James Moss

What factors does Google take into account when ranking your site?

James Moss — Sun, 10 Jan 2010 18:53:14 +0000

The algorithm Google uses to rank your site in its search engine results pages is highly complex and the team who work on it are highly secretive. There are very few who know exactly how it works. The algorithm is often updated and refined which means keeping your site at the top of search results is an ongoing task.

In a recent keynote speech at PubCon, a Google engineer Matt Cutts, revealed that there are roughly 200 different variables which are analysed by the algorithm when it’s deciding where to rank your site. Over at Search Engine Journal, Ann Smarty and her readers are attempting to put together a definitive list of these variables. Of course nobody knows how accurate this list is, however with the input of hundreds of SEO specialists with years of experience it’s very likely that many of the these factors are correct.

Let’s Try to Find All 200 Parameters in Google Algorithm @ SEJ
http://www.searchenginejournal.com/200-parameters-in-google-algorithm/15457/

Google Chrome has arrived… and its good!

James Moss — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 20:58:35 +0000

Today Brian Rakowski announced the launch of Google’s new browser, Chrome.

After teasing us yesterday with a great comic book strip explaining what it is, how it works and the ideas behind it they finally opened up downloads at around 8pm(GMT).

I’ll outline my first impressions below.

The good

Its fast! Websites seems really snappy. Ive yet to run any benchmarks yet but I can see it beating Firefox and Safari in all areas
Lightweight. I was a bit unsure of having multiple processes running all over my machine but they seem to managed well. RAM useage can get a bit high with multiple tabs open but with just GMail open its only using 17mb (vs FF3’s 112mb)
Standards compliant. It’s got WebKit under the hood so this was expected really.

The bad

The installation procedure is awful. Why do I have to download a 500k setup file which then in turn downloads the installation file and extracts it to a random location on my hard drive. Getting installation right is very important as it’s often the first interaction a user will be having with your application.
Im running Windows XP and the GUI is some kind of Vista hybrid (just like Windows Live Messenger). Although its fairly minimal it does annoy me.
They’ve adopted the IE7 style of doing away with the File, Edit, Help menu and placing it all under one icon. At least give us the option to change it back guys.
No “Add to dictionary” feature when you right click on a misspelled word. Bit of an oversight really.

The good points really do outweigh the few bads points mentioned here. I feel guilty dropping Firefox after championing it for so many years but it has become bloated and unstable.

I’ll be looking forward to new updates and plugins over the coming weeks.

Fantastic Contraption

James Moss — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 16:02:32 +0000

I’m not normally a big fan of Flash games, they tend to either be poorly implemented or lacking scope. This week however, I discovered the brilliant physics based Flash game Fantastic Contraption.

The premise is simple; using a series of different rods and wheels you must build a machine to move a ball into a target zone. You are free to build your machine however you like and because of this the game is extremely open ended.

By creating a standard account, Fantastic Contraption lets you save your designs and share them with friends as well as browse through other people attempts. After upgrading to a full account (a one-time fee of $10), you are able to create your own levels and share them with others.

Colin Northway and his team have turned a great idea into a well executed puzzler which I highly reccommend.

Google Ranking Explained

James Moss — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 06:17:23 +0000

Historically Google have always been very secretive about the algorithms which power their search technology. Over the past few months however, they have publishing small tidbits of information on how Google Search works in an effort to appear more transparent.

Today the man in charge of Core Ranking at Google, Amit Singhal, has publicly spoken about how search works. In particular he talks about the three core philosopies:

Best locally relevant results served globally.
Keep it simple.
No manual intervention.

The article doesn’t go into much detail and really only covers some of the basic details behind the ranking algorithm but nevertheless it makes for an interesting read.

Head over to the Google Blog now to check out his post.