There’s been a significant amount of speculation about the motives behind Google’s firing of Appen, the company that provides Search Quality Raters, with many expressing this may be the dawn of a new era of AI search quality raters. The facts however are clear about the meaning behind these recent events.
There are two ideas being talked about in the SEO social media world about what this all means:
- Google doesn’t need quality raters anymore.
- The firing of the search quality raters may mean that Google plans to roll out AI search quality raters at scale.
Are Search Quality Raters Going Away?
Google’s search quality raters are not going away. Google employs multiple companies to provide search quality ratings services, it’s not just one company.
There are threads on Reddit for example that mention Telus and RWS that apparently offer search quality raters to Google.
So the idea that Google’s no longer going to use search quality raters is unfounded, not true.
Some speculate that the reason why Google fired Appen may have something to do with the Appen workers having been encouraged by a Google workers union to negotiate for higher wages (according to a report on Forbes).
So if Google is going to cut costs, the speculation goes, it makes sense to cut the Appen workers since they’re close to the unionized workers at Google.
But that might be a coincidence.
Google announced it is laying off workers again, including from engineering teams and it could be that the Appen workers losing their jobs was just a part of the overall cost cutting.