The Sharp Toothed MSN Gnaws on the Google Search Carcass
November 18, 2019
Search and retrieval is fraught with challenges. In the enterprise search sector, fraud has been popular as a way to deal with difficulties. In the Web search sector, the methods have been more chimerical.
MSN, a property of Microsoft, published “How Google Interferes With Its Search Algorithms and Changes Your Results.” The write up appears to recycle the work of the Wall Street Journal. The authors allegedly are Kirsten Grind, Sam Schechner, Robert McMillan and John West. It is unlikely that Alphabet Google will invite these people to the firm’s holiday bash this year.
What’s in the write up? The approximately 8,500 word article does the kitchen sink approach to sins. Religious writers boil evil down to seven issues. Google, it seems, requires to words to cover the online advertising firm’s transgressions.
DarkCyber will not engage in the naming of evils. Several observations are warranted:
- Google’s waterproof coating has become permeable
- After decades, “search experts” are starting to comprehend the intellectual impact of search results which has been shaped
- The old-fashioned approach of published editorial policies, details about updating indexes, and user control of queries via Boolean logic is not what fuels the Google method.
But so what? With more than 60 percent of search queries to the Google flowing from mobile devices, old school approaches won’t work. Figuring out what works depends on defining “works”.
Finding information is a big deal. What happens when one tries to hide information? The answers may be observed in the action of Google employees who have forced the company to stop communicating in “all hands” Friday meetings.
What’s Microsoft doing? For one thing, poking Googzilla in the eye with MSN articles is one example of Microsoft’s tactical approach. The other is to ignore problematic Windows 10 updates and “ignite” people to embrace a hybrid cloud paradigm.
And what about Microsoft’s own search technologies. One pundit apologist continues to explain that Microsoft search is just getting more efficient, not better.
Net net: Google and Microsoft may have more in common than some individuals realize. Maybe envy? Maybe techno-attraction? Maybe two black holes circling? Whatever. The situation is interesting.
Stephen E Arnold, November 18, 2019
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