"Yahoo! the results they are a changin'!"
By Webmaster T
February 14, 2004, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
I'm going to be posting a few results from my
recent SERP surfing. I'll pick up from where I left off on Google and go on to
MSN which has started to implement Inktomi as primary provider. Yahoo! also
looks to be starting to phase in the Yahoo! directory.
Seen in the Google "Search Engine Optimization"
US SERPs 14/2/04:
- Froogle Persists as free listings at the top
of SERPs to add more commercial results
- Another update is in process two of the
sites, one in the #1 position at one point, have disappeared. The site was one
of the index orphans;)
- Orphaned topic pages are still there but not
as prevalent or ranked as high. For
instance the fact a certain SEO has two listings not grouped in the results.
Co-incidence, one is linked to heavily, a topic/index orphan with no ODP
listing, the other is on the second page and has a topic and ODP listing.
- PR seems to be getting an update, I see link
campaigns or "SEO filter" type listings continuing to be affected. Many have
stabilized to moving upwards. 1 site that I was tracking for ad skew does seem
to have cranked up the ads on some networks again. It disappeared before when
I checked. I'm confident it will again as when I checked the links are gone
for that site but another is in the same place. Funny how they are all on the
same Media Network.
- The back link: search is wacky with possibly
1'000's from the same network. Can't be sure though because Google will only
display 106 of 2,690. The fact it is #4, for the life of me I couldn't find
anything linked to from the entry page but the sitemap well it's a front for a
directory. Real nice nothing like pointing users at that service. They
guarantee results, I wonder how?
MSN is still in the process of removing
Look$mart from the results it looks like it is pretty close to the default on
HotBot which I'm confident will eventually replace L$ entirely. IMO, they may
look for a directory of some sort but IMO, it will be one that currently charges
for a listing. MsnBot seems to have a new version running again at a fairly good
clip because reports from logs are popping up on forums, this usually means some
heavy indexing is going on. The Inktomi results are looking pretty good
especially for shoppers.
Yahoo! looks to have started changing their
algo. Presently the Yahoo! directory is being merged with what looks like Google
results. Dupes and indented results are being filtered. Popular sites which look
to be what used to be the "cool sites" which are basically Editor picks seem to
get a bigger pop from the directory than regular listings, if the directory is
in fact adding to relevancy. It is interesting what happens to the results when
you use specific terms (New Hampshire green apples) over (apples). The directory
category disappears and the results are in exactly the same order as Google's
results minus indents and dupes. Descriptions are the Yahoo! directory listing
description.
IMO, Yahoo! is using the directory in much the
same way Google may be using ODP if Hilltop or TSPR are in play on Google. It
would be interesting to see this done with the Inktomi results.;)
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