I checked the article's claim for myself -- "Results 1 - 10 of about 12,700,000 for read russian."
"How to read Russian in 75 minutes" knol at #5 -- but it was created yesterday.
Google does not seem so objective now.
"How to read Russian in 75 minutes" knol at #5 -- but it was created yesterday.
Google does not seem so objective now.
Given that it's probably impossible to design a simple PageRank algorithm (because it will be gamed, overnight, by SEO experts), and because Google has to keep the algorithm secret anyway (for the same reason), the only reason to trust PageRank is Google's impartiality: Because they're haven't been in the publishing business themselves (at least not conspicuously) they don't have a particular incentive to favor their own content as they tweak the PageRank settings. It's just not possible for Google to become a publisher and still retain consumer confidence in their core product.
Nothing will happen in the short term. Brand erosion is like soil erosion: you don't notice the individual grains trickling downhill, but then you wake up one day and the mountain is missing. There was a time when Yahoo was the king of search, and that time is over for a reason. Early adopters are going to start scanning the skies once again, waiting for the arrival of Google's competition.
Honesty, integrity, reliability, trust, et al, are values they should not compromise to push their products. We know "don't be evil" is dead, but perhaps be less evil than you are being now.
Google! If you ever see this, bring back the old Google...the Google that created GMail and a damn good search engine.
Objective or not, Google is giving me the information I am looking for, hence it is behaving exactly as I would want it to.