Ten recent algorithm changes (Google)
From the post:
Today we’re continuing our long-standing series of blog posts to share the methodology and process behind our search ranking, evaluation and algorithmic changes. This summer we published a video that gives a glimpse into our overall process, and today we want to give you a flavor of specific algorithm changes by publishing a highlight list of many of the improvements we’ve made over the past couple weeks.
We’ve published hundreds of blog posts about search over the years on this blog, our Official Google Blog, and even on my personal blog. But we’re always looking for ways to give you even deeper insight into the over 500 changes we make to search in a given year. In that spirit, here’s a list of ten improvements from the past couple weeks:
(skipping the good stuff, go to the post to read it)
If you’re a site owner, before you go wild tuning your anchor text or thinking about your web presence for Icelandic users, please remember that this is only a sampling of the hundreds of changes we make to our search algorithms in a given year, and even these changes may not work precisely as you’d imagine. We’ve decided to publish these descriptions in part because these specific changes are less susceptible to gaming.
I don’t doubt very large vendors (as well as small ones) would try to “game” Google search results.
But, describing search changes in generalities cuts Google off from suggestions from the community that could improve its legitimate search results. I am sure Google staff search all the search conferences and journals for new ideas, which is an indication that Google staff aren’t the only source of good ideas about search.
I don’t know what the mechanism would be like but I think Google should work towards some method to include more interested outsiders in the development of its search algorithms.
I don’t think Google has anything to fear from say Bing taking such a move but it isn’t that hard to imagine a start-up search company in a niche coming up with a viable way to harness an entire community of insight that filters upwards into search algorithms.
Now that would be a fearsome competitor for someone limited only to the “best and the brightest.”
PS: Do go read the ten algorithm changes. See what new ideas they spark in you and vote for Google to continue with the disclosures.
PPS: Is there a general discussion list for search algorithms? I don’t remember one off hand. Lots of specific ones for particular search engines.