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Went Hot: July 22, 2008 - 11:56 am
Posted By: billslawski 348 days ago
Topic Type: News Story (Jump to http://www.uic.edu)
Category: Tips & Tools
Indiana University researchers have developed an interesting tool that points out differences in search result sets from one country to another. These differences may be the result of censorship, or could be caused by other factors, such as a preference for showing shopping or local results. Very interesting tool, regardless.
6 Comments
Comments
The tool described in the article is at:
http://homer.informatics.indiana.edu/censearchip/
Some very interesting differences in queries that I performed.
Hi Tykeblog,
The authors of the paper raise a question in their conclusion, which I believe has some validity to it:
If you look through the search results in Google for the query phrase "Baggage Charges for UK Airlines," I think it's evident that they believe that the query in question is an informational one, aimed at finding informational results rather than commercial ones. They show a mixed set of news and informational results rather than commercial results. Your page has both relevant content, and relevant information on the topic, but your page is also a result that could be considered commercial in nature.
You're asking us to compare that Google UK result with a Yahoo UK result, and I think that it's clear that Yahoo's search algorithm is focusing on providing results based upon other kinds of factors, and may even favor commercial results.
It would be interesting to see whether, if you moved the commercial content off that page, and added some additional information content, if Google would include that page in higher search results for that topic, and Yahoo would reduce its ranking for the page.
Does that make sense? I believe it is the explanation for what you are seeing.
Ouch. Sorry, Tykeblog.
I noticed that people had voted your comment down, and I went to vote it back up - hit the wrong button. There doesn't seem to be a way to take those back. I'll send a message through the contact form to see if I can get someone to change that from a minus vote to a plus vote.
I don't understand why people are voting you down for asking a question. Isn't that the site is for?
@tykeblog I voted you back up. I find it interesting both from a search and user experience perspective that SERPS vary country to country. Is it censorship? My gut says "No". Is it algorithms based on localized factors, including user preferences data? That seems more likely.
I found nothing wrong with you asking the question.
Bill, that was a great answer to Tykeblog!
If you're producing the best content and Google/Yahoo refuses to list you for whatever reason.
This is censorship.
Try these two searches:
http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=Baggage+Charges+for+UK+Airlines&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-GB:official&client=firefox-a
http://uk.search.yahoo.com/search?p=Baggage+Charges+for+UK+Airlines&ei=UTF-8&fr=moz2
Also, have a look at the page content and see if you think it's good.
I'm aware my site has been 'censored' for some time. It's not good for consumers and it's not good for me.
Why are Google doing it?