Blog - Google Is Not A Search Engine

Having worked with search engine optimisation for about 20 years now, I can safely say that Google is not a search engine.

The only thing that I can think to describe it is that it is an indoctrination platform, controlling the flow of information and hence what people think, following in line with all corporates, setting expectations and controlling perceptions of normality.

Sounds dystopian. And it is.

Its easy to say that there are other search engines, there are not. Looking at my own in-house metrics, not something many, if any, other web developers look at, I can see the spread between the big three as follows:

• Google: 1462
• Bing: 31
• Yahoo: 5

I can’t really be bothered to calculate that as a percentage.

Essentially Google controls all information discovery. Bear in mind that Bing and Yahoo tend not to reduce organic rank and Google does, imagine how much traffic that might be otherwise.

To put that issue, that of repressing search, into perspective, try searching for similar terms in Yandex, a back water Russian search engine. In Yandex, search behaves as you would expect. If you have content that is unique, you will rank number one for it. You will actually be present.

So what is search? I find that the easiest way to understand what a search engine is, is to consider a library index. Imagine going into a library with one million books. You can essentially drill down and find any book you want, ranked by relevance when required. I remember going into a university library in about 1991 and looking up the term Canis Lupus and getting results, I remember the index system and marvelling at how each term was categorised and how it might appear under separate sections, natural history, journals, fiction, etc. It wasn't a eureka moment, just an observation that stuck with me. The result that I remembered referring to was an obscure article in an obscure journal.

Now imagine if 90% of those results were missing, or worse, 99% of them.

That’s what we have with Google. I have just tried this with Google, Canis Lupus, and Google promises 22,800,000 results, that 22 million. However, in practice, I can’t get past 137 results. So, again, no need to calculate 137 as a percentage of 22,800,000. It’s pathetic. There is simply no way to get to any of the other results.

I call this wire fence security. By that, I mean a simple wire fence, some posts, with one strand of wire running along, easily snuck under or over, will keep 99% of people out of your garden. Try it. It’s not a security grade fence, but it works to such a degree that its a simple solution for minimal price and effort. This is what Google has done.

Sure, I could try Canadian Canis Lupus and get maybe better results, but not really. The promise of three million results and the delivery of 130.

Google is maliciously hiding results. Maybe you have a web site on Canis Lupus that you want the world to see, that maybe researchers will find and comment on and reference or contact you over. Communicate with other people. Google can’t stand that, it is my opinion that they want to destroy the individual on the internet and make everything a soulless corporate entity, depowering people, empowering their corporate global hierarchy, universities, institutions, television channels, charities, NGO's etc.

When you look at the results for Canis Lupus, its all corporates, Wikipedia, US Forest Service, universities and stock photo sites. No real people that you might meet, or who might profit in one way or another by sharing their knowledge or interest.

Google is not a search engine. It does not act like a library index detailing everything. To call it a search engine is a criminal misrepresentation.

The word is that there are other platforms, Facebook, Twitter, etc. Have you ever tried using their search options? Forget it, you get nothing.

So what does this mean? It simply means that we don’t have a search engine. Or at least one that people use.

Consider Yandex. Why do people not use it? Why? Simple really, people have become conditioned to use Google, for some reason. This conditioning is circumstantial, mainly driven by ignorance and convenience, and suits Google perfectly.

I do not intend to delve further into why, its futile.

But I will consider one term, War Blog. That is a term referring to people that blog about war. Blogs are generally owned by one person, they are individuals, generally, although certainly not exclusively.

If you search for War Blog in Google you get the promise of 1,820,000,000, that’s nearly 2 billion results, but the reality is 265 results. Wow, that’s some filtering. Surely that means that the results, those 265 chosen few out of 2 billion results must be great right? Well, Wikipedia is at the top, followed by several corporate mainstream commentators on war, such as war on the rocks, war is boring and of course corporates, Amazon, Wired and New York Times. TWS has an involvement with a site that leverages the term. My client might say, 'I want to rank well for War Blog' because I have a website that is a blog on war. However, unfortunately it simply isn't in the 265 out of 2 billion results. It is excluded totally from any search.

However, if you go to Yandex its position 7.

Essentially Google excludes content. It can’t be found unless a direct search is made.

War is an interesting key word niche. The 1,820,000,000 results tell you that. Clearly, war is something that a lot of people have an interest in, and clearly you can imagine that governments might want to control peoples understanding/perception of such matters, the saying, to inform is to influence, springs to mind. To have an opinion on war, an opinion that might be read by others and sway people’s opinions and judgements. Clearly, war is something that a tyrannical government would want to control discourse on. Maybe rightly, or not?

How many people have an interest in war, have a blog on war, have a blog on a war that they have an interest in? Millions it might appear. How many of these people might want to read what other bloggers have to say? Millions, at a guess. But no. You can go through the 265 Google results for War Blog and you essentially get nothing that resembles independent commentary on war.

This is just an aside, but I think it highlights what Google isn't and give you some context as to why?

Another example of Google's tyranny is its relationship with news sites. Historically, to get indexed by Google you needed accessible content. However, now, sites like the Washington Post are frequently number one for news stories. However, the site is totally behind a paywall. Many other top ranking sites are also indexed and served up in search queries. This would have been against Googles rules ten years ago, maybe even five years ago. Then, ask yourself, how many people actually subscribe to the Washington Post? No one, that’s who. No one from the United Kingdom is likely to do that. Clearly newspapers like the Independent and Times and The Guardian are having problems, why would anyone from the United Kingdom sign up for the Washington Post, or from any other country? So why is Google serving their content up so readily? The story gets worse, we hear that Google is now paying news sites for their 'best' content. Really? I can’t see that money only going to people that support their global corporate mentality. I doubt The Sun will get much of that. So now Google has a full control loop on news information and how we interpret news events and what is going on. They control who is shown and reward newspapers for that content, which will clearly only involve rewarding the sort of content they want to see. That is insidious. I guess any news articles highlighting that won’t be shown or get paid for being shown.

So, what is Google if not a search engine?

Well, its clearly a platform to control the flow of information. Going back to Canis Lupus, the Google Library has 5 books, the Wikipedia encyclopaedia which is used by 90% and a few government pamphlets used by the remaining 10%, leaving millions of other books unread. This is a dystopian nightmare that is beyond the pole of the imagination.

So what should be done?

Well, Google should stop calling itself a search engine and maybe instead, a guide. Googles guide to the internet. Or Google’s censored guide to the internet. Or even Googles what it wants you to think guide to what it wants you to think.

It’s should be common knowledge that we don’t have a search engine that allows us to find anything.

As a note, it would be nice if Google offered us the ability to block certain content from our search results, like the BBC or Wikipedia. I wonder why they don’t offer that feature?

I have long since given up on the idea that if you highlighted the issue, that people would spring into action. The contrary, most people seem to want to make an effort to demonstrate that they support the 'thought police' and are not in opposition to what Google is doing. Expressing the opinion that if they are doing it that it must be right. Its scary. You could walk into a police station and report Google for fraud and they would not know what to do and would think you were a freak.

The internet is now totally controlled and is nothing more than a really bad day time television channel. Independent sites are simply vanishing, they are being taken out behind the coal shed and shot in the back of the head by Google. And no one wants to call them on it, for some reason.

How are they getting away with it? I have considered this question, and beyond the obvious, because they can, because our governments are complicit, I have also concluded that additionally, the people actually effected are minimal. Most people don’t really spend much time on the internet. They work, take care of children, live in the real world. Their need for the internet is limited to simple things like looking for the opening times of a shop or the nearest shop or restaurant etc. As long as they get something, they don’t care.

I think the message that I want to leave you with is that throughout time, the 'powers that be', have leveraged any new developments to their own advantage. The agricultural revolution, enclosures Act, the industrial revolution, from the cradle to the grave, leveraging and harnessing power and control. Simply put, the internet is a global revolution of unprecedented scale and enormity, and don’t think for a moment that a similar power grab has not been achieved by our controlling powers, governments and corporates in a similar way to bind us into servitude. The enclosures act did not liberate common people, and the industrial revolution did not empower cottage industries. The internet has not empowered the general public at large and is not much more than a control interface to manage our thoughts and perceptions on the world and assist us in becoming subservient consumers pushing the treadmills of global corporate enterprise.