On August 22, 2006, Google’s latest patent (#7096214) was approved. This patent is extremely interesting in light of the recent excitement surrounding social search. The patent if broken down into its most simplistic form states, Google is going to take their existing algorithm and temper it with shared book marking sites and other trust networks.
The Patent itself is called, “System and method for supporting editorial opinion in the ranking of search results”. What does this all mean? If your web site has gained and lost significant ranking over the past month, it is very likely due to your inclusion or not in trust networks, such as links from www.myspace.com, http://del.icio.us, Google Co-op and others. Though the patent does not go into detail on which sites are trusted sites and which are not, it is likely that the trusted sites are the ones that are being talked about heavily with in the social networking arena.
It is also important to note, that just having a patent approved does not necessarily mean that you must use the patent. Filing for a patent further does not mean that you have disclosed everything there is to know an invention. For example, it is common practice to withhold all trade secrets from any patent application, because a patent becomes public knowledge and anyone can read it.
Prior to filing the aforementioned patent application, Google used a computer generated algorithm which did not take human editorial comments or votes into its ranking, with the exception of links from relevant web sites. The new patent, takes the search results that would appear previously, and then checks to see if any of the sites in the results “relate to a list of favored or non-favored sources”, or whether any of the web sites correspond to at least one major category of favored web sites.
The patent makes reference to a plethora of claims. However, a select few claims express very telling statements. In claim #3, Google speaks to how it will determine a score of a web site that is not linked to on either favored or non-favored sites using a primary set of logical parameters (the general algorithm). The claim goes on further to state Google will determine a score for web sites that are referenced by Google’s list of favored or non-favored sites, using that same set of parameters and then takes into account an editorial option, and ranking the final search results based on the score. This seems to implicate that a web site which is listed on a favored site, and has solid editorial opinions will rank higher than a site which is not referenced by the favored or non-favored sites, even if it is still keyword dense, has great titles and all other factors that has been used in the past to rank a site.
In the next few claims the patent backs up claim #3, by stating the editorial opinions cause the rank of those web sites, Flash movies, images etc. that correspond to favored sites to be increased while those corresponding to non-favored sites will be decreased. Claim #10 goes on to restate how Google will score a web site based on its relationship to a favored or non favored web site and if so, that the ranking will be further fine tuned by an editorial opinion of those favored sites.
The statements about these favored and non-favored sites as well as editorial opinions leads one to believe that Google is simply referring to good and bad neighborhoods, which have been used in the past. The editorial opinions leads one to believe Google is looking for specific positive or negative content on shared book marking sites and human reviewed directory sites such as Myspace. Myspace is especially high on this attorney’s list of sites Google may be relying on based on their recent acquisition of ad space on myspace.com.
What is the reasoning behind this new patent of Google? There must be a way to fine tune the results of general searches. For example, a search for printers will come up with thousands if not millions of results. Why not utilize the experience of web users, and enhance the ranking of search results by integration editorial opinions into the scoring of web sites, then applying the score of an overall web site to each individual page, which will be relevant to a keyword search.
It appears as if Google has made huge strides in exploiting the social networking craze that is sweeping the SEO world. Yahoo has already done so, with their local search, Yahoo Answers, Flickr, Trip Planner and other programs, but Google is the one who has come out and actually documented what they are doing and provided search engine marketers a manual of sorts to better optimize their client’s web sites for the most popular search engine on the planet.
About The Author
Michael Goldstein, Esq.
The above entry was written by Michael Goldstein, Esq. of Goldstein and Clegg, LLC. A http://www.goldsteinandclegglaw.com/ Massachusetts trademark law firm Disclaimer: Attorney Goldstein is not a member of the United States Patent Bar, and his opinions should not be taken as legal advice in any shape, mean or manor, nor should his opinion be legally relied upon.
Do Not Be Scared Off
I will be making some statements in this article and some people will say; I am sure happy I never got into that! If you start to think that way, you need to read all the way to the end because you cannot afford to not be on Social Networking; it is just that you must do it correctly.
Many Businesses Do Not Understand Social Networking
Many, if not most, businesses fail to grasp the primary Social Networking and Web 2.0 concept: this is the concept that Social Networking is about conversations.
Social Networking is not a monologue, it is not even a dialog, it is a conversation and not only that it is a conversation with hundreds, thousands, or even millions of eavesdroppers.
Businesses must realize that every Social Networking conversation they have can be read or even heard by anybody with current and future access to the conversation. They may not be active participants in the conversation, but they will be able to read it none-the-less.
Compare Social Networking to the Email Reply to All Capability
Have you ever done a “Reply to All” on an email and then learned that there were many people that were blind copied? I have had that happen and there is nothing more embarrassing than to have something that you thought was a private conversation be put in front of a whole lot of people.
In many ways your Social conversations are like that email and the “Reply to All”; with some important differences. Although the email may have a life of its own there is no guarantee of that. With Social Networking you can count on it having a life of its own. That conversation can live on in infamy.
Does that mean that you do not converse? Absolutely not! It means that you converse with the idea in mind that you may be responding to one, but there are lots of people that will potentially see your response. All that means is that you must craft your response with that in mind. You must carefully consider your words, no matter how frustrated you may be.
No Reply Is Not Acceptable
There is a major toy company that we all know that has a Facebook Fan Page and from my perspective they are doing it ALL wrong.
They use their site to broadcast specials and advertise products. Their customers on the other hand use the Fan Page to lodge criticisms and complaints about specific stores, products, policies, treatment, bad promotions, and a host of other things. Where this company is missing the Social Networking boat is that they are not responding to these customer comments and complaints.
Even worse when one customer lodges a complaint another customer will chime in with their you think that was bad, listen to what happened to me. These conversations go on and on in a forum sponsored by the company but with no involvement by any representatives of the company.
This is an example of Social Networking at its worst! It is about building credibility, reliability, and trust with the goal being to extend the brand; this company is doing none of that and is actually doing the opposite.
This is an example of Social Networking being done at its worst!
Copyright Tom Staskiewicz
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This post was written by Rolf on May 24, 2010
