Forum Moderators: open
Make Google open source.
Yes, opening the source will encourage SEOs to find loopholes - but will also encourage the development of smarter algorithms to close those loopholes. It's not as if Google today is spam free.
I can hear the screams: "IP! IP!"
Is the Google source really that valuable? Compared with the potential savings of having all development done for free? To say nothing of the improved reliability.
Let Google concentrate on the *implementation* of a massive SE and leveraging its brand power through advertising. Even if barriers to entry are removed, Google has a huge head start.
Then, after that, do something about the pigs that keep flying past my window.
Keep listening here - although you were skeptical about the index-refresh problem, you stuck it out and together with WebmasterWorld a problem was solved.
Very good point.
Just about the most important suggestion I could make, is to keep taking suggestions. ;)
Even though a lot of the pleas/complaints/etc. that are made here about Google tend to be rather self-interested, when you step back and look at the big picture, WW has made some really astute observations. Just recently, the index page problem, PDFs, and spAmazon all seem like real issues AFAICT. You always seem willing to "look into it," GoogleGuy, and I'm sure we all appreciate that, but you're just one guy in a big company...and I imagine changing emerging trends on 4 billion pages is like steering the Titanic away from an iceburg.
Extend that listening to spam reports and other avenues of communication. Proactively respond when possible. Show webmasters & SEOs that "spam does not pay" and you'll clear up this antagonistic relationship that has otherwise content-focused people scheming the algorithm to compensate for Google's ineptitude.
Give statistics for each web site in AdSense. Right now the only way to see how any one of my sites are doing is to have a separate account for each one (which makes for an awful lot of envelopes and pay checks). It would be much nicer to have one pay check, and have the account statistics tell you how each site is doing.
I would also like to second (third?) the motion for a paid service to investigate why a site has been banned or penalized.
Also, I'll throw in my lot with the "improve the ODP" crowd.
;)
I'd be spending a lot more on adwords if i could do this!
Make Google open source.
Thanks for the chuckle, I almost snorted coffee out my nose ;)
I didn't realize a page could have PageRank yet still have a bad score too.
It might get some webmasters to clean up their acts
... i wish i had the google toolbar on my Mac. :/
It would be great if some of your "hidden features" were made more prominent... perhaps via some kind of contextual help on the site... or even built into the interface. The tilde search feature, eg, could be included on your Advanced Search page... or, at the least, there should be a prominent link on the Advanced Search page to the feature list.
You might also consider putting a link to "Search Tips" on your home page. I realize that's valuable real estate. You should have enough stats to tell you whether your users need that extra bit of education before they start searching. It might save you lots of bandwidth, and better searches will get all of us more qualified visitors.
e.g. Looking for a hotel, as an example, you may find you get directory listings showing different hotels deeplinked from the same domain.
Frustrating! I *know* that the domain is a directory and I don't need to see the *individual* pages.
What I'm after is uniqueness from the results not duplication.
BTW - I think this sort of checkbox would be used a lot by many people when seaching. Am I also assuming too much to think that this sort of development is not a *massive* leap for Google in terms of development?
Markus
... i wish i had the google toolbar on my Mac. :/
Probably the best suggestion in this thread ;-) (a Mozilla version would be even nicer)
George Abitbol
Must be able to choose my own picture, don't worry Googleguy it won't be you at the dance, I have a much wider range of interests!
Lame pages based around a javascript redirection, with a big hunk of keyword text stuffed below still rule Google serps on competitive phrases! How hard can this spam be to seek & destroy?
Customizable of course. I would like to see a logo of our company next to the result, whenever a page of us is coming up in the SERPs.
We could put this image in a place on the site, where it is easy for Google to pick it up. Sites that don't have that image, will be displayed with a transparent image or just the Google logo.
I live in a small, Caribbean nation of about 20,000 people. As one might imagine, we do not have access to stores carrying goods which provide "all the comforts of home" on our little island.
As a regular internet shopper, I would love for Google to clear out all (or most) affilite type sites so that I/we (the internet shoppers) can actually find the goods I/we are looking for and at the same time find contact information for people who know "something ... anything" about the products they are selling!
The frustration level of shopping on the internet these days is becoming very intense. I am contemplating flying to Florida for a shopping spree because I just can't be bothered wading through all the crap in the SERPS any longer while trying to find what I am looking for and know is out there in the real world!
I have been trying to find specific things for months and I must have spent over 100 hours searching. The big problem is finding contact information and live people to talk to about your purchases. I need product information!
These sites with their darned shopping carts (where a customer service phone number ought to be) do nothing but annoy the heck out of me! At the very least, I'd like an e:mail address for customer service! Try to buy a sofa from a lousy little 2"x 3" photo which is all fuzzy ... and you'll see what I mean.
I want to know about the construction of the sofa. I want fabric choices that I can actually be certain are the colours I want! I want dimensions of the sofa. I want a lot of things that affiliate type sites just don't bother with! I want to talk to a sales rep and maybe even have them mail me a brochure!
Once the product is on island and I have spent a couple of hundred dollars having it shipped here and another couple of hundred for duty and another hundred or so to have it delivered to my house ... there is no sending it back!
Sorry folks, but if you were in my shoes, with no access to even the most common products, you would be frustrated too! There are a lot of really crappy "affiliate" sites out there offering nothing more than a few lousy pictures, a shopping cart and a PayPal button ... which for some reason always seem to rise to the top of the SERPS.
I'd love them to be gone!
The big problem is finding contact information and live people to talk to about your purchases. I need product information!These sites with their darned shopping carts (where a customer service phone number ought to be) do nothing but annoy the heck out of me! At the very least, I'd like an e:mail address for customer service! Try to buy a sofa from a lousy little 2"x 3" photo which is all fuzzy ... and you'll see what I mean.
I want to know about the construction of the sofa. I want fabric choices that I can actually be certain are the colours I want! I want dimensions of the sofa. I want a lot of things that affiliate type sites just don't bother with! I want to talk to a sales rep and maybe even have them mail me a brochure!
I can't see how that could be anybody's problem but the sites in question. Looking beyond that, the internet still isn't (and may never be) a good place to buy certain goods...furniture being a good example. In many ways, that's just because nothing can replace the hands-on evaluation process of shopping in a real store. The same goes for clothes, shoes, etc. That's true whether you live in a tiny, sparsely populated island or downtown Chicago.
I can't see how that could be anybody's problem but the sites in question.
True ... and there are so darned many of them! Just try to find 10% of these sites with customer service and a phone number available!
nothing can replace the hands-on evaluation process of shopping in a real store
Well of course that's true. However, shopping has been done for many, many years (world wide) from catalogues. The problem is that catalogues (for the most part) have dried up and been replaced with web sites.
I know that abolishing affiliate sites isn't a popular notion, but I firmly believe that it would be a much improved Google without all the clutter of sites which serve no purpose at all ... from a serious shoppers point of view that is! :)
I know that abolishing affiliate sites isn't a popular notion, but I firmly believe that it would be a much improved Google without all the clutter of sites which serve no purpose at all ... from a serious shoppers point of view that is!
Could be, but how is doing that going to get you someone to talk to about your sofa?
Also, it seems to me that I can usually find out more about a given product using the internet than I ever could with a phone and a catalog.
Could be, but how is doing that going to get you someone to talk to about your sofa?
Maybe ... just maybe, I'll be able to find a serious site or even the manufacturer's site which lists dealers in various parts of the world.
Many of the affiliate sites don't even bother naming the manufacturer ... hmmmm, now I wonder why that is?
The great thing about a catalogue and a phone is that, first you find what you are looking for by using the catalogue index, then after finding something which interests you, you call and speak to a live sales peron who (hopefully) knows the product and can answer my questions.
Hey ... its only on my wish list. I doubt Google will actually pay any heed to little old me. Heck, I am just an internet shopper ... what do I know? :)
Everything in my house (aside from t-shirts, shorts, sandals, food and what I bought in Boston last April) has been bought over the internet. Its hard work finding what you want and I consider myself a pretty savy internet shopper.
After a bit of thought, I will have other suggestions
If you want a toolbar to report on PR, it has to do one of two things:
1) Talk 'to the base'
2) Make [censored] up.
As I've noted in other threads, I'm tending towards believing that Google already has implemented the latter, just to toy with us no-life Webmasters :D. But that's a different issue.
