Google manipulating search results

14 replies
  • SEO
  • |
Why is it that google decide to 'hide' your own sites, so that when I search for a specific key phrase my site is much lower than if I use a proxy?

Doesn't anyone find it a little discerning that Google apparently knows exactly what your sites and even articles are?
#google #manipulating #results #search
  • Profile picture of the author sweetfranky
    I'm not exactly sure what you mean. Are you still signed into google when you search? That tends to make you near the top but when you log out you can see your real position.
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    • Profile picture of the author paulgl
      Of course google is going to manipulate search results.
      That's why they are #1.
      And if they know what site is yours, and you are searching
      for sites similar to it, I think it's pretty intelligent to show
      you other websites. Somehow they know that if you are truly
      searching, then why would you want your own site to show?
      You already know about it, right?

      If you have a site on best boats, and do a search for best boats,
      google may assume you would not want the results cluttered with
      your own. It would seem kind of lame to really want to do a search
      for best boats and have your site come up as #1. Like your going
      to actually visit your site on best boats it to find out best boats.

      There are better ways to find your SERP.

      Google is all about search result manipulation. That's why they have
      $20 billion + in the bank.

      Paul
      Signature

      If you were disappointed in your results today, lower your standards tomorrow.

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      • Profile picture of the author Sancho Sanches
        Do you know this for a fact or are you just trying to explain the situation as if that is a fact but it's just your opinion?

        Because that makes no sense and if it's true it's one of the most useless and dumbest things I've ever heard Google doing, a lot like their taking away the search button.

        My site on a search results page is easy for me to ignore regardless of what position it's in.

        It's not like Google is taking a mountain out of my way for my convenience.

        Besides, I don't believe what you say is true since what is happening to this guy hasn't happened to me when I look for my own sites, proxy or no proxy.


        Originally Posted by paulgl View Post

        Of course google is going to manipulate search results.
        That's why they are #1.
        And if they know what site is yours, and you are searching
        for sites similar to it, I think it's pretty intelligent to show
        you other websites. Somehow they know that if you are truly
        searching, then why would you want your own site to show?
        You already know about it, right?

        If you have a site on best boats, and do a search for best boats,
        google may assume you would not want the results cluttered with
        your own. It would seem kind of lame to really want to do a search
        for best boats and have your site come up as #1. Like your going
        to actually visit your site on best boats it to find out best boats.

        There are better ways to find your SERP.

        Google is all about search result manipulation. That's why they have
        $20 billion + in the bank.

        Paul
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  • Profile picture of the author JackPowers
    I use a proxy to see my results, I am just a bit concerned over what kind of info Google actually stores. How would google know that an article is mine for example? Makes me a bit paranoid as to how Google track stuff.
    Signature

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    • Profile picture of the author RedEvo
      Does sound like the old logged in problem going on here.

      d
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  • Profile picture of the author rayray7
    The amount of data they store will drive you nuts. Google is known to have teams that visit forums and learn what techniques we are doing. How do you think they know how to put the brakes on certain things. Remember when blogs brought in thousands of dollars. Fools went into forums and started explaining how google was a cash machine. Before you know it, easy payday stopped and many have never recovered from it.
    I use a simple rule: always assume somebody is watching --- online , cellphone, . So be careful people in activities you do not want "big daddy" to find out.
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  • Profile picture of the author uday1583
    Hve u clear your caches and history and wrked out.... may be that is the issue... me too had the same....

    Clear histroy & cache then restart machine ....check..
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  • Profile picture of the author Josh Gould
    They may not be manipulating or hiding anything; is the proxy you are using based in the same country you live in? Remember, results can change based on your location (which is determined by your IP address, or the proxy being used).

    Try searching for the term using Google's Ad Preview Tool: https://adwords.google.com/select/Ad...ingPreviewTool

    Change the "Country" and the "Google domain" fields to the appropriate ones and check things out. For an example of different results, try searching something like "Apple" using the United States and Google.com vs Canada and Google.ca...

    You'll notice the order on the SERPs changes and different sites appear depending on the location chosen.
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  • Profile picture of the author Fraggler
    Google Webmaster Tools gives a great summary of your SERP. You can cycle through their servers too to see where you sit.
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    • Profile picture of the author yukon
      Banned
      Originally Posted by Fraggler View Post

      Google Webmaster Tools gives a great summary of your SERP. You can cycle through their servers too to see where you sit.
      The data on GWT is about a week behind. Very slow to update.
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  • Profile picture of the author jimbo999
    Based on the location of the proxy, you may get different results even if the proxy is in the same country you reside.
    Google has a pile of datacenters, far more than 1 per country. Some times a proxy in a different location but same country hits a different data center that has not been updated yet. One datacenter will always be ahead of another.

    Google does not 'hide' results from you. As you said your pages still appeared, just in a different position.
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  • Profile picture of the author amps
    I always find that my position will vary a few spots related to my ip address, or whether or not I am logged into Google. If I go through a proxy site the results never seem to dance around, but always fall in the same range. I do believe Google has complete control over the data and does manipulate the serp.
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    • Profile picture of the author writeman
      I am and SEO specialist and online content writer and have long suspected [for at least 2 yrs now] that Google has been manipulating search results. I find it interesting when I typed in "Google manipulating search results" [w/out quotation marks] into Google there were virtually ZERO relevant results about this topic, whereas Yahoo had numerous results show up. I firmly believe Google no longer provides TRUE organic results--they, IMHO, prostitute themselves out to the almighty dollar. Someone needs to come up with a campaign to expose Google's doings, raise public awareness, and then create a search engine that ACTUALLY DOES provide the organic results Google used to provide, before they got all full of themselves [and were infected with greed].
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  • Profile picture of the author yukon
    Banned
    OP, is getting personalized results.

    Clear your browser history, & log out of Google products.
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