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Over the years Google has developed a habit of doing the most damage to the very people who provide it with its content and the worst possible time ... just before Christmas.

Why Google should choose this time of year sure beats me and just about every other sane business person out there too. Of course if you ask Google why they choose a certain time to do anything you're lucky if they bother to even acknowledge that they've seen your question but some years ago now Googleguy did answer that question when Steve asked it.

I'm not suggesting that Steve has some special relationship with anyone at Google ... in fact he's been just as scathing in his criticism of Google as anyone has ... but for some reason on that one occasion he did get an answer.

Unfortunately it wasn't an answer that does anything to improve the poor image that Google has among business people who rely on the search engine for their business. In fact, if anything, it just went to show even more clearly just how out of touch with the real world that Google is because the answer to the question of why Google chooses the busiest time for online sales to make changes was: 'because it's as good as any other time ...'

Yep Google doesn't seem to grasp the reality that November to early December happens to be the busiest time for online shopping and the worst time for people who make a living from selling goods online to have to cope with an algorithm change.

Admittedly this time it hasn't been a change in the algorithm that's going to cause problems, it's something new that a real propeller-head at Google dreamed up and it's called Search Wiki.

If you haven't noticed it yet log into your Gmail account or Analytics account and leave yourself logged in ... as most of us would do anyway. Then head over to Google and do a search for any term you care to think of. When the SERPS appear check for the new symbols that appear alongside the results.

Now you can adjust your own search results using the symbol with the up-arrow and the cross. So now you may never see anything new in the search results if you have set the SERPS to show you what you want to see. Whoever thought that one up was a real genius ... after all people don't really use Google to find new information do they?

But that's not the best example of total stupidity when it comes to these new tools that people can use to improve their search results ... well I guess Google thinks that it's going to improve the search results ... but I doubt anyone else does. The best example of total stupidity comes with the little text bubble that you see sitting next to the 'Similar pages' link.

Click on that text bubble and you can add your comments about the site and if your search returns a site that someone has already commented on then you'll see their comments. Now how helpful is that?

Well I bet it took you all of a split second to work out what Google has just done by allowing people to comment on the sites Google lists in the SERPS. Yep Search Wiki has only been around for a little over 48 hours and already people are spamming it ... I've seen complaints that there's porn spam in there and you can bet the pills and gambling guys won't be far behind.

There's also a free hit for any business person who wants to post fake complaints about a competitors business and I'm sure those fake complaints are already beginning to appear.

And someone at Google didn't foresee this happening? Google thinks that it's a good idea to allow this sort of thing to happen? Man this is Web 2.0 gone totally crazy ... either that or someone at Google convinced their boss that polluting the search results with a whole lot of spam was a great way to improve business.

Hopefully someone at Google will wake up to the realities of life on the Internet before things really get out of hand. If they don't then I'm sure things are going to get very ugly and Google might start losing a few more lawsuits.

In these bad economic times shareholders don't need much encouragement to start ditching stock and Google's share price last week was below $260 and some analysts were beginning to suggest that their 'buy' recommendations mightn't last much longer.

Oh and there's one other thing about Search Wiki that most Webmasters will not like. While you are logged in to any of your Google accounts there is just no way to get out of Search Wiki. Even the various FireFox plugins that supposedly gave users the ability to get non-personalized results from Google don't work in Search Wiki.

Looks like fun times ahead till someone from Planet Google realizes that things are different down here on Earth.