7 replies to this topic

[slidstream]

I was wondering what the yahoo page ranking algorithm, and if anyone has a link? I find these algorithms to be cool, if not simplistic and bueatiful. Thanks for the help.

[TamerTHQ]

Search Engine ranking algorithms are always kept highly confidential, even within the Search Engine company itself. Two obvious reasons come to mind...

1. If every webmaster got knowledge of the algorithm, the lives of Black-Hat Search Engine Optimization specialists would become infinitely easier - which would invalidate the whole point of Search Engines to boot.

2. Good ranking algorithms are the quintessential capital of any Search Engine. And so it's only natural that each SE will try to protect its algorithms from its competitors.


The closest you'll probably ever get to finding the actual algorithm of a Search Engine will be a "guess," at best. Moreover, SEs tend to change and modify their algorithms frequently to keep up both with the technology and with the strategies of black-hat optimizers.

[starscream]

Yahoo is mix of meta search+directory + user submission data. This is mix and that makes it really hard for better results. Though yahoo is much improved these days in comparison with bing. You'll find that yahoo and bing are experimenting with search patterns by offering contests. These contests ask user to use search engines normally without having to search with patterns. This way they calculate frequent search terms and improve the cache for it. I know it sounds weird but google does it wihtout holding contests. Have you seen any contest from google ? I don't think so there is any. Yahoo algorithm is good when it comes to data pulled from the dmoz directory else there is nothing much in it.

[H.O.D.]

i don't understand why yahoo, microsoft (bing) and the others just don't give up and accept the fact that they will never catch up to google. i know yahoo existed well before google but now they are no longer the best at the search engine business. so the best thing would be to just quit. as for their i think you are one of the few people who really care about them (no offence). yahoo still gets thousands and even millions of visitors daily but all them are forced in some way or the other to do so. people know the power of google and even after knowing it if they are going to yahoo then it only means they are attracted by those "contests" or something similar. without their own benefit i think there are very few people using yahoo when compared to google.

[slidstream]

Yahoo and bing want a small corner of the market, by this point I'm quite sure they realize they will never catch up with google. Maybe they will, but it's highly unlikely. On the other hand, the ad revenue from even the small section they get may be worth still having the search engine open, though I would have to check on it before I would make any bets.

[H.O.D.]

there are still quite a few people using other search engines so obviously the ad revenue is still continuing to come in, even if it is not as much as google's share. why would they like to let this money go waste -that's why they are still trying to be in the competition and maybe they too know that they're never going to win, but still they're in it for the little they're getting from the business.

[starscream]

i don't understand why yahoo, microsoft (bing) and the others just don't give up and accept the fact that they will never catch up to google.

Will you give up business and money that is on your table ? No. So why shoulld they ? Microsoft is the most famous and used platform and after recession it is going strong again in economy. Adding search engine with quality results can boost their earnings. Only way they can beat google is by offering privacy but both yahoo and bing are ignoring this fact. Google spies on user content and improves the search result which is not the case with bing and yahoo. So instead of focusing their energy on shortcomings of competitor they prefer to reinvent the meta search engine performance which is affecting their growth. Google may be best but many countries and companies don't allow google on their connection this is because of google's spying on user content for ad-monetization. Any search company can outmatch google if they find out how to improve performance of search results without having to spy user content.

as for their i think you are one of the few people who really care about them (no offence).

Not exactly, it's business if they lose your type of people they've nothing to lose. Besides there are more than 10k internet marketer who got their adwords account banned in 2009 so they can't no longer advertise on google. So they're going for bing and yahoo. You know what this means ? It means business. And if this works for those marketers then surely more and more people migrate to another search platform.

You're on the line of reasoning that if there is any strong business going on then rest of the competitors should quit. Lol, but your posts gives that perception. Do you think facebook owner quit because of orkut's popularity in india and brazil ? there are more than 1k internet marketers using facebook ads instead of adwords and those ads are converting in lead sales for them. You know what this is ? You think google can beat this ?Important point is facebook managed this without being a good search engine and their search functions are not even close to meta searching.

yahoo still gets thousands and even millions of visitors daily but all them are forced in some way or the other to do so.

Not at all. Yahoo answers is one of the popular place on the internet to get answers. With or without contest people get quality answers. Affiliate marketers can sale there without worrying about moderation etc. They're not at all forced. Google's answer division was shut down and there is no place google can offer that beats answers. In fact if you want to experiment you can open a weird question on Yahoo answers and check in how many minutes it appears on google. It's business, so forget about favoritism.

people know the power of google and even after knowing it if they are going to yahoo then it only means they are attracted by those "contests" or something similar.

Power of google ? what is that ? Yahoo still has many good services and offers alternative to google. What do you think people do when they get banned from adsense ? They go to yahoo or bing search marketing for publishers. What do you think people do when they get banned from google adwords merchant account ? They go to bing search marketing or yahoo search marketing. When people don't want to use analytics of google and other 3rd party then bing and yahoo offers them alternative. Nobody goes to these places just for contests or something. There is something on the internet for everyone. It may be just you who go after those places for contest. Let's not generalize.

without their own benefit i think there are very few people using yahoo when compared to google.

You're generalizing again. Many people still use yahoo stores and web hosting. Is there any with google ? Yahoo groups are still worth a lot in terms of people and SEO. so there we go...

[Quatrux]

To add my two cents, it would be bad if only google would be left as the only search engine, even though it seems that a lot of people are using it, making it fully monopolized would mean it could control information. Today we can compare the search results and it seems that google search engine doesn't work as it used to, you won't find small sites with much more relevant information for you, due to page ranking.

Competition is the only thing which make search engine algorithms better. If there wouldn't be any competition, who would worry about how it works as long as you get income and don't have to worry about others taking your market share.