannot count on google if you are a webmaster. Even if you dish out unique content. But, at the same time, you cannot do without google, as it will still give you most of the search traffic. Today, google has come out with this new post. Rankings of your sites are going to be reduced if you are not a “quality site” as per google yardsticks.

The problem, as many webmasters are saying is that they cannot do without similar content. Its not possible to sustain blogs and websites with unique “only” content. They need to have similar content in order to increase volume and engage “their” viewers. A common problem is that, they don’t understand google terms as it is too much to read and they joke that you need a full time lawer or university degree in Google studies. One of the webbies says that he writes on keywords like “Al Qaida”, Lashkar e Taiba etc. He has very unique content. But, if you search with those keywords, the bigger sites come first and not his site. He is worried about what he calls “Googles Big Site Bias.”

Most small webmasters I have spoken to say that only big sites can come up with unique content and they hog the keywords too. One of them says that, why do you need google to search for bigger sites, people anyway go to bigger sites.

One of the webbies tells me that he has complained so many times to google regarding the Times of India website for splogs, common / similar content etc. He says that google would have penalised small website for the same reason, but, the Times of India website goes on. He says that Google is essentially scared of banning big sites.

As google keeps cold shouldering and insulting internet community with their search policies, adsense disruptions, unhelpful explanations and most of all “un-understable technologies,” people will increasingly take towards Facebook, Twitter and Bing.

In past few days, I have been waking up to the latest search engine trends on Internet. I have discovered that there are 4 major search drivers on Internet. The four are 1) Google 2) Twitter 3) Facebook and 4) Bing. The four I have listed are in the order of importance.

1) Google: This is going to be the most dominant search engine. It is going to give you a very personalised search. It will even bring in its competitors search into its results. The flaw is that, its too technologically advanced for a common man to understand and its results are more skewed to bigger websites and popular content. Don’t expect to find a unique content from google search any more. If you are just a user, then, you may not need any other search engine again. But, if you are from the webmasters side, consider it to be a headache. The problem with google for both users and webmasters is that, google is too segmented. For example, if you search for a particular phrase, the chances are that you will get a crammed search page, that will show the latest twitter, google news, regular search results, results from your friends etc. In my experience, this is too complicated and distracting.

2) Twitter: Most of the webmasters who have created content, will tweet. You can get topics of your interest while you are connected to your friends. But, this will not let you search deeper inside the content. It can be a good competitor for Google News, Google Alerts and limited amount of Google search. Chances are that you may not have to use other search engines if you are connected to twitter. You may need other search engines only if you need a deeper search. I know of people who have said that they have reduced usage of google search by 90%. This should be the darling of webmasters in years to come.

3) Facebook: This is going to emerge as an alternative Internet ecosystem. First of all you will not get Facebook content in Google search. Secondly, it is replacing myspace as preferred social media by artists, companies and individuals. You will terribly miss major aspects of Internet in case you are not on facebook. Webmasters need to be here too.

4) Bing: This is the search engine to watch. “Currently” it will give you search results which is totally different from google’s complex biased search results. Bing is biased too, but, is increasing getting better with the quality of results. Of late, I have begun taking a good look at it, as it has begun bringing in traffic. Although, its a far cry from google traffic potential, you will be sorry as a webmaster if you do not pay attention to it.

In future, an individual search may look like this:

a) Twitter + Facebook + google/Bing + favourite social media. (Most definitely)
b) Twitter + Facebook + Google + favourite social media. (Most likely)
c) Twitter + Facebook + Bing + favourite social media. (less likely)