Musa Aykac|June 18, 2009|42

Is Google Losing Its Touch?

Lately we are seeing more and more evidence that Google maybe loosing its grip on the search field. One of the main reasons for saying this is because we are seeing huge problems in the UK results at the moment.

Basically a huge volume of USA based sites are being filtered through and its something that actually looks veryworrying. Google or Matt Cutts have yet to say anything about what has happened, but I can assure you that its something UK searchers do not want to see especially for product related terms.

As an example if someone searched for “Buy computer games” or another product related term they do not want to see results that are USA based, it just doesn’t make sense.

Next if we then look at Google Trends

trends

For almost every product related search you will notice that we are seeing a gradual decrease in volumes. This shows that users are just not searching like they used too. But another interesting fact is that if you search for brand names on Google trends such as “Ebay” or “Amazon” you will notice a great rise in overall volumes.

Which potentially shows that a lot of people could be losing trust in Google over the past few years. I mean why shouldnt they? Google’s popularity grew because they were the best they had the best possible results for someone making a search. Looking at the UK results in their current state looks pretty shocking and to be honest I have not seen results that bad from Google for years.

Dont get me wrong I love Google like most people, but it just seems as though they are taking their eye off the ball a little, and what a bad time for this to happen, because as we know Bing has recently launched and personally their results are looking a lot better.

I would really like to get some answers on the state of the UK results and the reasons behind it? Matt Cutts?

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About Musa Aykac

Musa is the founder of RankMetric and has been in the internet marketing industry since a young age.
This entry was posted in Google, Live, Search Engines and tagged , , . Bookmark the permalink.
  • http://www.webadvantage.net/ Jaime Hood

    Interesting data, but I don’t know if it can be wholly relied upon without considering the broad universe of other types of search terms that are out there. To only focus on brand name terms seems flawed. I believe people are not searching less, but searching smarter. We are seeing more of a rise in long tail search terms vs. broader “research” terms. However, I do agree that in some ways Google is losing/has lost its touch. It tries to be so much to so many, and sometimes lets otherwise really useful services fall through the cracks as it moves on to the next big thing… But I guess when you’ve got as much money as Google does, you can afford to just throw money at experimental projects and see what sticks…

  • http://www.seotops.com Musa Aykac

    Well said but the images were just an example, even for the longtail on product related terms they all seem to be down much more.

  • http://www.discussphone.com Guest

    Don’t tell me that Google is going down. I know this just for time being and Google will surely come to its normal.

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  • http://www.melissadata.com Melissa

    Interesting article, maybe users are becoming more creative with their search terms while Google isn’t stay updated. I’d like to see if Bing will start to compete especially in the UK if these problems continue.

  • http://www.thesafesupermarket.com Robert star

    This is true Google has decreased in past few years..since it is competitive age everyone wants to be on top… if seen in a positive sense, Google has got the chance to prove itself again by slamming Bing….

  • Dan Malciu

    Google has to still master local search, they are probably still the best company when it comes to geo-specific results but that’s real threat for them. They already have competition in real-time search and local search is another field where a new winner can emerge.

    Though their main revenue comes from adwords, they still need to maintain their top position in search space because most consumers recognize them a search engine company and not as a advertising broker ;-)

  • http://www.stockmarketforbeginners.co.uk/ David Stock

    Google is a King and may be it is not well for some time. A tiger rests after it is tired, it does not mean that he is not the same ferocious tiger. Goggle is just resting and i am sure it will be back to normal.

  • Bob Whitehurst

    I wouldn’t say by any means that Google is “losing is touch”. No search engine has ever been perfect, and I don’t think this indicates a decline, per se. Obviously Google is going to focus primarily on its US business because that is where the company is located and that is its biggest userbase.

    Bob Whitehurst

  • iman

    i think google is still the best search engine compared with bing or another search engines.. nobody’s perfect, even google

  • http://www.truesongmedia.com Guest

    With the introduction of other search engines, it makes sense that Google would have trouble to keep up. In a way, I think it’s a good thing. I really dislike Google as a company.

  • http://www.foundlocals.com jeanb

    Searchers have become a lot more savvy in using Google, so one would expect some fluctuations. In this case it might just as easily be the terms for which they are searching, then the volume of searchers in general. One can support almost anything under the guise of scientific data, but the bottom line in all of this is that Google is the gold standard no matter what minor changes may be seen at the time. No one says Bing it.

  • http://www.jasonzuckerman.com/ Jay Zuckerman

    Well, I think you have laid out a pretty comprehensive case that they have lost touch to an extent and I tend to agree. It should be interesting to see what happens with the rise of the decision engines.

  • http://www.yuukoweb.com Yuuko

    I think that many user’s are abusing google right now. Using Black Hat method. I’m sure that google is now fixing things.

  • http://www.techdesigns.co.uk Joey

    It’s going to take a long time (and a lot of money spent) for Bing to get anywhere close to Google IMO – The onyl chance they do have is to really push it with their software – make web search easy straight from the desktop, and make it difficult to remove or replace.

    As Jean says – Google is in the dictionary – and Bing is just that slightly irritating guy from Friends at this point in time.

    But all competition is healthy, and the very worst thing that will come from this is that Google will have to constantly try and improve to retain it’s market share.

  • http://comicbookempire.com/ Therese Lim

    The newly launched Bing has the potential to became more famous than Google. Most of the people loves the search results shown in Bing.
    I don’t know what’s the biggest reason why Google have that kind of search results so far. A lot of people are complaining about it. You are not alone. Google must be aware of that so that they will never lose their supporters.

  • http://economicalhost.com/ Roshi

    I have heard this from many sources that Google is loosing it credibility. Google has lost some of its traffic to Bing.com for Microsoft and i am sure that many will agree with this.
    I agree to your post that Google is loosing its touch.

  • http://adscendmedia.com Jeremy

    I don’t think Bing is a threat to Google. I don’t see Google dropping very far until a company comes out with a revolutionary, highly-accurate search engine (more than likely that’s going to be Google itself, considering their resources).

  • http://enzymes.me.uk John

    You are not quite right. For example, despite I have UK based company, for me it is much more convenient and cheap to host all my projects in USA, so I do require to have an opportunity to perform USA search as well.
    Furthermore, If you fancy to buy stuff, usually you know where to find it. For example, to buy new book I’ll go to amazon, or if I’d like to buy some antique – I’ll go to ebay, and i do not need to have google at this point of time.

  • http://www.lawyersdb.com/ Harry S

    Yes Bing.com is increasing its popularity..day by day. It has almost taken some of the traffic of Google and even giving it tough competition for many more things. Lets see what Google has to do with it.

  • http://www.shivajise.i8.com/seo.html Shiva

    Nice Article. At the time of launching bing pr is just 2 but now its pr is 9.

  • http://www.mattchedit.com/ Matt Chatterley

    I wouldn’t say Google are “falling down” asuch, but certainly search is evolving at an accelerating pace.

    What was once very basic and almost stagnant is now one of the biggest money endeavours in the world – and growing incredibly fast in order to keep up with the speed that new media itself develops at.

  • http://sybotechnologies.com James

    In my opinion Google is gaining more respect towards those people who have no idea how to come on to the targeted traffic so that make web search easy straight from the desktop, and make it difficult to remove or replace.
    Google is doing a nice job but they have to set some parameters!
    thnx for this nice article!

  • http://kylejohnson2.buzznet.com/user/links/ Kyle Johnson

    I think the release of bing and the pre-release of google wave shows that microsoft are no closer to challenging Google when it comes to search technology. If anything, the gap is growing and microsoft has a big guy that it can’t push around this time.

  • Lorraine

    You make a good point, but I still feel that google is still the best search engine and have even managed to get the name into the dictionary, how cool. I’ not going to panic just yet, they’ll set it right.

  • betk

    very great this article
    can provide information that is very interesting
    This article is very useful for me

  • indie

    That’s a great disscussion you have started. Even I have observed nowadays., while searching some search results. But im pretty sure that , it will come to its normal and will be at top again.

  • http://www.tophostia.com Wixred

    What is a major search engine based in the UK? Is there any real non-American competition competition in the search field there?

    For those of you mentioning Bing, the truth is that Bing is not really taking a chunk from Google but is taking a chunk from Yahoo! Search.

  • curlykale

    Its only a good thing if Google looses a little bit of market share, Im rather excited to see how bing goes.

  • http://www.dinksfinance.com James

    You know what, this is an interesting post. I’m a blogger over at Dual Income No Kids, and I’ve noticed that microsoft’s bing has been getting more and more traction over the past couple of weeks. It will be nice to get some real competition in the search filed these days.

  • Ollie

    With the Launch of bing Google is differential under a lot more pressure. I personal find the search result with Google good but i’m find myself using bing more and more! Maybe its a sign of things to come…

  • Stefanos

    Well, in my opinion it is good to use both search engines at the same time. If people have been using Google for so long I am sure that they did because it produced the most accurate results. However, this competition between Google and Bing will also improve search engines performance even more.It is good to have some competition.

  • http://www.automec.ie/ Donal

    I personal use both search engines. Normal I use Google and if I cant find what i am looking for i use bing. I do find Bing really good…

  • http://www.bestseocompanyindia.com/ Sunny

    great discussion you have started. very useful information, thanks for sharing with us.

  • http://www.mobilerecycle.ie Mobile Recycle

    Its only a good for the market if Google looses a little bit of market share, Im rather excited to see how bing goes.

  • http://www.sugarfreemedia.co.uk SEO Smith

    Great article. Google is certainly showing some interesting results and erratic at times!

  • http://www.kaisertech.co.uk James Mann

    It’s hard to stay at the top for an extended period. There are always companies and the media lined up to take a pop at you. Google’s support does fluctuate as it gets caught behaving badly, such as recording email addresses and wifi details as it maps the country. It’s turned from the Robin Hood of the industry, saving everybody from Microsoft, to the next Microsoft. The question is will Facebook become the next Google?

  • Peter Stuart

    They say “oppositions don’t win elections, governments lose them”. Google just got too greedy – just look what they’re doing to YouTube.

  • Peter Stuart

    They say “oppositions don’t win elections, governments lose them”. Google just got too greedy – just look what they’re doing to YouTube.

  • Anonymous

    I think what you might find is that people are becoming more educated with their searching and entering more complex search queries so as to achieve more exact results for their requirements.  For example “android mobile phones” rather than just “mobile phones”.  Just a thought.

  • Internet Marketing

    Even though your numbers show that Google had a small dip the consistency that they change their search pattern, I do not see them suffering for long. Bing does offer some competition but they still have a way to go. 

  • Thammy Zulu

    Absolute power corrupts absolutely. Google is digging a very big hole for themselves slowly. They have become a small god and dictators. They do not care, the kill small business. They want to push their Adsense and Adwords search at all cost. Yes, I agree there are people who manipulate  search queries. But Google is really alienating webmasters. They change rules to suite them.