Search Engine Battle.
posted by gman on Sep 22, 2008 - 42 comments

Google Search Engine Ranking Factors v2 "represents the collective wisdom of 37 leaders in the world of organic search engine optimization. Together, they have voted on the various factors that are estimated to comprise Google's ranking algorithm." The highest ranked factor is Keyword Use in Title Tag.
posted by Soup on Aug 18, 2008 - 56 comments

Blackhat Search Engine Optimization Techniques. Through the use of a DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act) complaint, you can have competing web sites thrown out of Yahoo's search index. If you file a DMCA report against a site, Yahoo will quickly remove the "offending" site, leaving no trace of the site in its index. This has led to a rise in so-called "Blackhat SEO," wherein one seeks to become the leading search result not by improving one's own site, but by having competing sites removed through the DMCA.
posted by nlindstrom on Jul 12, 2005 - 15 comments

Can't Find On Google . Com While many people seem to think that Google can find anything (and knows everything), experienced web surfers know the results are often a bit lacking. So this site allows you to post what you are really looking for and what you punched in to the "Big G" to try to find it. The owner claims to know someone who works at Google that is "always interested in what people can't find on Google" - doubtful IMHO if they will really change anything based on this site. But semi-interesting stuff that highlights the inadaquacy of search engine technology.
posted by RonZ on Jul 10, 2005 - 36 comments

A large number of people really don't know the finer points of search. For those people, Google has a suggestion.
posted by Mick on Dec 10, 2004 - 46 comments

Search Wars The BBC reviews five search engines, including Google and the new MSN beta
posted by Mwongozi on Nov 12, 2004 - 8 comments

Google News Bias. How second tier websites are gaming the Google News Enging.
posted by srboisvert on Sep 24, 2004 - 23 comments

Google, Yahoo, Alta Vista, others under attack? Despite all the big IPO news about Google, the bigger news today is that it doesn't work. Slap on an age-discrimination suit while we're at it, and potential trouble for the IPO. Have Larry and Sergei finally pissed off the wrong people?
posted by mrgrimm on Jul 26, 2004 - 31 comments

Gmail is too Creepy "Dear Gmail user: Due to privacy considerations, we cannot respond unless you resend your email from a different account."
posted by o2b on Jun 10, 2004 - 53 comments

How many systems does Google have? It depends on how you look at their S-1 filing and estimate their buying patterns... any way you look at it there's some serious computing power there.
posted by clevershark on Apr 30, 2004 - 8 comments

Googlearchy: How a few heavily-linked sites dominate politics on the Web. [pdf file] Political communities exhibit winner-take-all properties. Surprising?
posted by SandeepKrishnamurthy on Jan 8, 2004 - 3 comments

Spears Reigns Again on Internet . Lycos, America Online and Yahoo! all have their top ten of '03 lists out. Google Zeitgeist wasn't mentioned in the Hollywood Reporter Article, but it's always worth a look.
posted by Blake on Dec 21, 2003 - 10 comments

Searching MSN for the phrase "Linux" yields some pretty amusing (but yes, unsurprising) results. The first site seems moderately legit - Amazon stuff related to linux. The second one - MSN has a tech section about Linux? Not exactly. It doesn't really have much linux content at first glance. The third link is most amusing - see for yourself.

Comparatively, a google search for "linux" yields much more useful results.

This makes me wonder: should ethics be taken into consideration on search engines? MS has every right to have whatever they want come up when you type in "linux" - but they are willfully contaminating search results, which makes one wonder what other search terms Microsoft might want to rig the output of, and also, which they might have overlooked...
posted by twiggy on Jun 30, 2003 - 44 comments

Nationalise Google? "Perhaps the time has come to recognise this dominant search engine for what it is - a public utility that must be regulated in the public interest." Bill Thompson from the BBC tells me that Google puts a cookie on my computer that can't be deleted till 2038: "This means that Google builds up a detailed profile of your search terms over many years. Google probably knew when you last thought you were pregnant, what diseases your children have had, and who your divorce lawyer is. It refuses to say why it wants this information or to admit whether it makes it available to the US Government for tracking purposes." Are they "a secretive, hyper-competitive company with no respect for the personal privacy of its users"? Are other search engines better behaved? And is this the beginning of search ethics?
posted by theplayethic on Apr 14, 2003 - 60 comments

Google.ac is some kind of fake Google site that seems to return nothing but sponsored results. Is it supposed to fool somebody?
posted by hammurderer on Mar 28, 2003 - 14 comments

This just in! Search Engines help find people, too! Reuters has apparently just figured out that you can google up old acquaintances. As for myself, I find that google has become less useful than these guys for people-searches. So, what is the most obscure thing/person you have searched for, and how did you find it?
posted by ilsa on Mar 13, 2003 - 31 comments

It's Googlefight!! Enter two keywords and let them battle it out! I'm almost excited!!
posted by remlapm on Oct 4, 2002 - 94 comments

Google makes another killer app? Rackmounted servers devoted to googling your own intranet or website. Just look at those specs and features. Google is selling 1 server, retail $28,000, and they are marketing especially for corporate intranets. But imagine the power that would be at the fingertips of archivists, students, and researchers everywhere with a dedicated, customized Google for their own website. Imagine being able to do a detailed search that would literally comb the content of every page published by Project Gutenberg. In seconds, you could call upon thousands of years of writing for any and all information on any specific subject. What kind of implications will this technology have long-term for students, researchers, and archivists?
posted by insomnyuk on Aug 21, 2002 - 21 comments

Google Labs is a public beta testing area for some pretty cool things they are currently working on: an amazing glossary, voice search by telephone, search results navigated without the mouse and finding additional items to sets defined by words you enter.
With every new feature, they seem to be getting even further beyond the competition. Even though Google is very likable company: is a monopoly on web search a good thing?
posted by c3o on May 21, 2002 - 45 comments

Google is an amazing resource, and has changed how many access the web. Some say they did it by not hiding the banana. But for those that are curious, here is the research paper that started it all.
posted by patrickje on Mar 21, 2002 - 19 comments

"Google effect" reduces need for many domains. Dan Gillmor says effective search engines can and should stop people from freaking out that "Wah! All the good .com names are taken" and compulsively registering all the .biz, .info, .tv, .to, and other .crap domains which the registrars would like us to believe are vital. Bob Frankston agrees, [link via Ev] adding that reducing our dependence on semantic (i.e. keywordy) web addresses will improve the stability and usefulness of the web. (I agree too!)
posted by Tubes on Jan 14, 2002 - 5 comments

Google Year-End Zeitgeist. "From 'Harry Potter' to 'Osama Bin Laden' and 'Florida Supreme Court' to 'Napster,' the Google Year-End Zeitgeist reveals the collective focus of the online mind, highlighting the main events that drew the attention of a global audience"
posted by skwm on Dec 24, 2001 - 16 comments

Did Google go too far when they added a new tool to their website, or are webmasters to blame for lax security?
posted by machaus on Nov 26, 2001 - 21 comments

AltaVista's catalog of 500 million Web pages hasn't been fully updated since July. AV used to be my search engine of choice, then (for a short time) Hotbot, and now Google. What will the search engine look like that replaces Google?
posted by tranquileye on Oct 25, 2001 - 9 comments

From the googlebot FAQ: "For most sites, Googlebot should not access your site more than once every few seconds on average"

I thought it was a mistake at first, but they go on to say that you should contact them if "we are placing too high a load on your site" Do they really hit some sites that hard? If so, is it really necessary?
posted by Nothing on Jun 5, 2001 - 17 comments

It's become second nature for many of us to head straight to Google when trying to find something, and more people seem to be discovering the site all the time. These days, savvy New Yorkers are Googling for love.
posted by Aaaugh! on Feb 9, 2001 - 32 comments

"Search. It's all we do. Test our results." So, is that braggadocio... or insecurity? Given the spate of "how [they] scammed Google" pieces lately, I find the newest addition to their home page... interesting.
posted by baylink on Nov 3, 2000 - 12 comments

Somebody found my blog while searching for a 'doctor's surgery webpage'. AltaVista, Yahoo, Lycos -- has anyone ever found anything useful from any search engine ever? Really? I don't believe you. Never ever has any search engine -- not even lovely, nifty little Google -- given me what I want in any useful way whatsoever. You would not believe how long it took me to find a sodding picture of Steve McQueen smoking the other day. And for God's sake don't get me onto the utterly pointless localised versions or the abyssmal AltaVista picture search.
posted by James Bachman on Oct 16, 2000 - 24 comments

Holy Mother of Google!
posted by bradlands on May 12, 2000 - 2 comments

Everyone's favorite search engine Google has opened their GoogleStore. They've got shirts, mugs, and bags, some with the "I'm feeling lucky" slogan, but the strangest thing for sale? That'd have to be the Exercise Ball, which I suspect secretly carries Happy Fun Ball-style disclaimers. When not in use, Google Exercise Ball should be returned to its special container and kept under refrigeration. Do not taunt Google Exercise Ball. [thanks RasterWeb]
posted by mathowie on Mar 18, 2000 - 4 comments

Um, does anyone want to venture a guess as to why google's logo is surrounded by threes?
posted by mathowie on Dec 29, 1999 - 3 comments