Can Google please everybody?

As Patrick Stafford explains today in his cracking feature about Google’s recent search result changes, a lot has changed in the last six weeks.

First, in mid-October, came Google Instant, a new service that essentially tries to shave a few milliseconds off your search time by predicting the results of your search as you type it.

Second, in late October, came an update to Google Places search results, which places more emphasis on location-based search results (including displays of little maps where appropriate) but also pushes AdWords results down.

And finally, in the last week or so, we’ve seen Google Instant preview, which allows users to preview web pages from the main search results pages.

Google will see this as continual innovation designed to improve user experience.

But I can tell you one thing – entrepreneurs and SEO experts are reeling a little from the pace of change.

While these three changes might help users, for website owners it means new tweaks are required for SEO, AdWords and design strategies.

Just when your SEO strategy was looking good, the game changes again. And again. And then again.

Google can say (and probably will) that the changes represent three improvements to user experience and in the end, that’s all that matters.

Which is fine of course, except when you’ve consequently put new pressure on the people actually paying the bills – that is, the SMEs around the world who buy AdWords.

As I have argued before, this is the really interesting line that Google walks.

On the one hand, it’s a sort of public service/public institution that much of the world relies on each and every day for information.

On the other, it’s a business, delivering a product – advertising.

The changes we’ve seen in the last six weeks are good for one group, but at this stage at least, have created a lot of hard work (and potentially extra expense) for the other group.

Is Google getting the balance right? Probably, although perhaps there could be an argument that the sheer pace of change we’ve seen of late could be handled in a different way.

Of course, in the end there’s no point crying over spilled milk. Google is the only game in town, and we’ve all got to play along.