The big news from the weekend is that Google has terminated its contract with Appen, one of the largest sources of its third-party human search quality raters sources. Appen announced this in this PDF, saying it received notice of this on January 20th, and the contract ends on March 19, 2024.
It goes on to say they had no prior notice, adding that the reason was that Google did this "as part of a strategic review process it will be terminating its global inbound services contract with Appen, resulting in the cessation of all projects with Appen by 19 March 2024."
"In FY23, Appen’s revenue from Google was $82.8m1 at a gross margin of 26%," so that has to hurt Appen in a big way.
Cyrus Shepard first posted this news, as he works on the side for Appen as a Google Search Quality Rater and Appen emailed him the news. He posted on X saying, "BIG shakeup for Google Quality Raters. Google cancels contract with Appen/RaterLabs (the company that employs me as a Quality Rater). No idea what this means to the Quality Rater program."
Google has used quality raters for almost ever. At least 15 years now, from what I know. This does not mean Google stopped using all quality raters. All we know now is that its contract with Appen, which may provide a large number of those quality raters is ending in March.
BIG shakeup for Google Quality Raters
— Cyrus SEO (@CyrusShepard) January 22, 2024
Google cancels contract with Appen/RaterLabs (the company that employs me as a Quality Rater)
No idea what this means to the Quality Rater program pic.twitter.com/rzScBe4Dvn
Finally, I'll add that Google has been known to use multiple companies for evaluation work - but Appen was one of the biggest.
— Cyrus SEO (@CyrusShepard) January 22, 2024
Waiting to find out if the work will continue with other companies, or if Google is making an even bigger change to how they use Quality Raters.
Here is some of the SEO commentary on this news:
Will Google replace human quality raters with AI?
Difficult not to speculate that @dawnieando was correct…
— Garrett Sussman ☕️🔎 (@garrettsussman) January 22, 2024
Though jumping to conclusions feels irresponsible 😏🙃https://t.co/vjnmjPkt62 https://t.co/fjgpbdxVPc
Oh boy. Is AI replacing the quality raters already? Or is Google just switching vendors? https://t.co/PVZBvLLOEQ
— Paul Shapiro (@fighto) January 22, 2024
Google cancelling an $82.8m contract with Appen that employs 1000s of remote workers.
— Andy Beard (@AndyBeard) January 22, 2024
Part of the role could certainly be accomplished using #GenerativeAI https://t.co/sVVLoWFYWG
My guesses. One is reducing costs. The other is the lack of quality work by the raters.
— Yoyao (Niche Surfer) (@yoyaoh) January 22, 2024
The latter could mean either they think that their algorithms are better, or the raters just weren't doing a good enough job based on SERPs after updates. https://t.co/NvIRSasdX0
Does this suggest that Google thinks the quality raters role isn’t performing well for the needs of search?
— Joe (Niche Campus) (@NicheCampus) January 22, 2024
Or does it mean that they are leaning more into AI based quality rating?
Both? https://t.co/DKBKeuKRPw
Are the other contracts going to end too or just Appen's?
🫣🫣🫣 Luckily haven't seen any news about the other companies that Google contract human Search Quality Raters for, including TELUS and Teemwork AI. Let's hope they're not offsetting this incredibly important process onto AI anytime soon...! https://t.co/rTDestdbKK
— Caitlin Hathaway (@CaitlinTheSEO) January 22, 2024
Maybe the SERPs are to blame?
The SERPs are currently terrible. Maybe someone internally is blaming Search Quality Raters instead of their own systems.
— Harpreet (@harpreetchatha_) January 22, 2024
$83 million revenue with 26% gross margin just to review Google results is mental maths. https://t.co/Sd9MBRRli2
What do you all think?
Forum discussion at X.
Update: I spoke with Google and this seems like Google is transitioning away from Appen and will be moving these efforts to other suppliers. It does not seem AI will replace these jobs, at least this is what I believe from my conversations with Google.
"Our decision to end the contract was made as part of our ongoing effort to evaluate and adjust many of our supplier partnerships across Alphabet to ensure our vendor operations are as efficient as possible," a Google spokesperson told me.
Google told us they have been working on these restructuring efforts with vendors for over a year now. Google told us canceling this contract with Appen will not impact its products or services. Google confirmed that it works with several other suppliers to provide quality rating and external feedback on the experience of its products.
