Iman Jalali » Google

Google Is Destroying The Search Experience

Iman Jalali — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 00:06:42 +0000

So Google just launched real-time searches into the search results page and I’ve been playing around with it and I must say I hate it. Within minutes I thought of tons of different ways to exploit it and use it maliciously. For all you affiliates out there think about the fact that you can get first page presence within seconds and if you found the right terms with little real time activity you’re securing a first page listing for at least a few hours. I’m testing out some stuff right now, but as of right now I think Google bringing this so prominently into the SERP is a big time mistake.

The Google SERP(search engine result page) has become way too cluttered, Google shouldn’t try to do everything and anything from within one page. A search for “tiger woods” not only brings up his last tournament info, but also the recent Google News results, then the “latest results”(real-time) and then the organic search results, followed up by Google Images, then Video results, then related searches… seriously now?! What happened to good, natural results… I have no problem going into Google Images if I’m looking for pictures of Tiger Woods or how about setting up a Google Real-Time Search that is separate from the standard organic search. Did I mention in the real time results for Tiger Woods you get some real racy, discriminatory, false and just nasty twitter posts?

So now think of this as a company… opens the door to so much malicious content. Malicious content right there on the first page of the SERP’s and in many instances right up top before the first organic result. Google, please clean up the SERP and don’t try to do everything from one page. I really would advise against real-time results in the default SERP… does anybody really even use the “I’m Feeling Lucky” button? Why not just make that “Real-Time Search”?

Try Out The New Google Search

Iman Jalali — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 04:23:24 +0000

Looks like Google is testing out some more things and you can get a quick look while it’s live.

1. Go to Google.com.
2. Once it loads, enter this code into your web browser’s URL address field, without the URL, just the code:

javascript:void(document.cookie=”PREF=ID=20b6e4c2f44943bb:U=4bf292d46faad806:
TM=1249677602:LM=1257919388:S=odm0Ys-53ZueXfZG;path=/; domain=.google.com”);

3. Hit enter.
4. Reload or open a new tab with Google.

Note: I had issues trying it in Firefox, but it worked perfectly in IE.

Let me know what you guys think, it’s fast!

Updated Google Search Results Page?

Iman Jalali — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 20:01:41 +0000

Two nights ago as I was checking on some of our Google rankings for Train Signal I noticed something significantly different, there was a tabbed area directly below the search box and above the sponsored listings.

Google Screenshot #1

So it’s definitely pulling in related searches, but it’s being selective on what it pulls in. Some of the related searches for “Train Signal” include competitors and luckily it’s not pulling that, but it’s also pulling searches that I’ve never seen on our related searches or even on the Wonder Wheel.

I woke up this morning and quickly fired up the computer to see if I can mess around with this feature again, but Google had taken this interesting piece away… for now. My guess is this is going to be part of the Google Caffeine update after the holidays.

From the perspective of a Google user I like it, definitely an upgrade on the search results interface. From the perspective of a SEO/PPC user I definitely think it’s added a whole new element that changes both SEO and PPC strategy to a degree. I’d have to think it’ll reduce CTR’s on sponsored links, but who knows you might suddenly get a lot more impressions because of users using the related search tab over to your keyword term. Either way this is probably one of the most interesting changes I’ve seen on the Google search result page in a long time.