Just to add to the new Google filter speculation…
A very good friend of mine, leaked a story to me that wasn’t supposed to be told. This was 3-5 days before the first sign of change happened in the Google SERPS. When I was told of it, I shrugged it off as propaganda, or just plain bullshit. During the changes, it stayed in the back of my thoughts, but never left. Now that theres a 90% chance that these are the final results, more and more people are coming out with similar ideas behind WHY Google has made these changes now.
The story was simple. A mid-sized, profitable company, in the consumer electronics business worked out a deal with Google for over $1.5 Million cash to get the top 3 spots, one for each of their 3 sites, for all of the keywords they wanted.
Personally, my thoughts when the Google SERPS changed so quickly, and so conviniently before the largest consumer holiday shopping day, something just seemed to be “not right”. Furthermore, I hate to say this, but I think this DEFINIATELY has something to do with inflating profits in time for the IPO. If I am correct, then Google’s plan was to deliver informational sites first, so that commercial sites would be forced to purchase AdWords, and at even higher rates, because everyone would want to get as much traffic as possible. I’m sure they also cut deals with large companies who profit the most from online shopper sales such as Amazon.com and BestBuy.com.
Again, if this is true, which it could just be my own conspiracy theory (I hope so), then I will be strongly disappointed in Google, and they will lose me as a veteran surfer.