Google changing their search again- ahhhhhh!!!!

1. 87

   Dorsiposted 12 years ago

   Just released yesterday - Google is now going to change it up again. As if the Panda slap wasn't enough here we go again.
   
   "In a change that's been called the "most radical transformation ever" to Google's search engine, the Mountain View, California, company on Tuesday announced an update called "Search, plus Your World," (from the CNN article)
   
   
   Link here to Google about it: http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2012/01/ … world.html
   
   The CNN article on it: http://www.cnn.com/2012/01/10/tech/web/ … hpt=hp_bn6

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   1. 61

      Randy Godwinposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      Sounds like they are really trying to push their Google+ agenda.  Scares the heck outta me!

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   2. 86

      cardeleanposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      Interesting.  I just quickly glanced through the blog post and it seems to me like it's a big plug for Google+.  The first stuff they mentioned about personal information searches I don't really get.  If I want to know about a friend's vacation experience, I'll just ask, I don't need to do a Google search for that.

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      1. 61

         Randy Godwinposted 12 years agoin reply to this

         Probably just more bots incapable of determining the actual worth of the written word.  Just what we need, more inhumanity to man! 

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      2. 59

         FloraBreenRobisonposted 12 years agoin reply to this

         Yes, I am not sure I understand that aspect either.

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   3. 80

      Dale Hydeposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      My thoughts on this will go against grain here. Google has expanded our whole internet experience on various levels.  Untold amount of levels. Things people take for granted.  Google did not become what they are, nor offer all they offer by trying to stumble the efforts of what people share online.  Just the opposite, they have gone out of their way to make things easier.  I go back to the beginning of the internet, and I will tell you that Google has been one of the largest and most positive aspects of the web as we know it today. So there you have it... No complaints by this author, web site owner and online surfer!

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      1. 61

         Randy Godwinposted 12 years agoin reply to this

         Microsoft had a few innovations too.  It didn't protect them from the monopoly charges and Google will hopefully be treated the same way.  I don't care how thoughtful and caring a company is, I don't want it to be the only option as far as choices are concerned.
         
         Besides, they tend to give their own subsidiaries a break while others suffer through their actions.  So why do they need a reminder to "do no evil" in their main headquarters?

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   4. 93

      Anurag2008posted 12 years agoin reply to this

      "Google just made Bing the best Search Engine" http://gizmodo.com/5875571/google-just- … rch-engine
      

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2. 70

   Cagsilposted 12 years ago

   Well, it should be interesting to see what happens now.

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      cardeleanposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      Cags, are you stalking me? 

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         Cagsilposted 12 years agoin reply to this

         Well you're pretty enough.

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            cardeleanposted 12 years agoin reply to this

            Awww aren't you kind!

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3. 81

   David 470posted 12 years ago

   Oh boy, maybe this is why my traffic is going down and my CPM is lower. Google is doing another tweak...

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   1. 73

      Barbara Kayposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      I read a different article and it gave the impression that Hubpages won't be affected, but anything you post on Facebook, Twitter etc will no longer be private, but available if anyone does a Google search on you. That and anything else you write on the web will show up with a search.

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         Danette Wattposted 12 years agoin reply to this

         Nothing is private on the Internet - we just like to think it is

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      2. 81

         David 470posted 12 years agoin reply to this

         Wait, you mean if I post a hub on facebook etc. a random person can find out who I am? I'm not sure if I like that idea or not.

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4. 59

   freelanceauthorposted 12 years ago

   Thanks for the update. This will change everything and all the SEO efforts done in the past are wasted

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   1. 65

      Dorothee-Gyposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      That's what I was worried about. Seems like a giant cat-and-mouse game, and I hate being the mouse...

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   2. 78

      Garrett Mickleyposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      That's not true at all. Not even a little.

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5. 85

   rebekahELLEposted 12 years ago

   As far as I understand, in order to see these kind of search results, the user has to be logged into their Google account. The personal results can also be turned off. It's definitely going deeper with the Google+ feature, but not everyone has Google+, and not everyone is going to want the clutter on a search.
   
   This is from Matt Cutts blog, http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/
   Be sure to click on the first link (reading a lot) in the article for more info.

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   1. 88

      brittanytoddposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      I agree.  I think a ton of people aren't even using Google+, so seeing what few people are posting there (as opposed to Facebook) will not be that helpful.  I suspect it will have some affect on our traffic, but not as much as some people think.
      
      It means that if their friends don't have a post about what they are searching for, they will have to see the normal Google results.

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         Randy Godwinposted 12 years agoin reply to this

         But FB and Twitter may not always be around if Google has their way.  Remember MySpace?  Google+ is intended to replace any contenders and will do so if Big G has anything to do with it.  Wake up folks, big business has no loyalties to anyone but themselves.

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         1. 88

            brittanytoddposted 12 years agoin reply to this

            Yeah, I agree.  However, a ton of my friends are not doing Google+.  They think it is really hard to work and now it is a ghost town of users that signed up and didn't visit again once they realized nothing was going on.  Other than my hubber-friends, I don't see many of the people I know using Google+ actively.
            
            Google+ also doesn't allow people under a certain age to join, so I feel like my educational writing hubs won't be affected by the change.  There are other topics that would also get a ton of traffic from young searchers too.  So, I think that even though this switch may have some affect, it will not be as big as Panda.
            
            Plus, how many of your friends have posted the information that your hub contains?

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            1. 88

               brittanytoddposted 12 years agoin reply to this

               And to add to that, I think that it may boost traffic for those who are on Google+ and have a bunch of friends.  It may be a way to get our articles seen by those who aren't as active on G+, but have an account and are searching on Google.  We all just have to remember to share others' work as much as we do our own.

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            2. 61

               Randy Godwinposted 12 years agoin reply to this

               I rarely use any of these social sites other than to post an occasional hub or to check out a notification so I really don't care if they all go belly up.  But that's just me.  I do know there are masses of folks who spend large amounts of time chatting with others, so it's not too easy to dismiss the appeal these sites exert on others.
               
               I don't know how many of my friends have posted my hub links or info there and really don't care.

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               1. 88

                  brittanytoddposted 12 years agoin reply to this

                  What I meant by friends posting the info you can find in your hubs was that if I was searching for a cupcake recipe, I would more likely come across an article or hub, rather than seeing a post by a friend on Google+.  So again, it shouldn't affect our traffic as long as we write hubs with useful content that is unique and detailed.

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6. 61

   Randy Godwinposted 12 years ago

   Even scarier than I suspected.  When is this giant going to finally be slayed?

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7. 82

   Wesman Todd Shawposted 12 years ago

   Mine's still up, and has been steadily increasing (slowly) for a while....but whatever.  I don't mind being sandboxed or "in testing" again here, it gives me a chance to work on other sites.

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      Garrett Mickleyposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      I've only been going up since I joined a few years ago.  Panda never hurt me and so far neither has this (may be too early to tell, though).

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         Wesman Todd Shawposted 12 years agoin reply to this

         I definitely experienced a "sandbox" or "slap" or something that lasted about one to two months, and this was last September/October.
         
         I don't know if it's related, but at one point around that time I'd went and deleted every last RSS Feed from my hubs as I'd read what I still think was good advice concerning those capsules being viewed as "duplicate content" - the advice was a hub by Ryan Kett.
         
         In any case - I'd sunk to a mere fifty hits per day from Google.com, or even less on some days.
         
         Currently, I some days reach new highs of traffic from Google.com; so I'm happy at present with my traffic, and it seems like if I keep doing things the way that I've been doing them that it's just going to continue growing...slowly, but steadily.
         
         I'm also trying hard to be an optimist,as there seems to be no point in the other mind sets.

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8. 59

   secularist10posted 12 years ago

   Ugh. What a bunch of crap. Can't people manage to tear themselves away from their precious "social network" for half a minute anymore? No, every damn insignificant thing in your boring daily routine has to be a front page headline for each human you have spoken to in the last 5 years.
   
   I wonder what some people would do if they weren't continuously liked and voted up by their peers.
   
   This certainly is a radical change, and it may well be the beginning of the end of Google as we know it. The whole point of Google--the whole reason it distinguished itself from its competitors early on--was that it provided the most accurate, unbiased information available. Unfortunately, Google has been slipping in that area for a while now, and this may be the nail in the coffin. Who is going to care about real information anymore when they can just comfortably float within their little echo chamber bubble?
   
   It's yet another lurch in modern culture along the "infotainment" spectrum away from info, and towards entertainment and emotions.
   
   As for its effect on ad earnings, well I'm sure like Panda it will affect some more than others. Google changes over the last year didn't really affect my earnings--they were just as low after as before! Ha!
   
   Google is a private company. They can do whatever the hell they want. Designing your writing to appeal to the algorithm-du-jour has always been a calculated risk.

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9. 80

   Rain Defenceposted 12 years ago

   It seems like stalking is being made easier. I don't know how many people have a google account and spend their browsing time signed in, I suspect more don't than do so it probably won't affect searches too much.

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10. 59

    secularist10posted 12 years ago

    From the Matt Cutts link posted by Rebekah above:
    
    "Give this new feature a whirl: once you see how much better personal search can be, I don’t think you’ll want to give it up."
    
    More Orwellian words have never been spoken...

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11. 82

    Wesman Todd Shawposted 12 years ago

    I, for one, spend WAY TOO MUCH TIME arguing or "debating" on effing social networks.
    
    Every single last hub that I read and like though, including even yours (wink!), Randy, get a plus one, a link on facebook, and twitter.
    
    ....cuz I'm just annoying like that too folks on my friend or follower lists.  :-/

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    1. 61

       Randy Godwinposted 12 years agoin reply to this

       Thanks Wesman!  I didn't intend to suggest I'm not appreciative of those who do help pass the word along about articles they like.  I'm just not cut out for those places it seems. 

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       Rain Defenceposted 12 years agoin reply to this

       Think you'd better read some of mine then Wesman

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       Reality Bytesposted 12 years agoin reply to this

       I like to share everything that I find interesting as well.  The greatest hope for humanity is an exchange of ideas and knowledge.

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12. 80

    LeanManposted 12 years ago

    If they are going to be biasing our searches whilst logged in to google (how many people are logged into google while they search if they are not internet/seo/online marketing/geeks?) then they will soon still be sharing from the whole of the web still anyway - we are now i think at 5 degrees of separation from everyone so it will not be long before friends or friends of friends will encompass everyone on the web!! Hell I did a search of my name on linkedin and the furthest anyone with the same name is away is 3 degrees and i don't have a huge network!

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13. 70

    sunforgedposted 12 years ago

    Its certainly a radical change. But, a HUGE portion of our audience is still not-connected/only signed up to Google+ ... so perhaps will be awhile before this will have a significant effect on the non tech/im/seo/web design niches.
    
    If you have a stake in those fields, then now is probably the time to start taking advantage of google+ as much as possible by integrating it and showcasing it above other sharing options and creating business and personal pages within the network.
    
    
    
    Its hard (for me) at this point to judge which reports are true .. Google+ had a massive sign up/membership gain when it came out of invite only but the "ghost town" feeling and a claim that users are not very engaged is often seen too.
    
    Google Wave was pretty awesome and thats already gone, Google video gone (but only in preference to youtube) Google Notebook .. gone (was a cool project!) Google Knol .. gone! Bookmarks! .. gone
    
    None had the same level of involvement as + does , but still its a bit early to know how + will be maintained by the non-tech crowd
    
    Would be a fun article to see all the google projects that have disappeared over the years!

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    1. 76

       alphagirlposted 12 years agoin reply to this

       remember that book by George Orwell 1984..Big Brother Google is watching and we are the one's who fuel the need for more info, easier info. I personally do not like face book in that  TMO. So many boundaries are crossed, left open, I think a huge back lash could occur.Hackers out there can piece everyone's postings and rob us all blind. Our kids today are a complete open book. Companies search you out to see if they like who your friends are, which affects your career, your kids futures. It is really creepy. I googled one of neighbors names and discovered he has a felony for investment fraud with SEC/ securities. In that case, GOOGLE helped me. Where does it end and who controls all that info???
       That has changed the way I view my neighbor. i keep my distance.

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    2. 74

       WriteAngledposted 12 years agoin reply to this

       The wonderful Google Answers, which for several years gave me $100s part-time income each month for answering real questions by real people who were prepared to pay anything from $2 up to $200 for the information. The GA Researchers community was the nicest and most supportive community I have ever been in. A lot of them made their living from GA and were devastated when the service was closed.

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14. 78

    skyfireposted 12 years ago

    Build content for people(and rest of the internet), keep the content for people and don't delete or edit it just because G says so. This is moving target stuff and you can't keep up with it for long if you edit your hubs after every search update.

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15. 89

    GA Andersonposted 12 years ago

    Geez. Wish I had heard of this three days ago. Now my parade has been rained on.
    
    I was doing some serp checking for a couple of my sites - and was feeling pretty good about myself - they were hitting top 4 results for most of my keywords. Wow life is good.
    
    Now I read this, sign out of google, and do another search - damn! Oh well, guess I better get on the "social" wagon too.
    
    GA

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16. 78

    Garrett Mickleyposted 12 years ago

    I posted this yesterday AM and a mod moved it to the technology forum (never to be seen again).
    
    Thanks for bringing it back to light so more people see it.  Hopefully yours doesn't get misplaced.

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17. 74

    Reality Bytesposted 12 years ago

    Just an observation, to those that think social networking is too much.  I wish I was three generations in to Google.  I would like to see the stuff my grandfather had +1 ed while he was young.
    
    Every day we lose seniors we lose their knowledge and their experiences.  With the way the internet is developing, many of us will leave that to future generations.  Thanks to companies like Google. 
    
    I met an 80 year old man the other day that was very informed on the history of his day.  I suggested to him that he might want to put on to tape all the things he knew.  His eyes lit up at the idea because he had great grandchildren that would probably never get to hear those stories otherwise.

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    1. 87

       Dorsiposted 12 years agoin reply to this

       I so agree with this. I wish I had the forethought to tape my dads experiences before he died. Fortunately him and I did sit down and I wrote a first hand account of his surviving a torpedo attack on his ship, the USS North Carolina. I was able to at least make a hub about that for future generations.
       
       As for this new Google plus search thingee...the more I think I about it, the more I think it will flop. I personally don't like Google plus. I don't think it will be a big hit (but then again I may be wrong and have to eat my words years from now)
       
       Who knows???

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18. 96

    PaulGoodman67posted 12 years ago

    Google's "new innovation" seems to be to copy elements of the big social networking sites, Facebook and Twitter to create their Google+ hybrid.  Then they promote their (inferior) product with their search engine, which essentially has a monopoly in the Western world.
    
    Twitter are outraged and it's easy to see why.
    
    I think this is all about Google profits and the consumer will lose out.  Google needs to be broken up to encourage competition.

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       skyfireposted 12 years agoin reply to this

       Google+ is copy of Diaspora social network. Almost every feature of diaspora is ported to google+. Only original features that are part of google+ - hangout, youtube and +1.

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          Garrett Mickleyposted 12 years agoin reply to this

          Diaspora was supposed to be self hosted on your computer via a server-like setup.

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             skyfireposted 12 years agoin reply to this

             You can use public pods if you don't want to host on your own server. I'm on diasp.de and diasp.eu public pods.

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                Garrett Mickleyposted 12 years agoin reply to this

                Ah, I would rather host my own.

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19. 31

    Writer Foxposted 12 years ago

    One of the horrible things Google+ does is implant itself on your Google searches.  Your Google searches are now "personalized" more than ever, based upon all the information Google gathers from your Google+ account.  This skews the results which is really irritating if you want to conduct an "unbiased" search.  I think the result of this will be to the benefit of Bing/Yahoo and I, for one, have started using that search engine more and more.

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20. 85

    rebekahELLEposted 12 years ago

    That sounds like a hub you could write well and make it fun to read..
    
    I guess we can see how this is going to affect searches, but I don't think it will be as drastic as some predict. Personally, I don't use Google+ and probably won't.
    I think it may be beneficial for some, but I don't care to see what all my friends are searching or reading. I can talk to them or find it on FB. I think Google is stepping into possible antitrust issues.

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       skyfireposted 12 years agoin reply to this

       You don't need to use Google+ in order to get personalized search. They're mining gmail, google reader, calendar and contacts which helps them collect data from your connections in order to filter. So it affects search as long as you're searching google while logged in to any of their service.

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          Randy Godwinposted 12 years agoin reply to this

          True!  They have become too invasive as far as being involved in our personal business.  Nip it in the bud! 

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    sunforgedposted 12 years ago

    Well whatever you read was tragically misinformed. What is specifically giving google+ a boost is that it IS indexable (if you set your posts to PUBLIC). Facebook is still locked under privacy filters and isnt crawlable by google outside of the public page it creates for non-logged in users and fan/business pages.
    
    You want all your content not connected to you .. use pseudonyms, a practice as old as publishing.
    
    Its amazing how much uninformed dribble can be found in the arena of privacy and social networking. There are privacy settings in all your social networks, use them!
    
    Google has stopped paying for access to the twitter api (firehose) but bing does index it ..

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22. 85

    rebekahELLEposted 12 years ago

    If I did use Google+, that is how I would use it, as I do here.  I even took my FB link off of my profile here, as my FB profile is private and personal.
    
    
    I thought so. I'm glad you came back to post this.

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23. 94

    ktrappposted 12 years ago

    Honestly, I really don't think these particular Google updates will cause people problems with their hubs coming up in search results.
    
    I have a Google+ account (which I'm not a fan of since it is mostly like another HubPages feed), but I happened to be logged into Google tonight as I was checking my Analytics and did not sign out. Later I started to do a search on "herniated discs" (just found out my son has one) and after typing in only the "H" and "E" (in hernia), this is what I saw:
    
    
    
    
    
    The results that started showing (Stephanie HEnkel & Kris HEeter - people in my Google+ that had an H and an E) disappeared as I continued typing the word hernia and I had normal looking search results.
    
    You can also choose to hide personal results with this button at the top of the search page:
    
    
    
    Of course, none of the personal results will show if you are not logged into Google.
    
    So - I will just make sure I am logged off Google or choose to hide personal results and things will be back to normal.
    
    Quite frankly, I think adding the personal results is stupid. It serves no purpose. I cannot imagine that anyone posts anything so earth shattering on Google+ that people want it to appear in their regular search results. The personal results are merely an annoyance, but at least we can get rid of them easily.

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