OK, so this isn't exactly a small city post, but sometimes one needs to vent.
Tried buying a TV (or any other electrical item) lately?
I bought one not so long ago and found myself relying more on shop staff than I like to for advice. Try looking up reviews for consumer goods on Google. What you get are loads of links to other search engines and loads of links to people trying to flog you the kit.
But trying to find a proper, impartial, review site is a different matter. "What Hi fi" is pretty good, but I found it more by luck than judgement. Again, the corporate seems to win out over the individual.
Surely it' not too much to ask that when you ask for reviews, you get review sites not selling sites. Is it?
And yes, I am aware of the irony of using blogger to make these observations.
Friday, August 27, 2004
"St Albans writers groups"
So here is how it started: someone was setting up the website for Verulam Writers' Circle, a St Albans writers group. It is one of only two writers groups in the city, the other being Ver Poets.
Setting it up was quite straightforward because there was no need for anything fancy and dynamic, just a lot of information packed stuff for existing and prospective members. Then a real headache set in.
Verulam Writers' Circle has been around for a good few years and the name is rather stuck. But it doesn't take a degree in symbolic logic to realise that prospective punters will search on the string 'st albans writers groups', only without the quotes.
The trouble is that local papers and loads of assorted pointless directories contain those words, and because many of these sites are commercial, loads of people link to them - and page rank prioritises these, even if the string 'st albans writers group' does not appear anywhere on them. At least, I think that's what's happening. The net result is getting a humble local group to show for up to people who would be interested in it has proved a bit of a 'mare.
Google, it seems to me, is biased towards the corporate in a way that other search engines aren't.
I actually think it is worse than that. But more on that another time.
Setting it up was quite straightforward because there was no need for anything fancy and dynamic, just a lot of information packed stuff for existing and prospective members. Then a real headache set in.
Verulam Writers' Circle has been around for a good few years and the name is rather stuck. But it doesn't take a degree in symbolic logic to realise that prospective punters will search on the string 'st albans writers groups', only without the quotes.
The trouble is that local papers and loads of assorted pointless directories contain those words, and because many of these sites are commercial, loads of people link to them - and page rank prioritises these, even if the string 'st albans writers group' does not appear anywhere on them. At least, I think that's what's happening. The net result is getting a humble local group to show for up to people who would be interested in it has proved a bit of a 'mare.
Google, it seems to me, is biased towards the corporate in a way that other search engines aren't.
I actually think it is worse than that. But more on that another time.
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