Perhaps most profoundly, the news media has a tendency to look upon search trends in terms of how many times a keyword was supposedly searched for. Year-end announcements of Top 10 lists hold the fascination of many, however I have always been cynical over the fanaticism attached to such rankings being a true reflection of a broad swath of people compared to any other explanation as to why a keyword was bestowed a Top whatever ranking.
But rather than focusing on the total page counts within the Google index for this particular entry, it is the discovery of the "A Google A Day" promotion being offered by the index giant that really has triggered a rash-like response to my own rational and reasoning behind what a consumer is supposed to appreciate and applaud from a searchable index and what is supposed to be unacceptable and intolerable.
The basic idea is that every day Google posts a question to a special entry point that looks and acts like Google, but is instead of an entirely different address, agoogleaday.com, which I'll get to in a moment.
First, here is a screen shot of one of the questions displayed at this address:
Although there is nothing out of the ordinary from a fundamental online challenge structure (these types of question and answer structures are all over the place, including Yahoo! and Ask.com), those who care about the valuing methods imposed in the Google AdWords/AdSense setting should probably be wondering where is the firewall designed to keep out abusive activities.
In the upper left corner of the website, there is the following statement:
Okay. A frozen index in which no new entries are welcome is certainly an appealing firewall prospect, but is it really enough to prevent this inside track from emerging as yet another portal coated with the drippings of unfair and/or unreasonable influence coming straight from the index provider?
It is important to note that although the Google index is being used as the entry point, the click results of these searches influence 3rd party determinations as to what deserves what ranking, when and under what conditions. This means that although this is a Google-sponsored online event, the results unavoidably alter the rankings of sites also registered in other major indexes simply because a visitor is still a visitor...even if it can be originally traced to the Deja Vu portion of the Google challenge.
Having non-commercial contests that unavoidably rev up a keyword sector is no outright crime. However, with Google having 1st round edit rights as to what questions make it into this particular side show, the absence of awareness as to how the other search engines will treat such click tracks and trails to sites in their indexes is nothing compared to all of the other features available for debate with Google being in a receivership position of such click trail traffic being encouraged for competitive purposes...
Because the presentation of these questions are able to trigger a variety of monetary circumstances, including pay-per-click sites being activated because of this particular campaign, an end-user searching a frozen index registry means nothing in terms of providing yet another schematic to schedule botnet activities, let alone live events...but it certainly means something in the AdSense/AdWords context, let alone any other affiliate advertising network that may benefit from such a fascinating proposition:
Although I didn't know using Google to search for an answer to a question is otherwise prohibited in some manner, purchasing air-time on the Shockwave gaming network invites a large audience to participate in this side show challenge being brought to the online community by Google.
Maybe I'm just being cynical, but I cannot see how this is not a conflict of interest with their management of the string derivatives marketplace they operate...?
