trillianjedi - 11:11 am on Sep 29, 2004 (gmt 0)

So, start thinking like a search engine - what would be the benefit of this?

1. Spam

Well, you've ruled this one out from your POV Jake, but I'm not sure I agree with your reasoning that there's too much "collateral damage". There may be collateral damage, but there was during Florida also. I don't think the SE's get involved in the smaller picture, they look at the big picture which is Joe Average Surfer's user-experience.

Thinking like an SE, I'd live with a lot of collateral damage if it increased the quality of my brand at the expense of the loss of sites. I'm not citing Florida as an "increase in the quality of a brand" by the way. But I'm sure that's what it was meant to be.

2. Quality of Results

This is not the same as spam. If you take a hypothetical scenario where spam didn't exist, the ranking of sites is still very important to the user-experience and perceived quality.

3. IPO

If I were a SE in this situation, I would be playing ultra-safe until I'd sold all my shares. If that meant the freshness of my results were below par, I'd settle for it over a bunch of spam and low quality SERPS.

This would be for a limited period, then I'd commence what would probably become known as the "big post-IPO update". That's where I'd throw all my new technology and recommence a program of continued development rather than "lie low till the shares are sold".

I think the reason why is a combination of the three above. At least, I can't think of anything else.

TJ