Has anyone seen this happening before? I typed the phrase "michael collins recordings speeches" into a google search and the 5th result is http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0198166087?v=glance, which does not have any mention of Michael but does have 'Mike'.
Not seen this exact thing before but I have seen quite a few pages rank for terms which do not appear on their pages purely because of the anchor text of the links pointing at the site.
I guess it's an example of their stemming algo's. Search 'decision' and will hit 'decide' etc. Similarly 'Mike' is related to 'Michael'. I believe they even try abbreviations or the written-out versions of abbreviations you search.
I am seeing this more and more. Generally I have a problem with it, but since it helps me more often than not, I don't complain too much. Make pages for something like "mike jordan" instead of michael jordan used to be worthwhile, now its really not anymore. Google removed a perfectly clever and legitimate way to get typo traffic.
Only a minority of people will be looking at using typo traffic for marketing though, it's a good addition to the search engine imo.
The results are finding recordings & Collins and Mike is only mentioned as its on the page as Mike Collins, no connection with Michael.
true, but google also transforms synonyms Here are some I've seen: figures to figurines (a lot) sculptures to statues (on occasion) decor to decorations (on occasion) etc etc Those are viable minor keyword optimization terms that have been removed from play.