Google Forecloses On Content Farms With “Farmer” Algorithm Update
Feb 24, 2011 at 9:50pm ET by Danny Sullivan
In January, Google promised that it would take action against content farms that were gaining top listings with “shallow” or “low-quality” content. Now the company is delivering, announcing a change to its ranking algorithm designed take out such material.
New Change Impacts 12% Of US Results
The new algorithm — Google’s “recipe” for how to rank web pages — starting going live yesterday, the company told me in an interview today.
Google changes its algorithm on a regular basis, but most changes are so subtle that few notice. This is different. Google says the change impacts 12% (11.8% is the unrounded figure) of its search results in the US , a far higher impact on results than most of its algorithm changes. The change only impacts results in the US. It may be rolled out worldwide in the future.
While Google has come under intense pressure in the past month to act against content farms, the company told me that this change has been in the works since last January.
Officially, Not Aimed At Content Farms
Officially, Google isn’t saying the algorithm change is targeting content farms. The company specifically declined to confirm that, when I asked. However, Matt Cutts — who heads Google’s spam fighting team — told me, “I think people will get the idea of the types of sites we’re talking about.”
Well, there are two types of sites “people” have been talking about in a way that Google has noticed: “scraper” sites and “content farms.” It mentioned both of them in a January 21 blog post:
We’re evaluating multiple changes that should help drive spam levels even lower, including one change that primarily affects sites that copy others’ content and sites with low levels of original content. We’ll continue to explore ways to reduce spam, including new ways for users to give more explicit feedback about spammy and low-quality sites.
As “pure webspam” has decreased over time, attention has shifted instead to “content farms,” which are sites with shallow or low-quality content.
I’ve bolded the key sections, which I’ll explore more next.
The “Scraper Update”
About a week after Google’s post, Cutts confirmed that an algorithm change targeting “scraper” sites had gone live:
This was a pretty targeted launch: slightly over 2% of queries change in some way, but less than half a percent of search results change enough that someone might really notice. The net effect is that searchers are more likely to see the sites that wrote the original content rather than a site that scraped or copied the original site’s content.
“Scraper” sites are those widely defined as not having original content but instead pulling content in from other sources. Some do this through legitimate means, such as using RSS files with permission. Others may aggregate small amounts of content under fair use guidelines. Some simply “scrape” or copy content from other sites using automated means — hence the “scraper” nickname.
In short, Google said it was going after sites that had low-levels of original content in January and delivered a week later.
By the way, sometimes Google names big algorithm changes, such as in the case of the Vince update. Often, they get named by WebmasterWorld, where a community of marketers watches such changes closely, as happened with last year’s Mayday Update.
In the case of the scraper update, no one gave it any type of name that stuck. So, I’m naming it myself the “Scraper Update,” to help distinguish it against the “Farmer Update” that Google announced today.
But “Farmer Update” Really Does Target Content Farms
“Farmer Update?” Again, that’s a name I’m giving this change, so there’s a shorthand way to talk about it. Google declined to give it a public name, nor do I see one given in a WebmasterWorld thread that started noticing the algorithm change as it rolled out yesterday, before Google’s official announcement.
How can I say the Farmer Update targets content farms when Google specifically declined to confirm that? I’m reading between the lines. Google previously had said it was going after them.
Since Google originally named content farms as something it would target, you’ve had some of the companies that get labeled with that term push back that they are no such thing. Most notable has been Demand Media CEO Richard Rosenblatt, who previously told AllThingsD about Google’s planned algorithm changes to target content farms:
It’s not directed at us in any way.
I understand how that could confuse some people, because of that stupid “content farm” label, which we got tagged with. I don’t know who ever invented it, and who tagged us with it, but that’s not us…We keep getting tagged with “content farm”. It’s just insulting to our writers. We don’t want our writers to feel like they’re part of a “content farm.”
I guess it all comes down to what your definition of a “content farm” is. From Google’s earlier blog post, content farms are places with “shallow or low quality content.”
In that regard, Rosenblatt is right that Demand Media properties like eHow are not necessarily content farms, because they do have some deep and high quality content. However, they clearly also have some shallow and low quality content.
That content is what the algorithm change is going after. Google wouldn’t confirm it was targeting content farms, but Cutts did say again it was going after shallow and low quality content. And since content farms do produce plenty of that — along with good quality content — they’re being targeted here. If they have lots of good content, and that good content is responsible for the majority of their traffic and revenues, they’ll be fine. In not, they should be worried.
More About Who’s Impacted
As I wrote earlier, Google says it has been working on these changes since last January. I can personally confirm that several of Google’s search engineers were worrying about what to do about content farms back then, because I was asked about this issue and thoughts on how to tackle it, when I spoke to the company’s search quality team in January 2010. And no, I’m not suggesting I had any great advice to offer — only that people at Google were concerned about it over a year ago.
Since then, external pressure has accelerated. For instance, start-up search engine Blekko blocked sites that were most reported by its users to be spam, which included many sites that fall under the content farm heading. It gained a lot of attention for the move, even if the change didn’t necessarily improve Blekko’s results.
In my view, that helped prompt Google to finally push out a way for Google users to easily block sites they dislike from showing in Google’s results, via Chrome browser extension to report spam.
Cutts, in my interview with him today, made a point to say that none of the data from that tool was used to make changes that are part of the Farmer Update. However, he went on to say that of the top 50 sites that were most reported as spam by users of the tool, 84% of them were impacted by the new ranking changes. He would not confirm or deny if Demand’s eHow site was part of that list.
“These are sites that people want to go down, and they match our intuition,” Cutts said.
In other words, Google crafted a ranking algorithm to tackle the “content farm problem” independently of the new tool, it says — and it feels like tool is confirming that it’s getting the changes right.
The Content Farm Problem
By the way, my own definition of a content farm that I’ve been working on is like this:
Looks to see what are popular searches in a particular category (news, help topics)
Generates content specifically tailored to those searches
Usually spends very little time and or money, even perhaps as little as possible, to generate that content
The problem I think content farms are currently facing is with that last part — not putting in the effort to generate outstanding content.
For example, last night I did a talk at the University Of Utah about search trends and touched on content farm issues. A page from eHow ranked in Google’s top results for a search on “how to get pregnant fast,” a popular search topic. The advice:
The class laughed at the “Enjoyable Sex Is Key” advice as the first tip for getting pregnant fast. Actually, the advice that you shouldn’t get stressed makes sense. But this page is hardly great content on the topic. Instead, it seems to fit the “shallow” category that Google’s algorithm change is targeting. And the page, there last night when I was talking to the class, is now gone.
Perhaps the new “curation layer” that Demand talked about in it earnings call this week will help in cases like these. Demand also defended again in that call that it has quality content.
Will the changes really improve Google’s results? As I mentioned, Blekko now automatically blocks many content farms, a move that I’ve seen hailed by some. What I haven’t seen is any in-depth look at whether what remains is that much better. When I do spot checks, it’s easy to find plenty of other low quality or completely irrelevant content showing up.
Cutts tells me Google feels the change it is making does improve results according to its own internal testing methods. We’ll see if it plays out that way in the real world.
Monday, February 28, 2011
Sunday, February 27, 2011
Gillmor Gang 2.26.11
Every Gillmor Gang begins with a mysterious blend of serendipity and confusion. This episode is no exception, as Robert Scoble attempts to discuss the Motorola VaVaVoom or somesuch.
The only problem with that (or any other Android tablet) is that Gillmor himself could care less about anything other than waiting for next Wednesday’s rollout of the iPad II.
John Taschek is an Android fanboy, and Kevin Marks used to work for Google and has not yet shaken the mindset off.
I am trying to think of things to keep me occupied until Wednesday.
In other news, we discuss pricing for the iPad I on launch day, which Scoble’s spies say is coming in [redacted.]
Friday, February 25, 2011
Playable Angry Birds birthday cake
It's become a family tradition that I make increasingly ridiculous birthday cakes for my kids each year. So with my little boy Ben turning 6-years-old over the weekend, and appreciating his love of Angry Birds, I thought I'd have a shot a making him a playable Angry Birds birthday cake with working catapult and iced birds as ammunition.
Thursday, February 24, 2011
Monsanto Shifts ALL Liability to Farmers
“If you’re dumb enough to sign a contract with Monsanto, you’re definitely dumb enough to lose your farm.”
In theory I would agree. Unfortunately the reality is that most farmers find themselves dependent on government subsidies. In order to qualify for most large subsidies you you are forced to enter into a contract with Monsanto or their subsidiaries.
;Any thoughts?
said, mustardtits
Farmers like genetically modified (GM) crops because they can plant them, spray them with herbicide and then there is very little maintenance until harvest. Farmers who plant Monsanto’s GM crops probably don’t realize what they bargain for when they sign the Monsanto Technology Stewardship Agreement contract. One farmer reportedly ‘went crazy’ when he discovered the scope of the contract because it transfers ALL liability to the farmer or grower.
In theory I would agree. Unfortunately the reality is that most farmers find themselves dependent on government subsidies. In order to qualify for most large subsidies you you are forced to enter into a contract with Monsanto or their subsidiaries.
;Any thoughts?
said, mustardtits
Farmers like genetically modified (GM) crops because they can plant them, spray them with herbicide and then there is very little maintenance until harvest. Farmers who plant Monsanto’s GM crops probably don’t realize what they bargain for when they sign the Monsanto Technology Stewardship Agreement contract. One farmer reportedly ‘went crazy’ when he discovered the scope of the contract because it transfers ALL liability to the farmer or grower.
A reminder of the important things in life
A sweet short animation I found on Facebook this evening on the finer basics for a good and happy life... Take a moment... and enjoy :)
Just discovered that these wonderful drawings are taken from the book "Be Happy: A Little Book To Help You Live A Happy Life" by Monica Sheehan. Just bought it myself off Amazon, it's well worth it :o) ISBN: 0762429623
Music is "Cuore Di Sabbia" by Pasquale Catalano
Wednesday, February 23, 2011
Green Goose – Hands down the best company in the LAUNCH demo pit
Here’s Brian’s working demo of Green Goose’s technology:
Green Goose has created proprietary hardware running at 915 MHz in the form of small stickers that can be stuck onto everyday devices, such as pill bottles, toothbrushes, toys, etc. as well as a software platform that makes these ordinary devices “smart”. The stickers connect to a small device that plugs into a home router (styled like a small green egg) and has approx. a 200′ range.
Brian gave me a demo of the technology platform by brushing his teeth, playing with toy swords and taking his daily medication. After each action, a web app showed the action having been taken, and brian accrued points for each action. This is a cool, real-world way to stop data from being lossy (see Manifesto point #13) and capture it in fun ways. It gets to the “gamification” trend (props to Nathan Lands of Gamify.com!) that’s impending.
Green Goose - Hands down the BEST company in the LAUNCH demo pit from Daniel R. Odio on Vimeo.
Green Goose has created proprietary hardware running at 915 MHz in the form of small stickers that can be stuck onto everyday devices, such as pill bottles, toothbrushes, toys, etc. as well as a software platform that makes these ordinary devices “smart”. The stickers connect to a small device that plugs into a home router (styled like a small green egg) and has approx. a 200′ range.
Brian gave me a demo of the technology platform by brushing his teeth, playing with toy swords and taking his daily medication. After each action, a web app showed the action having been taken, and brian accrued points for each action. This is a cool, real-world way to stop data from being lossy (see Manifesto point #13) and capture it in fun ways. It gets to the “gamification” trend (props to Nathan Lands of Gamify.com!) that’s impending.
Keen On… Anthony Wood: The Inventor of Personal Video Recorder on the Future of TV (TCTV)
Meet the man who killed the television industry. In the mid Nineties, while he was looking at a Fry’s ad, Anthony Wood invented the personal video recorder (PVR). From this epiphany, Wood founded ReplayTV in 1997, a PVR company which, for a short while, gave TiVO a run for its money.
But Wood not only invented the PVR, he also helped kill it. In 2002, after leaving ReplayTV, Wood founded Roku, a self-styled “cable killer” hardware company which provides a box for accessing on-demand video.
Almost ten years after founding Roku, Wood really is starting to scare the traditional cable industry. He’s already sold a million Roku boxes and streamed a billion minutes of content from Roku devices. And this year, Wood expects to sell a million and a half boxes, thus making Roku, Wood says, the 10th largest cable company in the US.
And that’s just the beginning. Wood’s goal is to control video access to the world – to be the “one box that rules them all.” The $100 billion question, however, is whether Roku can compete with Google and Apple when these giants really focus on refining the hardware that links the Internet with our screens.
So, will Roku, like ReplayTV, be a footnote to 21st century video content, or can it really be the box that rules them all?
How Wood invented the PVR while looking at a Fry’s ad
Madonna & Gorillaz - 3D Holographic Projection
Madonna & Gorillaz - 3D Holographic Projection
Live at the Grammy Awards 2006
Musion® Eyeliner™ System was the holographic projection technology behind the 3D animation of the popular animated band Gorillaz, who performed 'live' at the Grammy Awards 2006. What's even more surprising is that the Eyeliner™ System also re-created a virtual Madonna, who performed her hit single Hung up on the same 3D stage.
Both the live and TV audiences who watched the performance had no clue that what they were watching at least in the first few minutes of Madonna's performance was just virtual reality.
The Grammys performance was a variation on the MTV Europe Music Awards in Lisbon, with the added attraction of a virtual superstar. Yes, that's right. The Madonna you saw on stage with Gorillaz at the Grammys was a virtual as her cartoon counterparts. However, the rappers from De La Soul who came onstage were, in fact, the real deal.
Gorillaz perform the entirety of their album "Demon Days" live in Harlem.
0:34 Intro
1:35 Last Living Souls
4:56 Kids With Guns
8:51 O Green World
[Dirty Harry Missing]
13:39 Feel Good Inc
17:34 El Manana
21:28 Every Planet We Reach Is Dead
26:55 November Has Come
29:46 All Alone
33:41 White Light
36:02 DARE
40:42 Fire Coming Out Of The Monkeys Head
44:27 Don't Get Lost In Heaven
46:32 Demon Days
"Feel Good Inc."
Hahahahahahahahaha,
Feel good,
Feel good,
Feel good,
Feel good,
Feel good,
Feel good,
Feel good,
Feel good,
Feel good.........
City's breaking down on a camel's back.
They just have to go 'cause they don't know wack
So all you fill the streets it's appealing to see
You wont get out the county, 'cos you're bad and free
You've got a new horizon It's ephemeral style.
A melancholy town where we never smile.
And all I wanna hear is the message beep.
My dreams, they've got to kiss, because I don't get sleep, no..
[Chorus:]
Windmill, Windmill for the land.
Turn forever hand in hand
Take it all there on your stride
It is tinking, falling down
Love forever love is free
Let's turn forever you and me
Windmill, windmill for the land
Is everybody in?
Laughing gas these hazmats, fast cats,
Lining them up-a like ass cracks,
Lay these ponies at the track
Its my chocolate attack.
Shit, I'm stepping in the heart of this here
Care bear bumping in the heart of this here
Watch me as I gravitate
Hahahahahahaa.
Yo, we gonna go ghost town,
This motown,
With yo sound
You're in the place
You gonna bite the dust
Can't fight with us
With yo sound
You kill the INC.
So don't stop, get it, get it
Until you're Jet Ahead.
Yo, watch the way I navigate
Hahahahahhaa
Feel good, AHHHHahahahah [x4]
[Chorus]
Don't stop, get it, get it
We are your captains in it
Steady,
Watch me navigate,
Ahahahahahhaa.
Don't stop, get it, get it
We are your captains in it
Steady, watch me navigate
Ahahahahahhaa.
Feel good, AHHHHahahahaha
Feel good,
Feel good, AHHHHahahahaha
Feel good....
Live at the Grammy Awards 2006
Madonna & Gorillaz - Live at the Grammy Awards from Musion Systems on Vimeo.
Musion® Eyeliner™ System was the holographic projection technology behind the 3D animation of the popular animated band Gorillaz, who performed 'live' at the Grammy Awards 2006. What's even more surprising is that the Eyeliner™ System also re-created a virtual Madonna, who performed her hit single Hung up on the same 3D stage.
Both the live and TV audiences who watched the performance had no clue that what they were watching at least in the first few minutes of Madonna's performance was just virtual reality.
The Grammys performance was a variation on the MTV Europe Music Awards in Lisbon, with the added attraction of a virtual superstar. Yes, that's right. The Madonna you saw on stage with Gorillaz at the Grammys was a virtual as her cartoon counterparts. However, the rappers from De La Soul who came onstage were, in fact, the real deal.
Gorillaz perform the entirety of their album "Demon Days" live in Harlem.
0:34 Intro
1:35 Last Living Souls
4:56 Kids With Guns
8:51 O Green World
[Dirty Harry Missing]
13:39 Feel Good Inc
17:34 El Manana
21:28 Every Planet We Reach Is Dead
26:55 November Has Come
29:46 All Alone
33:41 White Light
36:02 DARE
40:42 Fire Coming Out Of The Monkeys Head
44:27 Don't Get Lost In Heaven
46:32 Demon Days
"Feel Good Inc."
Hahahahahahahahaha,
Feel good,
Feel good,
Feel good,
Feel good,
Feel good,
Feel good,
Feel good,
Feel good,
Feel good.........
City's breaking down on a camel's back.
They just have to go 'cause they don't know wack
So all you fill the streets it's appealing to see
You wont get out the county, 'cos you're bad and free
You've got a new horizon It's ephemeral style.
A melancholy town where we never smile.
And all I wanna hear is the message beep.
My dreams, they've got to kiss, because I don't get sleep, no..
[Chorus:]
Windmill, Windmill for the land.
Turn forever hand in hand
Take it all there on your stride
It is tinking, falling down
Love forever love is free
Let's turn forever you and me
Windmill, windmill for the land
Is everybody in?
Laughing gas these hazmats, fast cats,
Lining them up-a like ass cracks,
Lay these ponies at the track
Its my chocolate attack.
Shit, I'm stepping in the heart of this here
Care bear bumping in the heart of this here
Watch me as I gravitate
Hahahahahahaa.
Yo, we gonna go ghost town,
This motown,
With yo sound
You're in the place
You gonna bite the dust
Can't fight with us
With yo sound
You kill the INC.
So don't stop, get it, get it
Until you're Jet Ahead.
Yo, watch the way I navigate
Hahahahahhaa
Feel good, AHHHHahahahah [x4]
[Chorus]
Don't stop, get it, get it
We are your captains in it
Steady,
Watch me navigate,
Ahahahahahhaa.
Don't stop, get it, get it
We are your captains in it
Steady, watch me navigate
Ahahahahahhaa.
Feel good, AHHHHahahahaha
Feel good,
Feel good, AHHHHahahahaha
Feel good....
Little Magic Stories: Interactive Art With The Kinect
Little Magic Stories from Chris O'Shea on Vimeo.
Little Magic Stories from Chris O'Shea on Vimeo.
Chris O’Shea makes great stuff using a hacked Kinect. This latest experiment is a performance system called Little Magic Stories. It uses a Kinect sensor and a glass screen to create a “Pepper’s Ghost” illusion. Kids can create and animate their own little characters and then interact with them, catching eggs, smacking bugs, and running wild on stage.
Chris writes:
I used the Musion Eyeliner holographic projection system for this project, allowing the graphics to appear to be alongside the performers. This uses a technique called Pepper’s ghost, and you can see the technical set-up here.
An Xbox Kinect camera was used to track the performers on stage. The Kinect was preferred for use over a normal camera for a variety of reasons. Firstly as a depth camera, I can tell when the performers are near the front of the stage, and therefore level with the graphics in terms of projection plane. Also as the depth works in the IR spectrum, it ignores the projected image and stage lighting that can change throughout different scenes.
Adam Curtis -- The Century Of The Self
There are a total of 4 parts and each part runs for about 60 minutes.
Adam Curtis' acclaimed series examines the rise of the all-consuming self against the backdrop of the Freud dynasty.
To many in both politics and business, the triumph of the self is the ultimate expression of democracy, where power has finally moved to the people. Certainly the people may feel they are in charge, but are they really? The Century of the Self tells the untold and sometimes controversial story of the growth of the mass-consumer society in Britain and the United States. How was the all-consuming self created, by whom, and in whose interests?
The Freud dynasty is at the heart of this compelling social history. Sigmund Freud, founder of psychoanalysis; Edward Bernays, who invented public relations; Anna Freud, Sigmund's devoted daughter; and present-day PR guru and Sigmund's great grandson, Matthew Freud.
Sigmund Freud's work into the bubbling and murky world of the subconscious changed the world. By introducing a technique to probe the unconscious mind, Freud provided useful tools for understanding the secret desires of the masses. Unwittingly, his work served as the precursor to a world full of political spin doctors, marketing moguls, and society's belief that the pursuit of satisfaction and happiness is man's ultimate goal.
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