Google searches less useful?

[Business Attorney]

Perhaps it dates back to the Penguin update or even the Panda algorithm update, but when I've been searching on Google I've recently noticed that on a search, the results pages will often be full of multiple pages from the same website. I can remember occasionally finding 2 or even three pages from the same site in the top 20 search results but now I've seen search results where the top 20 consist of maybe 7 or 8 sites, with two or three of them dominating with 5 to 7 pages in the result.

Even if I like WebMD, I know how to do a site search so giving me 7 or 8 different pages from that site is not what I am looking for when I'm searching on a medical issue. Similarly, 10 different pages from the IRS is not what I want when I am looking for an answer to a tax issue. I was looking for a sudoku puzzle the other day and even there the Google results gave me the same sites up to 4 times in the first 20 results.

I don't understand why Google thinks this is an improvement. It makes more work for me to look through the results. I don't see the same level of repetition on Bing and have started using it more often now. If Google keeps up these "improvements" that force feed results instead of providing me with choices, I may change my default search engine in all my browsers.

[Pack-Secure]

I have noticed the same problem lately. I used to find what I was looking for on page 1, but lately it is more like page 2-4. I have found myself using MSN and Yahoo more often. Seems to me like Google just can't stop fixing what isn't broken. Unfortunately, I do not own the sandbox so I can either play by their rules or search elsewhere.

[vangogh]

I've thought their results have been getting worse for a few years actually. They're putting so much energy into other things like social that it seems the ball is being dropped where search is concerned.

I think the many results for the same site thing is Google's move toward favoring brands. They want to trust their results and fair or not a brand you know is typically more trusted. That it also helps Google in the sense that everyone not the brand needs to spend more on advertising to get noticed is a nice bonus for them, if not part of the motivation.

Speaking of ads have you noticed that many results pages are essentially nothing but ads until you start to scroll. My monitor is 1440x900 and there are plenty of results pages where I see only 2 organic results. I just tried a search for cell phone. I see a Wikipedia entry, part of a result for a page on Amazon, and a whole lot of ads.

[Harold Mansfield]

It's called "Site Clustering" and Google say's they are working on it. I just read an article over the week end about this.


Google has gone back and forth on this topic over the years. It used to be that no more than 2-3 results from one domain would appear, and the 2nd/3rd results would be indented below the first. Then, if my memory is correct, Google removed the indents and began showing nearly a full page of results from a single domain — and later pulled back on that, limiting a single domain to only getting about four listings on a single page of results.


Now it looks like that’s been changed again and people are seeing 8-9 results from one domain on page one. And if there are “multiple projects” related to this, I suspect we may continue to see more changes in the coming month(s) where site clustering is concerned.



Source: Google's June-July Updates: Site Clustering, Sitelinks Changes & Focus On Page Quality (http://searchengineland.com/googles-june-july-updates-130392)

[vangogh]

Google should put in some overtime then, because showing 8-9 results from the same site is hardly useful. :)

[Harold Mansfield]

Google should put in some overtime then, because showing 8-9 results from the same site is hardly useful. :)

Unless it's your site.

[vangogh]

I'm pretty sure I can find my site without Google's help. :)

I know what you meant, but I couldn't resist. The problem with the 8-9 links thing is it's probably not going to be your site. All Google is doing is reinforcing the links from the site that was already #1 and pushing everyone else off the front page.

[MostHeather]

I use their search less and less every day. I imagine that if Facebook ever added a search function they would truly be hurting. I would rather get recommendations from my friends and family over some cluster chuck that Google serves up.

After years of spammy and scammy links, I'm sure that I can't be alone in my thinking. Time will tell..

[vangogh]

I don't think you are alone. I do still think Google provides the best search engine there is. As much as I might complain at times I still find they deliver better results than the alternatives most of the time. A Facebook search engine is something that gets talked about a lot. It would be different though. Sometimes you don't want recommendations from people you know. Sometimes you want something you hope will carry less bias with it.

Building a search engine isn't easy though, which is probably why Facebook hasn't built one yet. It's even harder to build one that can deliver good ads that people would click.