Google is arguable the best search engine out there, and yet when using it we sometimes get poor quality search results and “made for adsense” sites. In fact, many of us in the domain and/or SEO industry are responsible for some of those sites. What is a “made for adsense” site? Well, they can be one page landers or they can be large, multi-page websites and they typically have 3 adsense ad areas per page. On the surface, they seem to contain relevant content, but when you actually read the text you discover that it is keyword rich and information poor. For example, here is an excerpt from a site that I would classify as “made for adsense”
Bacardi’s current headquarters and main production facility is situated most fittingly at an island in the Caribbean known as Puerto Rico. It is at the capital of this Caribbean paradise that one of Bacardi’s major facilities is situated.
What? Did it just take 38 words to say “Bacardi is located in Puerto Rico” 🙄
This is where the Digg voting method could help the search results. Google could display their search results along with a way to vote on the results. Useful sites get voted up, bad sites get voted down. This social search feature would not replace their algorithm, it would likely be one additional factor that they could use to improve the results or pagerank. They could also add digg style reviews or comments for each site.
Keep in mind that this is all simply speculation, but perhaps it is part of the motivation behind the rumored Google purchase of Digg. Obviously, any changes to the Google algorithm will have massive impact on domainers and site owners. If people are able to review site content, it could be bad news for meaningless “made for adsense” sites. On the other hand, it could be good news for people who develop sites with great and unique content. Content (ideally combined with a great domain name) is and always has been king, so those who develop quality sites with great content should have nothing to worry about.
The auction for Video.us ended at 12pm this afternoon, and this time it sold for $12,000. The name sold for $75,000 last year and then $18,500 earlier this year.