The name “Vivek Wadhwa” gained a much larger recognition after this writer wrote a feisty piece titled “Why We Desperately Need a New (and Better) Google.” In this piece, Wadhwa expressed how major the spam issues in automated search results were becoming, and the next few weeks saw a ripple effect through the industry; tech journalists and analysts were all chiming in about the “spam wars.” Now Wadhwa is back, and he’s got an update for us.
Posting on TechCrunch as usual, Wadhwa reveals that among his many responders on the Web was a more personalized response from Google’s SEO team. Amit Singhal, the head of that team, wrote a message stating that he (Amit) “was quite disappointed by the fact that Google search failed your students at their task” (a reference to the content of the original post), and further requested an opportunity for feedback from the students who were getting the heavily spammed results. Then he invited Wadhwa to come to Google HQ and learn more about the almighty Google algorithm.
And like so many do when Google says “come on over,” Wadhwa went, meeting with several prominent Google team members (Singhal, Cutts, etc.) and discussing issues, which Wadhwa states the representatives acknowledged in an open and honest way. In fact, it was Wadhwa’s visit that prompted the recent post from Matt Cutts describing the steps being taken to fight back spam.
Despite all this fine treatment, though, Wadhwa doesn’t give a definitive answer on who will win the spam wars. “Where does that put us?” he asks, and gives no reply. Rather, he says that the answers will come as more research is done and possibilities are uncovered or buried. Some of that researching will happen in an event called Farsight, which Wadhwa will attend; there’s little doubt that more and deeper analysis will be given after the event is complete.
