To assume that Google has influence over what you see on the web would be a GROSS understatement of the situation. Google has a site indexer which indexes websites based on their SEO (Search Engine Optimization). What SEO boils down to is this, if you’re talking about something, say a new handbag, you should put the name of the brand in your article at least eight times. That way it has a better chance of appearing higher on the google search list. There are many other factors to take into consideration when discussing SEO but we’re not going to do that right now, what we are going to do is discuss why indexing and ranking is a very bad thing.
Say you have a page on a blog about a new game that’s coming out. On this page is a very well thought out, organized and spellchecked article describing in great detail the pros and cons of said game. This in turn allows the reader to make an informed decision before buying the game.
Now on the other hand we have sites like IGN and Game Informer who review games in mass and therefore may not have the time required to give an intimate review of a game. This is not what’s wrong with this situation though. The problem is that Google knows what is on your page due to the google site verification tool. Even while knowing the quality of work put into each page they would still direct more traffic towards one of the bigger sites simply due to the volume of views they would normally get.
Now don’t take what I’m writing the wrong way. I understand how capitalism works and of course the obvious route to take would be the one that is going to make you more money. The problem with this however is that when creative and insightful minds are stifled, soon we will only be left with opinions based on whoever has the largest wallet. I think that kind of defeats the purpose of the internet and the communities that make it a better place.
Say you have a page on a blog about a new game that’s coming out. On this page is a very well thought out, organized and spellchecked article describing in great detail the pros and cons of said game. This in turn allows the reader to make an informed decision before buying the game.
Now on the other hand we have sites like IGN and Game Informer who review games in mass and therefore may not have the time required to give an intimate review of a game. This is not what’s wrong with this situation though. The problem is that Google knows what is on your page due to the google site verification tool. Even while knowing the quality of work put into each page they would still direct more traffic towards one of the bigger sites simply due to the volume of views they would normally get.
Now don’t take what I’m writing the wrong way. I understand how capitalism works and of course the obvious route to take would be the one that is going to make you more money. The problem with this however is that when creative and insightful minds are stifled, soon we will only be left with opinions based on whoever has the largest wallet. I think that kind of defeats the purpose of the internet and the communities that make it a better place.