TechWhirl (TECHWR-L) is a resource for technical writing and technical communications professionals of all experience levels and in all industries to share their experiences and acquire information.
For two decades, technical communicators have turned to TechWhirl to ask and answer questions about the always-changing world of technical communications, such as tools, skills, career paths, methodologies, and emerging industries. The TechWhirl Archives and magazine, created for, by and about technical writers, offer a wealth of knowledge to everyone with an interest in any aspect of technical communications.
Subject:Re: Search Engine habits From:Janice Gelb <Janice -dot- Gelb -at- Sun -dot- COM> To:techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com Date:Sun, 08 Feb 2009 06:44:05 +1100
McLauchlan, Kevin wrote:
> After an exchange in another thread, it occurs to me to ask:
>
> Does anybody on the list ROUTINELY search with Google, Yahoo or any of
> the other major engines and then actually look past the second page of
> results?
>
>
> Does anybody on the list RARELY(*)-but-sometimes search with Google,
> Yahoo or any of the other major engines and then actually look past the
> second page of results?
>
>
> I wanted to say "EVER", but everybody who's ever used search engines has
> had to go through the learning curve of seeing how rapidly the useful
> results drop off, meaning that everybody has had to look a few times
> before deciding that:
>
> A) There's not likely to be much useful stuff past the second page of a
> casual search and
>
> B) If you want there to be something useful on later pages of results,
> you have to take time up front to craft a very particular and
> well-thought-out search with all sorts of terms and conditions.
>
I am known far and wide for my Google-fu abilities
and I can say with absolutely certainty that even
with a well-crafted search request, if you're
looking for something particularly obscure, good
hits are occasionally found on the latter pages
of search results. My best guess as to why has
to do with how Google "rates" pages. I suspect
that it puts more popular pages first so if you
are looking for something obscure that is on a
similarly obscure site, it's not going to show
up on the first page or two of hits.
-- Janice
***********************************************************
Janice Gelb | The only connection Sun has with
janice -dot- gelb -at- sun -dot- com | this message is the return address
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
ComponentOne Doc-To-Help 2009 is your all-in-one authoring and publishing
solution. Author in Doc-To-Help's XML-based editor, Microsoft Word or
HTML and publish to the Web, Help systems or printed manuals. http://www.doctohelp.com
Help & Manual 5: The complete help authoring tool for individual
authors and teams. Professional power, intuitive interface. Write
once, publish to 8 formats. Multi-user authoring and version control! http://www.helpandmanual.com/
---
You are currently subscribed to TECHWR-L as archive -at- web -dot- techwr-l -dot- com -dot-
