Question on GOOGLE searching

[Anonymous-0]

When a guy makes a search on a site like Google, etc. and you get a long, long, list of sites that you can access, what determines the ORDER that those sites are listed in? Is it the size of the site, maybe the frequency of hits, the most recent? I've often wondered how they are sorted out by the internet. Sometimes it amazes me that the number of responses is sometimes over a million. Thanks for the answers.

 

[John T]

I wouldnt be a bit surprised if it has to do with MONEY i.e. where you sign up n PAY to be listed on search sites or something like that??????????????? The more you pay the higher up your site pops up maybe???

Dunno

John T

 

[Billylee]

Hi guys, on Google and YaHoo the highlited sites in the beginning are paid up sponsers. The rest are in order, based on how well they match up with the terms you entered in your search box. One word searches get you all kinds of unrelated junk after the first batch or so. The more detailed your search, the better the results. Explanation, as given to me, courtesy of a teacher of computer programming and web design. Have a good one, billy

 

[Coloken]

The order of your words changes it too. For example: "allis hitch" will bring up different than "hitch allis" Or fewer if "hitch allis sale" BTW: "allis hitch" brings up a YTMAG discussion first in line.

 

[Allan in NE]

Biggest factor is in the source code for the site(s) and how that code is written.

Allan

 

[Howard H.]

Larry Page and Sergie Brin (the founders) realized that a page ranking mechanism in which for any given search, the links that were most often "clicked-thru to" should probably be rated at the top would work much better than other search engines at the time.

In other words, with millions and millions of searches for "antique tractors", say, the links that are most often clicked on are probably the most appropriate for what people are looking for and should be elevated in status.

The original idea has now morphed into a combination of politics (as they try to make China and other countrys happy for very sensitive results like for Tiannemen Square), sales (as they now make billions in revenue for "sponsored ads"), cat-and-mouse (as they constantly have to outwit people trying to figure out their entire scheme and get their websites to bubble to the top).

Overall, their searching technology is the heart of the company and is a mix of closely guarded secrets and technology they resell to anyone for their own searching needs - like internal websites to IBM or whoever...

All you have to do is look at how their stock price has exploded to realize how immensely powerful and valuable their ideas truly are.

Howard

 

[Walt Davies]

Just do an advanced search and set your preferences to get what you want it to do.
Walt

 

[Walt Davies]

I can't believe thses long winded answers to such a simple guestion. Sometime I think you guys just like show off.
Walt

 

[Anonymous-0]

I dunno if that's JAVA but we're trying to retrain COBOL programmers here on JAVA, html etc. and it's almost like treating a sick horse....

 

[Clarkbug]

Actually it depends on the search engine you use as to what determines it. All of them are slightly different, thats why the same search different places (yahoo, google, ask, etc.) has different results after the first few.

Google has the sponsored ads separate from the ones that arent paid for... Sponsored are the ones that show up on the right of the page.

Regardless, the search engines are pretty powerful these days..