One of the world's biggest companies is in trouble. Google is dealing with the fallout from a major leak that allegedly exposed the inner workings of its search engine. The leak was revealed on May 27th through technology entrepreneur Rand Fishkin, who said he had “received an email from someone claiming to have access” to documents “inside Google's search division.” The next day, the actual source of the leak, Erfan Azimi, CEO of search engine optimization (SEO) company EA Eagle Digital, came forward.
Azimi had access to 2,500 pages of documents about Google's SEO operations, which is very important because “Google's search algorithm is perhaps the most important system on the internet, determining which sites survive and what content looks like on the web,” according to The Verge. The documents, which Google confirmed were authentic, “detail how search works and… [suggest] Google hasn't been entirely truthful about this for years.”
While much of the leak contains highly technical jargon, the contents primarily “suggest that Google is collecting and potentially using data, such as clicks and Chrome user data, that company representatives say doesn't affect webpage rankings in Google Search,” The Verge said. This is important because “the choices Google makes in search have a major impact on everyone who uses the web for business.”
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As a result, the leak “further stoked distrust in Google's efforts to rewrite the rulebook,” write Business Insider's Hugh Langley and Lara O'Reilly. As a result, “many website owners are preparing for a future in which the company will siphon off their content and not return visitors in return,” and SEOs (some of whom contract with Google directly) “are lamenting the breakdown in the search giant's relationship with the experts who helped it organize it all.”
Perhaps most notably, “some of the information uncovered seems to contradict claims the company has made public,” said The New Yorker's Kyle Chayka. For example, Google Search appears to track “when and where users click — not just on Google's core sites, but on every page visited within the Google Chrome browser,” yet the company “has repeatedly denied incorporating that data into its search algorithms.” This “strengthens a long-held belief that Google representatives frequently lie, mislead, and omit important information.” Google's new approach seems “content to cover up the same material it once allowed to surface,” Chayka said.
However, CNET's Imad Khan said, “It remains to be seen how useful this leak is today.” Some of these internals “may now be outdated, or these data points may have been collected but never used.” But while Google tends to tweak its algorithms periodically, it's still a “rare glimpse behind the scenes of Google's core business,” especially as the company “continues to fight sites that clutter search results with low-quality content just to rake in easy ad clicks.”
What next?
In confirming the leak's authenticity, Google officials cautioned the public not to jump to conclusions. The company “cautioned people not to make inaccurate inferences about search based on out-of-context, out-of-date, or incomplete information,” Google spokesperson Davis Thompson said in a statement to The Verge. He added that the company “shares extensive information about how search works and the types of factors our system weighs, and also works to protect the integrity of our search results from manipulation.”
Where the company goes from here remains to be seen, but it's clear that “for years, Google hasn't been entirely honest about how its search algorithms have worked,” Mashable said, adding that “as industry experts continue to sift through this voluminous document, even more juicy details hidden in Google's search algorithms may soon emerge.” For small businesses, one key fact remains: “Online success typically hinges on one key factor above all others: your website's ranking in Google search.”