[OPLIN 4cast] OPLIN 4Cast #256: Google changes

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OPLIN 4Cast

OPLIN 4Cast #256: Google changes
November 16th, 2011

<http://www.oplin.org/4cast/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/google_favicon_sm.png>Like 
it or not, librarians use Google searching quite often in the course of 
their workday. While the authority of information gathered from Google 
is certainly not guaranteed, there are some times when "library 
database" searches likeohioweblibrary.org <http://ohioweblibrary.org> 
just aren't appropriate, and Google is. Because professionals ought to 
be aware of how their tools work, today's /4cast/ calls attention to 
some recent changes to Google searching that librarians should know about.

    * Google kills its own "Timeline" feature
      <http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/google_kills_its_own_timeline_feature.php>
      (ReadWriteWeb/Jon Mitchell) "The end of Timeline coincides with
      its implementation of new real-time search algorithms
      <http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/armed_with_social_signals_google_moves_back_toward.php>
      that privilege recent results over old ones by assuming when users
      want current information. It's also experimenting with real-time
      search
      <http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/google_plus_gets_real-time_search_working_hashtags.php>
      on Google+, and it's surfacing recent posts from the social
      network in Web search
      <http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/google_adds_public_plus_posts_to_social_search_res.php>.
      The removal of Timeline pushes users of Google search away from
      historical content and toward real-time results."
    * Google removes the + search command
      <http://searchengineland.com/google-sunsets-search-operator-98189>
      (Search Engine Land/Barry Schwartz and Danny Sullivan) "The plus
      symbol was used by web search engines before Google started. It's
      been widely taught, and it seems to have been tossed out and
      replaced by quotes because of a problem Google created for itself,
      by picking stupid names for its social network."
    * Most recent Google algorithm changes; 10 recent algorithm & SEO
      elements
      <http://www.optimum7.com/internet-marketing/seo/most-recent-google-algorithm-changes-10-recent-algorithm-seo-elements.html>
      (Optimum7/Duran Inci) "This [refined official page detection] is
      consistent with Google's efforts to get rid of content farms and
      spam sites. Their algorithm can identify the official owner of a
      website or content, as well as the official author of a piece of
      content. So, the authority of your name (as the author) on your
      content matters as much as the authority of your website. How do
      they know if a company or a person is official? They crawl and
      analyze a lot of metrics from social media such as Twitter,
      Facebook, LinkedIn and Google+."
    * Ten recent algorithm changes
      <http://insidesearch.blogspot.com/2011/11/ten-recent-algorithm-changes.html>
      (Inside Search [Google blog]/Matt Cutts) "If you're a site owner,
      before you go wild tuning your anchor text or thinking about your
      web presence for Icelandic users, please remember that this is
      only a sampling of the hundreds of changes we make to our search
      algorithms in a given year, and even these changes may not work
      precisely as you'd imagine. We've decided to publish these
      descriptions in part because these specific changes are less
      susceptible to gaming."

*/Change fact:/*

Google makes over 500 changes to their search algorithm every year, but 
seldom shares the details. Last August, they did post a 4-minute video 
<http://insidesearch.blogspot.com/2011/08/another-look-under-hood-of-search.html> 
that explains their general process for making changes.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
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