Why Does Google Share the Search Highlights?

Internet experts see Googles decision to share Search Quality Highlights via a special series, as an attempt to deal with the anti-trust accusations. Of all the accusations, the one Google may attempt to answer specifically is the claim that Googles search is hidden so that it can favor Googles own properties.

Google, when it launched its series, aimed the main purpose behind the exercise to be more transparent. Quoting Google, "Weve been wracking our brains trying to think about how to make search even more transparent. The good news is that we make roughly 500 improvements in a given year, so theres always more to share. With this blog series, well be highlighting many of the subtler algorithmic and visible feature changes we make. These are changes that arent necessarily big enough to warrant entire blog posts on their own."

Google uses the series to post about Panda Updates and other algorithmic changes.

The Reason Bing Has Come Forward to Share

Now, there are no anti-trust allegations against Bing. So quite unlike Google, it does not seem to need to prove a point of sorts. The reason behind Bings move is to attract user attention. If users know what Bing is doing and why, they will use Bing more. Bing aims to gain visibility by sharing more. As Bing is quoted:

"Today we are launching a new blog series were calling "Bing Search Quality Insights" aimed at giving you deeper insight into the algorithms, trends and people behind Bing. This blog is the first in a series that will take you behind the search box for an up close view into the core of the Bing search engine. Quality improvements in Bing are often subtle but often those little changes are the result of years of research. In the coming weeks and months, you will hear from members of my team on a range of topics, from the complexities of social search and disambiguating spelling errors to whole page relevance and making search more personal."

The Takeaway " Good News For Google

The launch by Bing is a good thing for Google as it will support Googles practices. The anti-trust allegations against Google will lose their punch as Bing is now doing the same thing as Google. Search is no longer a black box any more. What do you think? Do share your views.