MHes - 9:31 pm on Apr 15, 2005 (gmt 0)

Wizard

I agree, any test is impossible.

Your comment about the snippet of a very optimised page is interesting and presence us with a new filter... the user. I think the average user is learning to take more time examining the snippets and titles, making number 1 spot less important. I have noticed people doing this and stats are beginning to confirm that where there is a good title and good supporting snippet, traffic can be high and relevant, even if the page is ranked position10+

The 'feeling lucky' button on google must be used less and less, as people get more discerning and are not wanting to be sent to another off theme site! Its strange that Google still has it.

I suspect 2 years ago, people thought that if a site ranked first, it must be the best. Now perhaps they realise that they have to play their part in finding the right site, by spending more time on the serps page.

If all this is the case, then having text on the page that can produce a good snippet and be within the top 20, is perhaps more valuable than a top position. Thus the oop style of site is often filtered out by the user, if not by Google, because oop sites often produce poor snippets.