With search engine algorithms becoming more and more complex you have to wonder at what point it will actually begin to harm to relevance of the results.

I've always been a simple guy. To me the less moving parts in something the better. It doesn't matter whether it's a piece of software or an SUV to me. I like things simple. I also am a fervent believer in math. I've always thought that complex systems in software could be replaced by sweet little algorithms that look like they're doing the same thing but are actually taking some shortcuts based on math and data.

When I look at search engines though I begin to see the limits of my perceptions approaching. I don't know if it's just the way it has to be or maybe some are just getting ahead of themselves. As of late my favorite search engine is beggining to shift from the emporer of all search engines to a supposed lesser entity.

My question then. Is it possible that a search engines method of crawling and ranking pages could get so incredibly complex that it begins to backslide from among the ranks of the elite?

I am starting to believe this is true, though I hate to say it. Search engines have alot to put up with these days. People are always trying to optimize for them or spam them. Huge corporations are pouring money into getting top placement. Web pages are constantly winking in and out of existence.

To deal with these demands the search algorithm grows and grows. Helpful at first, as time passes it becomes large and unwieldy. Technology these days assures that it's still practical to crawl the web with a battleship of an algorithm. What I wonder about though is the point where it gets so complex that human minds can't guess what it's going to do with every change. What happens when it becomes uncontrollable?

So I watch and I wait. Will the king of all search engines fall to an upstart with tons of money? Will the relevance of their results drop a bit more with every bit of tinkering they do? When every last factor is considered where web pages are concerned, will it all balance out to perfect relevancy?

I wish I knew. Keep watching.