softplus - 10:01 pm on Oct 3, 2005 (gmt 0)

>I'd drop it to the very simplest level: how long can
>you add features and tweaks to a huge app before
>you need to do a full rewrite?

That's correct - but remember that Google doesn't have to go either/or, it can run both algos at the same time, and just weigh one or the other stronger. Similarly, it has the possibility to play with the settings on the cached set of sites for internal tests. I'm certain they do that before any small/medium/large changes: run a test group through Google and let them tell the engineers which setting produces better results. ("taste-testing" for search engines) And they certainly run the betas out for testing on a large scale (check the number of posts on WH / BH sites regarding a change, the higher the BH:WH-ratio goes, the better the changes?).

So perhaps what we're now seeing is a small scale-up from one algo to the new one.

One thing that certainly is a problem is that Google has such clout that the websites are largely at it's mercy. If it decides to drop affiliate sites completely (say it could), then all those that depend on those sales will suddenly have a big drop in sales, because Google "feels like it would be better". Ouch. In the woest case, lives down the drain because of taste-tests. I guess that's life for a web-marketeer :-).

Has anyone tried to model a new SE based on Googles serps? It would be an interesting experiment (and a ton of hard work)...