After noticing Google’s Page Speed feature in Webmaster tools, I began to suspect that page load time was affecting the Page Rank of Google’s indexed websites. Now officially Google has announced that load speed is a factor in their search engine algorithm. They are also quick to note that page speed does not carry significant weight in the ranking algorithm, as the change is new and will be evaluated. The argument is that with all other things being equal, speed deserves to be considered in page value and will also serve as motivation to create faster websites for viewers. Critics however charge that this move will disproportionately hurt content-rich websites, which could drive a devolution of this content in order to meet the demands of page speed.  Others say that quick websites of little value will gain Page Rank points under this system – giving a boost to ad-ridden affiliate sites and spam. Hopefully this move will pressure Google to optimize some of its lag-heavy services such as Analytics so that websites aren’t penalized for using Google’s services under Google’s own system.

Google is challenging the marketplace in mobile, social networking, OS development, browsing, office collaboration, and more. But the blood of Google remains in search, so it only makes sense for Google to experiment with progressing this technology further. This is one area they cannot afford to lag behind.