The Telegraph interviewed Google's Amit Singhal and Udi Manber about the Caffeine launch.
In that interview, Amit Singhal, Google's head of core ranking, said something interesting. He said that Google is "the biggest kingmaker on this Earth." Kingmaker is a term used to describe someone or something that has great influence on a topic. For Google to describe themselves as "the biggest kingmaker" is an important point.
I personally do not think Google said it that way to be egotistical, rather the opposite. Google knows how important they have become in influencing the world based on the organic search results and they don't take that responsibility lightly.
Amit Singhal told The Telegraph:
"We deal with those responsibilities by having very concrete principles," says Singhal. "All rankings are decided algorithmically, and the focus is on user benefit, not advertiser or commercial benefit. We ask ourselves, 'Can a random company who does not want to be part of any Google system be harmed by a change we're proposing?' If they are, we won't do it."
Now, I know many SEOs and Webmasters that would laugh at this statement. What do you think?
Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.
