Thursday, April 10, 2008

Search Engines

How do search engines rank stuff? Quite simply they apply an algorithm that sifts through Webpages looking for the key word or words you searched for. Actually it's not that simple, but in a nutshell it's basically what Search Engines do. If a search word appears in its html tag, it is considered important, thus boosting its rank. It also checks to see if the search word is in the title, or top of the page or paragraph. And the Webpages that contain your search word more frequently are also given more importance. Smart Search Engines can detect whether or not a word is frequently placed in a Webpage just to gain rank and notoriety.

Webmasters still attempt to reverse engineer the Search Engines to get a better rank, so the actual rankings themselves have more to do with the Webpages rather than the actual Search Engine. Webmasters can place artificial links in their Webpage to boost its search status and popularity. Search Engines also change rankings in regard to their popularity, as higher ranking Webpages can be switched with a lower ranking Webpage if it doesn't attract many visitors.

I'd have to say the Search Engines that can screen out obvious attempts to improve their rankings are the ones with the best reputation. This is why Search Engines like Google are so popular. They're fast and reliable, and easy to use. Google is my favourite Search Engine, and i can honestly say i don't use others at all. I used to use other Webpages such as Yahoo! and AltaVista, but now i realize everything i want to find in these Search Engines can be found in Google. Images, News, Groups - Google has it all, though for video search i go to YouTube. I honestly cannot see myself switching over to another Search Engine soon, and Google's stranglehold on this market is sure to be long lasting.

1 comment:

Jack Bowden said...

I placed my answers to Search Engines in my main blog. I hope I did the right thing. Very well written, good work.