May 27 2008

How to be Topp

SEO companies should be quaking in their boots as Google pledges to adopt a more open approach with the secret formula for its search algorithms

The way Google searches the web has long been known but the way it then takes those results and decides who is at the top of the list and who ends up at the bottom is a closely guarded secret. SEO companies have charged a premium for the knowledge of how to be top, but it looks like the SEO gravy train may be about to be derailed.

Udi Manber, Google's vice president of engineering, made an announcement to make Google more open on a corporate blog as part of a "renewed effort" to open up the company's secrets.

Manber claimed that competition and attempts to prevent abuse have been the main reasons for Google's historic secretive stance.

Google has kept its search ranking formulas a closely guarded secret to make it more difficult for people to "game the system", he wrote.

"But being completely secretive is not ideal, and this blog post is part of a renewed effort to open up a bit more than we have in the past," said Manber.

"We will try periodically to tell you about new things, explain old things, give advice, spread news and engage in conversations. Let me start with some general pieces of information about our group. More blog posts will follow."

Manber also outlined the ongoing challenges faced by the company, including the rapid growth in user expectations.

"Tomorrow's queries will be much harder than today's queries," he said.

"Just as Moore's Law governs the doubling of computing speed every 18 months, there is a hidden unwritten law that doubles the complexity of our most difficult queries in a short time."

It remains to be seen just how many secrets Google reveals, but however many are revealed, the move to being more open has to be applauded. And I can guarantee that we won’t be knocked down in the rush as Yahoo and Microsoft rush to follow suit.

*Before you complain about the spelling of Top. How to be Topp was a book by Geoffrey Willans, with cartoons by Ronald Searle, and this book and the rest of the Molesworth series, are the main reason I can't spill or do good grammar.  Chiz

by Marcus Austin (Web Editor)