PageRank – nyet!
In yet another illustration for Jeremy’s PageRank Is Dead article, consider this: a search on Google for sailing lessons brings up a page of results with #2 spot being occupied by my previous post about sailing! This is completely nuts. As much as it strokes my ego to know that I’m now an instant authority on this topic and that my page will be getting even more referrals from Google 
, I cannot say that this is a good situation. The famed Google quality seems to be rapidly deteriorating, and in all honesty I think Yahoo! results are getting much better, as evidenced by the fact that the same search does not put me at the top of the pack. Conclusions? Draw your own, please.
18/05/2004 at 10:32 pm Permalink
Google clearly needs to identify and demote rankings for anything that comes from a blog. Personally, I think we should all demote stuff that comes from a blog — I can’t fathom their popularity.
18/05/2004 at 10:38 pm Permalink
Hey, I agree.
18/05/2004 at 11:17 pm Permalink
Well, everything Zawodny says (spouts) should be taken with the hugest grain of salt. But ever since Google’s “Florida” update (last Nov.?), they’ve sucked quite a bit. I agree Yahoo’s search results have improved considerably – reminds me of the Google of old. Sure would be nice if Yahoo would make directory listing reviews FREE. Traffic from MSN is increasing a lot as well.
18/05/2004 at 11:26 pm Permalink
Even crazier is that http://www.spinnakersailing.com linked from your page with “sailing lessons” doesn’t appear in the SERPs (well, at least not in the first five pages I bothered checking).
18/05/2004 at 11:52 pm Permalink
Ahh. Larry.
Heh.
19/05/2004 at 1:24 am Permalink
Zawodny fans everywhere
One can only speculate at the reason..
http://www.google.com/search?q=pagerank+is+dead&sourceid=mozilla-search&start=0&start=0&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8
19/05/2004 at 3:53 am Permalink
Wait and see…
Usually one of my web sites shows up at the same level in google and yahoo for a given query. However, sometimes, there is a change in google (like I’m second instead of first), and the change is always reflected by yahoo after one or two weeks… Including when I go back to #1.
So, may be you appeared recently as #2 in google and will appear at the same #2 in yahoo after a while…
Regards
Xavier
19/05/2004 at 7:45 am Permalink
Remember the days of content-based search engine days? You often had to try and guesstimate your way into a ballpark of what you wanted by way of boolean expression queries.
The simple fact of the matter is that the pages you get in the Google results are all topical, whether that is in the way you expected they’d be or not.
Arguing about what should show up as the first hits of a query as vague as “sailing lessons” is a pretty philosophical debate. Whatever algorithm they use, search engines don’t understand what they’re indexing. They’re just gathering a humongous amount of statistics.
If you want a process that infers what you might be meaning and tries to lead you to sites that satisfy your needs, then you want a directory, not a search engine.
Or as the one between you and the search engine with actual understanding of what you mean by your query, you can add some context yourself. If you were hoping to find sailing lesson avenues, looking up “sailing lessons booking” gets you what you want.
22/05/2004 at 7:32 am Permalink
Page Rank is probably not dead
“The point of view that PageRank is dead is kind of a very static view of the world. It will always continue to be a part of our ranking scheme but, over time, as we develop new ideas on how to do ranking, as we tweak existing ideas, as we think about new ways to have them play together–the role of any one of the techniques that we use will obviously change.”
this are words from Craig Silverstain – technology director of Google
link tu full article
http://news.com.com/2008-1024-5208228.html