superclown2 - 7:08 pm on Jun 13, 2011 (gmt 0)

You saying you have a different, rarer (and more fickle) breed of Panda over there?!

I'm in the UK. I've used proxy servers many times to see what's happening with several search terms in the USA.

Frankly the USA SERPs make our UK ones look great in comparison, IMO. And ours are completely biased in favour of boring, thin 'brand' pages which are way ahead of quality and relevant sites. Just my opinion, of course but then I'm not a PhD.

I don't think Google wants to hurt anyone

Google are hurting a lot of people. Badly. I remember the bile that was directed towards MS in the past but it is nothing to the hatred that so many people who have lost so much, so quickly, are feeling for Google because of what this company have done. If they were a UK company they would have compensation claims stacked up to the ceiling because we all have a duty of care over here not to do anything which can damage other people's well being or livelihoods.

The standard answer of course is ...."Google can do what they want, you shouldn't build your business plan on free traffic" etc etc etc. Well European judges may disagree with that interpretation. Like the Mills of God they grind extremely slowly, but extremely fine.