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Thoughts On The Search Engine Industry
By Gaver Powers (c) 2009

I thought it might be fun to write what I have noticed recently
in the ongoing evolution of the Search Engine industry. To help
set the stage - allow me to provide a little background.

That was then...

I was very active in building websites in the mid to late 90's,

I know, I know - that was oh so last century. I learned a great
deal about how to help my clients get their websites into good
positions on the search engines without using what is referred
to today as Blackhat SEO. Eventually my interest in developing
websites led to a position in a small dot com where I developed
an application for the Automobile Insurance Industry -
connecting Claim Service Representatives to a network of repair
shops. Fun stuff!

Through an usual turn of events - I ended up starting a small
business manufacturing surfboard shaped signs for the surf
retail and specialty store markets. Maybe you have seen them for
sale in stores like the Ron Jon Surf Shops or the Margaritaville
Stores. When it came time to move our product list to the web, I
selected an open source shopping cart and after a month of
customizing the user interface - went to market. After getting
our products online  - it was time to focus on optimizing the
site for the search engines, and make an attempt to position the
sites as best as possible.

Having been "out of the industry" for nearly a decade, I was
certain it would not be an easy challenge to spin up again and
learn the tricks of the trade and all the new do's and don'ts
of modern day SEO. Turns out, there's a new bag of tricks being
used, but the old fashioned, tried and true methods of
generating valuable content - still apply today just like they
did 10 years ago and are still rewarded when found by the search
engines.

So there you have it, an unusual perspective at best. Having
been out of the industry for so long, it was really fascinating
to see the changes that have taken place and be in a position to
compare them to the way it was when I exited the arena.

What follows are some key observations and occasional
postulations on where I think the Internet search industry might
be headed. Having gotten our background behind us... here's the
first of three articles I intend to write.

Article 1: Googles Rendition of the Hawthorn Effect

For those that aren't familiar with the term "Hawthorn
Effect" here's a brief definition and explanation.

The term Hawthorn Effect refers to the tendency of some people
to work harder and perform better when they are participants in
an experiment. Individuals may change their behavior due to the
attention they are receiving from researchers rather than
because of any manipulation of independent variables.

This effect was first discovered in 1924 and named by
researchers at Harvard University who were studying the
relationship between productivity and work environment.
Researchers conducted these experiments at the Hawthorn Plant
of Western Electric in Chicago Il. and found that productivity
increased due to attention from the research team and not
because of changes to the experimental variable.

So... how does this relate to Google in this century?

Google is watching you. Before you get excited and run to grab
your bathrobe - I don't mean in a clandestine or illicit way -
but in a user behavioral and beneficial manner. Google is
working on several products and projects that will eventually
reshape how the search engine will respond to your interaction.
Google captures your request for information and measures the
response to the data it provides to you. By measuring your
response, Google obtains key data that helps them understand how
to better manipulate the results that are being returned to you.
There are several tools currently in place or that are in
various stages of beta testing to help them determine their
course of action and refine their process in their effort to
produce a better user experience for you - their customer.

One such tool is the "Web History" utility that is now
available to all users of Google Search. Using this tool, Google
will collect information about the sites you visit and use it to
generate a better response to your queries. Some of the key
points of the utility are:

1) The ability to view and manage your web activity - search
across the full text of the pages you've visited, including
Google Searches, web pages, images and news stories.

2) Get search results that are more personalized and based on
the things you've searched for on Google and the sites you've
visited.

3) Get reports on your trends and web activity - how many
searches did you conduct and at what time of the day. Which
sites do you frequent the most?

You can read more about the capabilities and features of Web
History here: http://www.google.com/psearch

How will Web History affect the Search Engine industry?

It will help Google provide you with results that you want to
see the most, and, when combined with another tool in the beta
process, will help remove items that you are not interested in
seeing in your search results.

Want to try an experiment?

Break out your google goggles and let's get started! Begin by
creating a user account with Google. Then turn Web History on
for a week or so, and chase your tail looking at keywords that
are specific to the ranking of your website or a site you are
maintaining. Check several times a day, closing and relaunching
your browser each time you check. Eventually you are going to
see a message near the top of the window that the results of
your search are being influenced by... you guessed it... Web
History. Pay attention to where your site is ranking with Web
History turned on.

Now, after a week of allowing "Web History" to collect some
information... go to your google account and turn it off, and
check your page positions on Google for the same Keywords? Did
you see any difference? You betcha! Google is watching you and
capturing your behavior and they are manipulating your search
results to match your expectations and what they perceive is
your preference based on the "experiences" they have collected
from you. If Web History perceives that Blue Donuts by a
particular manufacturer are important to you in the majority of
your searches, they will bubble to the top of the page while
other Blue Donuts by different manufactures will sink lower and
lower.

Is it the end of the Search Engine Optimizing Industry?

Probably not, factors that will account for the appearance of
one site's links above another may not be completely limited to
the users interaction and preference in the future. Other
traditional factors such as content and page ranking may
continue to play a part in winning the position on the page
ahead of some of the clients perceived preferences, in addition
to other new developments currently underway.

Does it end here?

I for one don't think so. There's at least two more prominent
areas where Google can capture user preferences and then modify
the result set to meet their expectations, and they are actively
testing or running programs to do exactly that right now. I'll
cover the second area in my next article. "There's Room for
10".

This is my first online article and I'd like to thank those
that have taken the time to read it. I hope you will find this
useful and that it might stimulate some additional discussion on
the subject material covered.
================================================================
Gaver Powers is the owner of and actively maintains the
following web sites: www.TropicSigns.com
www.AuthenticEndlessSummer.com
www.SurfboardSigns.com
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