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December 29, 2008
Does Google Weight Algorithm In Their Own Favor?
I was looking for something about analytics today so went to Google and did a search. The number one result was Google Analytics - not surprising given it is very popular and very discussed. But a closer look showed it had 3 listings for the site and one for the blog - a bit of a home field advantage.
So I looked a little deeper.
A search for catalog and catalogue and low and behold Google catalogs tops the list. A little curious - they cannot possibly be the best known online catalogs.
And on to email. We know Yahoo has the biggest email program and yet it comes in second behind them. Does Yahoo just not know how to optimize?
Interestingly, a search for videos places Google Video above YouTube which they also own and is one of the most popular sites on the web.
So is there a self-interest factor in their algorithm or have human hands been involved?
Hey they own it so have every right to present data any way they want - but a little transparency on this would be good.
Posted by Frank Watson on December 29, 2008 10:41 PM
Comments
I like to think so... Just search for Google, I thought Google handled subdomains like directories and only show two results of one domain on one resultpage, but Google is all over the place with their subdomains.
It probably is a 'feature' for high PR domains ;)
Dennis December 30, 2008 3:32 AM
try searching for blog as well
blogger and google's official weblog comes first in results...
Search for directory as well
Google directory coems first
It's a bit strange eh?
I guess Google SEO's are the best :P
:)
Geobak December 30, 2008 5:49 AM
My guess and vote would be that Google does not at all weight the algorithm in their own favor.
Most likely there are other factors at play which results in the SERPs you're seeing.
Jill Whalen December 30, 2008 2:51 PM
Hi Frank; Why is this a problem? If I owned Google, I certainly would put my site close to the top on one word terms as well. Isn't it common sense to do so? Besides; isn't a domain like google.com lots more relevant than any other for many of those terms? Doesn't google.com have more authority than most other domains as well? How about the trust issue? Doesn't Google trust it's own domain/site more than any other when it comes to those terms? Anything comparing Google's own algo to itself are just not comparing apples to apples at all. It would be like myself and my own forums. Do I trust my posts more or less than any other post in it?
If you were to compare another site with any other site other than a high authority search engine with those terms, your post would have been much better and more interesting. My opinion, of course. :)
Doug Heil December 30, 2008 4:26 PM
Do a search for "search engine marketing" at both Google and Yahoo and tell me which one weighs the algo in their favor...
chris boggs December 30, 2008 4:59 PM
Yeah but everyone knows Yahoo does things like that... lol
AussieWebmaster December 30, 2008 5:05 PM
I doubt google is weighting their formula in their favor. They just know the formula, so they can build a site that will be at the top of the list!
K Howard January 24, 2009 12:15 PM
