Google SearchWiki results _are_ to be used

It is only a couple of weeks since we posted about the differing opinions on the Google SearchWiki feature in the SERPS. This week, despite previous assurances from Google that the results were not going to be used to affect rankings etc, it appears the sands have already shifted.

This article at El Reg shows how there is now a proposal for the agnostic algorithm to be ‘manipulated’ by human hands. The uproar has so far been quiet, but it will undoubtedly grow. The independence or objectivity of the results is vital to the trust that is placed in the value of Google as a search engine, not just for its users but particularly for those of us in the SEO world.

If, as we may be led to believe by this week’s statement, no matter how much we follow the ‘laws’ of SEO and SEM, the results can be interfered with by staff at Google, and may well be based on SearchWiki opinion, which as we all know can be affected by merely a few A list bloggers, then SEO practioners may be in for a very hard time of it in 2009.