The search engine and Internet mogul “Google” has recently included an update under the name “Panda which was created in order to demote any websites whose content was copied from others, particularly to the United Kingdom as well as other English-speaking Google users. The move was intended to equally promote websites which feature original content.
This meant bad news for any sites which got demoted as it meant their elimination from the first two pages of search results, leading to 99 % of all Google users giving up on their search and resulting in a financial death to any website reliant on Google for traffic. The update also demoted Microsoft’s shopping comparison website “Ciao” which has sparked the outrage of Microsoft, which has filed a complaint at the European Commission regarding Google’s monopoly-like practices.
The update featured the promotion of several websites such as eBay, Techcrunch and Associated Newspapers’. The update however demoted sites, such as Pocket Lint, which featured original content regarding technology news which was copied by others, leading to their questionable demotion. Other search engines such as Microsoft’s “Bing” still feature many of these websites favorably and at a high ranking position in their search results.
The fact that Google’s ‘Panda’ update downgrades UK tech sites and Microsoft’s Ciao is an important one to take into consideration, seeing the reasons behind Google’s decision. Google’s update was meant to demote websites which featured copied and scraped contents which was acquired from other websites. The update was also meant to reward original websites which featured original content only.
Microsoft’s “Ciao’s” demotion was a result of their website featuring similar content to that found on many other websites, and by no means intentional. Despite the fact that some “apparently” original content websites were demoted, it can hardly be considered the Google updates’ fault due to the fact that the majority of these websites featured a redirection feature on other affiliate links which fosters content scrapping; a tradition Google hopes to eliminate. The disappearance of many websites and the climb of others onto the top 20 search results is a direct result of creativity and originality; or lack of it.