Google as predator.The evolution of search.

BrightonSEO

Dr David SewellSEO consultant, Fresh Egg

In the beginning…

A collage of the wildlife found in one cubic foot on the reef near Moorea, French Polynesia © David Liittschwager/National Geographic.

Yellow Pages

SEO… Submitting sites to search engines.

1998

2000

1994

Lycos and WebCrawler first to trawl the ocean of websites

Yahoo! only returned results from its directory, so browsing directories was often more efficient than searching by keywords to find all appropriate sites

Google sold search terms for GoTo.com

2004 21st Feb 1998Pay-for-placementBill Gross said:

“This is an opening shot of changing the search engines from a white pages to a yellow pages”

Algorithmic

SEO... Manipulating web connections

1998

2000

1994Google used PageRank, and people preferred the minimal interface and results

2004

Yahoo! had bought: Inktomi, AllTheWeb, Overture, AltaVista launched engine replacing Google’s search engine underneath

Microsoft began showing results from its own crawler MSNBot

• You no longer needed to submit your site• The clutter of a web portal was gone• Google made it possible for sites to be found on the net without

buying keywords• The results were varied and good• SEO became a booming business…

Google solved a problem.

• SEO businesses filled the net with spam • It was too easy to ‘game’ the PageRank algorithm…

But Google also created a problem.

• Keyword stuffing• Linkfarms • Webrings • Reciprocal links• Anchor text• EMDs• …

• An increased ability to understand queries and the web • Human evaluators and Google spam teams working together• Scoring unique, fresh and relevant content• Machine learning• Classification

To identify spam, Google evolved.

Rosey-lipped batfish

Stargazer fish

Characteristics of a predator.Superior capabilities.

• Sharp senses • to find their prey: echolocation, vision, audition, magnetism, olfactory

sense

• Extra abilities• to capture prey - teeth, claws, venom

• Agility and Speed

Characteristics of a predator.

• Sharp senses• Caffeine, Percolator, Chrome, android, Google Glass, spam detection (Panda,

Penguin, Hummingbird… Authorship ?)

• Extra abilities • Dremel, Pregel, Streetview & navigation, images, videos, speech recognition,

knowledge, machine reasoning, lots of data, ngrams…

• Agility and Speed • Google fibre, 100ms load time, VP9 video format

Characteristics of a predator.

Signs of predatory behaviour.A changing environment.

How to tell there is a predator about…

• Antagonistic reactions - one side benefits • A losing side is evidence there is a predator

• Interactions - force a dynamic ecosystem • Migrations, prey develop symbiotic relationships

• Predator Impact – noticeable change in population• Decline, or get fitter to survive, changing size or shape

Impact of predators.

The search environment is changing…

• Recipe search – 24 February 2011• Image sorting – 5 September2011• Flight search – 13 September 2011• Personal search – 1 October 2012• Knowledge graph – 16 May 2012• Knowledge graph carousel – 8 August 2012

Signs of a predator.

• Extinctions e.g. blog networks

• Prey is increasingly easily consumed (Twitter bootstrap, SEO friendly frameworks, SEO plugins)

Google: Eat you, sir?Site Owner: Yes. Eat me.Google: Yuk! With a gammy leg?Site Owner: You needn't eat the leg, Google. There's still

plenty of good meat. Look at that arm…

• Technical SEO - SCHEMA.org

• Optimising for Google (instead of optimising for visitors)

Impact of predators.

Signs of a predator.• Compare functionality

• Flight arrivals box

Signs of a predator.

Matt Cutts – Older sites won’t always keep their rankingshttp://

searchengineland.com/googles-matt-cutts-explains-older-sites-wont-always-keep-current-rankings-182743

Cutts advises taking a ‘fresh look’ and constant tweaking

Google is ingesting everything…Google wants everything you can give…

Google may drive your site to extinction next…

Signs of a predator.

Predator prey relationships.Impact on prey.

Age of Fishes - Extinction over millions of years

Predator prey relationships - Lotka-Volterra cycles

Time

Popu

latio

n

• Where are we in this cycle?

Predator prey relationships.

Time

Popu

latio

n

Somewhere here

• What has Google realised about the environment?

Predator prey relationships.

The need to diversify after eating all the data

Popu

latio

n

Time

Recall the beginning…

A collage of the wildlife found in one cubic foot on the reef near Moorea, French Polynesia © David Liittschwager/National Geographic.

Predator changing diet and environment.

Rare pink handfish – Tasmania. Photograph courtesy of Karen Gowlett-Holmes.

Predator changing diet and environment.

Rare pink handfish – Tasmania. Photograph courtesy of Karen Gowlett-Holmes.

• Robotics – 8 companies bought • Boston Dynamics, Bot&Dolly (robot arms), Holomni (legs), Meka

robotics (environments), Redwood robotics (telepresence), Industrial perception (warehouses), Shaft Inc (bipedal robots)

• Google Glass – what are you looking at ?• Driverless Cars – where are you going ?• SlickLogin – sound based data security (Israeli defence)• Nest – are you at home ?• Google Lens – your physiological state ?• Google Fibre – let Google connect you• Green Throttle – entertainment systems• DeepMind – machine learning• Titan Aerospace – solar powered drones

Stop being prey: protection from Google.Strategies for survival.

Stop being prey.

Run from the predator…

Walrus and the Carpenter – Alice in Wonderland – The Walt Disney Company.

Wile Coyote and Road Runner – Looney Tunes – Warner Bros.

Is running our only option ?

How can we survive in this environment ?

What can we learn from nature ?

Strategies for survival.

Become a predator – play the same game

1: Think like a predator

Dionaea muscipula, fastest plant closing in 100ms, by Kaim-Martin Knaak

1: Think like a predator

• Re-imagine something, do it better.

• Make acquisitions in related or ancillary businesses to improve product offering

• Make acquisitions in new markets to increase market share

Ask: “What would Google do next in my particular sector?”

1: Think like a predator

Partnerships – work together to beat the predator

2: Symbiotic Partnerships

Clownfish and anemone – Samuel Chow.

2: Symbiotic Partnerships

Tips to help identify partners:

• Look at your business upstream and downstream

• Find partners with deep knowledge of your sector

• Look at customer segments and associated brand preferences

2: Symbiotic Partnerships

Starve the predator – change the environment

3: Change the environment

Spodoptera exigua feeding on Nicotiana attenuata, Wiki: PLoS Biol 2/8/2004: e250

Change the environment:

3: Change the environment

Xbox – TVSmartGlass

Apps

Real WorldInteractions

Sound

Data Layer

Go boldly into :

• Alternatives delivery: Sound, SMS, NFC tags, iBeacon

• Real world interactions: AR and CAVEs, bump contact

• APIs – share your data behind the scenes

• Be device ready – from 4k screens to pebble watches, in car systems to entertainment consoles and games

• tCommerce – advertise in sync with TV programmes

3: Change the environment

Buy some extra time by distracting the predator

4: Distraction

Octopus vulgaris squirts ink – by Theasereje. Common Seastar – Asterius rubens by Herbythyme.

Secret Project ‘purple’

4: Distraction

NFC vs iBeacons

Creative Legal challenges (anti-trust cases)

Tips:

• Be sneaky - add secret features

• Distract Google with the ‘standard’ web content

• Offer a rich, personal experience by context or behaviour e.g. visit frequency, location, device, weather, local events

Build customer loyalty AND stop Google replicating your site

4: Distraction

Evolve faster than the predator

5: Stay ahead

Scalar patterning of a butterfly’s wing – scales detach easily to escape spiders’ webs by Janice Carr .

5: Stay ahead

Tips:

• Stay ahead of Google – e.g. property search

• Offer services related to customer need – what they want, in a form they can use, wherever they are

• Learn from community advocates and use this additional knowledge to inform business developments

• Store information from your sector for future use

5: Stay ahead

Carry a payload – use the predator to your advantage

6: Carry a payload

Xylocopa violacea vibrating wings at flower causing harmonic resonance of anthers, by Thorsten Wagner

Use Google to your advantage:

6: Carry a payload

Use Google to your advantage:

• Photospherehttps://developers.google.com/photo-sphere/

• PhototourBuilt using Panoramio or Picasa

• Earth Tours• Floorplanshttps://maps.google.com/floorplans

• See Insidehttp://www.google.com/maps/about/partners/businessview/

• Trekker

6: Carry a payload

Ideas for selective information dispersal:

• Look at ways information is displayed by GoogleMake data available to Google in an appropriate format - Hack the Knowledge Graph to define entity relationshipsUse: tables, books, scholarly articles, videos, music, images, PDFs

Don’t give Google your knowledge…give it what you want it to display for you…

• Use digital curation to your advantage – modify visitor behaviour, send to other marketplaces where your brand is better exposed.

6: Carry a payload

Stay hidden – make the predator look elsewhere

7: Hide

Anthocyanins camouflage the plant, keeping insects away by Ivona Sandru

7: Hide

Force Google to look elsewhere:

• Keep best content from Google behind a login or pay wall

• Obfuscate internal links using javascript

• Make more services available to those logged in

• Use other channels hide the ‘crown jewels’ from Google.

7: Hide

P… Become a predator

R… Form symbiotic relationships

E… Change the environment - starve the predator

D… Buy some time by distracting the predator

A… Stay ahead of the predator

T… Trick Google into carrying a parasitic payload - make the predator an unwitting part of your business lifecycle

O… Obfuscate, stay hidden

R… Run….

Seven strategies for survival.