Don't look now, but Google's algorithms are changing
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The search engine sometimes plays "tricks" with its secret page-ranking algorithm.
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Blog: Google has acquired GrandCentral. Changes are afoot.
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(InfoWorld) - Just a few days after the introduction of a search engine that works primarily using human labor, Google says, "Me too." "People think of Google as pure algorithms," said Matt Cutts, search quality engineer at Google, speaking at the Search Marketing Expo in Seattle on Monday. "We've recently begun trying to communicate the fact that we're not averse to using some manual intervention." Cutts' comments follow the launch Wednesday of an early version of Mahalo.com, a new search engine that operates using people who dig through the Internet manually looking for quality sites. Mahalo.com currently can deliver results for 4,000 popular search terms with plans to reach 10,000 terms by the end of the year. Workers weed out spam sites, sites with overbearing advertising, pages that regurgitate information without giving appropriate credit to the source, and sites of unknown origin. Over the last couple of months, Google has altered some explanations on its Webmaster Guidelines pages to reflect changes it may make in how much human interaction affects its search results, Cutts said. Google has changed the wording in places from saying that certain functions operate 100 percent using the company's search algorithms to now saying more vaguely that the company uses scalable and robust techniques, he said. "We're trying to make the distinction that humans are a wonderful way to improve search quality, but we have to do that in a way that is scalable and robust. Our Webmaster Guidelines have changed to reflect this possibility," he said. Some Google functions do fully work using the algorithm. For example, the algorithm designed to prevent Google bombing, where people cause certain sites to rank, usually for an obscure or humorous search term, uses no human intervention, Cutts said. "The Google bomb algorithm is completely automatic," he said. It runs once every three or four months, he said. Google uses human interaction for a variety of different functions such as acting on spam, he said. "Google does reserve the right to use humans in a scalable way," he said. Additional human interaction might come if Google decides to allow anyone to report people who buy links in order to try to improve their search rankings. "I wouldn't be surprised if we add something on the Webmaster console to report that," Cutts said. He also said that Google may rewrite its guidelines to include more detail about the types of techniques that could get sites banned. Currently, the guidelines include often vague instructions, such as to avoid link schemes designed to boost a site's popularity. That can include a number of different tactics, which Google doesn't spell out. "It would be great to start giving more examples," Cutts said.
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Not long ago, Google was the cuddly search engine that could. Now it's a bona fide data monster, and your personal information is its meat.
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As the major players in Web search duke it out, a growing number of startups are embracing a different way of retrieving and sorting search results.
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The search giant has been at odds with the locked-down enterprise; CIO Douglas Merrill tells how that&#39;s changing.
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Measuring time on page instead of hits is likely to hurt Google but help YouTube.
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Google has already transformed the way the web is used. Now the company behind the internet&#39;s leading search engine aims to change the academic world too, with a new search tool putting a treasure trove of
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A trademark infringement suit against Google may alter how the search industry makes a profit.
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Looks like Microsoft may have been biding its time to get back at search giant Google. [Missing Links]
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Google's recent acquisitive phase has been quite the whirlwind. Here's a recap of the companies it's aqcuired over the past year.
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Google is now an ICAAN-accredited registrar, yet what may seem as an evolutionary step may actually be a hesitant step sideways.
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Google Inc. locates almost anything on the Web within seconds, but finding the brainy engineers who program the company's lightning-quick search engine takes more time - and a quirky bit of ingenuity.
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GOOGLE, the world&#39;s number one search engine, has lost its edge. That&#39;s the considered view of software engineers who have been testing an early version of Microsoft&#39;s MSN Search service, released last week.
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By MATT ROPER  FOR a company with the motto "don't be evil", Google is showing signs that its halo is beginning to slip. Not content with being a way to search the internet quickly and simply, the company this week declared its intention to catalogue and control the world's information.
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As Google Inc. (GOOG.O: Quote, Profile, Research) nears the end of its first quarter as a public company, industry watchers say one of its emerging challenges is
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Step by step and bit by digital bit, Google is taking over the way PC users find, manage and receive information. The Mountain View, Calif.