| Question - Why does/did running
the filter test bring my site back into the top results? |
| |
| Answer - My belief is that Google, for the first
time, has been using two significantly different algorithms at the
same time. The "new" system has been used for many queries
since the change, but some queries were still handled by the "old"
system. More and more queries now appear to be processed by the new
system, suggesting that the old algorithm is being phased out entirely. |
| |
| Question - How does a search engine
know about the millions of documents on the Internet? |
| |
| Answer - Search engines do not search the Internet
itself, but instead search a database of information about the Internet.
Thus, when a document is placed on the Internet, it will only be found
by a search engine if information about that document has been recorded
in the search engine's database. There are at least two ways a search
engine finds out about a document. One way is for the publisher of
the document to register it with the engine. If a document publisher
wants to ensure that a document is "found" by search engines,
then the publisher will usually register with as many engines as possible.
The second way that documents get registered is if the search engine
company finds it as part of its research routines. Some search engines
use "spiders" or search robots to search the Internet and
gather information which is subsequently recorded in the engine's
database. |
| |
| Question - What's an Internet search
engine? |
| |
| Answer - One way of finding information on the
Internet is to use a "search engine". This is an Internet
tool which will search for Internet sites containing the words that
you designate as a search term. It provides results back to you in
the form of links to those sites which have the term(s) you're looking
for.
For example, if you wanted to see if there were any math lesson
plans on the Internet that you could borrow, you might enter "math
and lessons and plans" as your search term. After a brief wait,
you would receive a web page with dozens of links to sites which
had those particular words somewhere in the site.
It's important to understand that search engines DO NOT search
the Internet itself. They DO search databases of information ABOUT
the Internet which the company hosting the search engine has developed.
Each search engine looks through a different database and that's
why they each will reach different results from exactly the same
terms. The degree of detail recorded by search engines varies greatly.
For instance, some may enter the entire text of the document into
a searchable field and others may only enter a short description.
This is only one way in which search engines differ. Another difference
is in the level of sophistication employed by the search engine
when it looks through its database. |
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