Google has revealed a new page ranking system for images called VisualRank. The biggest search engine in the world today uses PageRank and this determines a websites value, based on its content and is scored from 0-10. The higher the websites PageRank, the higher the site appears on Google’s listings for the related keyword if all things where equal, title, h1 number of page etc etc…

It is different with images, as rankings largely rely on analysing the text near the image, the images file name and the ALT text associated with the image. Whilst progress has been made in the field of face detection for images, other more traditional objects like stereos and food items remain largely untouched.

VisualRank works using image recognition software, which groups images together that seem most similar to each other. It then estimates “visual hyperlinks” which in turn produces a final ranking.

Google have said that they concentrated on 2000 of the most popular search queries to make the prototype, including iPods, Xbox and Ps3. It then sorted the top 10 images from both its PageRank system and from Google Image search results, after that they created a scoring system for an images relevance. Researchers have estimated an 83% drop in irrelevant images returned by the search system.

The Us Justice Department have initiated an investigation into Yahoo and Google’s advertising sharing trial. The two week test, which allows Google to place its adverts alongside 3% of Yahoo’s search results, has been criticized since it was announced. The Department of Justice is looking into whether it violates any antitrust laws.

Although The Justice Department has not made a formal announcement of the investigation, insider sources have said that the trial was being looked at because of a phone call between the two companies CEO’s, in which its alleged that Eric Schmidt (Google CEO) has offered help in thwarting Microsoft’s bid to buy Yahoo.

Another source later said that The DOJ was concerned about an extension to the deal between Yahoo and Google. Microsoft has declined to comment, with many analysts saying that the Yahoo/Google test was set up to stall Microsoft’s merger with Yahoo and so that Google could avoid a competitive threat posed by the merger.

Yahoo and Google seem to think that they are in the clear as they haven’t hidden their intentions from the DOJ, but could be liable for a monopolization inquiry, if it is deemed to have a significant competition avoiding affects.

Ok maybe I’m been a little harsh here, over the weekend I did a quick search on Google for”Armani Suits Harrogate” clicked on #1 ufindus and been an SEO instantly thought hmmmm what going on here then.

so is this bad or good practice.

http://www.ufindus.com/fashion_clothing_shops/harrogate when I went to this page, I notice that the word Armani wasn’t visible that I had search for.

So a quick view source and Ctrl-F for Armani I found the text in the meta and in a Div

class=”category_desc_header” id=”catDesc” style=”display: none”

hmm the ok so “Show Category Description” display the text

“Are you looking for fashion clothing shops in Harrogate? Choose from a range of designer labels bringing you the freshest fashionable clothing. We have a choice of fashion clothing shops stocking a variety of designer labels in Harrogate today. Fashion clothing can be found to suit all occasions and tastes. If you are looking for suits and evening wear there’s a great choice of designers to choose from. Suits and evening wear for men and women are available from well known names such as Armani, Paul Smith, Yves Saint Laurent, Dolce and Gabbana and many more. Even casual wear can be spruced up a little with a choice of casual clothes from designer labels. Great for nights out or dress down days at work designer casual wear is great for when you want to look smart without putting in to much effort. Casual designer fashion clothing is available from brands such as Diesel, Firetrap, Ringspun, Sonetti and Teddy Smith. If you want to fit in at the coolest parties and hippest clubs then designer streetwear is the choice for you. Fashion clothing from streetwear designers allows you to relax in comfort whilst creating an effortless style. Designer streetwear is available from brands such as Ecko, Akademics, Rocawear, LRG, Addict, Carhartt and Zoo York. Find fashion clothing shops in Harrogate with the results below.”

I wouldn’t class it has been hidden text more misleading text, but adding paid listings from Overture for the keywords like “Fashion Clothing Shops” so I get ..

Fashion World UK
Top ladies 2008 fashion in sizes 12-32; Save 10% on your first order.
www.fashionworld.co.uk

Celebrity Style at ASOS
The leading online fashion store Buy now for next day delivery.
www.asos.com

which neither sell Armani and neither are in Harrogate, which means if you live in Harrogate and need a suit quickly, drive to Harvey Nichols in Leeds

DaveN

after a meeting last week I decided that a client had enough reasons to start using sub-domains on a city level,

I still feel you have to be careful thou, take when google killed all the “uk.com” sub-domain websites, sites that used to rank for #3 fireworks (fireworks.uk.com) just died overnight, they went on and decided to rebrand and rebuild by the looks of it.

Then you had AVON that didn’t rank for avon because they where on avon.uk.com they do now of course, but while Google was killing the UK.com we had Craigslist doing this http://www.google.com/search?q=talent+gigs craigslist.org have 195 of the 200 listings in google is that right ? in fact they have had this market share since 7th July 2006 see looking for a talent gig

so what’s the opinion on sub-domains good or evil ?

Dave

Yahoo is said to be in the final stages to carry search ads from Google. it’s report that the 2 week test which be limited to around 3% of the US traffic will be part of a test that could lead to a much bigger partnership.
this test is designed for the 2 sides to evaluate the potential revenue.

I really can’t see how this benefits the search industry, but maybe it’s part of a the master plan from Microsoft, I mean Microsoft is a veteran with it’s long-running anti-trust case and are well aware that competitors don’t win anti-trust case, Governments do !

DaveN

With the recent job cuts at Doubleclick I’m wondering what a “transitional role” is at Google ? There must be a high number of experienced DoubleClick staff now on the search for new roles, is it a case of Google cutting expenses for shareholders or indeed loading its financial strong arm to leverage yet more acquisitions?

Questions to ask: How does Google really makes its money?

Dan Horton SEO

as if you didn’t know ! lol

ok I want to try and show you the importance of back link .. My little German Buddy linked to me in German !.. Ya das ist gut

this was the text here used Dell beim spammen erwischt ( it means something like “Dell gets spammed” ), but check out google for the German term Dell beim spammen erwischt

Cool Hey !

DaveN

hypothetical I repeat this post is hypotheatrical !

lets say that 12 months ago a group of Googlers and anonymous friends sat down to discuss how they could kill link selling and buying, without causing death and destruction to normal sites, Obviously if Google started killing sites for buying links, then the bad people would just buy links for the competition, of course Google are smart enough to think of that they aren’t just in this for the short term fix.

So lets pretend the real option was to build teams of Link detectives that just collected data but never actioned it, just collected..

Then lets say they set up accounts at TLA, Linkworth, TLB Digitalpoint etc etc, how quick could you collect the the data covertly without people ever knowing what was coming.. because they just collected data but never actioned it.

Ok so they have the data what’s next well they need to spread fear, so what if they just fire a warning shot, say cull Pagerank but nothing else, more to deter than hurt, But what if the community mocked this ! nobody likes been mocked so what if they cross reference that with data in Webmastercentral and analytics and just killed your money words. what if they where allowed to say … move you down 6 places per infraction would that stop the the linking selling and buying.. of cousre they would be monitoring the link buying activities so buying links for competitors could be discounted for say at least 6 months …

on recent trip to SES London a Webmaster asked me if I trusted a certain Googler.. he then went on to tell me that the same googler told HIM the spam team where using webmastercentral and analytics, I wasn’t sure so I could not confirm or deny..

how long before you feel the pain..
DaveN

All right. Where is the poison? The battle of wits has begun. It ends when you decide and we both drink, and find out who is right… and who is dead.

Not that I would ever actually keep score..(and if I was Matt would still be winning

Yesterday I posted reinclusion request indigo clothing

Today I have to issues an apology to Google… SORRY !

Matt Cutts Said :

and add to the list of Questions : DID YOU SELL LINKS IN THE PAST 6 MONTHS !

Re-examine your assumptions? E.g. http://web.archive.org/web/20070817163057/http://www.indigoclothing.com/blog/ is a link that shows when they were selling links. Later versions of their site were selling even more links, e.g. “sexy underwear” links.

Google has been very clear about how we feel about selling/buying links. If indigoclothing.com has dropped their text link ads and remove the links that they sold, they could do a reconsideration request. According to the data I looked at, the site has never done a reconsideration request.

And yes he is Bang on the Money, and has I said SES NYC and say again Buying and Selling links is just not worth the risk !

DaveN

what do you do when you know you haven’t do anything wrong, but Google still gives you a penalty

Take http://www.indigoclothing.com/and Alex is a reader and sometimes comments on my blog, I got an IM from him today asking me to look at his site more a favour and than anything else, see you it looks like his site has been hit with a penalty.

so I asked Alex a few simple question.

ME: Links.. have you purchased any say in the last 6 months ?
Alex : NO

ME What site changes have you made
Alex we added a hidden Div and Google analytics’s

ME WTF .. you mad Hidden Div?
Alex you can see on homepage, the green bar below images click it…. Scriptalicious

ME ok .. how do you handle 404’s
Alex ???? serverside we serve a 404 with links

Me : you got any new links recently, it has to be link related mate
Alex : we won the Wordpress contract to run their shop

Me : Link please
Alex : http://shop.wordpress.net/

Me : http://shop.wordpress.net/world/about/ I bet that fucked you up
Alex : what should we do ask them to remove the links and file a reinclusion request

Me: WHAT ! you have done nothing wrong… I ranted for a while… what I would do is

a) If you don’t have google webmaster central account - get one
b) Yes file a re-inclusion request
c) Pray a lot

so what would you do in this case.. you know you haven’t made any mistakes but you still got hit with a Google penalty

DaveN