Google's Bed of Searches: Did Associated Content from Yahoo! Get the Boot

On January 24, 2011, I wrote Google and Yahoo! Contributor Network: Friends or Foes. It was written in response to the Google-Search-and-Search-Engine-Spam blog post that Matt Cutts, Principal Engineer at Google posted on the official Google Blog. The following question was raised in the article's summary: "Is Associated Content from Yahoo! and other members of the Yahoo Contributor Network the bed bugs or the bed partners of Google searches? Are they capable of sharing the internet without driving each other crazy?"

On February 24, 2011, Amit Singhal, Google Fellow, and Matt Cutts, Principal Engineer posted Finding-More-High-Quality-Sites on the official Google Blog. This announcement indicated that it had been a day or two since their post that Google made a " big algorithmic improvement." They indicated that this change in algorithms would "noticeably impact" nearly 12% of the Google Search engine queries. Its purpose was to produce search results that were the most relevant to the search at hand and to deliver these results as speedily as possible.

These are the words from the Google blog regarding their algorithmic improvement mission: "This update is designed to reduce rankings for low-quality sites-sites which are low-value add for users, copy content from other websites or sites that are just not very useful." Further, "it will provide better rankings for high-quality sites-sites with original content and information such as research, in-depth reports, thoughtful analysis ..."

Google, in this blog post, didn't state that they were targeting content mills, content farms or any specific sites. However, according to the Visibility Index at the Sistrix post: Google-Farmer-Update-Quest-for-Quality, it is clear Google's behind the scenes activity is delivering a heavy blow to Associated Content from Yahoo! along with other sites that are often labeled as content farms or content mills.

Therefore, it appears that one of the keys that will open the revolving door to online visibility will be whether or not sites are branded as either a content farm or content mill. Unfortunately, for Yahoo! Network Contributors that have their work published on Associated Content from Yahoo!, Associated Content is often tagged as a content farm or a content mill. Consequently, it seems clear that now an individual article's fate will rely less on its own merit and more on the brand of its host site.

Anecdotal discussions seem to suggest that Yahoo! Network Contributors are finding success with their articles that publish on Yahoo! Contributor Network sites other than Associated Content. Therefore, when the following question is asked: "Is Associated Content from Yahoo! and other members of the Yahoo! Contributor Network the bed bugs or the bed partners of Google searches? It seems fair to state that as of now, Associated Content from Yahoo! is a bed bug of Google searches and as such is getting the boot. However, other Yahoo! Contributor Network sites appear to be staying between the sheets, as bed partners of Google searches.

More by this Contributor:

Where is Quality Online Content and Does Its Brand Matter

Does Loyalty Towards Online Content Impact Advertising Campaigns

What is Quality Content and What are the Implications of Creating and Delivering It