Google’s paid search results are overrunning the organic results. Time to switch to DuckDuckGo.com?
The SEOBook blog argues that Google’s expansion of its “paid” search results threatens to push organic search results far enough down the page that SEO efforts will make little sense:
As SEOs we focus a lot of energy on “how do I rank 1 spot higher” but when the organic results are displaced and appear below the fold why bother? The issue of the incredibly shrinking organic result set is something that can’t be over-emphasized. For many SEOs the trend will absolutely be career ending.
Good points, but they’re operating from an SEO perspective. My concerns are as a user.
On small screens (like my netbook or laptop) Google’s paid results often push the organic results far enough down to obscure them. They also limit the number of organic search results to a page, so I’m forced to click through several pages to get more than a handful of results.
In other words, the famously clean Google user experience is dead and gone.
That’s why I’ve been experimenting with DuckDuckGo.com, a search site similar to Google in the early days — one that also doesn’t track your searches.
Compare the “Oakland Hotels” Google screenshot (from SEOBook) with that of DuckDuckGo’s:
DuckDuckGo.com
DuckDuckGo’s results for Oakland Hotels
Google.com
Google’s somewhat more cluttered results
Adding DuckDuckGo.com to your browser is easy.
Keep writing (and searching), Tom Chandler.
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