Google search controversy
So, if you're interested in Search (like us) then you might have heard the furore about Google's new 'Search within site' functionality - which means that users can search for a product/content within a particular site (like The Sun or John Lewis) from within the Google page, rather than going to the site's home page and using the site's own search engine. At the moment Google has only applied this to a small number of sites.
The controversy is based around two things - firstly, the home pages of the sites that have the new 'Search in site' function will get less traffic as users go directly inside the site, and this could mean that the sites lose out on ad revenue from their home pages. Secondly, some users have pointed out that the results from the 'within site' search could actually take users away from the original site, which would mean you wouldn't want to have a 'search within site' box applied to your site from Google. Here's a couple of articles that explain it fully:
SEOSmarty blog about the issue
- Published: 28 March 2008
