What Do You Use?
I just did a Google search for the term “search engine” and was amazed at the results. There were no paid results. Number one? Alta Vista. Then, in order, Dogpile, a Wikipedia article about search engines, Ask.com, Yahoo, and then a bunch of garbage. No Google or MSN on the first page.
An Associated Press article on AJC.com reported that Bill Gates said that Microsoft is going to go its own way after walking away from a deal to buy Yahoo. The article says that Google has 58%, Yahoo 22%, and Microsoft 10% of the business.
What’s up with the famous algorithm?
I haven’t used anything but Google for years now. It for the most part works; and, works giving me what I want within the first five or so results.
I have noticed that it skews to blogspot. Using Sitemeter.com and Google Webmaster Tools, I see that I get weird hits that are obviously not responsive to what the searcher was really looking for. For some odd reason, last week a lot of people in other countries were typing “rather than” into Google and getting me as the third result. I’m high on the results of searches for “buying beer” “on Sunday” and “in Georgia.” I still get a lot of hits from a search for “Federal Judge Song” for a post I did soon after I started the blog that linked to the actual song on another site. Why does Google send people to me to send them to the source? I’m number five on a search for “eldridge cleaver” whom I’ve mentioned twice. I’m number seventeen for “ijaza” which I talked about in a post.
But, I still use Google, often many times a day. What do you use? Does Microsoft have a chance? I’m going to go to Alta Vista and search now, then try Dogpile.
6 comments:
Mostly Google, but now and then I throw in a different one to see if the results are different.
Google. I get tons of hits on 'pimped out cars' which makes no sense to me. Not that being the #1 site for butt sock searches does. :)
My favorite is Clusty.com.
(I did a post on search engines a while back that might interest you. It's HERE.)
I tried the engines Thomas. MSN doesn't know me. Excite seems to be out of order. The rest give me my blog in the top couple of results. I've saved Clusty, I like the name.
Because Google's algorithm (or would that be 'Al Gore Rhythm'?) is based on an interpretation of relevancy (as opposed to contentual relevancy which would be very hard to determine programatically), you could have total crap written about a given subject and yet still be ranked higher if:
1. Your site is updated frequently (which yours is).
2. You mention the key term in things like page titles, headings, image alt text, and so on.
3. Other people who update frequently link to you.
4. Other sites link to yours using the specified search term.
5. The search term appears in the content of your page, as well as in the headers, titles, etc.
Because the blogosphere is comprised of frequently updated content and myriad cross links, blog posts often get a relevancy boost where it is not warranted. The key stat to pay attention to is if they find you using a search term, do they stick around and read? Most of my Google hits don't. Because I only have commentary on porn, not the actual porn that they are looking for.
Still, I can't imagine using any other search engine besides Google -- I always find what I am looking for.
I remember when Alta Vista was the measure to compare against. Google beat them by downplaying advertising and providing better results.
I think you called my blog crap Pos.
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