Is Google’s algorithm really over-hyped? In some circles, questioning the merits of THE algorithm is a blasphemy. After all, Google has managed to grab a huge market share lead thanks to its oh-so reliable SERPs, and it’s really hard for folks to game the system, right? Wrong! I have been an advocate of Google forever now, but I can’t explain how disappointed I am with Google and its lack of focus on what matters the most.

Unreliable SERPs: A few days ago, I talked about how I was impressed with Google’s SearchWiki, and how bringing the human factor would help improve the results for all of us. But I am astonished by Google’s refusal in addressing the holes in its algorithm and putting the organic search gamers in their place. I am not talking about some magic black hat technique that folks are using to get ranked. But it’s truly disappointing to see a parked site be in the top 10 results for a fairly competitive keyword (for more than 6 months). And let’s not forget that you can put a keyword phrase in your domain and if you are lucky you may end up in top positions without lifting a finger. Reliable? No. Pathetic? You could say I am going there.

Denial: I am still surprised that Google continues it’s PR based ranking system when it has proven wrong over and over again. The fact that folks can buy links and get ranked high does not sit well with us purists. I have been an advocate of white-hat SEO for a long time now, and It amazes me when Google penalizes one company and then turn its cheeks the other way.

Bullying Tactics: Google’s recent tactics in dealing with those who violate its guidelines show why a monopoly is not the way to go in the search industry. With Microsoft poised to take over Yahoo!, the consumers are going to be left with even less options. Microsoft is not exactly the fairest company in the world, but here is pulling for them to get their search business straight.

At the end of the day, Google is still the best we have in the search industry. Will there be drastic changes in this market? I mean now sure. But I certainly hope that companies such Cuil and Microsoft can mount a serious challenge to Google in the organic channel.

You decide: Is Google the fairest of them all?

I know Google and other search engines are not exactly in love with search engine professionals. After all, whether you are a white-hat SEO or just a pure black-hat, your goal is to make modifications to your site and its links to get it ranked higher on the SERPs. But folks who think they can keep SEOs from manipulating the results are have something else coming.

History has shown that no system is secure enough or foolproof enough these days. If you don’t believe me, just ask those ninja security folks at Pentagon. They were attacked badly a couple of weeks ago, and that just shows that no matter how sophisticated your system, you are bound to be bested by a hacker (gamer).

Search engines have become more sophisticated through the years, but the problem is that they can’t deny us SEOs the data we need to figure out ways to beat their system. Now, I don’t claim to be an expert in Black Hat tactics. There was a time I was fascinated by them, but you can’t build a business with black hat techniques. What most people don’t realize is that you don’t need to be a black hat to have massive success in the organic search channel.

Google folks talk about how they are going to do this and that and kill the SEO industry, but that has really not happened yet. I don’t believe there is anything Google can do to stop folks from gaming their system. Not in the next few years anyway. Google agents need to be improved immensely to be able to figure out real quality sites from SEO quality sites. That’s not easy to accomplish and won’t be foolproof either. I think the Oracle said it the best in the Matrix series. Every system has its balances and imbalances. We SEOs balance Google out. That’s just all there is to it.

Are you paranoid about Google domination? A lot of folks laugh at the idea but you’d be surprised how many top marketers are concerned about Google taking over the world. I remember a couple of years ago I would have just laughed at the idea that someone would be concerned about Google domination, but the truth is more folks these days are worried that Google will have enough power to just dominate the world.

But with the election of Barack Obama, more marketers are now concerned that Google will take over the government. If you haven’t been following the news, Barack Obama is thinking about appointing Google’s CEO as the first CTO in the U.S. history. That’s stunning good news for Google, but bad news for the paranoid nation.

I do believe that Google has built so many layers of core competency that it’d be difficult for any company to easily loosen Google’s stranglehold on the search industry, but at the same time I don’t find Google invincible. Far from it. Google can be beaten but it won’t happen overnight. Google is playing in so many markets that it would take a guerrilla effort to chip away at their lead.

Will Obama make Google king? I hope not. I know the folks at Google-land jumped on Barack Obama’s bandwagon soon but so did I and many other Americans. I don’t believe Google supporting Obama will get them any special benefits. I am sure Google supported Obama as he is pro net-neutrality. But at the same time, I think Americans should be concerned about a monopoly in the search market. We have something close to that going on right now, but if Yahoo! disappears and Microsoft fails to maintain a 25% share of the market, we are pretty much looking at a monopoly. I think it’s bad for business and bad for innovation.

Your take: is a Google monopoly a bad idea for the search industry?

Google is finally allowing folks to customize their search results with the introduction of SearchWiki. There had been talks about Google working on custom and personal search, but now you can customize your search results with SearchWiki.

The feature is revolutionary as not only you can now help figure out what pages are actually more useful in regards to your search term, you can also remove results that are useless.

The first button will allow you to vote for listing on the SERPs. The second one allows you to get rid of spam or unrelated results. I think this is great news for us users and bad news for folks who use tricks to get their way to the top. I firmly believe that the introduction of this feature will allow content to be king again. I am sure marketers will again look for ways to abuse this system, but Google is a sophisticated system already and using user input to customize search results can only make things better.

Your take: will the personalized search revolutionize the way we search online?

Google wants to dominate the world. We have all heard that. But until today, we didn’t have any concrete proof for that, except all the acquisitions and diverse projects that Google is working on. Now Google’s logo for today simply indicates that Google means business and you should not mess with it. If you look at the above logo, it is simply clear that Google wants to dominate the world and become the center of universe/ Can you read anything else into it?

Now I can’t tell that for sure as Google needs to either verify or deny this, but I have not been able to get to Google.com for a few minutes now. If that doesn’t mean servers are down, I don’t know what is. It could be a maintenance that is going on @ Google, but I have never been seen Google go down this long. When I tried Google, I received a message from Comcast as following:

Registration Currently Unavailable

We are currently upgrading our systems. As a result, the feature you have requested is temporarily unavailable. Unfortunately, our Customer Service Representatives have no additional information and are unable to assist you with this matter at this time. Please be assured that we are working diligently to restore this feature as quickly as possible. We apologize for this inconvenience. Please check back shortly, and thank you for your patience.

This is definitely strange. But I doubt it’s an ISP problem as other sites show up easily. Very strange!

I am sure you have heard of the Earth Hour where people from all around the world turn the lights off in order to support to idea of conserving energy. Google just did their part today by making Google’s homepage all black.

The homepage of Google does look ugly in black for what it’s worth, but it is admirable that they are supporting this cause. But that’s what we have come to expect from Google. I didn’t see anything like that from Microsoft or Yahoo! for that matter.

So today has been a really busy day for Google. I just noticed that they have added the search box to sites such as Amazon. Basically, if you search for the word Amazon on Google, you will see that little search box under Amazon.com’s listing. It’s pretty cool. For a second I thought I was seeing Google subscribed links, but this thing is for real. Very cool!

According to the latest report from IAB, the online ad revenue has grown by 25% since last year (by $4.2 bn). That is lower than the previous number, but still is very significant. Another significant fact here is online ad revenue is only about 10% of the total all U.S. ad spending, which means there are good days ahead of Google and their Adwords program. Adwords is a true cash cow for Google, and they have relatively dominant in that market. I am sure Microsoft + Yahoo will challenge them for those dollars but still the future looks good for ad servers such as Google.

I have heard a few takes on how Google is trying to save the Internet by preventing Microsoft from acquiring Yahoo!. How awful nice of Google to abandon their world domination strategy and give a hand to a struggling rival. This is the point where you say, “have you no shame, Google?” It is simply astonishing to believe that we are better off with Google humiliating Yahoo! and keeping them alive just for the sake of it than we would be after a Microsoft-Yahoo! merger. In fact, if Yahoo! actually goes with Google, their BOD will need to have their heads examined. Look, Microsoft is not probably the best company to acquire Yahoo! but it’s definitely better to have some competition between Microsoft and Google than no competition at all. Google is a great company. It has a great culture, and it is highly innovative, but unless you have some other company pushing you to be your best, everyone loses. At this point, I would look at the bright side. For those of you who said Ask will never be a top-3 search engine, you have been proven wrong!