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Is Google becoming worthless?

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Conky

Lifer
May 9, 2001
10,709
0
0
Originally posted by: fermium
This is a parody thread.... right?

Heck no! I'm serious. And the sponsored links are showing up in the results too. :(

I think it's the spammers that are ruining Google. I have a friend who claims he can get any website into the Google top ten for a specific search. Apparently this is the latest webgeek thing to do.
rolleye.gif


I remember when I thought altavista was the shiz. This seems to happen eventually to any popular search engine.
 

konichiwa

Lifer
Oct 9, 1999
15,077
2
0
I have a friend who claims he can get any website into the Google top ten for a specific search

Not by himself certainly, but it can be done. Try searching "miserable failure" for a nice, living example.
 

Looney

Lifer
Jun 13, 2000
21,938
5
0
Originally posted by: konichiwa
I have a friend who claims he can get any website into the Google top ten for a specific search

Not by himself certainly, but it can be done. Try searching "miserable failure" for a nice, living example.

You have to choose the "I'm Feeling Lucky" option as well.
 

konichiwa

Lifer
Oct 9, 1999
15,077
2
0
Originally posted by: Moralpanic
Originally posted by: konichiwa
I have a friend who claims he can get any website into the Google top ten for a specific search

Not by himself certainly, but it can be done. Try searching "miserable failure" for a nice, living example.

You have to choose the "I'm Feeling Lucky" option as well.

No you don't. It's #1
 

MaxDepth

Diamond Member
Jun 12, 2001
8,757
43
91
Originally posted by: SilentZero
Google is still the best engine out there. I can't see anything better replacing it for awhile.
Why you all left altavista.com is beyond me. (Uses web-bots to collect all websites / metadata.)

 

PanzerIV

Diamond Member
Dec 19, 2002
6,875
1
0
Originally posted by: Chaotic42
Google is becoming less useful, yes. Whenever I have a question about something, Google just takes me to forums where someone asked the question and never got it answered. Either that or it's some out of date link.

For specific searches, it still does a good job.

Happens to me all of the time too.
 

konichiwa

Lifer
Oct 9, 1999
15,077
2
0
Originally posted by: MaxDepth
Originally posted by: SilentZero
Google is still the best engine out there. I can't see anything better replacing it for awhile.
Why you all left altavista.com is beyond me. (Uses web-bots to collect all websites / metadata.)

All search engines use web bots to collect "all" websites/metadata. I assure you, Google does not have a cracksquad of immigrants browsing and categorizing every site on the web
rolleye.gif


It's just that google's search algorithms are far more accurate than any other site, for now anyway...
 

Miramonti

Lifer
Aug 26, 2000
28,653
100
106
Those claiming blasphemy are living in yesterday's world. :p

Referrals own google!

Searches for any products are becoming useless because of all the referral links.

Its still the best now but only because others haven't caught up to it yet, but they are quickly gaining ground as it descends deaper into mortality.
 

CraigRT

Lifer
Jun 16, 2000
31,440
5
0
I still like it... i don't use it THAT much or for anything extremely specific.. but it does the job :D
 

hoyaguru

Senior member
Jun 9, 2003
893
3
81
Google is going downhill fast, I should know, I'm joining the ranks of people who are screwing it up. The only way to get highly listed on Google is to have sites linked to your web page. LOTS of sites. Not too hard for companies that have been around forever, but for a new company (like mine) it is impossible to compete. If you can't get up on Google, you can't survive. So, you hire a company that has thousands of websites, and for a couple of thousands of dollars, they will make links to your site for whatever key words you want. Relvency? Doesn't matter. Now it is whoever has the money to pay off enough people to get to the top. As for me, I just bought my own server, I'll be putting up a couple of thousand web pages all pointing to my site.

BTW, I've talked to some of the higher ups at Google about this, they are aware of it, but they are making enough money on the side so they don't care. These companies who make the thousands of web pages pay Google off for the algorithyms (sp?) the Google spider uses so they can make their pages rank higher.

Years ago, Alta Vista was the search engine to use, look what happened to them when they got greedy. I give Google about 2 more years before they go the same way as AV.