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Google Makes Its Search System Slightly More Transparent

Posted by timothy on from the just-a-gentle-touch-here-and-there dept.

Meshach writes "The New York Times has an interesting article about how Google has revealed some of the inner workings of the Google Search service. The main change is that sites that are not in English will be translated then included in the search results. Google said it has also improved the way it recognizes official Web sites, like those published by the government, and will give those sites higher ranking in search results. Google does not usually reveal such details but the article speculates governments have been pushing for more transparancy."

13 of 50 comments (clear)

  1. Summary by CmdrPony · · Score: 5, Informative
    From the summary:

    The main change is that sites that are not in English will be translated then included in the search results.

    From the article:

    One of the new changes will affect searches in languages for which there is little Web content available, including Afrikaans, Hindi and Icelandic. Google will now translate relevant Web pages written in English and show those results, too.

    Complete opposite direction. Go Slashdot!

    1. Re:Summary by AvitarX · · Score: 2

      No, but it's hard to believe that a machine generated translation should be high (or even included) in the results, for languages where there is very little content though, it kind-of does.

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    2. Re:Summary by MPolo · · Score: 4, Insightful

      They've actually been doing this for a while, and it is hurting my search experience. I prefer to read content in English, but I live in Germany, which means that if I want to buy something online, I want to buy it from a German (or at least European) company to avoid having to go in to the customs office to pay taxes on everything I buy (and so as to receive the products in 1-3 days instead of 2-4 weeks).

      I used to be able to achieve this very easily by using the German name for what I needed, and if that name was the same as the English term, adding "kaufen" (buy) to the search. But with the translation technology, that means that I get all the first results in English, wanting to sell me products out of the U.S.A. I haven't found a really good way around this. Admittedly, I could change the settings for what language I want every time I do such a search, but that is a lot of trouble for me. If there were an option to turn this behavior off, I would do so.

    3. Re:Summary by tr897 · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Have you tried using google.de instead of google.com? I expect google.de would give priority to German shops, especially if you search in German.

  2. Re:What! by masternerdguy · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Maybe if your clients actually did their jobs they could have a higher rank. The government gets it done so they deserve more exposure!

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    To offset political mods, replace Flamebait with Insightful.
  3. Re:What! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2

    It isn't Google's fault your clients chose a poor SEO consuntant.

  4. Government Transparency by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    the article speculates governments have been pushing for more transparancy

    Governments have been pushing Google for more transparency?? Talk about the pot calling the kettle black!

    1. Re:Government Transparency by PPH · · Score: 5, Funny

      Actually, what they said was, "We can see your nipples through your blouse". But Google Translate came out with the "pushing for more transparency" line.

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      Have gnu, will travel.
  5. Re:tracking by Oswald+McWeany · · Score: 2

    That is a privacy setting you can turn on or off.

    If you turn the tracking off- then offically* they are no longer tracking you.

    * Disclaimer, they are probably still unofficially tracking you.

    --
    "That's the way to do it" - Punch
  6. The real question by anonymousNR · · Score: 2

    Does anyone have a choice in accepting or rejecting what Google does to their search engine? Businesses and Individuals are so dependent on its services, search being the primary one, everyone will just "get on with it", instead of looking into details.

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    -- It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it. -- Aristotle
  7. Re:What! by Dishevel · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I feel so bad that you as an SEO guy are going to look bad.
    Really I do.
    I am not even giving a thought as to how most SEO is out there to ruin a perfectly good internet and I am also not taking into account
    how on normal days I believe that people in the SEO field are complete scumbags.
    You know, the kind of people that should be put out to sea in a small boat that is on fire.
    SEO consultants, lawyers, spammers, politicians and union organizers.

    Because of my ability to overlook all of that ... I feel really bad for you.

    --
    Why is it so hard to only have politicians for a few years, then have them go away?
  8. Oh good by Trogre · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Does this mean they'll be bringing the + operator back some time soon? /wishful thinking

    --
    "Nine times out of ten, starting a fire is not the best way to solve the problem." - my wife
  9. Re:tracking by yahwotqa · · Score: 2

    I do not care about the tracking itself, but I do care about the "search bubble" they create by trying to customize search results based on my past searches. Already I am getting better results at DDG for most technical, as well as non-technical queries, and I only get back to google (via awesome goosh.org) for image searches or quick translations.