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Thanks For The Search Suggestion, Are You Trying To Tell Me Something?

By | August 16, 2007

Search operators are a part of any backlink research. Whether for a client or a competitor, getting a better idea of “who’s linkin’ who” is an essential activity. Both “link:” and “site:” operators are routine. I usually prefer to use “link:” on Yahoo!, it provides a more complete picture than Google. However, recently started to type in my Firefox search bar and saw something odd. As Firefox uses Google Suggest, it made suggestions as to how to complete my search. Here is a screen capture.

mozilla-google-suggest.jpg

Here is how the search looked at Google Suggest. It has additional details.

google-suggest.jpg

Can you make any guess as to why these particular sites were offered? Recent searches by Google engineers? Random websites? A crafty bit of subterfuge designed to make search engine marketers obsess over something new?

It didn’t obsess. I just went over to Google Suggest and tried a “site” operator. Gad Zounds! My search found more delicious oddity there.

google-suggest-site.jpg

I don’t seriously believe that there are hidden messages found here. But it is certainly not a list of most popular sites or sites with the deepest crawls. Perhaps it is an illustration that these operators are useful for sites of all sizes and link popularity. Any ideas?

About the Author:

Matt has broad experience in traditional and online marketing, with a particular focus on the manufacturing sector. He loves discovering strategies and tactics that result in big wins. Keough is known for his creative and sometimes amusing analogies and once subjected the Internet to animated GIFs. He is the father of four boys and has watched many hours of baseball with his wife, Joyce.

2 Comments »

Comments

2 Comments so far

  1. Mike Murray - August 17, 2007 at 10:29 am

    I wonder if it's random. I doubt they're paying big bucks to appear there.

  2. Matt Keough - August 17, 2007 at 10:54 am

    Is anything in life REALLY random? It may be an arbitrary selection, but it is repeatable. The same sites came up when I searched a few days after I originally noticed this.

2 Responses to “Thanks For The Search Suggestion, Are You Trying To Tell Me Something?”


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