Secure Search Comes To Firefox
Today, I did a search on Google for something I'd written about on my blog. Being fairly fanatical about having the web MY WAY and not wanting to be told what it is I'm looking for by big brother "G", I didn't sign in to my Google account. I wasn't interested in a "secure search" and being told by "G" what it was I was really looking for. But it was a "secure search" anyway... ?? After doing a little looking around in a non-secure search, I found this article explaining that Firefox was adopting secure search by default. Did I ask for this? Did anybody? Well, maybe someone did...but I didn't.
Does This Hurt My Online Marketing?
There's an old African proverb that goes something like this... "When two elephants fight, it is the grass that gets hurt. And when two elephants dance it is the grass that gets trampled. The problem is, we are the grass." I've seen variations on this but this is how I first heard it stated many years ago.
OK, so how does this "hurt" me or 'us, the grass' ? Obviously there are benefits to it. But as an Internet marketer it can hurt since I can't see what search terms brought visitors to my site. All you see in your logs are, "secure search" or "not provided." There is no way of telling what the terms used for that search were. Well, very little can be gleaned unless I want to sign up for Google Adwords, or use Google Webmaster Central, etc. (But I can still see what landing page was first hit by site visitors.) This topic has been all the rage with web publishers and SEO experts in recent weeks.
So why is Google doing this in the first place? I believe this comment is right on target! http://searchengineland.com/firefox-to-use-google-secure-search-by-default-116231#comment-473911339. I agree with the comment and that Google is doing it primarily to keep search term data from Facebook. "Their (Facebook's) big growth drivers post-IPO was to do behavioral and search-intent targeting of ads based on the user's navigation history. With this change, Google is taking away search-intent, which is the most valuable of all targeting information." That's my opinion as well. I can't really blame Google for not wanting to be helpful to Facebook, though....these "two elephants" are fighting and "we are the grass." I always wanted to go to Africa, but this isn't what I had in mind.
At least with the Firefox Secure part of it, I don't believe my search results were being "tailored." That's another matter entirely with being signed in to Google. Yes, they have ways of opting out of "tailored searches," but how conspicuous are they? I don't allow any web history. Google can do what it wants, but I won't accept that. In fact, Google doesn't "know" where I am. I sign on to the web via proxy. The closest Google comes is that I'm located somewhere between Chicago and Boston...which I am not...but these are two of the cities Google "sees" me in when I am signed into the service. I said I was "fanatical" about it. :)
The Best SEO
So how does this hurt me as an artist on the web? Do I now have to go to social networking? Are they pushing me to that? I refuse to join Facebook. Period. I did that and simply don't like it. Done...not going back. So does all of this render my idea of using search engines to bring visitors to my site obsolete? No, I don't think so. Today I noticed someone visited my site via AVG Search! AVG? Wow, Google and such are really beginning to annoy people! I seem to be getting more Bing visitors as well. Frankly, I don't care what any of these companies do. I'm only interested in what I do, and I intend to continue painting in series format when I want and as I please and writing about it on my blog. As Google itself says...the best SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is providing the best content possible for the website visitor, and for me that means painting.
By the way, you can share this article on BOTH Facebook and Google if you want... just click "like", "send" or the "g+1" links below. ;)
