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Being dropped from Google can result in the quick death of a startup company, or lead to the laying off of employees in a well established company.
Take our company for example. We are one of the market leaders in our industry. We have never used SEO or spam techniques, but after 5 years in Google, we were suddenly dropped from the index.
This being dropped from the index, leads to a cascade effect on other search engines, as we were dropped from the Google web hosted results from Yahoo.
The end result, is a 25% drop in traffic despite being well diversified.
For our company, this means I have to layoff 2 people in our order fullfillment department.
Google must address issues, where well established companies, are suddenly dropped from the index for no apparent reason.
I have two employees who are laid off, and I can't tell them when they will be hired back on, as I have no mechanism to contact Google to get the problem fix.
I would gladly pay several hundred dollars to place a google support call, to get the problem fixed.
I pay for support calls to my ISP, the phone company and for payment gateway services.
When they mess up, I can get the problem resolve in a matter of hours or less.
Google must realize that their inaction on technical issues, and the inability to have problems rectified, is having an effect on the economy.
We need to have a pay for support service for Google.
No body should lose their job because Google made a technical mistake.
Deal with those lame-o, no-PR, all anchor text, all gibberish pages, garbage sites and I won't have to rant in your spam report for awhile. :) Lower your stress level (not to mention mine...)
15 of the top 25 results from mirrors of the exact same gibberish site! Aaaargh.
Dave_Hawley, if you haven't seen the pictures from the GoogleDance at the Search Engine Strategies conference, here's a picture that captures how I feel:
[google.com...]
At the dance, people in orange were Googlers who were acting as staff, guides, and helpers. In my mind, I wish it could always be like that--a sea of orange shirts to help people with anything they need.
You may like the fact that one search engine controls 70% of the market and that's fine. But those of us that actually understand the damage that monopolys cause know better.
So you thinkn we all need to head to cuba?
I'll head to cuba if you take the ride to Iraq and the fine democracy our discocowboy has set up there.
Yes, the original poster got his question answered and site dealt with. Good job Googleguy.
[edited by: kctipton at 4:37 am (utc) on Aug. 22, 2003]
Does anybody had experince with Yahoo and DMOZ on the amount of time before a url change is processed?I did this recently with Yahoo and it took a couple of weeks. DMOZ would depend on the editor for the catagory, if there isn't one, it could be a long, long time.
No not at all. While there are many of search engines, they are not often used by users. As I keep saying, Webmasters have no so much put all their eggs in one basket, rather Google has put their BIG basket under our eggs. Very much a catch-22 or the old golden handcuff.
Hey GoogleGuy, It must be hard doing your job with only one arm :o)
<snip>
Dave
[edited by: NFFC at 8:11 am (utc) on Aug. 22, 2003]
[edit reason] Self promo removed [/edit]
Check popularity at Alexa.com, Nielson NetRatings, or if you get desperate ask Google Answers which are the most popular SE's.
The answer will be (from all sources):
1. Yahoo
2. MSN
3. Google
Right now most people see Yahoo as Google in alternative clothes......but wait Yahoo.ca has the future.
Inktomi is the predominant SE for those looking 3 months+ ahead, not Google.
By my counts Google will represent 28.5% of SE traffic in November 03, given Yahoo make the switch to Ink. Google is not a monopoly, it is a minor underdog with a lot of pressure.....why do you think Google has attempted to reconfigure itself in the last 6 months?
Google has no corporate responsibility, it is far from being the biggest player in this field. If you get 70%+ traffic from Google today you need to evaluate all the traffic you are missing!
MS is the animal that this thread should be about....and in 2 years time it will be!
A large business never stands so tall as when it stoops to help the little guy.
And never so low as when it penalizes the innocents.
I disagree - the thing to remember when looking at ratings is the nature of what the sites offer.
Yahoo & MSN both have web mail - have ISP access - hence alot of people will go to these sites yes - but how many will actually use them to search?
This is not comparing like for like.
Furthermore - 90% of the traffic that does come from Yahoo - MSN (in the UK) will go to Overture & Espotting advertisers
What is Inktomi going to do? Leapfrog the pay per click listings? I don't think so -
Yeah right, Alexa traffic rank is a load of $%^& I know a site that is ranked 20,000 and gets less than 30 hits per day.
As has been pointed out, you are not comparing apples with apples.
RE: By my counts Google will represent 28.5% of SE traffic in November 03
Sounds like you are the one missing out on all the traffic.
Dave
As far as Yahoo goes, their track record shows that they are not "cool" enough to put together a super search engine. They might get a good algo, but a SE is much more than that. It requires a particular culture, and I am not seeing that culture anywhere in any product that Yahoo has done so far. I don't believe their CEO and Management team can pull it off.
Microsoft is the one that possibly has a "cool" enough team within it's staff; we can see with MSN Messenger, Xbox, XP, etc, that they are able to produce "cool" products. But from the way they have treated MSN (the portal), it is clear that one of their lower teams is handling that product, and the "cool" teams are handling Windows, Office and XBox. It looks unlikely that they will assign one of their A teams to the SE product. So, MSN will aways be "B" to Google.
It is clear from the interactivity of GoogleGuy and the quality of his responses that one of the founders, is writing those messages. This shows their culture, and it is this same "common sense, no BS" culture that we are seeing in every part of the Google product. And these guys will always find a way to beat the other teams and provide a super product.
You would be unrealistic if you think the Google userbase is going to go down anytime soon. Plan for a long association with Google.
It would be nice if there was a BadGoogleGuy who would root out the sites of some of the smug, arrogant, self satisfied p****s who have posted replies here and take their sites out of the Google index.
Perhaps then the non-whiners would change their thinking. Maybe become more humble. Heaven forbid, they may even become more human.
it is because of choice of quality. Don't underestimate the public. They know what quality results are. 20 somethings may be savvy today, but their moms and dads are cathing up fast. After 50 dis-satisfactory searches on MSN, people will look around. And there is a big chance they will find google, becuase there are so many people championing it.
think about it: why did Yahoo(& AOL, & Others) switch to the more expensive and competitive Google from Inktomi(or existing SE backend)? It was to prevent attrition of their userbase. If quality was not an issue, if users were dumb, unsavvy people, why would they change their default SE?
and my friend, AOL is losing over 1 million subscribers every few weeks.
As far as Yahoo goes, their track record shows that they are not "cool" enough to put together a super search engine. They might get a good algo, but a SE is much more than that.
Of course Google is popular because of its search quality. But if Yahoo put together a super search engine, then Yahoo will draw more users, whether or not they are considered cool by Net-savvy 20-somethings.
why do you think, even after switching to Google as the SE backend, Yahoo is still losing SE users to Google.com?
Nothing in this world matters but what Google does....it totally dominates the SE market. Forget all other engines and only look at Google.....then complain it has a monopoly and should be controlled by a government body!
Y'all raving mad IMHO! But better y'all be mad than competitors....so keep up the good work :)
I don't think anyone has ever suggested what you just have. You can stick your head in the sand and ignore Googles dominance if you like, you are only doing yourself a disservice (I hope).
It's a bit like ignoring the fact that IE dominates the browser world. 'I don't cae that 90% of the world uses IE, I'm focusing on Netscape users'.
Dave
Please spend all your time concentrating on Google positions......that is obviously where the money is.....LMAO :)
concentrating on Google positions......that is obviously where the money is.....
I would mostly agree with that. Google is free and delivers about 70% of our traffic and hence over 70% of my profit. 10% comes from other free search engines and PPC's etc make up the other 20%.
If you are not getting most of your hits from Google you must be going out of your way to prevent it? Good move :o)
Dave
Without Googleguy's help, I would be waiting weeks or months, before realizing the problem.
Googleguy, your support in this forum, is greatly appreciated.
