I haven’t been able to find the answer to this question because you have to know the answer before you ask the question hence my question for the hive mind. Surely someone here knows advanced google search techniques or there is a simple answer I’m just not privy to. My questions tend to be in depth so pardon me, but the title is the crux of the problem. This problem occurs with Bing as well, and presumably all search engines.
Among the many problems the choice by Automattic to call its service WordPress.com causes for WordPress.org is there is a failure of search engines to distinguish between the two and produce accurate results regardless of whether one’s search includes a TLD or omits it. Results for both are always just lumped together.
Thus, while it is customary in the user community to distinguish between WordPress.org and WordPress.com as follows……
– when someone says WordPress they mean the open-source software downloadable at WordPress.org
– when someone says WordPress.com they mean the for-profit managed web hosting service offered by Automattic Inc.
……search engines haven’t been programmed to accommodate for that distinction.
The top-level domain appears to be just removed from a query before acted upon. And a query without a TLD is assumed to be a search across all TLDs. And since search engines score .com websites higher, this adversely affects wordpress.org. The following are two search engine failures i’ve seen that result:
1. Want to know statistics about the size of the WordPress.com network of websites? Cant search google unless you don’t mind digging through the results. Good luck finding that answer at all. Even though I have read articles discussing this, google can’t find them for me.
2. Want to find the official WordPress website? Don’t ask google or bing, they will say it’s WordPress.com every time (meaning it’s the top search result) due to the bias given to .com TLD, user intent be damned.
There must be a search engine workaround for this issue, a parameter i’m not setting perhaps. In which case this would be a better question for the google subreddit, however, this issue appears to be a big one adversely affecting wordpress.org. Surely someone there has been tasked to working with Alphabet Inc. and Microsoft to fix the issue. Quite certain search engines can easily correct for this.
In general, this is a problem that benefits Automattic. It’s service benefits from brand recognition even though technically (to comply with the GPL, in all likelihood) it is considered a “managed web hosting service” and not a fork of WordPress (which the GPL i think disallows). I’d argue Automattic was ethically responsible to fix this issue as a part of SEO efforts and transparency etc. but the company seems intent that WordPress.com appear to be just another part of the WordPress group of websites, goin so far as to announce to visitors earlier this year “You have reached the home of WordPress” on the WP.com landing page even though we all know that , naw, you are wrong that is over at WordPress.org.
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