Internet, Google Algorithm | featured news

For Web sites that depend on their ranking in search results, Google’s secret — and frequently fluctuating — search algorithm can evoke a complex blend of admiration and fear.

It appears that GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney now has a Rick Santorum Internet-age problem. Searching for "Romney" using Google now yields a page defining the meaning of the term as "to defecate in terror" within the first five links or so.

Rick Santorum has lost control of his online identity, a predicament that stands as a chilling example of what it means to be at the mercy of the Google algorithm.

Monahan contends the stock has over-reacted to the impact of recent changes in Google’s search algorithm that were designed to reduce the prominence of lower quality content sites in search results. The analyst contends the move likely will have a single-digit impact to the company’s earnings, but has resulted in a 40% drop in the stock price since mid-April, leaving the stock 20% below its IPO price. He contends the recent price of the shares “reflects future negative changes that are unlikely to materialize.”

Most search engines, including Google, continually run an army of computer programs that retrieve pages from the web, index the words in each document, and store this information in an efficient format. Each time a user asks for a web search using a search phrase, such as "search engine," the search engine determines all the pages on the web that contains the words in the search phrase

Google said its latest algorithm change is so big that users will notice different, higher-quality search results.