Google 10 years after, what’s next?

I researched all the major search engines in 2001 as part of a series for ClickZ’s search column, there were six (6) of them competing with each other at the time. Quick side note: when I started the ClickZ search column in 1999, Yahoo declined an offer to purchase Google, yeah, not too smart. Anyway, back on topic…I thought this old article had some interesting insights from Matt Cutts regarding Google’s algorithm and if we were to read it in today’s context I’d say that not much has changed. Considering all the sensational interest, fever and revenue generated by Google since it went public in 2004, and its dominant take-over/benefactor style of search on the Web…I’m not that impressed with its algorithm updates and innovations circa 2011.

All the recent actions by Google in regards to punishing paid links, discount codes, article linking, content farms and keyword rich domains have been a spam quality issue since 2001. Virtually any website performing SEO over the past 10 years is highly vulnerable to having violated Google’s guidelines to some degree, and they may not even know it. You would be very surprised to learn who some of the intentional and egregious violators are, up and running “business as usual” as I write this post. Why do you think they’ve been calling it a Google Dance for all these years? I should write a book, any publishers out there who want the real story?

Important Note: if you think there is any remote possibility (even less than half of a one percent chance) that your website is in violation of Google guidelines you had better find it and fix it ASAP. Google is on a rampage to clean up their index and trust me, they will accomplish quite a big clean-up in 2011.

Lastly, on a more encouraging note: would you like to learn about genuine intelligent and authentic search algo innovations that currently exist in 2011 outside of Google? Are you interested in what algo’s might fuel the next 10-20 years in “search and find” or “question and answer” engines on the Web? If so, call me and we’ll talk about the organic semantic web which cannot be gamed or manipulated by SEO’s. The day is coming in the not so distant future.