Wharton School: Google adjusts algorithm SEO see Recruit and remove recruit

Introduction: The Wednesday edition of the Wharton Knowledge Online, an electronic magazine at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, analyzes Google's behavior to modify algorithms and improve search quality.

　　The following is the full text of the article:

　　Adjustment algorithm

Google began to take action after a series of criticisms of the quality of search. The search giant has recently adjusted the collation to give higher weight to "high quality" content, while cutting down the "less useful" information rankings. Google said the move would have a significant impact on about 12% of all U.S. search requests.

Google announced the plan on February 24. Google has also made some minor tweaks to the search, but the average user is not usually aware of it, but this time it is different. The company hopes to solve a series of problems that have recently been exposed by the media. More famously, a report from the New York Times shows that the U.S. department store chain J.C. Penney is ranked first in many search results by tricking search engines. In another incident, the Overstock.com was punished for violating Google's policies, the Wall Street Journal reported. The policy prohibits companies from using improper behavior to elevate search engine rankings.

Many tech commentators have recently criticized Google for including junk information and low-quality content in search results. Google has responded by saying it will crack down on so-called "content farms" (Farm). Demand media and associated content are part of the farm, and these sites quickly write a large number of articles in a targeted way by getting a higher ranking.

These events and Google's response have caused a series of problems. What impact will the search engine have on those people? Is Google's market position too strong? Should the company be more transparent about the algorithm that determines search results? What is the future of the search?

"Google's search business needs to meet the needs of two groups of people: Users and advertisers." "Google is a dominant search engine," says Kevin Werbach, a professor of law research and business ethics at the Wharton School, Kevin Wobach, but if users find they can't get the results they want, they look for alternatives. Financially, it may be more serious, because advertisers are likely to give up their bid for search keywords. Google's value base is to provide excellent search results as an upright and neutral broker. ”

　　Search Wrestling

A growing focus on Google's search results highlights a cat-and-mouse game, with Google on one side and those who want to cheat their algorithms to boost rankings, say Wharton experts. This behavior is called Search engine optimization (SEO), which uses a series of techniques to create Web pages, increasing the chances of getting a higher ranking in search engines. There are many legitimate SEO techniques, but there are also so-called "black Hat" technology, the purpose of which is to use the search algorithm to achieve higher ranking of defects in order to attract more traffic to the site.

Google's move will ultimately prevent the search results from being "teased" and not finalized, according to a panel at the Paidcontent conference in New York March 3. Luke Beatty, vice president of Yahoo's associated content, said the site had a one-third rise in content after Google's adjustment, but another two-thirds fell. Jason Rapp, president of the US search engine Mahalo, told the attendees that after Google adjusted the search algorithm, his company cut 10% of its employees and changed the strategy. "We have a lot of popular content that has been greatly affected. When we see such a blow, we respond in a timely manner. "Rapp said.

Cardick Hossennagh Kartik Hosanagar, a professor of operations and information management at the Wharton School of Business, says that if you look back at Google's evolution, it will feel a bit ironic about Google's search quality. "If you look back at how Google got rich and how it worked, it's because of its PageRank algorithm." Hossennagh said he was referring to the search giant's use of a link analysis to determine the importance of the site, to determine the ranking of search results. "Google has improved its search results with the help of PageRank. Other early search engines such as Yahoo are easily flooded with junk information and low-quality content. ”

Now, Google is also likely to face the problems its predecessors encountered more than 10 years ago. "Search quality is critical to Google's reputation," Hossennagh, "quality is the cornerstone of Google's dominant market." ”

　　Huge share

Google's share of the U.S. search market reached 68.2% in January this year, according to comscore, the US Internet traffic monitoring agency. Microsoft Bing has a 25.6% share of the benefits of partnering with Yahoo. "If Google is not that important, people will not devote so much effort to deceiving it," said Kendall Whitehouse, New media director at Wharton, "because Google's dominance in the search market is too strong to be easily found on Google, and your site is virtually invisible," Kendall Whitehaus. ”

Eric Clemons Eric Clemons, a professor of operations and information management at the Wharton School of Business, says Google's algorithm adjustment is very important. "As long as it can weaken the content of the farm and AdSense integration between the line." Without content farms, users can benefit, and Google can live better. "he said.

At present, Google is trying to solve this problem, through a series of rules to clean up the problematic content. "When we face such challenges, we try to solve them through algorithms," he said. It is also possible that there will be some special cases in which we will conduct legal human intervention. "Neal Mohan, vice president of product management at Nier Mohan, said February 28 at Morgan Stanley's technology, media and Communications conference. Whitehouse, of the Wharton School, highlighted the difficulties Google faces when it comes to distinguishing content, saying that Google is blamed for the lack of perfect results, but it is not possible to know what users think is the "right" answer without simple software improvements. Because the quality of the content cannot be fully used to determine the algorithm, Google added a feature on March 10 that allows users to manually block their annoying websites.

　　Too much power?

Since Google is the main source of information for the Internet, it gives the company a lot of power. Naturally, this right also attracts a lot of people trying to profit from the Google system. Hossennagh that Google's encounter in the search market is similar to that of Microsoft in the security sector: Two companies are targeted by others because they have a dominant position.

Companies like demand media hire a lot of freelance writers to make search-engine-friendly articles, but in fact, over-reliance on Google is one of their biggest business risks. Demand Media's IPO coincided with Google's crackdown on content farms. In demand Media's first earnings call on February 22, Richard Rosenblatt, the company's CEO, stressed that they had diversified sources of traffic.

Clemons has slammed Google's rights too much in several media outlets. In addition to the algorithm, he points out, Google has the ability to use editorial staff's judgment to review search results. For companies that rely on search engine access to traffic, such judgments can either achieve a company or destroy a company. Andria Mat Wiesing Andrea Matwyshyn, a professor of law studies and business ethics at the Wharton School, argues that Google needs to face a fierce struggle between "preserving the purity of the algorithm" and using human intervention to address social policy concerns and bad elements.

For example, the New York Times exposes J.C. Penney use improper means in many search results ranked first, Google sharply lowered the company's website rankings. The department store chain denied that it had done so, but still terminated its collaboration with a search engine consulting firm. Mat Wiesing that Google's approach so far has not been a problem, but she also warned: "Google will inevitably do something wrong, and the downgrade of the business has an economic impact." The question is what are the guidelines for human intervention. ”

Mat Wiesing added that Google's legal responsibility for adjusting the algorithm and making artificial interventions was still a gray area. "So far, the law has not covered this issue, but it needs to be resolved over the next 5-10 years." "she said.

Whitehouse said that when Google announced that it would crack down on low-quality content, it raised an important issue. What is the definitive definition of ' low quality content '? He asked. Google has issued some management policies, but usually does not comment on specific actions. Hossennagh predicts that the search giant will still be the target of "deception" because it can bring substantial commercial benefits. "Search is the main means of Internet access. "he said.

Is Google's power too big? In fact, Clemons that the company already has a near-monopoly position. However, Google executives have consistently insisted that users can easily replace search providers. "Google is a service enterprise chasing benefits, and no one is forcing you to use Google, it can ' do whatever it wants '. The risk is that if outsiders think its results are not good enough, competitors ' market share will rise. Google's market position comes from market share, however, the cost of users to convert search engines is very low. Therefore, once Google is unable to provide the best search experience, users will replace other products. "said Karl Ulrich, a professor of entrepreneurship at Wharton School, Carl Yurich.

But Mat Wiesing thinks it might not be so easy for some users. She notes that while "those who use Google as a search engine simply can use alternatives", users who use Google's e-mail, documents, graphics and video services may find it difficult to switch to other search engines.

　　The ideal Search

Some of the Wharton experts are also exploring whether Google is transparent enough. The frequent adjustment of the algorithm improves the search quality. In general, Google informs the public about changes and provides behavioral guidelines to web makers, but does not disclose details about search sequencing. The company only said it considered more than 200 factors, including the original PageRank algorithm.

"If you never describe the algorithm to me, I'm not sure what I feel about the importance of the search engine," he said. "Clemons said. Mat Wiesing also wants Google to be more transparent, but he points out that the algorithm is "the company's core asset and that Google must have a firm grip on the details".

Hossennagh that if Google were more transparent, it might be more likely to be "cheated". "Google's behavior seems perfectly plausible. When spammers know about the search engine capabilities of Yahoo and other businesses, they cheat these systems. The problem with low-quality content is more serious than Google's right to inflate. "he said.

Fundamentally, Google and other search engines face the challenge of how to understand the needs of users, to provide them with the most accurate results. "Search requires a new life. Like Google's PageRank, other companies can look for different and better ways to sort search results. "Hossennagh said. He believes that the ideal search should have artificial intelligence. For example, the IBM Watson supercomputer, which won the Jeopardy program, may be able to produce good search engines, although the technology is unlikely to be widely available in the short term.

Meanwhile, search engine providers are trying to use what Hossennagh called "artificial intelligence" to improve their business. The general idea is to integrate social networks such as Facebook and Twitter into search engines to infer what people are doing. He points out that information on social networking sites may improve search results before the new system is born. "The algorithm doesn't understand the content, and it can't guess what people think. "he said.

Some companies have started to develop social search business. Google launched an app in February this year that integrates Twitter information. Microsoft Bing also announced February 24 that it will integrate Facebook's "likes" information into its search results. If a user logs on to Facebook and then uses Bing to search for information, one side of the search results will show tips and suggestions from friends.

Social search may improve results, Mat Wiesing says, but Google and other companies must consider user privacy and give control of whether or not information is open. "The ideal search engine should provide extremely personalized results," she says. "My search results should be different from your results and be consistent with my privacy settings." However, Whitehouse pointed out, "Search is a multi-level problem." is the latest content or your friend's favorite content more important in some subjects than a clear statement? It depends on what you are looking for. The answer is not unique. ”

In any case, Google's policy of improving search quality and cracking down on search fraud will be closely watched. "As Google dominates, it has a huge responsibility and its actions will be closely watched," he said. The key question is not whether Google has power, but whether it abuses power. So far, the company has been more transparent about what it has done and is more cautious about most taboos. "Wolbachia said.