Google Search Algorithm Patent Creates Buzz

[zonemen]

On the 31 Dec 2003, Google applied for a patent for their search algorithm. 15 months later, the application has finally been posted at the US Patent Office.

Some notable features of the 14,000 word patent includes:

* Pagerank is not mentioned. but seems to have changed slightly to include features to limit link spamming and reduce stale results.

* Bigger is better.

* You will be ranked better by who advertisers with you.

* Google snoops into your favorites, cookies and cache in order to rank sites.

* Increased ranking if you own a legitimate domain, and your ranking will go down if you own a illegitimate domain. Legitimate is determined by whether you registered your site for a large numbers of years, and Illegitimate is if you only registered your site for only a short number of years.

* They will penalize domains "associated" with "illegitimate" domains.

* Unique Words, Bigrams, Phrases in Anchor Text have a great affect on how your site is ranked.

* Google monitors the amount of time you stay on a site that you've gone to from a Google search.

Source

[Zaic]

hmm freaky

[Long]

* Google snoops into your favorites, cookies and cache in order to rank sites.

* Google monitors the amount of time you stay on a site that you've gone to from a Google search.

Those two sound a little out of their bounds to me.

[Bhav]

this sounds pretty stupid. i think it's a delayed april fools.

[ZZOOzzoo]

Ahh.. this is all good, because Google did it...

I mean..it's not like EVIL GIANT MICRO$OFT did it.

If M$ did it, I would've probably flamed, whacked, slammed, slapped, cursed, kicked and punched Bill Gate$, LOLOLOLOLOLOLZ!!!!!

But hey, it's Google, so I forgive everything they do, they're all good in what they're doing, and who dares criticize our angel face company Google?

Go Google, dominate the world!!!!!

(sarcasm... you know...)

Edited April 6, 2005 by ZZOOzzoo

[[jon]]

Ermm... how exactly does Google read your favourites, cookies and cache? And how can they monitor the amount of time you stay on a give site? Perhaps if you have the Google toolbar or some additional software, this would be possible but I don't see how this is possible!

[[M]]

* Google snoops into your favorites, cookies and cache in order to rank sites.

* Google monitors the amount of time you stay on a site that you've gone to from a Google search.

scary... :blink:

wouldn't expect something like that from the harmless :unsure:

[iron2000]

Will those snooping slow down my internet speed?

:pinch:

[Mx]

Those two sound a little out of their bounds to me.

585734485[/snapback]

Yea :blink:

[Long]

I think it may be an April fools joke. It was posted on the "Saturday, April 02, 2005" and we all know the internet runs on some wacky timezone, and the poster was in some other wacky timezone, so probably meant to be an April fools joke was misdated.

[Tim Dorr Veteran]

I looked and couldn't find the referenced document in the patent office archives...

[L3thal Veteran]

No verification yet :ninja:

[zonemen]

Well the article provides a link to the Patent. The link is: http://appft1.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser...=DN/20050071741

But the thing is, no where on the page does it say Google. So, is this really it?

[temple_treefrog]

I wouldn't believe this, and I'd like to read it from a Well-known, reliable source.

[zonemen]

Well if the official US patent office isn't reliable enough, I'd like to see what is.

Harrity & Snyder, L.L.P., the company that the patent's correspondence is listed, are Patent Attorneys/Agents. Google may have used this company to help them write this patent. The patent is listed under the patent attorney company because if there were any troubles with the patent, they would contact the attorney (the experts in the field), rather than Google itself.

While it does not state Google itself, we are led to believe that it is a search engine, most likely Google. I say that it is most likely Google, because most of the inventors listed on the patent, are Google employees.

There is some discussion about it over at the Sitepoint forums, take a look: http://www.sitepoint.com/forums/showthread...70&page=1&pp=25

[L3thal Veteran]

Well if the official US patent office isn't reliable enough, I'd like to see what is.

Harrity & Snyder, L.L.P., the company that the patent's correspondence is listed, are Patent Attorneys/Agents. Google may have used this company to help them write this patent. The patent is listed under the patent attorney company because if there were any troubles with the patent, they would contact the attorney (the experts in the field), rather than Google itself.

While it does not state Google itself, we are led to believe that it is a search engine, most likely Google. I say that it is most likely Google, because most of the inventors listed on the patent, are Google employees.

There is some discussion about it over at the Sitepoint forums, take a look: http://www.sitepoint.com/forums/showthread...70&page=1&pp=25

585739325[/snapback]

That clears it up a bit.

[ClintEastman]

Yep the Inventors are out of Stanford and work (or have worked as part of) Google.

I work at Google, which is the most interesting job I've ever had.

;)

[Pink Floyd Veteran]

the idea of spying my cookies doesnt impress me :/

[Slimy]

somehow i find this as fake considering that you can use google without having cookies enabled

[zonemen]

Well the part of the document which refers to cookies, states:

[0116] In an alternative implementation, other types of user data that may indicate an increase or decrease in user interest in a particular document over time may be used by search engine 125 to score the document. For example, the "temp" or cache files associated with users could be monitored by search engine 125 to identify whether there is an increase or decrease in a document being added over time. Similarly, cookies associated with a particular document might be monitored by search engine 125 to determine whether there is an upward or downward trend in interest in the document.

So that means that they won't look into people cookies who don't have them enabled, nor if the site doesn't put any cookies onto the person's computer. But for sites that do, if the user's cookies get updated lots, then they will increase ranking of the site.

[Liquid]

If this is true, I wouldn't mind. Google would only do this to search YOU better. Spyware on the otherhand, is to serve the creator better. As is adware. This is fine with me.

[Pink Floyd Veteran]

is all that stuff used by other search engines?

[akaladis Veteran]

If it's true then (N)

[Koolslacker]

I don't want anybody to snoop in my cookies or my favorites. It doesn't matter whether it's MS or Google. If this is true, I didn't expected this from Google.