The World Wide Web has changed massively since its humble beginnings, and not always for the better. There are quite a few aspects of the modern WWW that disappoint me – the manner in which all the little independent sites have gone by the wayside and been replaced by mega online presences, for example. Unfortunately, the Web has become all about money and power.
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I Didn’t Search For That!
One of the most frustrating aspects for me has been how all these man-in-the-middle sites have grown to dominate search results. In particular, sites offering accommodation. Search for accommodation in a specific location and I’ll guarantee the results are dominated by these man-in-the-middle sites – Trivago, Booking.com, Tripadvisor, on and on – with the odd reference to an independent accommodation provider buried deep in the results.
I call them para-sites. I’ve spoken to multiple accommodation providers and they all tell the same story, they don’t particularly want to be associated with these para-sites but, because these para-sites now dominate the accommodation market, they really have no choice.
Take Booking.com, for example. Booking.com is based in the Netherlands and is owned by a US company (Booking Holdings). Now, all the independent accommodation providers pay Booking.com (and similar sites) a fee per booking which, when aggregated, amounts to many millions which, in turn, only serves to increase the cost of accommodation.
Booking.com also has a somewhat nefarious history, with the latest accusation of canceling hotel reservations and then relisting the same hotel rooms on the same dates for much higher prices. Check out the Wikipedia page: Booking.com
These types of para-sites perform no particular service, except maybe for providing multiple-choice options, most if not all of the money they earn goes overseas and, in the end, independent providers are no better off.
What I do when searching for accommodation is visit one of these para-sites, jot down the names of several accommodation providers that fit the bill, search for those names, and then visit the actual accommodation provider’s website. In most cases, those sites provide a phone number so you can call and ask a human questions – imagine that!
Why Do Para-Sites Dominate Search Results?
The answer, my friends, is very simple – because they are sucking so much money out of honest business owners they can afford to pay Google (and others) for preferential treatment. Is it fair? No way! But that is, unfortunately, what the WWW has become… the rich getting richer.
Do you have any pet peeves regarding how search engine results are managed and presented? Let us know via the comments.
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Jim,
I am surprised it took you so long to pop. I would say the situation has bothered me for the past 5 years, with it noticeably getting worse. When searching a specific topic, the number of unrelated results that are show, is my greatest annoyance. It is like the “force” is trying to push me off my path.
Now, on my phone I found an app, “Google Go” as opposed to the “Google” search app, that appears to strip out some of the mega-money sites and get to articles related to the question.
Sadly, I have not found anything similar for desktop use without using an Android simulator. I could use DuckDuckGo search site, but I find it not much better than Google in results.
We need to live with how it is and be smart when we are searching.