Public comments on google
  • RuralwebRuralweb
     
    May 2009
    For a while now google has been showing ratings based on google checkout bit it's now trialing public reviews. This potentially means that anyone can post a review which will show against your serp

    This is a potential nightmare as bad comments will put people off clicking on results and damage brand. It will also IMO lead to a new industry where you can pay for bad posts on competitors sites.

    The fun and games continue - hopefully google will see it as a bad idea and drop it.
     
  • droundingdrounding
     
    May 2009
    I don't think GC ever really got the backing it had hoped for after their 'free money' intro - and this, if it stays, will certainly not help them.
    I think that PP has grown more in the same period than GC.
     
  • DarrenDarren
     
    May 2009
    Mal do you have any examples of public reviews

    Also the doing away with the free processing against adword spend has probably halted uptake.

    Im a little disappointed Actinic still have not got there arse in gear over this, unfortunately i receive the odd email asking me if i accept GC as xyz does :rolleyes: the only other advantage is it makes your adwords stand out more from other merchants.
     
  • ChunkfordChunkford
     
    May 2009
    Darren said:
    it makes your adwords stand out more from other merchants.


    That's the only reason why I would use it.
    At the moment...
     
  • RuralwebRuralweb
     
    May 2009
    It's in beta testing - there are some screenshots about, I can post one when I'm back at my pc.

    The theory is this - google is changing it's algo big time and the focus is going to be on brand and trust so it is working out how it can do that. GC reviews is already being used so site which have been using it and getting reviews will be ahead of the game. It also needs to get feedback from other sources eg the up button on google accounts which allows users to promote sites.

    I agree paypal is mainstream now and a must for all websites but gc is also a must if as it is in certain areas already affecting shopper behaviour when looking at search results.

    As darren says actinic users are now well behind the curve and unlikely to get gc before v10 - even then it's not the full gc.
     
  • DarrenDarren
     
    May 2009
    Ruralweb said:

    As darren says actinic users are now well behind the curve and unlikely to get gc before v10 - even then it's not the full gc.


    And this is what makes it even worse, over 2 years and not even the basic level of intergration :rolleyes:
     
  • GeorgeGeorge
     
    May 2009
    Therefore www.iwillgiveyouagoodreviewforsomemoney.com is born.


    And re Google Checkout, Actinic were hardly going to spend a lot of valuable developer hours on this subject when they had their own Actinic Payments in the (oh so secret) pipeline.
     
  • DarrenDarren
     
    May 2009
    George said:

    And re Google Checkout, Actinic were hardly going to spend a lot of valuable developer hours on this subject when they had their own Actinic Payments in the (oh so secret) pipeline.


    True George and this is what people are saying is the problem with Actinic. To much internal soul searching and brain storming and not enough listening to the customer base. The thread became an embarrassment for them so they hid it rather than deal with it.

    Dont get me wrong an intergrated payment solution is a good idea, i use it and it works well, but then i have my own custom payment pages and host the images on my server (even though actinics is comming soon, my ssl is about to expire so it has been a while in the pipeline ;) )
     
  • ChunkfordChunkford
     
    May 2009
    crazy when you think what google has now to get information from.

    But surely if Google is heading towards Brand and trust, then the days of a level playing feild are gone. The already big brands will have an unfair advantage.
     
  • GeorgeGeorge
     
    May 2009
    Not really, if the world stops sucking Googles cock for ten minutes that is. :eek:


    Seriously, think about it. They've changed the way the internet has evolved with their single product page rules and so on. Is it really for the better? A trillion more webpages with less stuff on them to read.

    They need Ling on board.


    FACT.
     
  • ChunkfordChunkford
     
    May 2009
    George said:
    Not really, if the world stops sucking Googles cock for ten minutes that is. :eek:


    That's not going to happen is it. It would need some big shake up (like M$ and yahoo joining) to make it interesting
     
  • RuralwebRuralweb
     
    May 2009
    By conforming to googles "rules" all of my clients have seen significant increases in sales so you can fight but you will loose in the long run.

    Creating brand and trust is just another factor the same as links or page optomisation - you work out what the alto is based on and then act on it. In this case it's based partly on gc which immediately puts all actinic sites at the back of the queue. it will at least another year before v10 IMO so it's down to site owners to decide on the importance of it.

    My advice to people now is to add gc and start working on feedback - yes it will be abused but isn't everything on the net these days!
     
  • webDwebD
     
    May 2009
    Mal,

    Do you think that Google Feedback and Review offering will come into play here, Or do you think this is a way of getting more people to sign up to GC?
     
  • RuralwebRuralweb
     
    May 2009
    I think they ate fine tuning and looking at what provides the best trust info from shoppers. The review plugin is a good example of getting lots of info fed back to them.

    The stuff they get back from analytics is used as well and you can certainly see when algos change these days - the one in feb had a massive effect on sites so it's wait and see time
     
  • RuralwebRuralweb
     
    June 2009
    The brand algo change has just happened so if you are seeing a drop in traffic check who now hold the top rankings for your keywords.
     
  • Mark HMark H
     
    July 2009
    Ruralweb said:
    The brand algo change has just happened so if you are seeing a drop in traffic check who now hold the top rankings for your keywords.


    Wow, I don't know whether this has affected Google (Base) Product Search results directly, but we have been booted off the first page for two of our main keyphrases, and the results are flipping around. Yesterday the first page results for one keyphrase did look a bit more brand orientated, but today they are completely different and much less so.
     
  • RuralwebRuralweb
     
    July 2009
    I think it will take a while to settle down but in the states where it happened in march people are reporting huge changes in rankings and even the whole first page being taken up by brand results.

    How google determines brand is not clear yet.
     
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