Why Do The Search Engines Change Their Minds?

No matter how hard we try to keep up with life's changes, there's not always enough time. We get information from our friends and social media but a lot of the time it isn't always accurate. Something that was recently true might suddenly be false, and vice-versa. One day I might think I'm definitely going to buy a car, but by the next day I'm having doubts. The same is true for searching engines' recommendations - maybe you're searching for something new all the time or have never heard of it before at all.

The realtime search engines like  Google  and Bing sometimes change their mind about what's best for you. It may be just a few clicks of the mouse, but it can make a difference. More often than not, these changes are unpredictable, with no apparent reason. But once you know why it happens, you can make better use of the data on the internet - because life is a lot less confusing when you know what's happening.

Don't Be A Guinea Pig Without Your Consent

The first thing to realize is that what you see in any search engine results page (SERP) isn't necessarily an accurate reflection of the web as a whole. Unless you're using  Google  Instant or another service that tailors content for your specific needs, then chances are that you're being treated as a guinea pig without your consent.

What do we mean by that? Search engines are always gaining new data and trying to improve their services. This means that there will be times when they're sapping more of your time to make a change, even if the change is not for the better.

You may have noticed recently that when you do a web search for something, you're shown many results that are related to it. Maybe you see some suggestions for things to buy, and see these search results when you're looking for something else entirely. But the default position is still to show you this information. Search engines are trying to make up for lost time with more suggestions or with  Instant  results (search results tailored to your specific requirements).

There are also times when the search engines change their algorithms to try and get better results, even if that means using less of your time to do it. In the past there has been what search engine optimization (SEO) specialists call a Google Dance, where all the search engines change their rankings for some reason or other. This dance is full of waltzes and tango steps, complete with a grand finale where the real-time search engines stop offering you suggestions altogether and just tell you that there's nothing else they can do for you right now. That's not good, and not something that you want to see if you're a user.

All these changes are there to improve the quality of searches in the future, but they still leave the people doing them open to criticism. If you've ever been left stranded with nothing from your search engine results page (SERP) then you'll know that it sure can hurt business. There was a time when Google used to put a notice at the bottom of its SERPs whenever this happened. The result? A lot less traffic going to business websites and a lot of angry users.

Conclusion

In summary, search engines are always changing their algorithms to try and get better results. You might think that you've found the perfect formula for the search term that you entered, but then a few hours later - or even days later - it might suddenly fail you. It's a shame that there's not an easy fix to this problem, and although some experts have been able to predict the changes in advance (sometimes by months), there's still no guarantee that Google won't change its mind about which pages are best for your searches. The best way around this is not to have anything resting on what the search engines pick out for you, but instead to rely on human input from other people who know what they're talking about.