Everything You Need to Know About the Huge Google Search Leak

 
SPECIAL ISSUE:
Everything You Need to Know About the Huge Google Search Leak

A disgruntled marketer has leaked thousands of pages of Google's confidential search documentation. It is the biggest leak in the history of Google Search.

Full Coverage

• “This is massive.”

• Did Google Lie to the Marketing Community?

  • Click data is one of many clues

  • Maybe, but out of necessity

  • Or maybe even the reps didn’t know?

• What’s In the Documents

  • Highlights

  • Docs had been in plain view for two months

  • How much of it is actually in use?

• Should We Change Our SEO Strategies Now?

  • “Build content that people like.”

  • “Think more about UX principles.”

• More Reading

At first glance, you might think the video is of a software engineer doing a job interview.

He’s got the software engineer uniform — pressed jeans, white polo shirt, neatly groomed facial hair. He’s sitting down, looking right into the camera.

Only this is no job interview. This is the guy who, this past weekend, leaked Google’s most important trade secrets. Because he’s mad.

His name is Efran Azimi.

Today, he uploaded the video below, revealing that he was the person behind the massive weekend leak of internal Google Search documents that has sparked chaos in the marketing industry.

He’s mad because the documents — 2,500 pages worth — seem to contradict what Google has told marketers for decades about how to rank higher in the search results.

The leak is a set of confidential, internal documents (API documentation, to be precise) detailing Google’s secret sauce — the parameters and levers that run their money-printing search engine.

We are devoting our full issue to this leak today, what’s in it, and what it means for marketers going forward.