It is now possible to hit the publish button on your latest blog post and see the result within 30 seconds on Google. I am not exaggerating, I’ve just done it. I hit the publish button, copied the headline, fired up Google and pasted in the query. Hit search (yes, I know you can type enter to save time) and there’s my blog post in the number one spot (and number two indented which means they actually indexed one page and updated another). In 30 seconds flat, probably faster because I wasn’t rushing. Now how the hell do they do that and just how fast is Google?

The fact I took the headline and first two paragraphs from a news site and the original was ranked at number three is a bit embarrassing (for them), but of course I gave them a read more link to funnel the traffic their way.

I’ve been noticing the speed pick-up all month but now it’s just crazy fast. Think about it, an obscure little web site in the arsehole of nowhere coughs up a post and somewhere out there ravenous Google beasts instantly detect movement and pounce. They race the prey at light speed back to the Google hive, stash it in just the right spot and then bolt away to find the next catch. 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365.25 days per year, for millions of web sites all over the planet.

You can’t help being impressed (or make that depressed if you are Yahoo or Bing).

Of course you can’t achieve this turnaround with just any web site. You need to work to prime the Google beasts so they notice when you twitch. If you hardly ever move then you eventually get ignored even if you resort to jumping up and down and waving your arms around.

Yes I know Google has been indexing pages faster and faster for a while now but something has definitely changed, something has picked up a gear. I’m aware I could run over to the face-slappingly smug blog run by that famous Google guy and get all the details but, as it happens, I’m not a fan boy by nature.

The “activity” thing must be for real then, because why else would they go to such lengths to provide performance this impressive? If you don’t know what the “activity” thing is, SEO bods and rebel (i.e. new product launch imminent) marketers are saying that Google is about to pay a whole lot more attention to freshness and social “buzz” at the expense of traditional on page SEO and link building.

Put another way, pull SENuke back to second gear and get yourself a blog and a Twitter account. Plus get yourself a cat, you’ll need something inane to talk about in the land of social media. Love it or not that’s where we’re going because that’s where Google is taking us – fast!

Okay… I’m hitting the publish button… NOW!

My last few site launches are still sitting around waiting on Google to grace them with its presence. Oh sure, the crawler popped by after about 20 minutes. But can I get anything indexed? Not on your life.

Okay, so the Internet is becoming a busier place. But can things have changed that much from a few months ago? And I know I don’t have a God given right to get indexed. But neither does Google have a similar right to maintain its monopoly, which is what it undoubtedly has given the ongoing farces at Yahoo and Microsoft.

Not being able to get indexed, despite following the Google bible, is becoming a serious impediment to building a business. Especially time sensitive ventures like product launches.

I know this problem doesn’t affect the big boys because I work that end of the game too and it’s still no problem to flash a few links at Google and be indexed in minutes. So are we still on a level playing field? Are my observations purely coincidental?

I could try going to the Google forums and asking directly. I wonder, has there ever been a bigger collection of self-satisfied and smug sycophants gathered in one place before? To these guys the fact that Google owns the Internet is a good thing. Many of these people are Americans, you know – the land of competition where the free market is free? They allow a pass for Google though.

Yes, I’m ranting. But I’m wondering how it has come to pass that one company can have such a degree of control over what is touted as the one truly democratic and open resource on the planet, the Internet. Can it possibly be healthy? Particularly if Google is applying hugely unbalanced criteria that favours big over small and established over new. Now I can’t prove it but it sure looks that way to me.

I also hear Google has been shutting down the accounts of thousands of online marketers. Not just the spammers, who I’m sure nobody has any sympathy for. But also legitimate marketers for (I’ve heard but cannot confirm) not providing the sort of content Google thinks is useful to its users. Say what? Who are they to decide? Just index the Internet already and let the users decide what is useful and what isn’t. This isn’t China yet.

Besides, who exactly made Google what it is today? That’s right, marketers whether they were large businesses or one man operations. A lot of money has flowed into Google’s coffers in the biggest continuity program known to man. Now Google wants to be fussy about the type of business it once happily grabbed in days when doing no evil still seemed to mean something.

What depresses me even more is we never seem to learn that letting these corporations take control always ends in tears. So this adoration of Facebook as a rival to Google is ill founded. I guarantee, you give Facebook the power and it will abuse it just as quickly.

Anyway, I can’t change any of this and just have to accept it. But I can have a moan. If Google insists on running the whole show then at least run it properly and give everyone a fair shake.

Google – get on with it, I have a business to run and I’m a user too!