And what about so-called content farms that pay non-expert freelancers literally pennies per post or nothing at all as they pollute Google searches with worthless content in hopes of making a quick buck? I tested Google's new search technology myself and didn't see any improvement for this major issue, nor for any of the other Google-search drawbacks mentioned above.

I'm in Europe, which does not yet have Google's new search technology. I asked a friend in the United States to google "How to Swim Better." But while the rankings were slightly different in order than before Google's shift, there was little, if any, visible change. In fact, besides links to a review of a book about a competitive swimmer on , and to content on About.com and Yahoo Answers (the worth of which is debatable), both of our searches generated about the same advertising and content-farm drivel.

Like so many others, I've been trying to determine exactly how Google determines its search rankings by asking the company directly about it for years, yet I've never received a credible response. So what exactly is Google comparing the supposed improvements against? Hopefully, one day we will find out. In the meantime, it seems that those firms with the means to will continue to benefit from Google the most.

Bruce covers tech trends in the United States and Europe and tweets at @brucegain.