Google's search engine crawler to stop identifying as an iPhone come April
Starting April 18, the smartphone user-agent of Google's search engine crawler -- Googlebot -- will no longer identify as an iPhone running iOS 8.3, according to the company.
Instead the agent will identify as a Nexus 5X running Android 6.0.1, Google explained in a blog post. Googlebot is the code that analyzes sites on the Web, its data eventually filtering into ranked results seen when a person runs a Google search.
The user-agent is being updated so its renderer can "better understand pages that use newer web technologies," the company explained. "Our renderer evolves over time and the user-agent string indicates that it is becoming more similar to Chrome than Safari."
The change isn't likely to affect most websites or developers, but does appear to reflect trends, and could mean that Google searches will favor newer Web standards.
Although iOS and Safari have a large presence online, the sheer number of Android devices helps give them and Chrome a bigger footprint. Chrome is also multi-platform, though on iOS it's limited to the same rendering engine as Safari.
Instead the agent will identify as a Nexus 5X running Android 6.0.1, Google explained in a blog post. Googlebot is the code that analyzes sites on the Web, its data eventually filtering into ranked results seen when a person runs a Google search.
The user-agent is being updated so its renderer can "better understand pages that use newer web technologies," the company explained. "Our renderer evolves over time and the user-agent string indicates that it is becoming more similar to Chrome than Safari."
The change isn't likely to affect most websites or developers, but does appear to reflect trends, and could mean that Google searches will favor newer Web standards.
Although iOS and Safari have a large presence online, the sheer number of Android devices helps give them and Chrome a bigger footprint. Chrome is also multi-platform, though on iOS it's limited to the same rendering engine as Safari.
Comments
The only real reason for this.
Preferences -> Privacy -> Details -> search for "goog" -> delete.
Takes 2 tries. I just deleted 7 Google caches.
Also remember that 97% of Google's revenue comes from ads.
All their other software projects (and self-driving cars) are either freeware used to crush competition or PR stunts.
Things that hurt your ranking are bad html that does not validate, use of Flash, malware, known untrustworthy domains, self signed certificates, using keywords that are not on the page, mention of competitor's name in the meta data, etc. Newer web standards can also be misused or generate poorly formatted code just as much as older web standards can. Ranking is all about being a really good page, not so much the technologies used.
Duck Duck Go isn't very good (in my case) at finding relevant searches. So I found something that is, and I don't have to sacrifice my privacy to use it. Ever heard of https://startpage.com ? It uses Google underneath, but it also acts like a wall between you and it. Fun stuff
It's not a black and white situation. Tons of people don't use it, and some people, like me, try not to use it, but I'm not blind to the fact that it's definitely good in terms of results. I use DuckDuckGo as my primary, but when I really need good results, I jump to Google. #fact
Interestingly, Apple will be using Google Cloud Services as part of the iCloud infrastructure.
Can't escape Google no matter what we try.