They could also record when the user clicks on a link to leave Google.com and record when the users clicks the back button to return to Google.com. The lesson here: Disable the back button in your visitors browsers.
Yes it would but would that be a reason to not use it at all? Say for a new site you had little data but their AdWords records... Why not use it? It at least gives you something to go by. I doubt actually that they monitor SERP CTR right now accross the board since there's no tracking URL's in the SERPs. They can only do it if the user has the toolbar installed (unless my not-so-techy brain oversees some functionality) which yet again confirms its datamining capabilities. A lot of these patents are about what they think might be implemented and just to buy themself some intellectual property they file it now. Even if it were just to keep the competition from filing it, it has worked already.
Now that's an idea! While we're add it we should auto-add our link to their bookmarks when they click any button on the page... or make the entire page a giant image map that makes your site their homepage! (I'm just kidding BTW... I did find humor in your suggestion though Will. )
Registering a patent is like securing a domain name - you plan to use it but you may wind up not doing so. basically they have had these ideas so they do need to be taken serious. Speaking about domain names
By SERP CTR, do you mean "the number of times a Google user clicked to that specific website for that specific keyphrase"? If so, yes, that can do it now without the toolbar.
Register your domains for 10 years. LOL. If your paid up for at least 2 years, google will know you'll be around for a while, right? I'm thinking, domain registrars like godaddy must love this news that's flying around the web.
There are sites doing this. I go back to google, repeat the search, click on "help us improve", and explain in detail why the offending site should be removed from the SERPs. Don't know if that hurts them, but it can't possibly help
I read this document and what I got from it was primarily concerned about the updating of pages and how that can factor in on rankings. As well, google specifically sites that it can flag and derank a site which has a sudden "spike" of backlinks as spam. A steady, consistent growth in backlinks will gradually increase the ranking. With regard to content updating, the idea I got was that updating will help to increase a page's ranking, but when done, it should be done somewhere in between often and not so often and a lot rather than a little.
Slashdot recently picked up this May 8th WWW Coder article analyzing a recent Google patent filing. I felt it was a well written article. In the least, it brought up a few ideas I hadn't heard before and based those ideas on the recent Google patent filing. These ideas include information on how page history & 'freshness', the whois info and length of time of domain name registration, burst link growth, site click-through rates and other factors may affect rank. The article can be found here: http://www.wwwcoder.com/main/parentid/285/site/5033/266/default.aspx The Slashdot discussion can be found here: http://yro.slashdot.org/yro/05/05/10/1546207.shtml?tid=217&tid=155 FROM THE ARTICLE: Google's US Patent confirms information retrieval is based on historical data. An Introduction: …if you thought you cracked the Google Code and had Google all figured out … guess again. Google’s sweeping changes confirm the search giant has launched a full out assault against artificial link inflation & declared war against search engine spam in a continuing effort to provide the best search service in the world… and if you thought you cracked the Google Code and had Google all figured out … guess again. Google has raised the bar against search engine spam and artificial link inflation to unrivaled heights with the filing of a United States Patent Application 20050071741 on March 31, 2005. The filing unquestionable provides SEO’s with valuable insight into Google’s tightly guarded search intelligence and confirms that Google’s information retrieval is based on historical data. [Note, I figured this might already be a thread here, but a few searches and looking trough discussions didn't yield anything. Apologies if there is already a thread on this. -R]
Google has only put an application in, and as yet as far as i am aware it's due to be edited slightly here and there (as most applications do). Google *could* be applying for this application just to lead us astray (as per a few peoples comments on otehr forums). My own opinion: Hang in there and test theories as and when', 80% of my sites/sites I admin still rank well using old techniques, others are stuck in the so called "sandbox". This certainly hasn't come in to play yet as far as I am aware.
Nothing's really changed if you follow common sense and don't do anything you think might be considered "dodgy"... content, frequently updated, inbound links, it's nothing really new.
If you seriously believe that Google has implemented the hundreds of ideas in that patent, then there is no need to optimize websites, just think really hard that you would like to be #1 on thus and such a search and Google will be able to read your mind and put you there. Personally I think I will stick to what has worked for the past seven years in Google - good page titles, good content and lots of anchor text links.
When I look at the top 3 pages of Google SERPs, I see many different reasons different sites rank. I don't think the importance of those factors will ever vanish. Just a more refined algorithm is what I see in the future. Where the links are coming from is IMO going to gain importance. The good neighborhoods should be the ones where you get links from. It is not recommended by me that a newbie exchanges links without knowing what to look for in a potential link partner. I would rather see more people upload blogs onto their domain names and start posting on other people's blogs (with related subjects) as well as post on their own 2-3 times a day. There are ways to gain SERPs naturally and there are ways of more aggressive advertising which help you gain rankings as a nice side-effect. Your strategy works for you because you know what you are doing. I myself am in the process of fixing new clients' sites who thought they knew what they were doing while following a strategy like yours because somebody advised them to do so. I would prefer new seo's to take it slow and not get too high too soon. That of course is just my opinion but having domain names which pass the Google sandbox and seeing fast and high rankings due to not taking any chances in the past, has been working very well for me. Everybody should do what they are most comfortable with and I personally love quality content, more content, a good structure and a few good links from a few good sites can already get you up there. Creating some pages with free tools, helpful hints etc that other webmasters link to voluntarily, those are great as well. I always believe in creativity - too much strategy can kill quality. That is when the search engine results will no longer please the visitor when the better sites are buried behind seo driven sites. Mike
I can't say that I agree with this view. While an interesting read, it raised more questions than provided answers for me. Which of the methods that G claims (in its patent) are currently in use, and to what extent? No one knows. Which are included solely for the purpose of disinformation? Perhaps I'm too short sighted, but I found little insight. The only reference that peaked my interest was a brief mention of trust. A few others have since published views on the possible existence of TrustRank. I have been a firm believer that G has a trust rating of sorts, and that until a site reaches full trustworthiness it will not achieve its natural rank. But again, to what extent might this be currently used? Who knows?
I would prefer to think that the better sites will also be SEO driven. IMO if a webmaster is clever enough to put up a really great site, I doubt if he would not put forth some effort towards getting it to rank well.