Watson powering Google algorithm update?

[Dani]

So I was thinking all last night and all morning about what exactly the algorithm update that happened on Thursday entailed. Word on the street is that they are targeting content farms, and sites with lower quality information. Content quality is all subjective, of course, as opposed to Google's history of mathematical formulas to determine PageRank, etc.

I believe that we were hit hard by the new algo because of the significant number of non-native English speakers here, leading posts to appear as "lower quality" because they are written in broken English. So that got me thinking. This is the first Google algorithm update that I can think of that focuses on natural-language content. So that got me thinking. What are the chances that Jeopardy's Watson natural-language robot, who understands natural-language speech, is behind this Google update?

[mascot]

Google seems to have found a new competition in the form of Bing. Bing has surely pushed Google to make several changes.

Bing is more faster than Google and this is why Google is making changes to ensure that it is in-sync with the demands of search engine users.

[Dani]

I'm not so sure I agree with you. In my experience, Bing has bad search results and no one uses it. I am not so sure I see it as competition to Google. Not yet, anyways.

[canadafred]

Search engines need to find and rank intelligently evolving content otherwise they risk endlessly offering useless results pages.

[Dani]

I definitely agree, Google can't stay #1 forever when their ranking algorithm is exclusively based on backlinks and keyword density. That being said, however, is DaniWeb's content REALLY that bad that we deserved to lose over 70% of our traffic on Thursday?

[canadafred]

I definitely agree, Google can't stay #1 forever when their ranking algorithm is exclusively based on backlinks and keyword density. That being said, however, is DaniWeb's content REALLY that bad that we deserved to lose over 70% of our traffic on Thursday?

The search engine needs to shake off the fluff once in a while, legitimate content can get swept away in the rinse cycle. I would think that as long as there's a continuous generation of truly unique, somewhat well-written intelligent seeming content the crawler should settle down, in time. Who knows, maybe it'll determine Daniweb pages authoritative across a large spectrum of niches and propel its targeted traffic through the roof, maybe next week, who knows. Anybody got a light?

[ahmadferi]

currently is google is more sensitive to a site

[Dani]

HUH???

[sagive]

I think danyweb offers a great ever changing ever growing content so i would not worry. Google might try variations of it's search results but in the end they must supply what we search for and that is quality content, great conversations and loyal community and I think danyweb got it all... Wouldn't worry.. Give it 10 to 14 days

[addyj672]

Yes major change in Google algorithm as i read a thread on other forum. According to that post Google start giving low importance to big content management sites like ezine, hubpage, about.com and others. Peoples have contents only on those sites suffers the most.

[Dani]

> Peoples have contents only on those sites suffers the most.
And DaniWeb suffers!! :)

I hope you guys are right, and that it's going to turn around for us.

[addyj672]

I didn't use ezine and hub pages that's why i didn't suffer from this change. Hope so i will be having a good time from Google in future. cheers...

[happygeek]

But you do use DaniWeb, and DaniWeb is being hit hard by these changes which means, ultimately, that you also suffer as a result...

[TheAlex]

Daniweb has made the major media in the UK as one of the big losers, I reckon it's almost certain Google will have noticed you too:
www guardian co uk/technology/blog/2011/feb/28/google-changes-sites-affected

I imagine Google will refine the algorithm over the next few weeks so hopefully you'll see much of your traffic return. I'm not sure about the language tool you mention as I've no idea what else is available.

When I search for certain niche forums, SEO in particular, I find that most of the forums towards the top of the Google rankings have a lot of spam or pointless posts and lower general content overall - this forum suffers from that a little but is nowhere near as bad as others...what I'm saying is if less people find the forum and only make one or two posts, then the general content might improve in the long-term. Perhaps Google could refine their algorithm to take into account the number of regular posters on a forum (if it doesn't do this already); if there are a number of posters with thousands of posts over a number of years I doubt it's a 'low-quality' forum as people just wouldn't return.

[TheAlex]

Oh, and I thought the major reason for the algorithm change was to promote more original content, rather than assess the language? I suppose the nature of any forum is that topics will be repeated.

[canadafred]

Unique, intelligent content. By intelligent I mean natural (whatever that entails for the writer), well-written, well-structured, self-enforcing text (SEO copywriting). Offering the search engine this type of content regularly means that the content itself is important to the writer. The web page is really created with the intent that an Internet visitor will read through.

I know it is almost tiresome to hear in SEO circles but great content indeed stands the test of time, provided it is generally optimized (... that could include good spelling and grammar ...). As long as the forums are kept moderated as best they can be then Daniweb should get rewarded in the SERPs, over time.