bigjohnt - 9:46 pm on Apr 11, 2006 (gmt 0)

Why would they collect the data without the intent to use it?
With all those datacenters, surely they use some for testing, and probably rotate weighted factors using feedback from the toolbar to test them.

Didn't we used to call this "temporal clicking" as was used by direct hit and hotbot?

An iterative loop based on the users. I call it brilliant, as a check on the foundation they have already engineered. Its a heck of a number crunch, but they have the power to do it. Eventually, it may even be done close to real time.

IMHO, this will not supplant PageRank, or linkpop, but will overlay with the vote of the searching public - who by all means should have important input. Not primarily other sites and webmasters as was the case with previous algos.

Once again, it still comes down to relevance and content. Google will use the searching public to weed out less than stellar sites. (Language ambiguity and inept searches will need to be part of the "fudge" factor. I imagine a huge amount of sites caught in the crossfire on this.)

And once again, commercial sites will have to provide content enough for the information seekers to keep them on the site to avoid triggering "irrelevance" penalties from those not interested in purchasing.

AND ...once again... Brett's concise two words show wisdom and insight.

"Florida update" :)