Are Web Search Results Getting Worse?

There’s no denying that we all seem to be getting increasingly sucked into the metaverse. Daily time on the web, social media, apps and online gaming tallies up to over 6 hours per day per person on average. But if we think about the internet as another country we travel to every day, is that country focused on taking better care of its inhabitants? Or are the roads starting to crumble, with its best days now fading in the rearview mirror?

In a recent Freakonomics podcast, one of the first 20 Google employees, Marissa Mayer, suggests that the “quality of the internet has taken a hit” – and it has impacted the quality of Google search results. So if you aren’t finding things you need as easily on Google as you once did, one way to look at it is that Google is simply a lens through which to view the Internet, and the Internet is getting a bit ratty at the seams. Of course, the other way to think of it is that Google isn’t doing as good a job providing searchers with quality results from the web. In that case, the lens is cloudy or out of focus.

Fraud and Deception on the Web

We’ve all heard about scams, misinformation, or outright lies making their way across the world wide web. It’s not new, but the size of this cesspool has grown enormously. To some degree, American consumers are protected by Federal agencies that police marketing claims, such as the Federal Trade Commission, which has guidelines on endorsements and marketing. But the First Amendment rights of Americans (and by extension, American companies and organizations) make it extremely hard to limit speech online.

So does the web start to collapse under the weight of shadiness, mistrust and bad info? Time will tell.

Google’s Role in Policing Content

Google regulates web content via its publishing guidelines. We’ve talked before about “EAT” and how medical content in particular is subject to additional scrutiny, since wrong or inaccurate information can impact people’s health. So Google has made a valiant effort in trying to make the web a more reliable place. But the reality is that the web is not Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood, and there are still all kinds of negative things the Internet enables.

Is Google Limiting What It Indexes?

One response to such a vast Internet with huge discrepancies in quality of content would be to shrink down the number of sites or pages that are included in Google Search. After all, how many different ways does a breast lift need to be described, and how many “perfect chocolate chip cookie” recipes are there?

In the past year, we have seen an uptick in client pages Google indicates are discovered or crawled “but not indexed.” This means that Google bots have found the content, but for some reason, chosen not to index it, meaning that it won’t be found at all in Google search. Sometimes this might be content duplicated from another source. Other times, it might not be deemed trustworthy. The reasons for this designation are not explained by Google, and there is no way to appeal their indexing decisions.

A decision to index fewer webpages has its pluses and minuses. It could make search results cleaner. But it also creates an incomplete picture and risks diluting the quality of many search results. In the end, the web is just too vast, confusing, contradictory, and just plain mind-boggling for it all to be easily searchable. Choices have to be made. The question is whether Google’s algorithms are making the best choices. And whether Google is doing a good job displaying those results among the paid links, maps, “people also ask”, shop links, and other things that clutter up the search page.

Opportunity for Other Search Engines?

In the past couple of years, DuckDuckGo has seen a good amount of growth, recently crossing 100 million daily searches. That might seem like a big number, but by comparison, another small player – Bing – handles about 10 times as many daily searches. Yet it still only accounts for 2 to 3% of all web searches. Google is sitting pretty with 92% of the market. Will it maintain its effective monopoly on web search forever? It might seem like nothing can stop it, but almost every other monopoly in history has been taken down by competitors or government intervention.

The bigger question might be what a competitor can offer that’s better. If people are having a harder time finding what they need quickly and easily on Google, an algorithm that provides more relevant results without all the clutter may be quite enticing. After all, that’s how Google took over web search in the first place. We think there are also opportunities for advanced AI to offer a more curated experience for web content. Think of a scenario as depicted in the movie “Her“, where an advanced digital assistant can tell or teach you anything, and even feel like a friend. It may not be as far away as you think.

The Key Takeaways for Web Marketing

What can you do as Google becomes more cluttered, confusing, and just simply not as enjoyable to use as it once was? Here are our 5 tips: