Google Hacks 2Nd Edition [Electronic resources] نسخه متنی

1.10. Anatomy of a Search Result

You''d think a list of search results
would be pretty straightforward, wouldn''t
youjust a page title and a link, possibly a summary? Not so
with Google. Google encompasses so many search properties and has so
much data at its disposal that it fills every results page to the
rafters. Within a typical search result you can find sponsored links,
ads, links to stock quotes, page sizes, spelling suggestions, and
more.

By knowing more of the nitty-gritty details of
what''s what in a search result,
you''ll be able to make some guesses
("Wow, this page that links to my page is very
large; perhaps it''s a link list")
and correct roadblocks ("I can''t
find my search term on this page; I''ll check the
version Google has cached").

Let''s use the word
"flowers" to examine this anatomy.
Figure 1-3 shows the result page for
flowers.

First, you''ll note at the top of the page is a
selection of tabs, allowing you to repeat your search across other
Google search categories besides web pages, including Google Groups
[ [Hack #1] .
Beneath that you''ll see a count for the number of
results and how long the search took: about 48,000,000 results in
0.61 seconds (this will vary, sometimes by quite a bit).

Sometimes you''ll see results/sites called out on
colored backgrounds at the top or right of the results page (see
Figure 1-3). These are called sponsored
links (read: advertisements). Google has a policy of very
clearly distinguishing ads and sticking to text-based advertising
only rather than throwing flashing banners in your face like other
sites do.

Beneath the sponsored links you sometimes see a category list.
You''ll see a category list only if
you''re searching for very general terms and your
search consists of only one word. For example, if you searched for
pinwheel flowers, Google
wouldn''t present the flowers category.

Other times you''ll see news stories [Chapter 4] related to your query.

Why would you see category results? After all, Google is a full-text search engine, isn''t it? It''s because Google has taken the information from the Open Directory Project (http://www.dmoz.org) and crossed it with its own popularity rankings to make the Google Directory. When you see categories, you''re seeing information from the Google Directory.

The first real (i.e., nonsponsored) result of the search for
flowers is shown in Figure 1-4.

Let''s break that down into chunks, shall we?

The top line of each result is the page title, hyperlinked to the
original page.

The second line offers a brief extract from this site. Sometimes this
is a description of the site or a selected sentence or two. Sometimes
it''s HTML mush. Google tends to use description
metatags when they''re available;
it''s rare when you can look at a Google search
result and not have even a modicum of an idea what the site is all
about.

The next line sports several
informative bits of
metadata. First, there''s the URL; second, the size
of the page (Google will have the page size available only if the
page has been cached). There''s a link to a cached
version of the page if one is available. Finally,
there''s a link to find similar
pages. Why would you bother reading the search-result metadata? Why not
simply visit the site and see if it has what you want?

If you''ve got a broadband connection and all the
time in the world, you might not want to bother with checking out the
metadata. But if you have a slower connection and time is at a
premium, consider the search-result information.

First, check the

page summary. Where does your keyword
appear? Does it appear in the middle of a list of site names? Does it
appear in a way that makes it clear that the context is not what
you''re looking for?

Check the size of the page if it''s available. Is the
page very large? Perhaps it''s just a link
lista page full of hyperlinks, as the name suggests. Is it
just 1 or 2 KB? It might be too small to find the level of detail
that you''re looking for. If your aim is link lists,
be on the lookout for pages larger than 20 KB and see [Hack #1] .

Page size in Google results is never going to be more than 101 KB. That''s because Google doesn''t index more than 101 KB worth of a given web page.