[Web4lib] search engine inconsistencies report page

[Mark Bardsley]

Hi Felicia,

I have heard from various sources that Google tweaks their ranking
algorithm(s) - the finer details at least - as frequently as once per month.
Granted, there are probably major points of the patented pagerank that do
not change.

Here are a few interesting links (in no particular order) to look at
regarding the matter:


Why Google Dances and the reasoning behind it
http://www.ozzu.com/ftopic470.html


Google Changes Its Algorithm Again
http://www.searchenginepromotionhelp.com/m/articles/search-engine-optimizati
on/google-algorithm-mar-05.php


Possible Change in Google's Ranking Algorithms Today?
http://www.webmasterworld.com/forum34/432-1-10.htm


PageRank
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PageRank


Google Dance Syndrome Strikes Again
http://searchenginewatch.com/searchday/article.php/3114531


- Mark


On 7/5/05 7:59 PM, "Felicia Mehl" <felicia at u.washington.edu> wrote:

> Although that's a good point about the inconsistencies page being last updated
> in 2003, my reason for forwarding a link to the page was to point out the
> problems specifically listed about Google (which were last updated in October
> 2003--not an eternity!). It was not in any way to offer any comparison to
> AltaVista, Hotbot or Northern Lights. To be honest, I haven't even looked at
> those pages. My interest was in Google only--I merely sent the link to the
> entry page.
> 
> A couple of people have mentioned that Google's algorithms must have changed a
> lot in the last year or two, but I'm not sure this is the case. What do you
> base that assumption on? I sure that they've been adjusted, but some of the
> problems discussed on the list earlier are the same ones discussed on the
> Notess site. I offered it merely for its possible explanations of the problems
> and as a suggestion for a place to report inconsistencies. Prof. Notess does
> request on the site that people email him with any additional problems they
> notice. I took him for his word on that and still do! (By the way, I have
> emailed him and requested an update to that page, if at all possible.)
> 
> Google also requests feedback and as someone mentioned in an earlier post,
> they were responsive to his emails and fixed the errors. Of course, it's
> probably impossible for them to fix it completely, but if you see something
> that's a problem, I think it's important to try and take action to fix it. How
> you go about it is up to you--you could contact the product/service provider
> or someone who is a consumer watchdog or yes, even a university!
> 
> If there's any more up-to-date information on these issues, please pass it
> along. I'm very interested in this topic and would like to read more about it.
> 
> Thanks,
> Felicia
> 
>   ----- Original Message -----
>   From: Richard Wiggins
>   To: Felicia Mehl
>   Cc: web4lib at webjunction.org
>   Sent: Tuesday, July 05, 2005 7:38 PM
>   Subject: Re: [Web4lib] search engine inconsistencies report page
> 
> 
>   Felicia,
> 
>   The site you reference is by Greg R. Notess, a notable commentator on search
> engines in general and Google in particular.
> 
>   Unfortunately the comparison article that you cite was last updated in July
> 2003, and a couple of years is an eternity in Web time. The search engines
> reviewed are AltaVista (now virtually irrelevant in the search pantheon, after
> many ownership changes, and now run stealthily as a Yahoo property), Hotbot,
> Northern Light (whom I once claimed was the future of rock n' roll when it
> comes to full text search of serious literature) --  and Google.
> 
>   I bet Google's algorithms have changed greatly in the intervening years, as
> have everyone else's.  One of Greg's complaints back then was:
> 
> 
>     SITE LIMIT FAILURE: A search such as site:www.google.com google should
> only find pages at Google. Yet with the number of hits set to 100, some
> records come up from adobe.com, digits.com, osdn.com, and even washington.edu.
> 
>   I could not replicate this flaw just now.
> 
>   Perhaps more to the point, right now we'd want to compare Google to today's
> competitors, Yahoo Search and MSN Search.  (Yes, I know, some one will pop up
> and say Ask Jeeves is still a player.)
> 
>   Maybe Greg will propose a solution for updating his Inconsistencies report.
> We could all bombard him with our own observations.   Or maybe hold a contest.
> Or ask a library science class to help?  But, respectfully, I wouldn't cite
> the 2003 report as current reality...
> 
>   /rich
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
>   On 7/5/05, Felicia Mehl <felicia at u.washington.edu> wrote:
>> There is an interesting page on different search engine inconsistencies at:
>> http://www.searchengineshowdown.com/inconsistent.shtml
>> 
>> You can also report specific problems you encounter to the page owner.
>> 
>> Felicia Mehl
>> Master's candidate, Library and Information Science
>> University of Washington
>> _______________________________________________
>> Web4lib mailing list
>> Web4lib at webjunction.org
>> http://lists.webjunction.org/web4lib/
>> 
> 
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