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I'd like to know if you guys are seeing something I'm missing or if wishful thinking is playing a part in this optimism.
Relevancy is still an issue, a page three listing on Google provides more traffic than a #1 listing on AV and the sporadic updates are still hit and miss. On top of that, there's an underlying feeling that someone that pays AV for inclusion gets preferential treatment regarding position. Throw in the cheap pop-up ads and AV still looks like a kid that just lost a fight in the playground. One day Google, we'll get ya...
They need to keep drinking their milk and eating their veggies. :)
DG
I think it's part nostalgia and part current events.
If you look back 2+ years AV was the king of spidering engines. They had (IMO) the best algo, spidered frequently, and were on the cutting edge of algo research. Complacency got the best of them, they let their algo deteriorate, and google snuck up and stole their market share.
Recently AV has made significant changes to their staff and are even enjoying a small rise in usage. I guess the optimisim comes from knowing what they once were and hoping that by hiring the right people they can get back on track.
My sentiment exactly.
Also, about 18 months ago I dropped out of AV for some reason. As soon as they came out with the pay for inclusion, I paid for it. I got back in, but was ranked horribly. When the time ran out, I didn't renew. For several months I was really disgusted with AV. They used to be such a wonderful search engine for me.
Then about a month ago all of my webpages started popping back into the index. And were even ranked well on the first page.
This, along with the fact that AV seems to be putting forth an effort to improve, brings a little optimism.
I agree they still have a LONG WAY to go. But, anything is possible. They do seem to be heading back into the right direction.
I am a devout Google fan, and I don't see that changing any time soon. But, I would like to see AV get it back together.