Google: More Than 18 Percent Search
September 18, 2012
Search Engine Watch emphasizes the importance of perspective when it asks, “Is Google Search Really Only 18.5% Organic Results?” The short answer—um, no. The question was prompted by a Jitbit blog post that made an outrageous claim– that Google’s search results pages are only 18.5 percent “actual search results.” Search Engine Watch’s Thom Craver explains the original posters methodology:
“The author’s ‘reasoning’ suggests on his 1280×960 resolution screen, the search results take up a box 535 pixels wide by 425 pixels tall, 18.5 percent of his window if you multiply the resolutions and consider square pixels to be the same as measuring something in square inches. . . .
“The author jumps around between different numbers of links, trying to make a point that out of all the links, only five were actual ‘search’ results, leading to a claim that only 11 percent of the links are actual search results, then later suggesting an ads to results ratio of 8:7, ‘which is 47% of the links are actual results.'”
Ummm. . . okay. Google engineer Matt Cutts responded to the post with a list of three major problems (just three?) with the original poster’s reasoning. Essentially, he had counted a lot of things as “non-search” space he probably shouldn’t have—like the search box. And the tools in the left column. And the white space on the page.
Perhaps the original (faulty) observation only got any traction because it tapped into a simmering unease with Google’s increased search results monetization? Nah, that couldn’t be it.
Cynthia Murrell, September 18, 2012
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
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