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Google has announced changes to its search results that it says will get users to what they are searching for as quickly as possible.  In looking at those changes, it appears what they are really designed to do is keep you on the search results page as long as possible, and perhaps even prevent you from going to any of them at all.

For example, a long search query such as “major league baseball batting record” will bring up results with three lines of info rather than the normal one or two.  It’s very likely those three lines will provide the info you’re looking for:

Major League Individual All-Time Hitting Records. (Through 2006) ...
Most Consecutive Games Batted Safely—56, Joe DiMaggio, New York A.L., 1941. ...
Major League Franchise Origins • Baseball • Major League All-Time Pitching Records ...

As convenient as this may be for users, who will be able to find information more quickly, for site owners it could be a nightmare.  Most rely on Google for traffic, which in turn results in revenues, either via Google Adsense or other advertising tools.  If someone can get the info they are looking for from the search results, they don’t need to visit the site, meaning lower traffic and in turn, revenues.

One has to wonder if Google might be shooting itself in the foot here.  Its Adsense program has been tremendously popular and creating search results that keep the user away from the sites in the program and on the search results page is not going to benefit the site owners who use it or the advertisers who rely on it.

What do you think about this change? Will it hurt downstream traffic or is Google on the right track?

Read [NewYorkTimes]