It can be amusing to follow the search results for the word “search engine.” It’s not exactly news that Google doesn’t top the list when you search for “search engine” on Google, but there are other interesting things happening as well.
Wikipedia seems to have more or less permanently planted itself at the top of the results, and Bing has quickly climbed to second place. Google, on the other hand, is slipping—especially Google.se, which used to be the page that ranked. In a year, Google.se has dropped from 8th place to 18th. Google is still present in the results, but now it’s Google.com with an instructional page for Chrome.
If nothing else, I see this as clear evidence of how (not) smart Google’s algorithm is. If Google is listing the best results, the ones with the most user interaction, the best usability—then why on earth is Bing ranked so much higher than Google’s own page? Is Bing that much more popular? Or is Altavista the users’ favorite? And why in the world is this page now more important than Google.se?
The moral of the story is that Google’s algorithm is incredibly complex, but it’s not smart. Google is without a doubt the best search engine—yet it doesn’t rank first. That’s because there are other factors than just “good” that determine your position in the search results.
Magnus Bråth
Consultant & Adviser
Magnus is one of the world's most prominent search marketing specialists and primarily works with management and strategy at his agency Brath AB.