Search Engine Optimization (SEO) can be seen as a gift to the individual and a curse to the target public. It allows fort the underdog, the small blogs and citizen journalists, to attract a piece of their target public that may otherwise go to the larger chains. On the other hand, it also leads to a flood of spam and websites that attempt to infiltrate and large amount of topics they have no business being around.

It is impossible to properly police SEO, making sure that websites market themselves in the correct arena and allowing for the websites that are in the correct arena to publicize themselves. The scenario of SEO is a balance between what people should do and what the reality is. The best way to combat the problem is to market your product in the online arena so precise that you will come out as the top option for the search. Trying to entire too many fields or fields you have no business being in, will do nothing but clutter the search results and complicate finding your target public.

Sometimes it is just as important for a product to have good design than it is to be functional. Google has learned this lesson recently with a slew of user backlash from redesigning many of its popular services. The first one, GMail, receives a fair bit of grumbles about the new look, but overall discontent was kept at a minimum. The floodgates opened this week with the new version of Google Reader.

Google Reader became a hot topic due to its random design, along the same lines as GMail. The backlash has been almost ten times the amount that GMail has received, although both pretty much look the same. The strange part is, none of the backlash has to do with functionality. Google Reader functions the exact same as before, with the same buttons and organization, just a different design.

This is a perfect example of how much users become attached to the way companies brand their products. Almost along the same lines as Gap, who randomly decided to change their logo and received a mountain of backlash, every complaint is on a truly aesthetic basis. No matter how well your product functions, you can't just through redesigns out to your target public. Users become attached, and thus don't feel comfortable when the environment they have known for years is suddenly changed.

Ulanoff, L. (2011). Mashable. Google Interface Designs: Welcome to Dullsville. Link.