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Are iTunes Links Being Downranked by Google?

the8thark said:
From what I have read, (feel free to say if I am wrong) companies pay google to have certain links rate higher in certain search terms.
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Got a source?

the8thark said:
For example, Amazon could pay Google to have a specific Amazon link appear higher when people search for "amazon fire" or "kindle fire". So in this way it is all about money. I don't know the rules on this or if it's a bid process or what.
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Sorry but this is false. Nobody can/does pay to be higher in Google. It's an organic search engine, meaning the way to the top is to SEO the crap out of your content, and get backlinks. It would be against Google's interests to start messing with this as it would have a massive impact on the quality of search results, thus people wouldn't use Google and nobody would bother paying for Adwords.

the8thark said:
Also not sure if there is any regulations on this to stop google monopolising the market. I think there should be.
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I see your point. But why would Google need to be regulated? As I noted in another post, this cant be compared to the MS domination. People were forced to use Microsoft products by businesses, and their limitation on compatibility with other platforms.

In contrast, Google is a free web service. Nobody forces you to use it, and there are plenty of alternatives out there which are also free. The only thing Google are guilty of in this part, is having a very good search system, which to this day still hasn't seemingly been rivalled when it comes to popularity and reliability.
 
r2shyyou said:
No, and I added a tidbit on the end of my previous post alluding to that. Also, I generally try to keep the use of "if" statements prevalent in these instances as I don't want to appear as passing something like this off as fact, which I don't know it to be (or not to be).



It could very well be that to some degree however a search as specific as "download whatsapp iphone app" should result in a highly ranked iTunes link, at least from my experience of searching Google for iphone app links on iTunes, yet no such link is anywhere near the top. That's a bit odd, in my opinion. Not necessarily intentional, just odd.
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Interestingly, I swapped in iTunes, and it brought me to an app called "Draw To" on the iTunes store, which is apparently a whatsapp add-on? I am not familiar with either. So it took me to the iTunes store... just not what I was actually looking for. Admittedly, it did produce the search results I expected when I added "google play" instead of "iOS" or "iTunes". Also, and this is quite relevant, I have never searched for apps in this manner until I read this article. As such, I don't really have a before and after to compare them to.

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the8thark said:
Yes very rare. An example of a good article. They ask the question and don't pick their own biased answer for it. They are letting us decide what the answer is and letting us debate it on the forums. This is the way to generate intelligent chat on the forums. MacRumors need to take notice of this and keep doing it.
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Eh, most people seem to be decided. It's an Apple forum. Apple is God. Google, satan. There are a few objective thinkers. Such is the case in all news threads. :)
 
PlutoPrime said:
"Do no evil" my a**.

Google is just like the rest of the corporations. Money sucking, rule bending creature.
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Yup, Google are just like the rest of the corporations. Apple included.

What makes them evil?

And before some smart ass tries to reply with the 'they sell your info' line, research first before making people point and laugh ;)

Seriously. What 'evil' has Google done that Apple hasn't? The only potentially 'evil' thing I can think of was the whole Safari bug bypass, which can hardly be construed as evil given that the information collected was still anonymous, and still limited to within the Google network, thus was the same info that could have been collected by anyone who slapped a bit of Javascript on their site.

We hear this 'Google is evil' and 'Google is a monopoly' nonsense all the time, but nobody ever seems to have any hard proof, and is just spewing nonsense based on Chinese whispers.
 
Krazy Bill said:
There's always Bing.

And Google is "Evil"? :confused: It's just a freaking search engine.
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"Don't be evil" is the informal corporate motto (or slogan) of Google.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don't_be_evil

So that's where it came from. Yes google actually said "don't be evil"

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lordofthereef said:
Eh, most people seem to be decided. It's an Apple forum. Apple is God. Google, satan. There are a few objective thinkers. Such is the case in all news threads. :)
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You make a good point. But opinions change over time. In the 90's to Apple fans, MS was the enemy. And hated much so. Now in 2013, MS is not hated as much by Apple fans, and their hate has moved to samesung and Google. And in 10 years it'll move to someone else I guess.
 
subsonix said:
It's an indication of the size of the user base on each platform. Taking this further, a larger user base should rank higher because it's relevant to more people, in this case 4 times as many.
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has nothing to do with search algorithms.
 
Squilly said:
Either a bug or a brilliant marketing strategy by Google. As usual, Google will apologize in the coming days of a "bug" I'm sure.
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It's too big of an issue to be just a bug. I had no trouble in the past using Google to search for anything in the iTunes App Store.

Something fishy is going on... :eek:
 
Squilly said:
Nothing Apple can do about it. It's THEIR search engine.
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No, Apple can't do anything about it. That's not the point. Point is that Google has held themselves out as the impartial, de facto official search engine of the web for about a decade. They represent impartial results.

If this proves to be intentional they could lose credibility with users, which would be far more damaging than anything Apple could ever do to them.
 
lordofthereef said:
Interestingly, I swapped in iTunes, and it brought me to an app called "Draw To" on the iTunes store, which is apparently a whatsapp add-on? I am not familiar with either. So it took me to the iTunes store... just not what I was actually looking for. Admittedly, it did produce the search results I expected when I added "google play" instead of "iOS" or "iTunes". Also, and this is quite relevant, I have never searched for apps in this manner until I read this article. As such, I don't really have a before and after to compare them to.
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Yup, "Draw To" is indeed apparently associated with "WhatsApp," which I, too, discovered in the last hour or so.

The thing that appears odd to me is that the search query I linked to above returns a Google Play result that is ranked higher than any iTunes link. Now, I don't know why that's the case but unlike you, I've searched for and found iOS apps via Google Search many times in the past (usually for purposes related to this forum) and I've not had trouble finding them until late last week.

Conspiracy? I don't know, but it isn't functioning in the way that I remember it in the past. Oh well, there are options to refine searches so I'll just make use of those.
 
the8thark said:
You make a good point. But opinions change over time. In the 90's to Apple fans, MS was the enemy. And hated much so. Now in 2013, MS is not hated as much by Apple fans, and their hate has moved to samesung and Google. And in 10 years it'll move to someone else I guess.
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The hate will always change to whomever puts the glorious Apple at the most risk. Currently that is samsung and, by association, Google.
 
As a side note - but relevant - is the fact that Google has long since not provided untainted search results. Search results are dictated by previous searches, geography, etc. If I google something here in NYC and you google the same thing in the UK and/or even another state in the US - you aren't necc going to get the same results.

This is especially true when searching for NEWS.

I suggest (if you haven't already watch this video on "Filter Bubbles"

http://www.ted.com/talks/eli_pariser_beware_online_filter_bubbles.html
 
You often have to go down the list and on to other pages to find something actually related to your question. At the top are all these paid links that often have a vague at best relationship to your actual search question.
 
Shrink said:
Unlike Apple corporation, which is an altruistically charitable organization...not some money sucking, rule bending creature.

Apple's doing it for love...money is just an incidental side effect.

:rolleyes:
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The difference is that Apple never claimed to be the "good guys".
 
Speedy2 said:
The difference is that Apple never claimed to be the "good guys".
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I don't mean to be insulting...but you actually believe corporate motto bulls***? And if some company claimed to be "The Savior Of The World", and they weren't really the savior of the world...this offend or disappoint you???
 
Serelus said:
You clearly don't understand SEO, google can not simply display what they want. That's not how it works.
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Yes they can, for the small part anyway. Google is at war with apple and can downgrade the results to impact on their popularity. They've already downgraded Wikipedia and put those google info boxes at the top. Google massively manipulate. Yes still a large majority of results has to be fair but its like government. They are seen to be fair but dodgy dealings behind the scenes for others.

This is why apple should have got into the search engine business. They have the data centre now. I remember reading jobs was interested in it..
 
Shrink said:
And if some company claimed to be "The Savior Of The World", and they weren't really the savior of the world...this offend or disappoint you???
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So if a company claimed to be "The Savior Of The World", you'd be defending them instead of mocking them?
 
milo said:
So if a company claimed to be "The Savior Of The World", you'd be defending them instead of mocking them?
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I'm not defending anybody...not Google, not Apple..not anybody.

I'm challenging what I see as non-logical and non-rational thinking.

As far as large corporations go...I could care less, since nothing I do or say changes anything.

But I will fight for rational thought.
 
the8thark said:
They both aren't. MS was not a monopoly back then and google search is not now. Does not stop the government from saying they are though. Governments don't get it right at times. But I think it's more about monopoly prevention then monopoly cure.
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I don't know where you get your "knowledge", but MS had and still has a monopoly for OS and office, and Google has a monopoly for search in most countries of the world.
They are both actually textbook examples.
 
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