Infinite Path

We all know that search engines are pretty good at delivering search results. We also know that many of the companies behind the search engines provide us with lots of other services and products, as well as investing millions in research and development. However, are search engines really as clever as we think they are?

The answer is: probably not. The reason for this is that no matter how good a search engine is, it can?t (yet!) predict what a human is going to do. It can look at everything that has been done before, attempt to alter algorithms, and create rules and systems to recognise if something is being done again (consequently deciding whether to allow or disallow it). However, it can’t make an accurate prediction as to what Joe the SEO is going to do next.

People talk about how one day the search engine will be so sophisticated that there will be no way of deceiving it, or trying to optimise your site for search. However, because a search engine is programmed by a human, the human will always be one step ahead. And there are many clever humans around who can innovate and experiment with new tricks and techniques.

So, no matter how sophisticated the search engine becomes, and no matter how small a difference the things we do today may make in the future, we can be sure that, in some way, the human will be a step ahead of the search engine and therefore able to add value to websites and the online world.