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WebWord Weblog Posting Posting Date: October 05, 2002 An End to Metatags (Enough Already, Part 1) -- "Google, for one, has decided emphatically that metatags are too easily manipulated to be of any value in determining a page's importance or relevance. Google is the #1 search engine property in the world, and trails only AOL, MSN, and Yahoo in unique visitors per month in the US. Maybe someone's trying to tell you something." (Comments: Thanks Frank.)
Reader Comments...
Just gotta love the ad that was auto-inserted at the bottom of the article: "Special Offer: Are you targeting the right keywords?
i don't use google. i need narrow searches and page rank usually shoots pop sites to the top. it's terrible for finding a diverse mix of shopping sites that sell a particular product, unless you're prepared to sift through several hundred links. Posted by: Pez on October 6, 2002 08:42 AM
I posted this elsewhere, but Google have just modified the algorithm that they use for the page-rank system. This change seems to have made their results worse - somehow defeating the main advantage of Google over the other engines... Lyle - your 'usability guru' plan has been foiled, but it nearly gets it right for me. Posted by: Timo on October 6, 2002 09:26 AM
Whether or not Google uses meta tags (and I've said before, I think it's to their detriment), IMO a webmaster can't forego them yet. Based on what I see in my server logs, meta tags are used by the engines at MSN, AOL, and Alta Vista (I can see it by the search query terms -- text which is in my meta tag but not on the page, and I'm high in their rankings when I check). So even though Google is the leading single search engine, the others are of combined significance. Posted by: Frank on October 6, 2002 09:27 AM
Timo, thanks for the link. I guess that explains a recent shift in my rankings... And I guess all those webword posts are for naught unless I either mention the guy or change how I sign in! :-) Posted by: Samuel Johnson on October 6, 2002 11:30 AM
If I want to know how a program works then I will look at the code and not the documentation. Google has realised that they can no longer trust the 'documentation' for a page, and are trying to rebalance their index. It may be easier to see what the effect of this change is in a few weeks, but Google is beginning to lose credibility and could end up looking a lot like Microsoft (now there's a buying opportunity for billg) Perhaps it's time to keep our eyes peeled for the 'better than google' search index? Posted by: Mac on October 7, 2002 01:11 PM
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