Why Google Needs To Introduce More Humans To It’s Algorithms

Some would say that humans are already involved in Google algorithms (personalized search, taking in to account RTs and Facebook likes etc to improve results) but I think Google needs to add way more human power to it’s search results. Make no mistake about it, Google are worried by Facebook at the moment. They have been for the last couple of years but the crisis meetings would really have stepped up once the Facebook like button came out. It’s all about the cash cow that is search and the reason that Google are off putting so much resource in to their new Facebook competitor is that their core business is threatened. Google makes billions of dollars from ads presented around search results but I think that search is fundamentally under threat and will need to improve and hopefully the Facebook like button is just the bit of competition that Google needs to make it’s product even better again…

Search Is Not Great

Until recently enough we all thought search was amazing.

Google was the king and it guided us to all the web pages we needed to get to very quickly. The Internet changes though and technology advances at an startling pace. I don’t know about you but I get frustrated by search. It usually takes me 4 or 5 searches to find what I am looking for and although I’ll find it in the end and that is a huge leap forward in technology (having the whole world’s knowledge at your fingertips) it is starting to feel a little clunky. Google is constantly trying to make improvements in it’s search technology and hopes one day to return only one result when you search (the right one) but those days are a long way off. I just feel it is about time we had some sort of technology that revolutionized search and saved me time. We are impatient these days and what the right information instantly and in many cases Google just doesn’t do that.

Search Can Be Gamed

For all the work that Google puts in to it’s algorithms and making sure that people can’t cheat their way to the top you just know that the results get gamed. There wouldn’t be SEO companies otherwise. It’s great that as an individual or company you can make it to the top of the Google by being smart and deploying the best technology and your resources but what that means for an end user is that we don’t always get the best result. We get the best result according to Google and how the website is optimized. Content farms can be set up to drive huge amounts of traffic, links can be bought and content optimized to show up higher in search engines. Now there is nothing wrong with users doing those things as you play the system in whatever way it presents itself and it is smart from a business perspective to rank well in Google but from an end user perspective the fact that Google can be gamed is not good. It’s not a level playing field.

Google Needed This Competition

Google essentially dominates search apart from a little competition from Bing and Yahoo and various other boutique search engines. Having no competition is never a good thing for the end user as it means you have a company that doesn’t really have to innovate to stay out in front. Now I would argue that one of the things Google does really well is innovate but at the same time their innovation is really going to have to step up now with the threat of Facebook looming. Having real competition is a great thing and I think we will all benefit in the long run from Google having to vastly improve their products to stay out in front.

Search Needs To Become Social

For all the talk of search becoming social it simply isn’t. There have been huge advances and Google itself is giving weight to social actions like Facebook Likes and Re tweets but search is not really social in any way yet. I want to be able to see which of my friends like a particular dentist. I want to see who in my family has been to a local restaurant and see reviews on their website. I want to see what people in my work place search for and benefit from the hard work they have put in to find good content or excellent service. Search is something that is very much carried out on a personal level at the moment but it needs to become more social and collaborative. Facebook themselves are nowhere near there yet (in fact they couldn’t be further from it) with their own search but the Like button does offer them something that Google doesn’t have and that is a social way of engaging and ranking 3rd party websites, pages and content.

How Can Google Keep Winning?

It’s not as simple as just adding a new copycat Google like button because the reason we all use the like button is because of the way we trust Facebook and it feeds back to our social graph. We don’t use Google in that sort of way yet and that is why Google is so keen on getting a Facebook competitor off the ground. The big issue is that it took Facebook 6 years to get to where it is today and even though Google has huge reach and resources it is not going to be able to get to Facebook’s level immediately and if anything their social strategy has been less than spectacular so who says it would actually work anyway. This time last year they were all claiming Google Wave would change the way we communicate and that we would have all abandoned email by now! What Google does need is some sort of Like button type moment. Some way of making search social and getting humans involved is what Google needs to do. Machines can only take you so far and they have done a great job to date but to take things to the next level Google needs to add something social. What it is I don’t know but I do know that 20,000 of the world’s smartest minds are desperately trying to figure it out as we speak. It’ll take them a while to crack it but I wouldn’t worry too much about Google, they’ll be fine.