Google is failing to deliver quality results to its users, a study has found.
A year-long study by the University of Leipzig, Bauhaus University Weimar and the Centre for Scalable Data Analytics and Artificial Intelligence says that the analysis of search results from Google, Bing and DuckDuckGo is getting worse.
The study looked specifically at product review searches - an area of growing concern - and the results confirm what frequent searchers have long suspected: product searches are now being flooded with inferior content from sites that prioritise gaming search algorithms.
The study suggested that search engine optimisation (SEO) tactics and other algorithms are boosting the visibility of poor quality content, leading to a constant battle between search engines and SEO engineers.
The study also found that websites are overusing affiliate marketing and link clicking to monetise their content and drive traffic.
“When users click on one of these links and make a purchase on a site like Amazon, the referring site receives a small commission. This business model has led to an explosion of quick-hit product review and roundup articles aimed at driving affiliate traffic rather than providing useful information,” the study suggests.
Critics also highlighted the increasing presence of advertising in search results and Google's tendency to prioritise information from its own services.
This research adds to the growing body of evidence and anecdotal evidence that the quality of Google's search results has deteriorated in recent years. These findings underscore the potential impact on the current state of the internet economy, given its heavy reliance on this major search engine.