Google & The Tyranny Of Algorithms

July 26, 2011

The world should not be ruled by algorithms…and we need more than engineers to make the world safe for humans.

I’ve built probably 150 web sites in the 20 years since the web came into existence. Many of them no longer exist. Either it wasn’t their time, or I didn’t have enough of a mind for business to sort out great business models for them, or the idea for which I created them wasn’t strong enough to attract an audience. And, frankly…some of them were just junk, and I shut them down or otherwise disposed of them. Such is life, and I’m not bitter about any of that. No one DESERVES an audience for their idea…and even less so when there is nothing unique or valuable behind it. Lessons (mostly, at least) learned for me.

Google came into being a little over 10 years ago. They seemed to have built a better mousetrap, and most of my best web sites (especially those offering cool stuff for free) seemed to be treated favorably in their search results. For several years, in fact, I held the #1 position for keyword phrases like “kids music” and “free Christmas music”, because my sites were arguably the best resources available in those spaces. Thousands of people would visit many of my sites each day, I’d get emails thanking me for providing value, and I was pleased to invest my time sharing things that I cared about.

On top of that, in the summer of 2003, Google unveiled a program called AdSense to help webmasters monetize their quality web sites, freeing them up to stay focused on content instead of monetization. Advertisers seeking to spread the word about their products bought ads through Google…webmasters added a bit of Java code to their web sites, and relevant text ads were generated. When folks visited the web sites, they would occasionally click on an ad as an expression of their interest…sometimes resulting in a purchase, sometimes not…Google would make money, the webmasters would make money, and the advertisers would make money. Everybody was happy.

Then spammers entered the picture…hoping to game the system…both in terms of search engine results and in terms of Google’s ad program. They spotted weaknesses in both places and pumped them for every penny they could…and then profited by selling programs spreading the word about how to game the system. Google, of course, continually tried to shore up the system to fix these leaks…sometimes a bit harshly, but then usually moderating their moves as the overly-severe impact became clear. They wanted to protect the integrity of their search results, because that’s the only thing of real value they have to offer. Everything else depends on that.

The problem is this: Google doesn’t improve their process with human beings. They improve their process by tweaking an algorithm. A real human could have taken one look at a site like www.totlol.com and known that it was non-functional in 10 seconds…yet, it continued to show up on the front page of Google for many months after it was shut down. How many thousands of people wasted their time going there during those months? How many people gave up before finding a site worthier of their attention that was ranked lower in the results? But Google is a company run by…driven by engineers. They somehow believe they can (or should) do better by relying on algorithms.

So, several months back, they did a major tweak of their search engine ranking algorithm, called the Farmer update. Oddly (to my way of thinking), several of my sites tumbled from their previous rankings…some by 3 or 4 positions…others by 50 or 100 or completely out of the top 200 (though, truly…once you’re off the front page, it doesn’t really matter anymore anyway). Nothing had changed about the nature of my sites…but, interestingly, they were mostly replaced at the top by the sites of larger, monied interests.

And then Google dealt an even bigger blow. In their attempt to tweak their AdSense program (apparently to squeeze out more of the bloodsuckers in the system), they changed their algorithm there as well. Payouts to most webmasters seem to have taken a big hit in the process…and they still haven’t recovered. After 3-4 months of this, it seems clear that they never will.

As a result, I have lost a lot of money…but nothing changed with any of my sites. Did the competition get better? In some cases, probably. In other cases, if they did…it sure isn’t clear to me. But big behemoths are now being favored over little guys who were doing good things. Or at least, larger sites (likely an attempt to invalidate the hundreds of thousands of spammy little 5-page sites out there).

It would be one thing if you could call Google up and say, “Hey, can you explain to me how to get back in your good graces? Is there something about my site…the one you used to like and direct visitors to…that has somehow displeased the great Google Gods?” But, of course, you can’t. Because Google is about algorithms, not about people. There IS no one to call. And there is no transparency…because any time they even burp a bit of information, it’s pounced upon by system-gamers seeking enlightenment and used to artificially prop up rankings.

So what’s the bottom line here? I, a webmaster who built sites believing above all else in providing uniqueness and value for visitors to my web sites…am now stuck investing my time and energy in trying to get my sites better rankings and better monetization…while my web sites suffer with outdated content. In other words, I have been beaten back by the systems designed to disempower spammers, even though I hardly qualify as one myself.

In Google’s defense, I think they are trying to put more weight on social media, which is much harder to manipulate than their old system…because it generally (though not nearly always) tends to involve real people. But their refusal to have human beings vetting at least the search results for the first page or two of results for most keywords just mystifies me. As does their lack of transparency. Surely they could offer SOME explanation for why a site has dropped from #10 to #124?

So what is it: Am I just an embittered old guy who has been bypassed by the new conditions of business in 2011? Or is it the fault of those who steadfastly refuse to introduce another level of humanity to their business, and to face up to the human toll of hiding behind number-crunching?

It’s probably a little of both.

There are certainly realities here that must to be faced up to.

On my end, for sure. And I’m working my butt off to do my part.

But what about at your end, Google?

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