Google Suggest / Autocomplete has been causing grief for business owners for a while, especially after the launch of Google Instant. Searchers would have queries suggested that might include terms like torrent or scam. Back in January, Google started censoring piracy related terms. At SMX West, I saw a fun debate between Avi Wilensky and Othar Hansson from Google, where they debated over the need for clients to execute gray/black-hat tactics to manipulate suggestions.
I’ve personally had a problem with this myself, since one of my client’s core products starts with “s” and the first suggestion, before the product, was “scam”.
It looks like Google may now be blocking suggestions using just the word “scam”.
Looking at a search mentioned by Avi “AdSense is a scam” it forces the user to press enter to return results.
Looking at a previously known example: Taggedmail Scam
No suggestion for scam, so let’s try to type out scam.
Clear page on typing scam, must press Enter to search. However, it seems to only be filtering the word “scam” not “scams”.
Personally, I like this change. I think it’s a good idea to require a user to prove their search intent before displaying scam results. How do you feel about it?
It’s fascinating that Google are treating that word differently now.
Another example I just found online was that it used to be a suggestion when someone typed [The Hunger Project] – this is no longer the case. (Reference.)
The fact that all of the Google Instant results disappear when you add ‘scam’ to any search phrase implies that it’s being treated in the same way as all the other adult-industry terms that were blacklisted. (Info from 2600.com)
Thanks for the update. It may be worth noting some results do still show “scam” at the bottom in “Searches related to…” I did a search for “Free Credit Report” and the “scam” result is still down at the bottom.
But I think the removal of “scam” in Google Instant is a plus.
Nice find! Just did some searching and it looks like “rip off” has been axed as well. Looking for more instances, but not appearing for at least two clients where it used to be prominently placed.
And it looks like “ripoff” as one word instead of two is back. Very weird.
Yeah, I’m still seeing many negative related terms in Google Suggest/Auto-complete: 1. pyramid 2. complaints 3. truth 4. watchdog 5. quackwatch 6. racist
I also think that “reviews” will continue to become a way to insinuate a negative connotation about your competitor.
I’m still seeing “scam” in several queries I regularly track. Are you saying it’s gone from suggest, or being treated differently as a query? Or am I just slow?
I’ve tested it too, and Ash is spot on. On two searches that I knew had the “scam” tag, the suggestion has been replaced with complaints – straight swap.
Also, it does still come up in the “related searches” section at the bottom.
That said, it’s a step in the right direction for Google. Here’s hoping they take it to a logical conclusion.
@Matt
Nice catch. I’m still seeing that as well for my client. But I’m a lot happier to just see it at the bottom, than in Instant.
@Rhea
I’m seeing the same thing, “rip off” appears blocked, but “ripoff” is still working. But nice find! Let me know if you see anything else.
@Ash
Yeah, I don’t think they axed all negative reviews. Google was drilled pretty hard at SMX for the specific word “scam” and other negative results, so I’m wondering if that helped influence this change. And the scam suggestions, like Matt mentioned, still appear at the bottom.
I’m still seeing review as a top suggestion on many queries I keep an eye on.
@Tony
I’m not seeing the word “scam” work for any queries I try, or even just the word scam alone. It still looks blacklisted on my end. It appears to be treated the same as other terms on the 2600 Google blacklist. I’d love to see where it’s still working, if you’d be up for DM’ing me an example on Twitter.
@Andy
Was complaints listed before, and it was moved up, or was it a swap?
Great move by Google. If someone is new to the internet and using it to search for something the last words they want to see come up next to a product or service is “scam”
Small but interesting move. I wonder if there’s a legal issue here? Where if Google display results about a product or service that include websites suggesting the said product or service is a scam; that’s OK as it’s not them that said it. But if Google Instant is itself suggesting a product or service is a scam = potential lawsuit.
It’s sort of a weird change, because a few categories I used to follow definitely require a “Hit Enter to Search” for the word scam, whereas before, Google was more than happy to suggest it. But some of the other keywords I’ve watched will still bring up results for scam instantly. It’s sort of a hodgepodge right now. I wonder if/when they’re going to either drop it or make it universal.
Just the right article I needed to see today. The “scam” autocomplete was hurting at least one client but as of today doesn’t appear. Thanks for the post!
@Oskar: Brands have tried to make that claim about Google suggest before, but I think they’ve backed down when Google (and everyone else) points out to them that the autocompletions are only based on what people write and search for. It’s not like Google to starteditorializing suggestions, and it’d could be a whole world of problems for them.
This is really great news for all the companies that are legit. But its really awesome for scamish companies who can continue to rip off people without show up a scamers on google instant.
We at Reputation Accelerator began getting a flood of calls from clients about 2 weeks ago that have been battling this issue letting us know about the change. We spoke to Google and the first response we received was that it could just be a glitch in the Matrix but it appears very deliberate. The same person we spoke to at Google also said that Google is looking at negative chatter on the web as Spam as a way to diminished the results without infringing on freedom of speech rights… so to speak. So all of this makes sense and consistent to what they told us was coming down the pipeline last November during our meeting. Yahoo and Bing however still show the suggestions. We will be posting more on the subject on our site this week. Good post.
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Our company’s scam suggestion disappeared for about 2 weeks and now this morning it’s back worse than ever.
I noticed today that the word “scam” is back in the Google “Autocomplete,” anyone else seeing this as well? I searched for the same terms as I did before when it was removed, example “Free Credit Report” and the scam option was available.
Matt: yes, I’m seeing it again, and Google Instant shows the page of results again.
Yes, Google seems to be suggesting “scam” again. It still blocks “is a scam” though.
Hey Matt, yeah, it started creeping up a few days ago. I’m seeing it back, but for the term associated with my client, it ranks lower than “reviews” now.
It’s baaaaaaack!
I wonder what caused them to revert this change?
Any news on this issue being fix?