Study finds Google search results have gotten worse

If you feel like results from search engines like Google leave something to be desired, you’re not alone.

A study by German researchers from Leipzig University, Bauhaus-University Weimar, and the Center for Scalable Data Analytics and Artificial Intelligence found the quality of search results has declined, mainly due to SEO spam.

The study, titled “Is Google Getting Worse?” examined the search results for 7,392 product review queries across Google, Bing, and DuckDuckGo for a year. They found SEO spam sites, referring to web pages that are optimized for a search engine’s algorithm, to be high-ranking among the results.

The researchers refer to the practice as “a constant battle,” as search engines make efforts to knock the websites down, but they inevitably find their way back. The researchers call this a “cat-and-mouse game” that search engines seem to lose. “We see repeated breathing patterns of review spam entering and leaving the results as search engines and SEO engineers take turns adjusting their parameters.”

While the study notes Google’s results specifically “improved to some extent” during the course of their study, the spam-centered content was still easy to find across all three search engines.

The researchers warn this will get worse with the uptake of generative AI. “We conclude that dynamic adversarial spam in the form of low-quality, mass-produced commercial content deserves more attention.”

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Source: Leipzig University