Now, about an idiot. Here's a funny story: a blogger received an e-mail from somebody with quite a request:
I have been running the site for over two years and we have been ranked very highly for the search term [edited].
On Thursday morning I checked our google positions and your site is now above us for this term. I haev checked your blog and it has nothing to do with [edited], so I think it would be best all round if you remove your blog from google for this search term.
You can read the rest of the e-mail here, and a follow-up here.
Well, of course we have an exemplary case of an idiot here. Funny, amusing - but not too interesting. What is interesting, though, is the entire situation with businesses (both large and small) striving for the first place in Google searches. It's obvious that the first place is extremely valuable in terms of business. However, this precious commodity is not for sale (which is good!), and is being granted by Google's system based on some mysterious factors. For example, as for today, if you try to search Google for "buy computers", the first place will be occupied by BestBuy. It is followed by buy.com - and CompUSA is on the tenth place, last on the first page. Google in this case becomes something like a blind force of nature - powerful and unpredictable. I am not saying that this is bad - or good - I just find it to be curious and thought-provoking...
Technorati tag: google