BS: A 'google' question?

Subject: BS: A 'google' question?
From: Deckman
Date: 02 Feb 07 - 12:59 PM

Just wondering ... how does "google" get it's information? Who posts it where and how? How can that volume of material get to "google." I don't suppose that they have a cadre of tiny people locked away in some closet and tied to a keyboard, do they? Bob(deckman)Nelson

Subject: RE: BS: A 'google' question?
From: MMario
Date: 02 Feb 07 - 01:02 PM

they use 'bots.

Subject: RE: BS: A 'google' question?
From: greg stephens
Date: 02 Feb 07 - 01:02 PM

I don't think they use little people deckman. I think they have things called computers nowadays.

Subject: RE: BS: A 'google' question?
From: MMario
Date: 02 Feb 07 - 01:04 PM

(the truth is they use pigeons - but don't tell anyone.

Subject: RE: BS: A 'google' question?
From: bobad
Date: 02 Feb 07 - 01:17 PM

How internet search engines work

Subject: RE: BS: A 'google' question?
From: Deckman
Date: 02 Feb 07 - 01:25 PM

Well, thank you all ... I guess. I now understand ... sorta. However, I must confess that you've spoiled a rather silly song I was composing about this poor SOB chained to a book in a dark closet. Oh well ... I had to ask! Bob(deckman)Nelson

Subject: RE: BS: A 'google' question?
From: Bill D
Date: 02 Feb 07 - 01:30 PM

It was fascinating to watch Google 'discover' Mudcat. For several years, nothing from here turned up in searches....then somehow, some link led here, and Google began following links and 'indexing', and pretty soon was catching up, and after a couple years, I found I was getting hits on my own posts when I tried to find a phrase.....and learned *I* had used the phrase in Mudcat 2 years earlier.

Subject: RE: BS: A 'google' question?
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 02 Feb 07 - 06:19 PM

It may be because Google makes its income from advertisers, and the buyers are mostly on .com websites; or there may be some other reasons; but there is a distinct and quite apparent scarcity of .org and .edu results in Google returns. They appear occasionally, but not - apparently - in proportion to the number of such sites on the web.

The sparse results for .edu sites can possibly be due to many such sites being "internal" to universities with passwords required for access - i.e. they're "private networks."

Real reasons for anything Google does are "trade secrets."

It is notable that the 'cat started appearing in Google hits more often pretty much simultaneously with the agreement to allow their ads here. (?)

One of the criteria Google admits that they use is the number of links to a site, from other "popular" sites. Since all the good folk folk are already here, there's no reason for very many people to link to the 'cat - at least from sites where all the "kids with money to spend" hang out.

John

Subject: RE: BS: A 'google' question?
From: katlaughing
Date: 02 Feb 07 - 07:13 PM

LMAO, MMario, thanks for that!

Subject: RE: BS: A 'google' question?
From: Cluin
Date: 03 Feb 07 - 01:24 PM

For an alternative search engine, you could try Dogpile.

It's been around for a while and it basically compiles search hits from several other search engines (including Google) at once. Might give you more options.

Subject: RE: BS: A 'google' question?
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 03 Feb 07 - 02:23 PM

I still sometimes use metacrawler.com. It was my standard search engine until Google came along.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: A 'google' question?
From: Cluin
Date: 03 Feb 07 - 02:25 PM

Remember Altavista? Used to be a big player, equal to Yahoo before Google came along.