Researchers in Germany report that google search engine results are increasingly cluttered with spam content, making it harder for people to find helpful information online.
In almost 7,400 queries on three search engines, Google, Bing, and DuckDuckGo, the researchers searched for product reviews offering tests and purchase recommendations.
They concluded that search engines have “significant problems” with affiliate links — paid links that refer customers to sellers. In search engine results, the researchers said affiliate links are overrepresented even though the number of product reviews online contains affiliate links isn’t huge.
Researchers said affiliate links are problematic because of “trust”-Google search engine spam
“A high ranking inherits the trust of users who already trust their search engines,” the authors write. But this also creates tension between affiliates, search providers, and users because affiliates are more likely to design web pages to optimize their rankings rather than investing in high-quality product reviews.
In spite of the fact that affiliate links and more optimized websites are more likely to appear in search results, they also “show signs of lower text quality,” the researchers noted.
Moreover, Google’s search results may also decline due to the influx of AI-generated content on the web.
A Google representative believe that the study focused primarily on product reviews and does not accurately reflect the overall quality of Search engine. However, we have implemented targeted enhancements to tackle out these concerns. Researchers also believe that this issue requires further investigation, they do not have a clear solution at this point. The study acknowledges Google’s improvements over the past year and its better performance compared to other search engines.
As a research assistant at Leipzig University and coauthor of the paper, Janek Bevendorff told The Register that affiliate marketing is partly responsible for what online content looks like today. As Bevendorff told the outlet, banning affiliate marketing and SEO optimization is unlikely to solve the problem since many legitimate websites rely on them for revenue.
Concludingly, It may end up being a cat-and-mouse game,” Bevendorff said.