11 replies to this topic

[plantboy]

From 1998-2000, Google had a page called "Why Use Google?" and it read thusly:

"Google is designed to impose order on information chaos. It's what a
search service should be; not an edited, limited directory or a list
of results that have been auctioned to the highest bidder, but a
thoughtful method of organizing the Internet according to its own
structure."

They took that off around late 2000, I think. As of November 2003, it would appear that Google is now an edited, limited list of results...

For more fun reading, search on Google at The Wayback Machine. Maybe I'm being overly dramatic, but I feel like something has been lost this last month.

[Jill]

As of November 2003, it would appear that Google is now an edited, limited list of results...

Ya think? I don't.

I think Google would still agree with that statement they used to have posted.

Jill

[plantboy]

If no editing is going on, then why the filter? If it were just an algorithm change, I shouldn't be able to get back those old results by typing in my keyphrase -whatevernonsense (googlegoo, etc)? And how would Scroogle be able to function?

[Jill]

I guess I'm not sure what you mean by "editing." You mean like censoring?

And I also don't understand what you mean by it being a "limited list." As far as I can tell, they're still showing all the sites they were before, and haven't limited it to anything.

Jill

[DanThies]

You obviously don't get it, Jill. My site is the most relevant and important site on the web. It should show up whenever and wherever I want it to show up. When it doesn't show up on Google for a particular search term that I covet, there are only two possible explanations:

• Google has done something evil because they are evil, bad, and wrong.
• All those other sites must be spamming, and Google doesn't care.

[Jill]

Gulp!

Thanks for setting me straight, Dan!

Jill

[plantboy]

Very funny, Dan - people like that bother me, too, (have you seen google.public.support.general? it's rife with near-sighted anger) but I can't get away from an uneasy feeling here. Algorithm changes are all fine and dandy - I'm not the kind of SEO who has put all their eggs in a free basket. But the ability to deactivate the Florida update just smells weird.

It appears to be a filter. What does a filter do? It edits, it limits. Am I thinking about this the wrong way?

It appears to be mechanically edited/limited to me because the change can be deactivated. Or maybe we've just found a way to switch between two algorithms (which doesn't seem like that would be possible). Comparing the filtered results to the non-filtered results gives the appearance of a limitation. So the results are being limited. If I weren't able to compare the two, I wouldn't have any qualms.

[Jill]

Or maybe we've just found a way to switch between two algorithms

I think that describes it very well. That's exactly what you're able to do with the -word search.

[plantboy]

I think that describes it very well. That's exactly what you're able to do with the -word search.

I hope that's all it is. I pray you're right, Jill. You've got a good record so far, so I think your intuition is far more attuned than mine. And by the way, thanks for teaching me most of what I know about optimization in the first place.

[Jill]

And by the way, thanks for teaching me most of what I know about optimization in the first place.

My pleasure.

I'm going to start collecting royalties from all of my "students" soon...so save your pennies!

[Scottie]

It appears to be a filter. What does a filter do? It edits, it limits. Am I thinking about this the wrong way?

The results have always been "edited" in order to produce what Google's algo believes to be the most relevant sites for a query. All they've done is change the criteria for what the most relevant sites are for some types of query.

[bwelford]

I'm coming round to the view that the introduction by Google of a very broad view of what "stemming" is all about is really giving an order of magnitude improvement in relevancy for the vast majority of not very competitive keywords and phrases.

I know that in some highly competitive sectors people feel it looks like the battlefield after a major war, but that is not what I am seeing.

So if I had to use only one word to try to capture what the Florida Update was all about, it wouldn't be filter. Rather it would be stemming.