Are the search engines (like google) controling the data?

[Kathie in VA]

I've heard some folks say that they don't 'google' anymore because search engines like google have been ... controling what information you can get. Others say that it is now harder to search for some info then it used to be ... meaning that they need to really clarify their searches more. This isn't all information, just some of it. Supposedly google and other search engines have shifted things to make some information harder to find. One person mentioned that they only use yahoo to search now because they don't have such problems with yahoo.

 

I haven't noticed a problem either way but then again most of my searches right now deal with homeschooling curriculum and issues. So I thought I'd ask here to see if anyone else knew something about this issue?

[PineFarmMom]

I haven't heard that, but I have heard that google is getting way too Big Brother-ish.

[4kiddies]

Well I may be wrong so don't quote me on this but I believe that you (the company) pay more to have your business higher on the google search engine. For instance if you type in something the first 5 or so have paid more to have better placement on the list. It typically then leads to them having more "hits" on their site.

[LaxMom]

I haven't noticed anything untoward, either. But, then, I'm normally pretty specific in what I'm searing...

 

Were the people commenting about this phenomenon in China, perchance? :001_huh:

[KidsHappen]

I will frequently do searches on a subject on both Yahoo and Google and yes, you do get totally different results but I can not see that it is totally related to how people are paying for placement. For instance, wiki always comes up on the first page. As far as I know, they are a not for profit organization that functions through donations which leads me to believe they do not have a lot of money to pay for placement.

 

Yesterday, I was researching snow leopards and most hits were conservatorys, zoo and voluntary organizations non of which have much money either. Also a lot of articles from obscure journals and news reports. It really didn't look like any of those places could have been devoting money to advertising but they definitely came up differently in searches depending on if it was on yahoo or google.

 

I don't know exactly how they come up with different hits but I have heard it is due to the fact that google has a more powerful search engine that simply has more computing power. That seems like it would give your greater results not less. I haven't heard anything about there being limited results. Do you have any article or links about this?

[angela in ohio]

I find google and yahoo both almost useless anymore, unless I am looking for something specific by name. The first several pages of results tend to be companies advertising or those stupid sites that just have lists of topics and ads all over them. With everyone trying the "learn how to make money on the internet" stuff, things have changed (including researching homeschooling topics.)

[Ummto4]

Nope, google does not control sites. What google has is a set of algorithm to determine each page's ranking. Google search algorightm is of course different from yahoo's, so that explains the difference in the listing.

 

Now, the big guys (commercial sites) usually have their search engine optimization specialist to get them rank high in google. So these pages can be high in the search engine. However, other websites, even the non-profit ones can also rank high as long as they satisfy google algorithm for ranking high, e.g. having enough keyword, have enough link, and other criteria. Google also prefers big sites like wiki and institutional/government sites.

 

The list of commercial websites on the right hand side of google search and the top two (i.e. the ones with the background), in contrast, consist of paid advertising. So if you don't want to get a sales pitch, don't click on those. Other than that, they're purely organic listing.

 

I personally would not rule out websites which offer advertising. It's one way to support a website and make money, as long as the content is helpful. I even sometimes buy books from amazon through homeschooling blog links to support homeschooling moms. Having said that, I must admit that sometimes I am annoyed if google lists the same useless article on the top ten of its search engine (usually in health topic).

[ConnieB]

The problem I notice is that if I google/yahoo a rather specific thing, meaning it should have it's own personal website, I typically have to wander through at least a page until I find that company's website. The ones I had to wander past were ones that had likely PAID the search engine to be placed ahead of other posts.

 

That annoys me quite a bit and I've now gotten in the habit of not just reading the search result but actually looking at the address it's going to send me to before I click. Most times you can tell by looking that it's not likely to be what you want. And instead of clicking if it does appear it's what I want, I'll open a new browser and type in the address myself.

By not clicking, they don't get hits, the search engine doesn't get paid, and I'm not promoting their targeted searches that lean towards those who paid them rather than those that are what I'm requesting! It's kinda like not shopping at a store because you don't like their practices, lol. I realize it's not likely to make a difference, but it's my own little revolt. I mean really, if people would stop clicking on the links instead of spam mail than the spammers wouldn't make any money and they'd have to go away. Sadly that doesn't seem to be happening!

 

THe other one that annoys me even more is a page that doesn't even have anything relating to my search, except the fact that they typed pages and pages of keywords into their code so that search engines will direct you to them so you see their ads. Grrrr.

 

There are quite a few smaller search engines besides yahoo and google that you can try.....problem is that being smaller they aren't always as good and don't always catch all the sites.

 

Someday someone is going to create a search engine that isn't money driven. Yeah, and someday I'll win the lottery. The day before I get hit by a Mack truck.

[Laurie4b]

I read a news article a few days ago saying that Google scans gmail accounts for content that helps them decide what pop-ups you'll get. I don't have a gmail acct, but if I did, it would be closed by now.

[Night Elf]

I read a news article a few days ago saying that Google scans gmail accounts for content that helps them decide what pop-ups you'll get. I don't have a gmail acct, but if I did, it would be closed by now.

 

Pop-ups where? I have had a gmail account for quite some time and I don't recall seeing pop-ups anywhere.

[Night Elf]

I find google and yahoo both almost useless anymore, unless I am looking for something specific by name.

 

Do you use other search engines? or do you not search the 'net at all?

[Ummto4]

Connie,

 

The first two or three result from google are paid advertisement. It says 'sponsored links' and in my computer those have faint pale yellow background. The ones on the right are also paid advertisement and it also says 'sponsored links' at the top. So it's not like google is deceiving people.

 

OTher results are pure organic search. Meaning, google does not get ANYTHING if you click on those even if they're commercial sites.

 

If I'm looking for information (pure information), I won't click on any paid advert. But they come handy if I'm looking to buy something, so in that sense I don't have any objections on paid advertisement. But then, I generally know what I click on...:001_smile:

 

With the advent of the internet, it can only be expected that we will find more variation of internet advertising. It's only here to stay, so better get used to it. Having said that, I'm still sometimes annoyed when I watch movie at you tube and there's this little advert bar down there which takes up some space .... ABC, NBC and other networks also have a lot of advertisement in their website, or when you play movie in their sites.

[mommaduck]

I have several gmail accts and have never had a pop up.

[gardening momma]

I get the specific results I'm looking for by using the search symbols (don't remember what they're called) like +, -, " ". This helps include, exclude and keep together words I type in the search box. I usually use Yahoo, but now I'm using Swagbucks (to get points for stuff).

[Blueridge]

I read a news article a few days ago saying that Google scans gmail accounts for content that helps them decide what pop-ups you'll get. I don't have a gmail acct, but if I did, it would be closed by now.

 

Please explain this to me. I have Gmail, and with each email I receive, there are 'ads' along the margin. Some are advertising the topics that are found in the email (like Florida vacations) and some are ads for other things. Does anybody know why they pick the 'other things' to advertise? Are they completely random or are they tracking the sender's internet history? Curious.

[Kathie in VA]

I wasn't very clear in my orginal post, sorry. I'll clarify more here. First, I heard these comments in VA (not China). Also, the comments were directed more toward political searches, but I didn't want to mention that in right away. I kinda wanted to see if it would come up in the responses... it hasn't so far. Interesting. I've asked another friend that is politically active and was told that there does seem to be more of a slant in what is received from google and others then from yahoo (and others but I don't know which ones). I just thought I check with the hive to see what's been noticed here so far.

 

--Kathie

[Mommy2BeautifulGirls]

Pop-ups where? I have had a gmail account for quite some time and I don't recall seeing pop-ups anywhere.

 

Not pop-ups. There is that little Google News thing on the top above your inbox. It will usually have headlines that are sort of like some of your mail messages. It's pretty neat, actually. I've found some helpful articles for work stuff and things that I'm actually interested in reading on that little bar.

 

As far as the original post, I didn't read all of the responses, so forgive me if somebody mentioned this already. Could this maybe be something that is talked about as a way to keep people from being able to build bombs and cook harmful drugs using ordinary household items? If this is the case, block certain content all you want. I would not complain if that sort of stuff is kept off of the search engines. It really has no business being online anyway, in my opinion.

[angela in ohio]

Also, the comments were directed more toward political searches, but I didn't want to mention that in right away.

 

Ohhhhh. Yes, I've heard that before. As with most media, the political leanings of those who work for google supposedly go one way primarily. There are all sorts of rumours of the way the searches are biased. If you google for it ;) you can see all sorts of sites posting their evidence of this bias.

[Jenn in Mo]

Yeah, I searched for a friends name to get her new phone number yesterday and wanted to pull my hair out. I searched for her unique name in her unique small town and it gave me 18,500 options....none of which matched my friend. I used the quotes and rearranged a dozen different ways, but it told me such a result did not exist with each attempt. But if I wanted to pay, there were websites that came up promising to tell me her #. I finally typed in whitepages.com, typed in her name and instantly had her #.

 

I have googled phone numbers and addresses for ages without any problem. This was a very new problem for me.

[Janna]

I read a news article a few days ago saying that Google scans gmail accounts for content that helps them decide what pop-ups you'll get. I don't have a gmail acct, but if I did, it would be closed by now.

 

Yes, this is true. Ssomeone was recently telling me about gmail being the best email account after I mentioned that I loathed my yahoo one. So just last night I was reading about gmail's "terms". There is no way I will open a gmail account now. Same reason I won't have a blogger account either. Someone mentioned "too Big Brother-ish" - uh, yeah. Agreed.

[ElizabethB]

I get website stats for my phonics website. I get a lot more hits from Google than for Yahoo, and for some obscure search terms that I sometimes wonder "Did I write that? Oh, yes, I do have those words somewhere on this page."

 

But, for some things in Yahoo my website will come up much higher than Google. For example, "sight words," it's very high up in Yahoo but not even in the top 20 pages for Google last time I checked.

 

What's interesting to me is how few of my searches come from what I would think would be the most logical way to find my website. There are thousands of unique ways people search and find things, I would not have thought there would be so many different different words and phrases. (By the way, my website is the #1 site for a few of these bizarre phrases, but I never would have thought that, and I definitely didn't plan to get a #1 ranking by using these words! I read a few articles about search engine optimization, but it made my head hurt, I just decided to write what I felt needed to be written and pray for people to find what they need--it's worked pretty well so far.)

 

Here are the most common phrases that get to my website, with numbers of people and percentages from last month:

 

history of reading instruction 121 3.1 %

sight words 121 3.1 %

view on remedial phonics approach 75 1.9 %

phonics lessons 57 1.4 %

reading test grade level 50 1.2 %

reading level test 48 1.2 %

grade level reading tests 37 0.9 %

reading grade level test 36 0.9 %

free phonics lessons 34 0.8 %

phonics page 32 0.8 %

Other phrases 3248 84.1 %

 

Now, here's a few of the unique "other phrases" (1871 different phrases for those 3248 searches.)

 

examples of words with schwa sound

division exercises (maybe they were looking for math and got syllable division instead!)

words that sound like other words

words with gh in them (I do teach some of those!)

sight words with pictures

how to grade a test

words with short e sound

what is the phonetically regular words?

rules of short and long sound

words beginning with vowels (I teach some of those, too!)

the ou rule for spelling

teaching letter to sound conversions

phonics oll ill ull

pascal synthetic phonics

schwa spelling rule

15th to 18th century hornbooks

what is irregular sight words

3 letter word for reading beginners

online words divided into syllables

how to teach the sound of v at the end of words

words that have ar in them but sound different

nicely spelling

ba be bi bo bu

1865 mcguffey orthography

diagnostic reading assessment level 18

effects on children who are not taught history (they need the WTM, not phonics!)

 

So, this is a long way of saying I don't think Google is discriminating, it seems to be just counting up words and matching up websites with searches. But, even though I look at these things every month, I really have little idea how it all really works. (I have no idea what my computer is thinking most of the time, either. My husband is in charge of that.)