Chapter 7, The Search Economy Summary

Small Internet businesses such as Neil Moncrief's online shoe store drive most of the Internet commerce. Since most of these businesses depend upon search to bring customers to their sites, dependence on Google develops as Google's growth gains momentum. This is fine up until Google tweaks its search results algorithm on November 14, 2003. Suddenly, many small Internet businesses suffer because the search results no longer list them at or near the top. The changed algorithm places them far down the results listings where customers can no longer find the businesses. The Google tweak, known as Florida in reference to disastrous hurricanes, seriously hurts many businesses by thwarting their SEO (Search Engine Optimization) strategies, an unintended side effect of Google's attempt to thwart search spammers. For Moncrief's store, no SEO is done, yet he suffers along with the others...