Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Google Fires Back About Search Engine Spam

Posted by Soulskill on from the it's-not-me-it's-you dept.

coondoggie writes "The folks at Google are taking issue over spam and the quality of Google searches, which some claim has gone down in recent months. Today on Google's official blog, Principal Engineer Matt Cutts said, 'January brought a spate of stories about Google’s search quality. Reading through some of these recent articles, you might ask whether our search quality has gotten worse. The short answer is that according to the evaluation metrics that we’ve refined over more than a decade, Google’s search quality is better than it has ever been in terms of relevance, freshness and comprehensiveness. Today, English-language spam in Google’s results is less than half what it was five years ago, and spam in most other languages is even lower than in English.' Cutts also explained that the company has made a few significant changes to their method of indexing."

4 of 270 comments (clear)

  1. When you're losing, just change how you keep score by Zeek40 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    the evaluation metrics we've refined over the past decade

    In other words, as long as they keep changing the evaluation criteria, they always pass them!

    I've seen more parked domains in google results than I have actually content recenty.

  2. Re:Pshaw by mwvdlee · · Score: 5, Interesting

    It would, if Google include an option to filter out entire domains from search results. Google could then simply monitor these domains and try and figure out why people take the trouble of filtering them out.

    --
    Slashdot social media options: AIM, ICQ, Yahoo, Jabber and Mobile Text. Why no MySpace?
  3. Dear Google by Charliemopps · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Perception is reality.

    Anyway, I think the argument is: The spammers are gaming your Metrics. It's not that there's 50% less spam in your search results, it's that you're detecting 50% less spam in the first place.

  4. Re:Pshaw by dremel · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I use a Google Customized Search Engine (CSE) configured to promote StackOverflow and block ExpertSexchange. Here, you can try it out: www.google.com/cse/home?cx=007350804174195462206:7etfz1pyl-s . I've set it as my default search engine in Chrome and never have to think about it again.