Google Casts A Big Shadow On Smaller Web Sites

Google Casts A Big Shadow On Smaller Web Sites
Eric Shcmidt, executive chairman of Google Inc., speaks during a press conference to promote the Nexus 7 tablet in Seoul, South Korea, Thursday, Sept. 27, 2012. The Nexus 7 tablet goes on sale in the domestic market from next month. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)
Eric Shcmidt, executive chairman of Google Inc., speaks during a press conference to promote the Nexus 7 tablet in Seoul, South Korea, Thursday, Sept. 27, 2012. The Nexus 7 tablet goes on sale in the domestic market from next month. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)

STARTING in February, Jeffrey G. Katz grew increasingly anxious as he watched the steady decline of online traffic to his company's comparison-shopping Web site, Nextag, from Google's search engine.

In a geeky fire drill, engineers and outside consultants at Nextag scrambled to see if the problem was its own fault. Maybe some inadvertent change had prompted Google's algorithm to demote Nextag when a person typed in shopping-related search terms like "kitchen table" or "lawn mower."

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