I've been exchanging emails with the search engine guru of a major online. The conversation started due to my explorations into perfecting a formula for search engine placement based on how people search, not on how search engines index. The title of this post is a direct quote from that worthy sir in one of his emails to me.
"The number of results you find doing searches will definitely fluctuate wildly over time so it's better to keep a moving average of the total rather than taking any individual data point as the 'true' number. The number of results Google shows after a search result isn't necessarily the total number it has in its index. For instance, Google claims to have only indexed 2.9mm pages from [the online], but that's lower than the total number of articles we have on the site to say nothing of index pages, and we know Google has spidered well over 80% of our articles."
So I match this kind of information with information and data we're collecting elsewhere and start to wonder...
I know from our research that Google -- although the search engine of the moment -- isn't necessarily every one's favorite search engine. Brad Berens sent me information on SearchMe and asked me to comment (I will, Brad, I swear I will) and NextStage's research into different demographics strongly indicates that search engine choice breaks clearly along demographic, cultural and national lines.This is especially true among the 12-25 year old set across all lines. These people are the 'Net Generation. Go to a local school's computer lab or room and just sit and watch them for a bit. Mix all the factors going on with, in and around them together and Google should be getting nervous if not down right scared.
But consider the comments made above. I don't know if they're valid, only that someone with a great deal of expertise made them. My search methods are (I've learned) nowhere near how other people search for online content -- this was a big reason I studied how people search and why I came up with the formulae mentioned in the links below. My favorite quotes (regular readers know I love quotes) on the subject are:
Tell me how you are searching, and I will tell you what you are searching for. - Wittgenstein in Philosophical Investigations
Tell me how you are searching, and I will tell you what you will find. - Joseph Carrabis in Wittgenstein on Search Engines
The thrust of the comments is that what a searcher found yesterday may not be found today.
Google Promotes Pseudo-Alzheimer's in Web Searchers!
There's a headline for you. It's bad enough that I can't remember where I put my keys or a book or my wallet, now I won't be able to find something I knew I found yesterday and it'll be through no fault of my own!
I'm just so thrilled!
Or I might be. Wait 'till I do a search to make sure.
Please contact NextStage for information regarding presentations and trainings on this and other topics.
Links for this post:
- SEO posts, v1
- SEO posts, v2
- Search posts
- Searching for Search posts
- Know How Someone Is Thinking in 10 Seconds or Less Half-day training at the Fashion Institute of Technology in NYC, 13 June 08
- SUNY Marketing Professionals Conference at the Fashion Institute of Technology in NYC, 11-13 June 08
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