in reply to Re^2: Google "related" search bias?
in thread Google "related" search bias?

"perl tutorial" is probably a more common search, and perlmonks is down in the pack for that one.

A bit of fiddling shows that Google is profoundly ignorant about this site, especially since perlmonks.thepen.com seems to be defunct.

A good, fast search engine on this site would be a huge. SuperSearch is a great tool and I use it regularly, but it is slower than Christmas. Last I checked this site is difficult to index properly, so if someone is volunteering to help, I am in favor of it. Not that my opinion matters much!

Then again, if it was easy to search, anybody could do it. Maybe we are better off being off the map.

It should work perfectly the first time! - toma

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Re^4: Google "related" search bias?
by webfiend (Vicar) on Jan 18, 2007 at 17:56 UTC

    It's been so long now that I can't remember how I found PerlMonks, but I have a feeling it was through Google. Still, I agree that it would be nice to see more of PM showing up on Google. I don't know if that's our responsibility or theirs. Should we be taking time away from improvement of this site to make it easier for new people to find us? Are people even having that much trouble finding us? How many Monks are there nowadays, anyhow?

    ...SuperSearch is a great tool and I use it regularly...

    You are a better geek than I am :-) I never have managed to get the hang of SuperSearch, so I end up flailing around almost randomly trying to find information, or just digging down through categorized Q & A. I welcome improvements of any kind to SuperSearch!

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      I welcome improvements of any kind to SuperSearch!

      I'm not saying Super Search is perfect, but it works quite well. What needs improving is your SuperSearch jargon://fu]. The monks in the chatterbox would be happy to help you with that.

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Re^4: Google "related" search bias?
by mr_mischief (Monsignor) on Jan 25, 2007 at 20:53 UTC
    Perlmonks.org is on the front page of the "perl tutorials" search on Google for me. I don't consider anything on the first page to be terribly low. The results ahead of PM's tutorial also appear to be Perl tutorials, and therefore also relevant.

    Getting a little boost in search engine ranking wouldn't hurt. I would think, though, that a better goal than being seen as more relevant would be to actually be more relevant. As PM's already one of the most relevant Perl sites around, that could take some real effort to pull off.

    I don't see a struggle in site optimization among members of the Perl community as that productive of an exercise in the end, either. It may help us to get awareness out about Perl if the sites were indexed well, but having the best Perl sites rise and fall organically on a search for Perl is probably the best way to handle such targeted searches for the community as a whole.

    Here's some examples of searches that Perl sites might be expected to fall under:
    searchresults pagetype
    programming language 2 perl.com direct
    easy programming language 1 perl.com as #7
    simple programming language 1 perl.com at #8
    bioinformatics 3 O'Reilly conference with "perl" in description
    bioinformatics programming 1 A Perl bioinformatics course is #3.
    artificial intelligence > 10 I only looked through ten, found nothing
    rapid development > 10 same as above
    report generation 9 Consulting firm mentions Perl in site description
    automating system administration 1 IBM has an article on doing this with Perl at #3, while O'Reilly's Perl for System Administration is #9.
    line noise 9 everything2.com talks about how despite some people find Perl's syntax opaque, it's the world's most flexible programming language
    regular expression 1 Several. Some specifically Perl, some including Perl with other languages.
    CGI 1 MSA is ahead of Lincoln Stein's CGI.pm, but both are on page 1.

    And DBI is the first result overall for 'database interface'.

    Over all, I think Perl is pretty well represented. Python, Java, Ruby, and PHP are often ahead of Perl in those results, but there might very well be more info on the web about those topics in those languages for all I know. I was a little surprised about bioinformatics, report generation, and rapid development being so bereft of Perl-related results.


    Christopher E. Stith
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Re^4: Google "related" search bias?
by ysth (Canon) on Jan 25, 2007 at 20:36 UTC
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