Critical.
Authoritative.
Strategic.
Subscribe to CIO Magazine »

Google search engine now detects bad businesses

Google modifies its search system after a merchant boasted to The New York Times that bad reviews helped his store's rankings

In an uncharacteristically public way, Google has acknowledged modifying its search engine so it can identify businesses that provide bad service and lower their search results rankings accordingly.

Google took action after a recent story in The New York Times detailed the tactics of an online eyeware store owner who claimed his site's high Google rankings were directly proportional to the many complaints posted by upset customers.

"I've exploited this opportunity because it works. No matter where they post their negative comments, it helps my return on investment. So I decided, why not use that negativity to my advantage?" Vitaly Borker, founder and owner of DecorMyEyes, told the Times.

That tactic won't work anymore, Google said Wednesday. "I am here to tell you that being bad is, and hopefully will always be, bad for business in Google's search results," wrote Amit Singhal, Google fellow, in a blog post.

Google seemed embarrassed and surprised by the article and quickly moved to address the issue, said industry analyst Greg Sterling from Sterling Market Intelligence. "It just shows that Google is fallible and must continue to adjust its results as new circumstances arise," Sterling said via e-mail.

Without going into much detail, Singhal said Google developed "an algorithmic solution" that flags merchants that provide "an extremely poor user experience" and assigns them lower rankings. This is an initial solution to the problem, which Google will continue addressing, he said.

Incidentally, Singhal disputed that DecorMyEyes' ranking benefitted from the many complaints posted online against it. Rather, its ranking was helped ironically by articles from reputable media sources about the company's troubles.

The situation is also leading Google to work on making its "sentiment analysis" search system more of a factor in results ranking. Currently, Google hasn't found a way to give this system more weight without disproportionately affecting the ranking of controversial people or topics.

The Times article clearly struck a nerve at Google, which runs the world's most popular search engine and prides itself on delivering what it considers the best and most relevant results through constant and intense improvements and innovations.

Thanks to its popularity with users, Google dominates the highly profitable search engine advertising market. Last year, Google had $23.6 billion in revenue, most of it from search advertising.

Although hundreds of disgruntled customers had posted complaints about DecorMyEyes online -- including allegations of personal harassment and intimidation by Borker -- the store enjoyed high rankings for eyewear queries for years.

"We can't say for sure that no one will ever find a loophole in our ranking algorithms in the future. We know that people will keep trying: attempts to game Google's ranking, like the ones mentioned in the article, go on 24 hours a day, every single day," Singhal wrote.

"We will continue to work hard towards a better search," he added.

Join the CIO Australia group on LinkedIn. The group is open to CIOs, IT Directors, COOs, CTOs and senior IT managers.

More about: Google, Sterling
References show all

Comments

Post new comment

The content of this field is kept private and will not be shown publicly.
Users posting comments agree to the CIO comments policy.
Login or register to link comments to your user profile, or you may also post a comment without being logged in.
Related Coverage
Related Whitepapers
Latest Stories
Community Comments
Tags: Google, internet, search engines
Latest Blog Posts
Whitepapers
  • Protecting Against the Leading Causes of Data Breach
    This whitepaper was written for the organisation that wants to focus on prevention of data loss and doesn’t have millions to spend, but needs affordable solutions that can be implemented today to protect millions of sensitive records and dollars worth of intellectual property. This whitepaper addresses: - What organisations can do to prevent the four leading causes of data breaches - Why dedicated (pure-play) DLP solutions may not protect you from all four leading causes of data breaches - How to get prevent sensitive data leaving your organisation
    Learn more »
  • Removing BPM Silos to Unleash Process Power - 15 Best Practices for Enterprise BPM
    You are about to get a lot smarter about Enterprise Business Process Management (BPM ). T his article is the first in a series of our soon-to-be-published book, “The Intelligent Guide to Enterprise BPM .” So consider this first article your all-important primer.
    Learn more »
  • HP ePrint Enterprise mobile printing solution
    The merger of mobile devices and cloud services has become one of the most significant enablers of business productivity and innovation in the past decade. We now hold the power of communicating and computing in the palms of our hands, nearly anywhere business or life takes us. However, one key business process has eluded the mobility movement: printing. Even the most technically enabled business travelers find themselves hunting down print services while on the road and interrupting IT managers when visiting a branch office simply to print a document. But finally, a truly mobile print experience is available—helping enterprises to drive business productivity further. Read more.
    Learn more »
All whitepapers
rhs_login_lockGet exclusive access to Invitation only events CIO, reports & analysis.
Recent comments