Forum Moderators: Robert Charlton & goodroi
Take currency for instance. Many would argue that currency is a zero sum game. If I make a dollar I am thus taking away that dollar from someone else. Which in fact this is not true. It is a value exchange. Usually the "zero sum game" is thought about things of limited supply. Food for instance people may think that this is of limited supply thus a "zero sum game". I eat therefor I am taking food from another. In fact check history. We are able to produce more, in less time, better quality, with the same amount of land. If it was "zero sum" then we could only produce the same ammount as we always have throughout history.
As far as google. Yes you can count how many searches google had for this and that month. So it would "seem" like there is a finite amount of people searching for these phrases. But it comes down to value. People search based on what is of value to them. This value is subjective and can be influenced. Producing more or less searches. If it were completely finite then you have a "zero sum game".
Google results itself seem like a "zero sum game". Yes you can count how many people are listed in those results. If you move up 1 position then you are taking the position from another. This makes it appear "zero sum" which in fact it isn't. It is still based on value. And in google search results google determins the value to it's searchers based on it's algo. So if you get dropped or "loose" a ranking it means that google places more value on others. You didn't loose value nor was it taken away, you just don't have as much as others (again as what google deems what is of value). Like a horse drawn carriage. It still has it's value. Motorvehicles just have greater value. Like and old atari system. The value is the same but the x-box and playstation has created more value. It may seem as the x-box, nintendo, playstation, sega, took the value from the atari, they didn't. You can't take away something that atari never had and that is the greater value these other systems CREATED. Did a such and such site take your ranking. Nope. It created more value than you in accordance to what Google deems as value.
Hard to explain. But do you catch what I am saying.
Be sure to read the whole thread as there is additioal info to be had throughout!
But do you catch what I am saying.
nope!
I knew yesterday that the results in the SERPS were dire but it was only after using the search a number of times today that i realised just how bad it really was.
As im looking to buy another website i tried a number of search options to get some details of sites that buy and sell sites. These were the returned SERPS results UK for "Buy a website"
1. Recycled Products
2. Music website templates
3. Autotrader - For New and Used Cars
4. 2 minuite website
5. Thorntons Chocolates
6. Amazon Books
7. Low cost Travel
8. Tesco shopping
9. Buy a website from design smart
10. Car Trader
I guess 4th in the SERPS and 9 in the SERPS may have been worth a look but were not what i was after. The other 80% had absolutely nothing to do with the search term.
Now before anyone that loves Google says "i can show you poor examples on other search engines" you have to admit that Google at one time was superb at finding information. Now its just a mix match of Cr@p.
Whilst i realise they want to push adwords, words fail me for just how bad search results on google now are. They have next to nothing to do with content
Then there is the issue with how you spelled "Website" ...should be "Web site" ... now this narrows results even more and actually starts to steer you away from information relating to "Buy a Website" ... (becuase most people seem detemined to search with "website" instead of "web site"...
So your example needs some refining......
An honor to be confused with DaveN, even if only for a brief moment. ;-)
> Zero sum
On a given day, there exists - at the end of the 24th hour - a finite number of searches that took place related to my sites. Either I got a bunch of 'em or I did not. There are a lot of complex aspects to SEO/SEM, but that ain't one. (There is the notion that one can capture a ton of correlary searches to one's advantage, but I assume most of the players in here are smart enough to have that covered.)
Man, it was beautiful outside today. :-)
Yep but that changes each day. And that number is not finite for everyday there after. It can go up or down. That number is not set until after the day is COMPLETE. There can be influences during the day that can and will affect that. If it were fininte you should know the amount of search exactly before hand. You choose it to be finite by giving it a finite context such as a 24 hour period. Tell me when and how many search until that keyword is no longer searched for. Hence a Zero sum Fallacy!
I do agree however. It was a beautiful day out today.
Rather than scrapping for a so called "limited supply" of business, step outside the box and CREATE the business.
[edited by: arubicus at 1:29 am (utc) on Feb. 5, 2005]
Yes, you are right i know however, Joe average just wants to stick a few words in the search box and get results that are RELEVENT to the keywords - this is the point
In the past Google could do this - now it just cant. I can give thousands of examples of the same.
The SERPS has directory sites, non relevent content sites listing high that dont even mention the keywords.
I would go so far as to say that web page content now has almost ZERO status in relation to the search keywords.
In fact i would go further and say that a webpage can have any old sh@t on it and as long as you have plently of anchor text links to it you and its a few years old you feature high in the index. Start introducing loads of relevent content mind you and you can forget it.
