C|NET : It's time to reconsider Google

For some reason, it seems like "Google killer" articles come up in April-ish and September-ish. I've never understood why.

Google will be replaced by Wikipedia, Sept. 2005
http://bigideas.typepad.com/index/2005/09/wikipedia_the_g.html

MSN Search as Google killer, Oct. 2004
http://www.searchenginejournal.com/?p=950

Vivisimo, Sept. 2004
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/webguide/internetlife/2004-09-30-clusty_x.htm

Teoma as potential Google killer, April 2002
http://searchenginewatch.com/showPage.html?page=2159601

Wisenut, Sept. 2001
http://searchenginewatch.com/showPage.html?page=2157691

but judging by traffic, I'm one of a select few. My sites do well in Ask, but Ask accounts for only .5% of my search engine traffic.

Have you looked at an Ask SERP lately? Lots of old pages, and lots of fatty, nitrated meat byproducts. YUCK!

are strictly vegan and I have no complaints with those positioned above or below mine.

I like Teoma as well and use them quite regularly. Their biggest issue is that they don't crawl and pick up pages as well as others like Google. For more specific searches, you have to go with Google. But if your looking for something broad, Teoma is a better search engine in my opinion. Google just filters out way too many good sites in their broad searches.

For more specific searches, you have to go with Google. But if your looking for something broad, Teoma is a better search engine

Hmmm, my experience is exactly the opposite. When I'm trying to find something specific I go straight to Ask or Teoma. I use Google for the general "let's see what's out there" type searches.

Way to go on the objective journalism C|NET! The author even has the nerve to explicitly mention the visit to C|NET by Ask's marketing goons.

The article doesn't even attempt to mention any of Google's merits.

In particular, when searching for prices of consumer goods, Google's extra ads were very useful, and more often it found good prices to put in its Product Search box at the top of its results.

>The author even has the nerve to explicitly mention the visit to C|NET

Or the integrity...

>marketing goons

That's objective. ;)

I for one applaud what Ask.com is doing for 2 reasons:

1. The buzz marketing will force Google to tighten up a bit, hopefully improving a few things from a SERP standpoint.

2. The advertising may cause a few more people to try search, those that may be of the older generation, which means more customers for all of us.

Is it just me, or does it seem like Google has a "search quality knob" that it can twist one way in cases where the public eye is looking at the SERPs, and the other way when they need cash or are making a public statement about spam control. Maybe it's just me.

But carbon-based units come equipped with a selectivity filter. It's much like a stat obfuscation knob...

wow matt you posted those links very fast. did you pull them from your enemies list or your vanquished foes list :) just kidding hehehe

there are many serps that ask does better than google. for example i like that ask does not highly rank the placeholder site of threadwatch.com.

I have thought about that myself in the last few months. Sorry Matt but there is some over SEOed garbage on many high profile search terms on your engine.
I like Google not for search but for the stuff I see in labs like Groups, translate, email and I love the intuitive aspects of AdWords.
I use ASK more often now and so do some of my kids friends from what they tell me. They thought it was cool that ASK was used by the participants of the TV show Treasure Hunters.

The iamlost hypothetical 'Law of G' states that -

A search query return:
* is first sorted by 'Revenue Quantity' with all indicies above a given Revenue Rank guaranteed top SERP.
* is subsequently sorted by 'Search Quality' and displayed as SERP filler.

well, its like anything else, people use what is popular and mainstream, not necessarily what is better. Sometimes its the same, but hey people liked Britney Spears too...

It happens in April, and September because when the average temperature goes above, or respectively below 72 degrees (or other relatively comfortable temperatures depending on where you're from) people get cranky.

Cranky webmasters vent their frustration.

Google Killing ensues.

I like Ask's quality. Hands down, they are the best are filtering out lower profile Web sites. But Google has a depth of indexing that Ask seriously needs to approach. I still use Google mainly because I find more content there than at any other search engine (even Yahoo! still runs only a close second).

I don't feel the content Ask doesn't provide is not worth indexing. I think they need to expand their resources and open up the Web even more.

And I'm not someone who cannot rank at Ask. I do very well in their search results, thank you. I'm just not happy with the limited scope of their listings.