In his talk for BrightonSEO April 2014, Fresh Egg's SEO consultant David Sewell likens Google - and the evolution of search in general - to the evolution of the relationship between predators and prey in the animal kingdom. Briefly, his talk covers: • What search looked like when the internet began • How Google changed the search landscape and continues to evolve • How to spot a predator in the context of search • How Google’s predatory behaviour impacts businesses and the business environment • Seven strategies for survival

1. Google as predator.
The evolution of search.
BrightonSEO
Dr David Sewell
SEO consultant, Fresh Egg

2. In the beginning…
A collage of the wildlife found in one cubic foot on the reef near Moorea, French Polynesia © David Liittschwager/National Geographic.

4. Yellow Pages
SEO… Submitting sites to
search engines.
1998
2000
1994
Lycos and WebCrawler first to
trawl the ocean of websites
Yahoo! only returned results from its
directory, so browsing directories was
often more efficient than searching by
keywords to find all appropriate sites
Google sold search terms for GoTo.com
2004 21st Feb 1998
Pay-for-placement
Bill Gross said:
“This is an opening shot of changing
the search engines from a white
pages to a yellow pages”

5. Algorithmic
SEO... Manipulating
web connections
1998
2000
1994
Google used PageRank, and people
preferred the minimal interface and
results
2004
Yahoo! had bought:
Inktomi, AllTheWeb, Overture, AltaVista
launched engine replacing Google’s search
engine underneath
Microsoft began showing results from its own
crawler MSNBot

6. • You no longer needed to submit your site
• The clutter of a web portal was gone
• Google made it possible for sites to be found on the net without buying
keywords
• The results were varied and good
• SEO became a booming business…
Google solved a problem.

7. • SEO businesses filled the net with spam
• It was too easy to ‘game’ the PageRank algorithm…
But Google also created a problem.
• Keyword stuffing
• Linkfarms
• Webrings
• Reciprocal links
• Anchor text
• EMDs
• …

8. • An increased ability to understand queries and the web
• Human evaluators and Google spam teams working together
• Scoring unique, fresh and relevant content
• Machine learning
• Classification
To identify spam, Google evolved.
Rosey-lipped batfish
Stargazer fish

9. Characteristics of a predator.
Superior capabilities.

10. • Sharp senses
• to find their prey: echolocation, vision, audition, magnetism, olfactory
sense
• Extra abilities
• to capture prey - teeth, claws, venom
• Agility and Speed
Characteristics of a predator.

11. • Sharp senses
• Caffeine, Percolator, Chrome, android, Google Glass, spam detection (Panda,
Penguin, Hummingbird… Authorship ?)
• Extra abilities
• Dremel, Pregel, Streetview & navigation, images, videos, speech recognition,
knowledge, machine reasoning, lots of data, ngrams…
• Agility and Speed
• Google fibre, 100ms load time, VP9 video format
Characteristics of a predator.

12. Signs of predatory behaviour.
A changing environment.

13. How to tell there is a predator about…
• Antagonistic reactions - one side benefits
• A losing side is evidence there is a predator
• Interactions - force a dynamic ecosystem
• Migrations, prey develop symbiotic relationships
• Predator Impact – noticeable change in population
• Decline, or get fitter to survive, changing size or shape
Impact of predators.

14. The search environment is changing…
• Recipe search – 24 February 2011
• Image sorting – 5 September2011
• Flight search – 13 September 2011
• Personal search – 1 October 2012
• Knowledge graph – 16 May 2012
• Knowledge graph carousel – 8 August 2012
Signs of a predator.

15. • Extinctions e.g. blog networks
• Prey is increasingly easily consumed (Twitter bootstrap, SEO
friendly frameworks, SEO plugins)
Google: Eat you, sir?
Site Owner: Yes. Eat me.
Google: Yuk! With a gammy leg?
Site Owner: You needn't eat the leg, Google. There's still plenty
of good meat. Look at that arm…
• Technical SEO - SCHEMA.org
• Optimising for Google (instead of optimising for visitors)
Impact of predators.

16. Signs of a predator.
• Compare functionality

17. • Flight arrivals box
Signs of a predator.

18. Matt Cutts – Older sites won’t always keep their rankings
http://searchengineland.com/googles-matt-cutts-explains-older-
sites-wont-always-keep-current-rankings-182743
Cutts advises taking a ‘fresh look’ and constant tweaking
Google is ingesting everything…
Google wants everything you can give…
Google may drive your site to extinction next…
Signs of a predator.

19. Predator prey relationships.
Impact on prey.

20. Age of Fishes - Extinction over millions of years
Predator prey relationships - Lotka-Volterra cycles
Time
Population

21. • Where are we in this cycle?
Predator prey relationships.
Time
Population
Somewhere here

22. • What has Google realised about the environment?
Predator prey relationships.
The need to diversify after eating all the data
Population
Time

23. Recall the beginning…
A collage of the wildlife found in one cubic foot on the reef near Moorea, French Polynesia © David Liittschwager/National Geographic.

24. Predator changing diet and environment.
Rare pink handfish – Tasmania. Photograph courtesy of Karen Gowlett-Holmes.

25. Predator changing diet and environment.
Rare pink handfish – Tasmania. Photograph courtesy of Karen Gowlett-Holmes.
• Robotics – 8 companies bought
• Boston Dynamics, Bot&Dolly (robot arms), Holomni (legs), Meka
robotics (environments), Redwood robotics (telepresence), Industrial
perception (warehouses), Shaft Inc (bipedal robots)
• Google Glass – what are you looking at ?
• Driverless Cars – where are you going ?
• SlickLogin – sound based data security (Israeli defence)
• Nest – are you at home ?
• Google Lens – your physiological state ?
• Google Fibre – let Google connect you
• Green Throttle – entertainment systems
• DeepMind – machine learning
• Titan Aerospace – solar powered drones

26. Stop being prey: protection from Google.
Strategies for survival.

27. Stop being prey.
Run from the predator…
Walrus and the Carpenter – Alice in Wonderland – The Walt Disney Company.
Wile Coyote and Road Runner – Looney Tunes – Warner Bros.

28. Is running our only option ?
How can we survive in this environment ?
What can we learn from nature ?
Strategies for survival.

29. Become a predator – play the same game
1: Think like a predator
Dionaea muscipula, fastest plant closing in 100ms, by Kaim-Martin Knaak

30. 1: Think like a predator

31. • Re-imagine something, do it better.
• Make acquisitions in related or ancillary businesses to improve
product offering
• Make acquisitions in new markets to increase market share
Ask: “What would Google do next in my particular sector?”
1: Think like a predator

32. Partnerships – work together to beat the predator
2: Symbiotic Partnerships
Clownfish and anemone – Samuel Chow.

33. 2: Symbiotic Partnerships

34. Tips to help identify partners:
• Look at your business upstream and downstream
• Find partners with deep knowledge of your sector
• Look at customer segments and associated brand preferences
2: Symbiotic Partnerships

35. Starve the predator – change the environment
3: Change the environment
Spodoptera exigua feeding on Nicotiana attenuata, Wiki: PLoS Biol 2/8/2004: e250

36. Change the environment:
3: Change the environment
Xbox – TV
SmartGlass
Apps
Real World
Interactions
Sound
Data Layer

37. Go boldly into :
• Alternatives delivery: Sound, SMS, NFC tags, iBeacon
• Real world interactions: AR and CAVEs, bump contact
• APIs – share your data behind the scenes
• Be device ready – from 4k screens to pebble watches, in car
systems to entertainment consoles and games
• tCommerce – advertise in sync with TV programmes
3: Change the environment

38. Buy some extra time by distracting the predator
4: Distraction
Octopus vulgaris squirts ink – by Theasereje. Common Seastar – Asterius rubens by Herbythyme.

39. Secret Project
‘purple’
4: Distraction
NFC vs iBeacons
Creative Legal challenges
(anti-trust cases)

40. Tips:
• Be sneaky - add secret features
• Distract Google with the ‘standard’ web content
• Offer a rich, personal experience by context or behaviour
e.g. visit frequency, location, device, weather, local events
Build customer loyalty AND stop Google replicating your site
4: Distraction

41. Evolve faster than the predator
5: Stay ahead
Scalar patterning of a butterfly’s wing – scales detach easily to escape spiders’ webs by Janice Carr .

42. 5: Stay ahead

43. Tips:
• Stay ahead of Google – e.g. property search
• Offer services related to customer need – what they want, in a
form they can use, wherever they are
• Learn from community advocates and use this additional
knowledge to inform business developments
• Store information from your sector for future use
5: Stay ahead

44. Carry a payload – use the predator to your advantage
6: Carry a payload
Xylocopa violacea vibrating wings at flower causing harmonic resonance of anthers, by Thorsten Wagner

45. Use Google to your advantage:
6: Carry a payload

46. Use Google to your advantage:
• Photosphere
https://developers.google.com/photo-sphere/
• Phototour
Built using Panoramio or Picasa
• Earth Tours
• Floorplans
https://maps.google.com/floorplans
• See Inside
http://www.google.com/maps/about/partners/businessview/
• Trekker
6: Carry a payload

47. Ideas for selective information dispersal:
• Look at ways information is displayed by Google
Make data available to Google in an appropriate format
- Hack the Knowledge Graph to define entity relationships
Use: tables, books, scholarly articles, videos, music, images, PDFs
Don’t give Google your knowledge…
give it what you want it to display for you…
• Use digital curation to your advantage – modify visitor
behaviour, send to other marketplaces where your brand is better
exposed.
6: Carry a payload

48. Stay hidden – make the predator look elsewhere
7: Hide
Anthocyanins camouflage the plant, keeping insects away by Ivona Sandru

49. 7: Hide

50. Force Google to look elsewhere:
• Keep best content from Google behind a login or pay wall
• Obfuscate internal links using javascript
• Make more services available to those logged in
• Use other channels hide the ‘crown jewels’ from Google.
7: Hide

51. P…Become a predator
R…Form symbiotic relationships
E…Change the environment - starve the predator
D… Buy some time by distracting the predator
A…Stay ahead of the predator
T…Trick Google into carrying a parasitic payload - make the
predator an unwitting part of your business lifecycle
O… Obfuscate, stay hidden
R… Run….
Seven strategies for survival.