How does googles related: query work anyone? e.g: http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&q=related:forums.digitalpoint.com&meta= Do you specify it in any meta tags or does google compare your links? or content with others?
Per google: related: The query [related:] will list web pages that are "similar" to a specified web page. For instance, [related:www.google.com] will list web pages that are similar to the Google homepage. Note there can be no space between the "related:" and the web page url. This functionality is also accessible by clicking on the "Similar Pages" link on Google's main results page, and from the Advanced Search page, under Page Specific Search > Similar. It will also return sites that link to you, although it isn't entirely accurate.
They way they have implemented is: if some site links to site A and B on the same page (or part of the page) they must have something do to with eachother. If you have 1000's of pages linking to yahoo.com, google.com and search.msn.com they are probably related. try a related: search for one of the big co-op sites, you'll see they are 'related' to other heavy weight co-op sites, according to google..
most of my related links are the ones i link to or those who are linking to me and some strange websites that are totally offtopic to my website.
Accurate no, but it returns results from totally unrelated sites that aren't running co-op and no link to my site shows on the page or cache. I can't think of any value to using the feature.
The only reason I tried the related feature was to see If my site was being categorised in the correct way. i.e. did google recognise my site was an automotive one?
Yeah if anything else is factored, links are over-riding.. When I had few links to a particular site, I had one from a site that was very unrelated, and it showed up as related because it was one of only a few links.