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I thought this thread from the Digital Pianos Forum might benefit from a reference here.



I have just tried a few searches myself - on "piano cantilevered bridge", and "bluthner patent action" for example. Searching with Bing brings up various Piano World threads. Searching with Google does not. What is going on? I originally discovered Piano World by using Google. If Google is not returning Piano World threads in its searches, that is quite serious, is it not?

I noticed this same issue a few weeks ago, but didn't mention it on the forums. I was looking for info in an old PW thread and getting nothing from Google. I thought maybe there was a problem with my computer. It's like Google is ignoring/not recognizing Piano World for some reason.

Rick

I'm having the same issue, and as recently as 3 weeks ago I was getting pages of results for a given search, now just a small handful. Is this what net non-neutrality looks like?

Google had this strategy from the beginning - get people addicted to their stuff, then gradually phase in payment for everything. For this to work, they needed to convince people that using other alternatives was going to leave them out of the loop and fringe dwellers in society. They have followed the same model for entities they have purchased, like Youtube, which was ad free until it became massively dominant in video media. Then they pulled the trigger and brought in the ads - and now we are all watching ads, whilst still feeling it's worth it because we are hooked on the platform.

Google's search engine is the same - they wanted total market dominance (which they got), before they brought in the targeted searching and sponsored links. Now, most businesses are paying fairly hefty money to be on the first page of google - and the actual relevance of search results is appalling compared to what it was before Google went with paid services. Google also tied all of this in with their Android platform and obligatory Google email accounts (also containing targeted advertising) which are used with those devices to make them properly functional. You've got to hand it to them in a way - they played the long game and got us hooked like junkies and now they are collecting on their previous "goodwill".

Don't be surprised if Googles bots are filtering out pages with critical things to say about Google too...Even if they appear on sponsored sites.

Yes, it's exactly what it looks like. Any politician who supports that should be voted out of office.

I’m regularly amazed how easily people pontificate about subjects they don’t seem to understand. And so easily come to embrace government control and totalitarianism.

I searched google for my "Fully Tempered Duplex Scale" and no more results shown for the extensive PW thread on the subject.

The results for the PTG Pianotech forum are still front and center as they were in the past. Don't think PTG pays Google for preferential treatment

Coincidentally we used to pay hundreds of dollars a month for Google "Ad Words".
Not seeing any monetary return for my investment I cut way back.

The saddest part of this (besides taking traffic away from legitimate sites) is that information is being presented by
the highest bidders, not necessarily the most accurate or sincere sources. A bit like our government is being run.

So, you'd be one of those people who believe in markets driving everything then?

Pianoworld. Not political world.

Let’s not go there.

Frank, I posted your note over into the Digital Piano forum:
Over there people have noted that they're still getting good PW search results when searching on Bing and on DuckDuckGo.
Would it make sense to replace the PW search by directing it to one of those, instead of to Google?

Time was I would google something for more information or a higher authority and my own pianoworld post would appear first. I recall finding it being quite disappointing.

I'm glad this is being discussed. Bing works very well using the format:
topic site:pianoworld.com

Hey, they're just imitating the boss ...

Interesting, this morning I put the same piano question in both Google and DuckDuckGo. The first thing that popped up in DuckDuckGo was a Pianoworld forum discussion, and there were other Pianoworld links as well. Google showed a Pianostreet link but no Pianoworld. I never realized how different they were. Conclusion. Need to use the DuckDuckGo and Bing search engines more and Google less.

Rich

Well, dang. I wrote a song entitled "Google my name if you want to know who I am".

I guess I'll have to write another one entitled "Click DuckDuckGo if you want to know".

Just kidding...

But I still don't like it because Google ain't recognizing Piano World like it used to.

Rick

Over the past few weeks and today as well I noticed that on yahoo search" pianoworld.com" returns a link to the digital forum but only after listing about 9 other websites. Yet, I just tried google with the same search and pianoworld.com was the first entry. On both Bing and DuckDuckGO the first search result was for the digital forum on pianoworks.com with the teachers forum as the third result. Dont think its an issue of paid search. My little analysis seems to indicate the search engines may be picking up the incorrect key words since both Bing and DuckDuckGo directed me to the right website but not the home page...and now, unlike others experience, my google's first result is the pianoworld.com site.....strange....

I'm now writing a song called "You won't find me on Bing 'cause I don't know how to sing."

Google obviously considers DuckDuckGo a proper competitor, as I note they have purchased duck.com, as ever to crush competition.

DuckDuckGo need to get a new name and a new domain. The current one is just too long.

It's a shame because Google results are now pretty poor, and the market needs a shakeup.

Actually this has nothing to do with net neutrality. Net neutrality is about the speed with which different sites are delivered, it has nothing to do with search results. The purpose of net neutrality was to protect the big bandwidth users like Netflix and Amazon. It was a regulation on ISP's, not search engines.

I don't see how the FCC would have legal authority to regulate search results, that would have to be a consumer protection agency of some sort. It's a business practices issue, not a communications issue.

The right thing to do immediately is for all of us to stop using google, instead use the other search engines.