Google Revamps SERPs, for Money? - Not for Profit? Give Me a Break

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Further looking at the company which Google has given three referrals to, it is hard not to see the commercial implications. How does Google choose which "on demand" provider they should supply? Why does asking for on demand mean that I want to see Comcast pages that don't even properly rank in the SERPs? Comcast Cable Corporation has never had a problem admitting everything they do is geared toward earning revenue, in fact most corporations readily admit this. Even Gates admits it and does not try to sit behind the user enhancements as a ploy to make nice.

Google, though, for some reason has a huge problem with it. If this UI implementation was for users, then why was it not made public knowledge from their home page?

One of their engineer’s blogs even went so far as to say the following:

Other folks will ask things like "Are queries selected by hand-can my query get in on this? Is money involved?" And the answer is: it's all algorithmic. The algorithms pick the queries where this could be helpful. Of course money isn't involved at all.

Of course money isn't involved at all? I never thought SEM could be dangerous till reading that blog post and falling off my chair laughing so hard. Talk about pie on an employees face.

Google needs to stop playing games with people’s heads and be totally up-front about their need to change user experience in order to grow revenue. It is important to remember that since Google’s stock jumped up to a bloated, unrealistic $300.00 per share, the value of shares would need to rise $30.00 to earn 10% growth.

This is not something easily accomplished when you allow statements to be tossed about that “of course money is not involved” and you then turn around a day or two later, and admit that money is indeed somewhat involved.

For a very long time, people felt Google would never touch the look of the ten organic listings that make up each page of their results pages. However it is now very apparent that things have changed since going public. The control at the top has switched hands to those obsessed with generating revenues and profits. They have to meet stockholders' expectations of growth as well as maintain an image that they are trying to help the stockholders.

Confusing users is not the most productive way of instilling shareholder confidence. Google’s offices now sit in the graveyard of another well-liked internet-based company, which went bust after the dot com fallout in the stock market in 2000. If Google isn't careful, and if they don't get their act together very soon, we may see history repeat itself!

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