econman - 3:52 pm on May 20, 2006 (gmt 0)

I don't know if Google is as smart as they think, but the hotel example actually shows that google doesn't need to be exceedingly brilliant to spot patterns of relevance. In fact, this example demonstrates how simple it could be for Google to identify the relevance of all these links.

Think for a second: what do all of the sites listed have in common?

Answer: they are all (or mostly) sites sponsored by brick and mortar businesses in the general vicinity of the hotel.

There are at least two ways Google could spot this geographic pattern quite easily.

First, it might notice that all of the sites have city names, street addresses and zip codes that identify them as having content related to a specific geographic area, which just happens to match that of the hotel.

Second, the whois information for many -- perhaps most -- of these sites would indicate that the registrant, or the service they hired to help them maintain the site (the technical contact) is located in a specific state or city, which just happens to match that of the hotel.

P.S. Didn't I read something somewhere that Google had plans to pursue "local" search? Weren't there rumours they were going to launch a beta product that competes with mapquest? Or was that my imagination?