[site stats]

More ego-searching though interesting to see what my readers are using (well, for the first 2 weeks of Oct. anyway):

[google algorithm]

There's an interesting article on Google's ranking algorithm and the "master" behind it, Amit Singhal, in yesterday's New York Times.

"Google often finds what users want, but it doesn’t always.

That’s why Amit Singhal and hundreds of other Google engineers are constantly tweaking the company’s search engine in an elusive quest to close the gap between often and always.

Mr. Singhal is the master of what Google calls its “ranking algorithm” — the formulas that decide which Web pages best answer each user’s question. It is a crucial part of Google’s inner sanctum, a department called “search quality” that the company treats like a state secret.

[...]

“The fundamental value created by Google is the ranking,” says John Battelle, the chief executive of Federated Media, a blog ad network, and author of “The Search,” a book about Google.

[...]

“Google has become the lifeblood of the Internet,” Mr. Battelle says. “You have to be in it.”

Good news for bloggers:

"Freshness, which describes how many recently created or changed pages are included in a search result, is at the center of a constant debate in search: Is it better to provide new information or to display pages that have stood the test of time and are more likely to be of higher quality? Until now, Google has preferred pages old enough to attract others to link to them."

Enter a new algorithm called QDF (Quality Deserves Freshness!).

"THE QDF solution revolves around determining whether a topic is “hot.” If news sites or blog posts are actively writing about a topic, the model figures that it is one for which users are more likely to want current information."

[google is good for business]

from slashdot:

"News.com ran an article earlier in the week talking about the somewhat strained relationship between newspapers and Google. Google's stance is firm: 'We don't pay to index news content.' Just the same, newspapers with an online presence are starting to reconsider their relationship with Google, the value of linking, and the realities of internet economics. Talk of paying for content, as well as ongoing court cases, has observers considering both sides of the issue:
"While some in newspaper circles point to the Belgium court ruling and the content deals with AP and AFP as a sign Google may be willing to pay for content, Google fans and bloggers interpreted the news quite differently. To them, it was obvious that the Belgium group had agreed to settle--even after winning its court case--because they discovered that they needed Google's traffic more than the fees that could be generated from news snippets. Observers note that with newspapers receiving about 25 percent of their traffic from search engines, losing Google's traffic had to sting."

"Google's position about paying newspapers to index headlines has never wavered. "We don't pay to index news content."

[site stats]

I've had visits from google, yahoo, microsoft and some other techy firms but yesterday was the first visit from the U.S taxman or woman:

[site stats: doh...]

I guess I can take this as a good sign....

[frontline blogging]

This is what Elisa of BlogHer fame says of my blog at Frontline Books :

"I'm quite impressed with the kind of blog this shop is letting you create and manage...so above and beyond an e-commerce blog. Consider me subscribed."

wooo hooo!

Interestingly, my post on transliteracy for Frontline Books is the 4th most popular post and the post with the longest viewing (or should that be reading) time of 3 minutes 31 seconds

And, rather nicely, Frontline Books has just extended my contract for more professional blogging.