12-24-03 - "Florida" Regional Filters Removed from Las Vegas key term searches

While the Google dictionary-based filter is still alive and well, Google has begun to remove at least some filtered terms related to geographic locations. On December 20th, we noticed that the regional filters applied to Las Vegas key term searches were completely removed, whereby search results returned to "before-Florida-update" quality.

12-11-03 - Checking filtered search results against non-filtered results is no longer possible

Earlier today, Google rolled out new changes that prevent search visitors from using the filter bypass string which previously allowed anyone to see the before & after Florida Update results for any search terms.

12-07-03 - Scroogle.org filter searches no longer possible; Scroogle switches IP

At around 9:00pm Pacific time, google blocked scroogle.org from directly querying google search, thus making it impossible for visitors to see live comparisons of the before and after "Florida Update" results for search phrases.

Technically, Google is well within its rights to do so, as unauthorized tools that query the google servers are in violation of Google's terms of service. However, this strongly indicates that public awareness of the issues involved with Google's new filters is increasing - and perhaps becoming a public relations problem for Google.

Within a few hours, scroogle was back online, porting the search results through another IP address.

12-06-03 / 12-09-03 - Google's new broken filter is exploitable: Las Vegas Website Design Test

Yesterday, December 07, 2003, we performed an experiment by placing two links with filtered words contained in the link anchor text, and successfully removed the #1 ranking website: www.graphicwebdesign.net - Las Vegas Website Design. The link you see here-- and two others elsewhere-- have proven to be an incurable poison for the fine folks at Graphic Web Design, the only real Las Vegas Website design company to accidently survive the new key term filter placed by google ( these links were removed when Google removed the filter from Las Vegas related searches ).

We certainly apologize to the fine staff of Graphic Web Design, as they do not deserve to be wiped from the Google search engine results... However, neither did we or the other twenty quality website design companies that actually do business in Las Vegas.

...however, it won't be possible to take out the doorway pages by MJK Website Design, since the text is not located on the pages:

Las Vegas Website Design - Doorway Page #1 ( a spam page )...

Las Vegas Website Design - Doorway Page #2

And, the current #1 ranking site, cannot be removed because the filter text is not in the body of the visible text, although the term is repeated in hidden text:

Las Vegas Website Design - EZ1 Consulting, another company employing spam methods.

It should be noted that we believe removal is only possible when the filtered word combinations appear in the body text of the page in question. The tests above demonstrate this quite clearly.

To summarize, the last top ranking las vegas website design company was successfully removed with two links pointing to their homepage, and two secondary pages were successfully removed as well, removing them from google's top ten search results.

Two companies employing spamming methods, clearly against Google's search engine guidelines, hold the top three natural search result positions.

11-24-03 - New Google Dance / Update - New Filters - New Algorithm

Since the shake up of June 2003, Google's search results, by most accounts, have remained the highest quality search results in the world. However, since November 14th -- just in time for the Christmas Shopping Holiday Season-- Google's newest "google-dance" style update has resulted in significantly flawed search results across many industries.

The quality of Google search results remains excellent, as long as the key terms in question are non-competitive, or do not directly trigger one of Google's newly implemented filters.

However, any searcher can currently bypass the new google filters by searching for any phrase, and following the search with a space, a minus sign, and an uncommon character string.

As an example, perform a Google search for Las Vegas Website Design.

Notice that Frank Sinatra's Family and AMD ( manufacturer of computer chips ) both rank in the top ten? In fact, only 2 out of the top ten search results are directly relevant to the search phrase.

The pre-filter results show a 100% relevancy to the search query in question.

Now, to see how the filters are working, do a normal search on vegas website design. Notice that there are more search results for this query than the previous one? Notice the change in relevancy? The results are back to 100% relevancy, even though far more website pages contain these term combinations.

Why?

The terms "Las Vegas" combined with "website" and "design" are collectively triggering a filtered result. Change either phrase, and the filters are bypassed ( unless one stumbles upon a different filtered phrase ). As another example, do a normal search for Las Vegas site designers, and notice the return to 100% relevancy.

It is unlikely that Google's new method of ranking calculation will last too long, without a significant risk of losing market share.

6-26-03 - Google Toolbar 2.0 Beta Released

The newest version of the google toolbar features an extremely convenient pop-up window blocker, an auto-form fill browser plug-in, and a toggle button to turn search term highlighting on or off. The new toolbar includes the standard 1.0 features which made the toolbar an instant success: A Page Rank display bar ( indicating the current url's popularity rating ), quick access to back links, page information, and fast access to the google search engine.

6-17-03 - Googlebot 216.239.46.* disappears

Without any fanfare or spectacular occurrence, the well known Google deep crawl web spider disappeared after a final tour of the net in April. However, the Googlebot is neither missing in action nor caught in some spider trap in the deep recesses of cyberspace.

As a part of major changes being employed by engineers deep within the Googleplex, the main crawl spider is being replaced by a more vigorous search robot, formerly and affectionately called the Fresh Bot by many astute webmasters.

Traditionally, the "main" crawler's job was to pick up new pages and new websites, placing them in a temporary database where they would be added to the main index during Google's monthly update. The Fresh Bot, however, was designed to quickly pick up on changes to existing web pages ( the greater the website popularity rating, the greater the chance of visits by the Fresh Bot ). These updated pages would often show up with a date tag in search results.

The new and improved Fresh Bot, now fully deployed, will serve both to crawl the internet, picking up new pages and websites, and serve in its traditional role to quickly catch changes to existing pages.