Why?

Because it was hacked. This happened back in April, and happened to a lot of other WordPress installs. The only reason I knew about the potential de-listing is that I got a note on my Google Webmaster account. I fixed the problem and asked for a review. I figured, 30 days delisting is fair enough. But now, months later, I appear to just be out of luck.

Google’s a private company, and can choose to exclude whomever they like. That doesn’t make it any less suckful, though. And especially since I’ve written a book that could be considered critical of Google (but barely so–I’ve been a pretty consistent booster), there is always the worry that this snub is intentional. I don’t think this is the case. I think Google is just inept and inefficient, not actively censoring a critic. But I also think that if they are trying to avoid being evil, they need to try harder, and relist my blog.

Until then, I’m going to promote Bing at every turn.

Now, if it could answer a question like “what is the median income in new york city?” then I can see why I would go there. But it cannot. The same query typed into Google leads me to Wikipedia where the question is answered. So, it’s got good buzz. Wolfram is behind it, it would be hard to imagine that it didn’t have that buzz. Nothing wrong with this–unless I’m wrong (and that rarely happens), this will fall out of the buzz cycle in a few weeks, and fade into the woodwork. Yes, others might have said that about Mathematica, at their own peril. And I certainly wish no ill will to the project. I just don’t see its place in most user’s search process. I also worry a little that the buzz around a new search engine will lead to hype exhaustion–so I worry about crying Wolf.

But let a thousand flowers bloom. If this really is a revolution, I will be entirely happy to be wrong.