This morning I thought why not do a Google search on the term 3D printing. It will be interesting to see what the vast majority of the English speaking world sees when searching on that term.
And what was discovered on page 1? Yes, Time Magazine pulling media from various sources to make a video explaining to the public what 3D printing is about and what it can do. Eagerly, I thought this should be good – NOT.
As expected, it was low quality rubbish that looked more like an animated slide show prepared by a 1st semester media student without a budget. And I am not just picking on Time because it seems to be the norm now and not the exception.
It is frustrating that this type of content gets immediate 1st page priority on Google when there is so much original stuff out there of higher quality. Lots of businesses and web masters put together original content or at least provide creative or intelligent comment. Many spend time, money and effort producing great work.
Then what does Google do? It moves that great material made by small players out in favour of presenting low quality dross produced by a corporation. In addition, it takes out further quality and fills 40% of the page’s real estate with adverts. Again, there is no effective quality control.
And no sir, I am not complaining about 3DPrintWise (it was never page 1 or even page 2). It is a general point.
Wakey wakey Google! Get your act together. Your search engine is increasingly looking like a 24/7 show of nothing more than banal adverts and low quality T.V junk. The type of stuff which plays in the background of hotel lobbies where some clown either has the volume too loud or a person with more sense has muted it.
It is hard not to be cynical when you have 3D printing communities on all of the social networks which present great content every day of the week. Google could do a lot worse than pick more of that material for a start.
If you share and repost great work carried out by 3D printing enthusiasts and those whom are actually interested in it, the search engines may not keep filling their pages with shallow work – just because they are a so called well known media outlet. More to the point, a wider audience will have been better informed by ‘YOU’. They will just click away from the junk put in front of them.
Of course search engines claim Time et al are authority sites. Really – are such media outlets authorities on 3D printing? Start voting for better communication and better content; share the best work across your own social networks or we are going down to the lowest common denominator.