Google confirms mega leak of confidential data

Behold, in the end, the documents of this mega data leak from Google are real. Even this colossal entity in the technology universe is not immune to serious security breaches like this.

The mega leak involved more than 2,500 pages of confidential content do Google. They showed details of your search engine. This information was secret to protect their methods and market advantage.

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The documents had instructions and details on how Google’s algorithms evaluate and organize sites in the SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages). This data is essential for the company. So it makes sense that Google wouldn’t want to share these secrets for reasons of competitive advantage.

The authenticity of the documents was already clear due to the quality and detail of the information. But Google was slow to confirm that they were theirs. Confirmation only came on Wednesday, the 29th, after many requests for clarification from the team. Verge.

About the mega leak

At the center of the scandal is the community of SEO experts (Search Engine Optimization). Among them is Rand Fishkin, co-founder of SparkToro. They decided to carefully examine the leaked documents. The result of these analyzes is worrying. It appears that Google may not have been completely clear and honest. He may not have given correct instructions to SEO professionals. These professionals work hard to make their pages appear better in search results and it may be that the information they had was not completely honest.

A clear example are external links that point to a page, known as backlinks. The documents show that these links are still very important for ranking. This is different from what Google spokespeople were saying before, that backlinks were no longer that important in defining the relevance of the page.

Despite admitting the leak, Google didn’t say much about what analysis of the documents showed. Even though Google was reluctant to discuss the analysts’ conclusions, it warned us not to get the wrong idea about how its search tool works. This warning seems to go against people’s desire to know more when they discover such important information.

We caution against making inaccurate assumptions about the Research [buscador] based on information that was out of context, dated or incomplete.

(…) We share extensive information about how Search works and the types of factors our systems consider, while working to protect the integrity of our results from manipulation.

Davis Thompson, porta-train to Google

How and when the leak occurred are still questions that are being investigated by experts. We seek to understand not only the causes, but also the exact circumstances that allowed such an event to occur.

What now, Google?

Uncertainty lurks in all the conversations about how the big leak might affect the relationship between Google and SEO experts. People want to know if, or how, this issue will change the trust and honesty between Google and these professionals. The company may have to answer many questions because of the leaked documents. Or maybe you’re forced to be clearer about how your search system works.

On the other hand, Google is probably worried that the leaked information could be used in the wrong way. This could give some people or groups the chance to tweak search results to favor certain sites or content. This could greatly harm the quality and usefulness of the services that Google offers to users.