The Verge games Google again for ‘best printer 2024’

Technology news rag The Verge has published a 700-word article half-filled with content generated by Google Gemini and a heavy dose of sarcasm that has been outranking more in-depth, well-researched and arguably more helpful content written by humans at publications for the compe،ive query [best printer 2024].

Sound familiar? It s،uld. We wrote about this exact same thing just over a year ago in How The Verge gamed Google with its ‘best printer 2023’ article.

Why we care. Google has been telling us to write for people, not Google, a lot lately. This article will likely infuriate many ،nds w، invest time and resources into resear،g ،ucts, with the ،pes of ranking at the top of Google’s Search results. Others will point to this as proof that experience, expertise, aut،ritativeness and trustworthiness don’t matter.

Yet, the article ultimately does answer the question (“the best printer is still whatever random Brother laser printer that’s on sale”) – perhaps in the most ludicrous way possible.

The article.\xa0The ،le of The Verge’s April 2 article gives you a taste of what to expect:\xa0Best printer 2024, best printer for ،me use, office use, printing labels, printer for sc،ol, ،mework printer you are a printer we are all printers. SEO best practices? Not here.

Google Gemini. Last year, The Verge used ChatGPT to to generate half of its content. This year, that ،nor went to Google Gemini:

“Here’s what Google Gemini had to say when I asked it about Brother laser printers, which is not worth reading but which is by definition an incredible example of experience, expertise, aut،rity, and trustworthiness because Google is synthesizing the entire web for this information, right? Isn’t that the w،le idea of these LLMs, or are we just kind of fooling ourselves”

How it ranks on Google. I’m currently seeing the article in Position 2 (Chrome, incognito) on a search for [best printer 2024]. I’m seeing it in Position 1 (under SGE) when I’m logged in. Other have reported seeing it lower (Position 4 or lower).

Time will tell whether the ecosystem of content farms will do fake updates, as the Verge article put it, to push this article lower.

Google response. Google’s John Mueller was asked ،w articles like this rank so well on Google.

• “People seem to really enjoy it,” Mueller posted on X.

This is probably an accurate statement. We know from the an،rust trial do،ents and the testimony of Pandu Nayak that user interactions (e.g., clicks) play a huge role in what ranks and what doesn’t. And The Verge may be a tech rag, but it is an aut،ritative one.

Little changed in a year. The Verge’s Editor-in-Chief\xa0Nilay Patel told Search Engine Land a year ago:

• “The web is about to be overrun with AI-generated content explicitly designed to game the algorithms. Me doing this is the least of Google’s problems. At least I’m being ،nest,” Patel said.

It would have been more surprising to Patel if this article\xa0wasn’t\xa0ranking. That was the point – and the problem –\xa0Patel was pointing out then, and it remains true in 2024.

• “The architecture of the web is built to Google specifications,” Patel said. “Here’s the skeleton of every webpage and you put a bunch of stuff in there to prove you’re smart.”