socialmedian: Mike Arrington is wrong about Google search

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Mike Arrington is wrong about Google search

Source: Scobleizer

Nov 23, 2008

Summary

Mike Arrington, founder of the famous tech blog TechCrunch, hates the new Google search features. They even tell you how to kill the new wiki-style features using GreaseMonkey on Firefox. Mike does take the time to explain the new features here, though.

The problem is, Mike is wrong.

These features rock. They let me add notes to entries in Google. They let me tell the search engine which entries are better for me and they help Google’s business BIG TIME.

See, truth is Google is too perfect lately.

Eye track research shows that most of us aren’t going past the first link. That is a HUGE change from five years ago when we didn’t trust Google that much so we’d look down the first page looking at all the links and we’d probably even click on the second page to see what’s there.

Tell me, when is the last time you’ve clicked on the second page. I can’t remember anymore and I use Google dozens of times a day.

So, Google has a problem. It is an advertising-supported service and we’re just not sticking around on its pages very long. It NEEDS to increase the time we spend in

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Comments (12)

Bwana,

Nov 23, 2008

I've gone past page 10 every day this week. Sounds like you're wrong about how people use Google

Robdiana,

Nov 24, 2008

I don't think the wiki-style features are terrible, but I don't love them either.

Pmctosh,

Nov 24, 2008

I go past the first 10 all the time. Then, I'm not the average usr that the google monster is targeting.. As for the wiki features, I can pretty much pass thank you very much. I like to spread my business out and not keep it all in the same basket.

Spuds,

Nov 24, 2008

I like what Google are trying to do. Over time I think this will become a great feature of Google search.

PS: Arrington is often wrong.

Maurice Reeves,

Nov 24, 2008

I think they're interesting features and an important step forward in search, but I'm not using them yet. But yeah, I'm rolling past pages 2, 3, 4, and 5 on a daily basis as I dig.

Sina,

Nov 24, 2008

Hat-trick: 1) Google GMail 2) Google Chrome 3) Google SearchWiki

Geek Lad,

Nov 25, 2008

I agree with Scoble. I don't know why Arrington feels as though the new features are being shoved down his throat.

Schilke,

Nov 25, 2008

although I often click far past the first page I agree with Scoble (as I don't see myself being a mainstream searcher) - yes Google has a problem - and it's growing the more perfect their searches are...

Bwelford,

Nov 25, 2008

I can't get the hang of SearchWiki. The usability is horrendous. I guess that's comment enough.

Maurice Reeves,

Nov 25, 2008

Best use of the tools so far for me has been to hide the Experts Exchange results.

Mugzy,

Nov 25, 2008

I am wondering a couple of things on Google SearchWiki
1) Does the promotions of websites reflect to any of my other searches...essentially would knocking down Experts Exchange from one search mean it will be knocked down for any of my future searches.
2) If experts exhange have new content would it again show up on my searches if I searched with the same keywords.
Would giving control to a novice would actually result in derailing his searches at some point based on this ability to turn off things and not turn them back on?

Tommyl,

Dec 15, 2008

Scoble says this is a win for Google, because searchers spend more time on a page, hence see more ads, etc. But I like the idea that we can reduce or eliminate abusive social bookmarking's effect on our individual results. Gotta be great for researchers of all sorts.