Shocking Criticism of Google Search
January 3, 2011
Most folks tiptoe around the Google. Publishers with “real” journalists are careful to handle hot Google stories with “real” journalistic aplomb. Conference organizers cower when a speaker criticizes the Google. The hope may be that Google will exhibit or send a prepared speaker to talk on topic. Even azure chip consultants are wary. A job at Google would be a step into the Promised Land. No sense in putting one’s career in jeopardy.
Imagine my surprise when an academic took a tough stance toward Google and its present Web search system. You can read the full write up in “Why We Desperately Need a New (and Better) Google.” Here’s the key passage for me:
So I instructed my students to use Google searches to research each founder’s work history, by year, and to track him or her down in that way. But it turns out that you can’t easily do such searches in Google any more. Google has become a jungle: a tropical paradise for spammers and marketers. Almost every search takes you to websites that want you to click on links that make them money, or to sponsored sites that make Google money. There’s no way to do a meaningful chronological search. We ended up using instead a web-search tool called Blekko. It’s a new technology and is far from perfect; but it is innovative and fills the vacuum of competition with Google (and Bing).
Wow. Test queries. Human analysis. Findings that suggest lousy results.
The Beyond Search team monitors the Google closely. We find that Google is the most wonderfulest search engine in the world. But, hey, we are addled geese in rural Kentucky. Your mileage may vary.
Stephen E Arnold, January 2, 2011
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