Google unexpectedly cuts contract with Appen for Search Quality Raters

You must be aware that in the world of Google and SEO, its search engine is what most people use these days to search for things that are not easily available or things that interest them. Now, it is worth noting that Google does not employ people from their offices to look after the web but they assign these contracts to other companies and one of them is Australia-based Appen. It is also worth noting that these companies hire people who are called Search Quality Raters and they rate the web and are responsible for giving manual actions to a lot of websites after manual visits. Talking about Search Quality Raters and Appen, it has come to our notice that Google just ended their contract with Appen and it is one of the biggest contract terminations in the history of Google Search.

Now, there is a chatter in the SEO community that Google has relied upon its AI to rate the web and does not need those Search Quality Raters anymore. However, I definitely differ with that opinion and feel that Google does not seem to be happy with the performance of Appen and its Search Quality Raters which is why they have terminated their contract. It is seen that “The news has impacted Appen stock, which is now at an all-time low”, as reported by Search Engine Journal. It is also reported that Google’s contract made 26% of Appen’s revenue which means it is definitely a huge setback for the company in short term scenario.

This could also be a part of Google’s recent drive to cut back on employees in order to reduce costs and we have seen the recent layoffs at YouTube were a part of that as well. However, Google and Sundar Pichai have come under scrutiny due to these layoffs and it is seen that employees are now coming out and saying that the company lacks vision and “a lack of consistent priorities, with executives vaguely pointing towards AI while simultaneously conducting widespread layoffs across various departments” while also saying that “Google has failed to launch successful executive-driven projects in recent years, often abandoning initiatives if they don’t quickly gain massive user numbers.”