Does The Algorithm Matter Anymore?

Search has certainly evolved over the years. Search engines themselves have gotten better significantly, but it can still be a pain to actually find what you're looking for in the first instance. The main reason behind algorithm tweaks, updates and changes are all due to the human factor behind the results for a search query constantly changing.

Ask.com had a huge ad campaign going on for the past few months where they promoted "The Algorithm". Frankly nobody gave two hoots about it. Why? Because nobody cares, except for around 500K - 1 Million people that read tech blogs. Those too weren't that enthusiastic about it.

Search engine results vary by each search engine. It's easy to game Google to get on the first page for a search term, but then again it's also very easy to get thrown into their fiery hell. Just ask Chow...John Chow! {I think we have a new internet catchphrase}

Yahoo just unveiled their latest search suggestion feature, something which Ask has as well but not Google {update: as "J." points Google does apparently have something like this in their Labs}, where you begin typing and you are given suggestions on the basis of what you typed in. This is where they have begun to factor in the human aspect of people just going numb in their heads sometimes. It's happened to me where I begin typing and I just go blank.

But is this the result of some super smart algorithm? Sure it is, I'm not denying that! But what I'm trying to point out is that the algorithm doesn't matter anymore. Because without human interaction you cannot tweak the algo, you cannot make it search better, you cannot provide more relevant data and so on...Humans have built the algorithm but they cannot truly predict human behavior, or if anchor text is real or spammed for that matter.

It's not like they have a built in threshold saying if X site/blog has Y number of links with ABC as anchor text, ban them! These kind of things {banning} need human intervention, Google doesn't publicly admit to doing it, but they do. There are many people smart enough who know how to co-exist with the system of search that has become synonymous with links in. Those that do too much, too quick...well you don't see them on the front page anymore.

The problem is the algorithm was flawed from the beginning, BackRub as it was originally called, "named for its unique ability to analyze the "back links" pointing to a given website". Gee! I wonder how hard it is for me to get my back rubbed nowadays!

The algorithm doesn't matter anymore, it's how we make it work for us that will decide the results it gives us.

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