Question

philipy

M$1.00 Funded By Mahalo ? | April 30, 2009 06:23 PM

What are some shortcomings of Google's search?

A question partly prompted by discussion of Wolfram Alpha, and partly by my experiences trying to find info to answer questions.

I have a couple:

- The ranking algorithm likes well-linked pages, so it throws up older pages ahead of the most recent data. If you Google "worldwide sales X", the results at the top will most likely be the sales figures from 2007, even when 2008 data exists. Presumably because the 2007 page has acquired a lot of backlinks. Sometimes it does that even when the more recent data exists on the same site!

- It prefers popular over authoritative. So when you're trying to find out about Japanese use of waterboarding in WW2, the top hits are news reports of John McCain speeches that have soundbites about that, not any detailed or primary sources. Even bloggers commenting on the McCain speech show up ahead of historians who've written about the stuff, or first hand accounts.

Feel free to comment on these, or add other shortcomings you've noticed.

Interesting Question? Yes (0) No (0)

Email to a friend |

RSS

No Best Answer Selected

Answers (1)

sukmrsing

May 01, 2009 02:42 AM

Yes I do agree the alogrithm of google search is based on certain factors such as number of links ,key word , key word density ,header s ,h1 , h2 etc which can be manipulated by seo experts and a website which may not of kind of information we want can rank 1 in google search . This is what they should try to refine .

Helpful Answer?

(0)

(0) Tip sukmrsing for this answer

Permalink | Report

Answer this Question

Ask a Question

Top of Page

Buy Mahalo Dollars with Credit Card or PayPal

Top Members

This Week All Time

buddawiggi
2nd Degree Black Belt
27808 Points
M$799.16 Earned
opher
Purple Belt
4473 Points
M$196.22 Earned
annelisle
Purple Belt
3110 Points
M$95.22 Earned

See All

Most Popular Tags

mahalo(1631)

twitter(956)

iphone(466)

music(463)

google(358)

food(321)

internet(307)

online(298)

beer(279)

money(263)

movies(262)

facebook(255)

apple(252)

aotd(235)

answers(228)

health(220)

video(208)

free(206)

dog(205)

windows(198)

See All

Welcome New Members

jacksondarrel, November 30, 2009 09:09 AM
vynguyen, November 30, 2009 08:59 AM
deeb86, November 30, 2009 08:49 AM
deebsaif, November 30, 2009 08:48 AM
mactavish911, November 30, 2009 08:09 AM

Mahalo Dollars are the currency of Mahalo Answers.

Each Mahalo Dollar costs $1.

Once you earn more than 40 Mahalo Dollars, you can request to be paid via PayPal. Each Mahalo Dollar is currently worth $0.75 when paid out via PayPal. Learn More