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Google algorithm change launched

news.ycombinator.com

171–180 of 203 posts

Re: Google algorithm change launched

#171

Matt, I just went through my search history because i remembered a very specific instance of seeing this. Here's the query. http://www.google.com/search?q=nstoolbar+bottom+bar&ie=u... You'll notice that efreedom.com shows on the first page with content taken directly from stackoverflow. While stackoverflow does show in the results, the exact page that efreedom copies does not. Anyway, I'm glad you guys are taking thi…

For [nstoolbar bottom bar] I see (from an incognito window): #2) stackoverflow.com/questions/3977343/nstoolbar-on-bottom-of-window #3) stackoverflow.com/questions/tagged/nstoolbar #9) efreedom.com/Question/1-3977343/NSToolbar-Bottom-Window The #9 result is copied from stackoverflow.com/questions/3977343/nstoolbar-on-bottom-of-window, which is the same as the #2 result. This actually is really hard to do as well as Go…

Ironically, now this post ranks at number 1 for the query. World works in a strange way it seems.

Re: Google algorithm change launched

#172

Matt, I just went through my search history because i remembered a very specific instance of seeing this. Here's the query. http://www.google.com/search?q=nstoolbar+bottom+bar&ie=u... You'll notice that efreedom.com shows on the first page with content taken directly from stackoverflow. While stackoverflow does show in the results, the exact page that efreedom copies does not. Anyway, I'm glad you guys are taking thi…

It looks like we've got SO above efreedom for that query, but it's always nice to find a url that we didn't have that we'd like to be indexed. That lets us check whether we can improve our crawling/indexing. Thanks for the example!

If you tell me that sites who chronically scrape content elsewhere get a "pull-down weight" attached to the whole of their content, you've made my day.

Re: Google algorithm change launched

#173
post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As an aggregation site, your SEO shouldn't expect to outrank the content you're sourcing - that's unethical. At best, your SEO should focus on the service you provide. Looking at your site, it's easy to see why Google bumped you down: http://technifi.com/ http://technifi.com/news/Egypt-Leaves-the-Internet-3841691.h... It looks like your service is nothing like Techmeme, adding ad-related pages prior to accessing sign…

Let me address these points one by one: 1. We don't expect our SEO to outrank the original source, I was very clear about that in my original post. SEO is a tool to be used among many other tools to ensure that content is properly "classified", nothing more than that. When a search engine visits, you want that search engine to immediately know what any given page is about, and we do that very well. 2. The Vodafone im…

Perhaps you're looking at it the wrong way. You haven't been de-indexed, Google simply found other sites that were more relevant.

Re: Google algorithm change launched

#174
"scraper sites or sites with less original content"

To clarify, this change measures unique content site-wide, not just for a particular web page/url?

I may be too focused on semantics, but it would be important if you are trying to maximize visibility for a single page in Google's search results and your other pages have a significant amount of duplicate content.

For instance, one page on your site is about a WordPress plugin you've created (it's totally unique), but on most of your other pages, you've copied and organized relevant sections of the WordPress Codex so that your users can easily find the documentation needed to customize the plugin. Is your unique webpage about the plugin safe? I was always under the impression that search rankings were determined on a page-by-page basis rather than site-wide.

P.S. Sorry if this was already asked and I missed it.

Re: Google algorithm change launched

#175

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Google (in the context of search) produce no content of their own, are they ruining the internet?

The goal from the user's perspective is to get to the content they want as quickly as possible. A search engine helps in that, as presumably you don't know where the content you want is if you're visiting a search engine. A search engine that links to an aggregator site doesn't - the search engine should just send you to the original content directly. Presumably, aggregator sites by themselves also help in content di…

I understand what you're saying, but doesn't Google News do the exact same thing?

Google News provides snippets of content, and helps people discover the news providing direct links to the original source of news. For Google to deindex a site like celebrifi and while running a competing product (Google News) smells a bit of monopolistic behavior. It's suspect it's unintentional, but Google is going to have to walk a very very fine line as you start deindexing certain sites.

Re: Google algorithm change launched

#176

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The goal from the user's perspective is to get to the content they want as quickly as possible. A search engine helps in that, as presumably you don't know where the content you want is if you're visiting a search engine. A search engine that links to an aggregator site doesn't - the search engine should just send you to the original content directly. Presumably, aggregator sites by themselves also help in content di…

I understand what you're saying, but doesn't Google News do the exact same thing? Google News provides snippets of content, and helps people discover the news providing direct links to the original source of news. For Google to deindex a site like celebrifi and while running a competing product (Google News) smells a bit of monopolistic behavior. It's suspect it's unintentional, but Google is going to have to walk a…

When News results show up on the search result page, they link directly to the story, they don't link to the Google News landing page or category where you'd then have to click on a link.

Google News itself falls into the second category - an aggregator that stands on its own, as a destination. Much like Hacker News. I personally don't use it, but the people that do go because they find it lets them discover a bunch of content that they otherwise wouldn't know about.

Re: Google algorithm change launched

#177
post #31

This is awesome! Now if only I could completely remove certain sites from my search results ala the Google Wiki stuff. I'd love to drop swik, and expertsexchange and a few other annoying sites. Its possible this algorithm change will make these sites less annoying to me though.

Bonus trick. Experts Exchange actually often has some good stuff on it. The pages are designed to make you think you have to buy a subscription to see the answers, but if you simply scroll down beyond the ads for their service the answers (which aren't scraped from elsewhere) are visible near the bottom of the page. Yes annoying, I wish they didn't work this way, but there are times that I've found experts exchange t…

That may be the case sometimes, but as far as I'm concerned they are spam. I would like the option to blacklist sites from my results. Wouldn't it be great if we had choice.

Re: Google algorithm change launched

#178
So does this mean that Stack Overflow could remove the first tag from the start of the title and they would still rank above the scrapers? I found it really distracting and often double take on a SO result in google because I've scanned the first word and saw a spammy looking tag first.

Re: Google algorithm change launched

#179
post #31

This is awesome! Now if only I could completely remove certain sites from my search results ala the Google Wiki stuff. I'd love to drop swik, and expertsexchange and a few other annoying sites. Its possible this algorithm change will make these sites less annoying to me though.

Bonus trick. Experts Exchange actually often has some good stuff on it. The pages are designed to make you think you have to buy a subscription to see the answers, but if you simply scroll down beyond the ads for their service the answers (which aren't scraped from elsewhere) are visible near the bottom of the page. Yes annoying, I wish they didn't work this way, but there are times that I've found experts exchange t…

This only seems to be the case when coming from Google, if you refresh the page or paste the link to a co-worker the results are gone.

As for the long list of crap between the question and the answer, use AdBlock to remove that various DIV's.

Re: Google algorithm change launched

#180

Matt, I just went through my search history because i remembered a very specific instance of seeing this. Here's the query. http://www.google.com/search?q=nstoolbar+bottom+bar&ie=u... You'll notice that efreedom.com shows on the first page with content taken directly from stackoverflow. While stackoverflow does show in the results, the exact page that efreedom copies does not. Anyway, I'm glad you guys are taking thi…

So HN is in the first spot for this query now. And it redirects to this question. Make of that what you will.

Make that first two spots.
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