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Several people claimed that AOL and Yahoo are showing identical results (that are DIFFERENT than Google's). Can't find it, never seen it - can anybody provide at least 1 sample query where this can be verified? Only thing I see with AOL that they filter certain sites, sometimes following criteria that are either totally absurd or directly from hell (or both).
Rossie, I'm with those who get different results for "San Diego homes for sale" - that's over here on the European continent. I also get them when I visit yahoo.uk and switch to "worldwide" search.
San Diego homes for sale (is one of the phrases I'm targeting)
For it I see different results here in Canada. I even tried Yahoo.ca and noticed the same thing.
AOL and Yahoo are giving the same results for me on this term. The titles are different but the URLs are in the same order.
Here's what kills me: when I search for "usa america" on search.aol.com I get the same results I got on GOOGLE when I started this thread. But when I search on Google, I get the Yahoo results... clicking on refresh after a couple of minutes, I get the other set again.
Ok, here are my wild guesses!
#1 What we are seeing here is Google-made. It's the only logical explanation. That's why the changes are rotating from AOL to Yahoo to Google and back.
#2 This is NOT Everflux. I would expect some sites to move up and down in the SERPs, and see those changes come and go a couple of times. But this is BIGGER. It seems like Google is experimenting with a new algorithm, which either incorporates click through counting (most likely) or some sort of cluster-related algorithm (probably not) in a mild form.
Feel free to contest my theory! :)
P.S: The true explanation might be hard to find because possibly not all examples in this thread are due to the same reason. But in total, I do think that we're on to something here.
I do show up on google. I've been indexed for two months now, but PR 0.
Theodore
Hmmm, disable my firewall and AOL shows up, same as Google and yahoo.
1) all directory listings
2) completely different than Google, 1-20
3) haven't changed in close to 3 months.
Other "furniture" oddities:
1) Top 5 sites on Google that DO have a Yahoo directory listing are completely missing on yahoo (e.g., #1 Google not in top 200 Yahoo results, but is listed in Yahoo Directory).
2) Page one of Yahoo search results notes "1-20 of 11,200,000 results". Click to page two and the page notes "21-40 of 11,600,000 results" (where did the extra 400K come from?).
3) Yahoo advanced search results are pure google for "furniture."
A hypothesis:
For popular keywords in their main search, Yahoo is generating unique results from their directory.
>The criteria for these results are powerful enough to cause a top Google site with a directory listing to be excluded from yahoo results. (clickthough?)
>They don't update these listings very often.
Alternate hypotheses:
>These are paid listings requring directory participation above the standard express listing.
>Yahoo has had a glitch with their furniture results for several months.
Anyone at Yahoo (a yahooguy?) care to give a clue?
AllanP/yosmc thanks for giving this issue some play - it's been driving me nuts for weeks.
Just two ideas:
> Yahoo advanced search results are pure google for "furniture."
Seems to be true. Very interesting.
> Yahoo is generating unique results from their directory.
Seems to be wrong. Admitted, the first 20 results are ALSO in the Yahoo directory. But compare the sites that are not - they are completely shuffled as well, and if the difference is just the Yahoo directory, these results should be the same order as in pure Google.
1st Yahoo 1-20 is presenting directory listings, even as web pages, then it drops that and supplys none directory listings, though with no mention of google at all.
I think this maybe to do with a reshuffling (crawl-index) of the Yahoo DB of site's. Alternatively, they've dropped google and are crawl pages-sites for themselves. last year i would'nt have believed it, but the data farm that they have built recently is massive -> so the idea isn't so unrealistic.
I notice that Google recently somehow changed their algo and results are quite different from that of a few days ago. So my guess is Google is applying (or testing) a different ranking method on its own site wheares supplying the same old results for Yahoo and AOL. And that will explain why Yahoo and AOL are the same but only Google is different.
Interesting...but the #1 Google listing for "furniture" is essentially a pure keyword.com. It's not anywhere in Yahoo (at least I don't see it.) Maybe Google give more weight to keyword in the URL?
Maoley,
for furniture I get AOL=Google, but entirely different results for Yahoo.
Caine and yosmc,
I think you're right...the directory isn't the answer. The idea that they're crawling on their own (or at least radically reshuffling results) is the most feasible I've heard...I can't find any correlation with any other result set I know of.
Not to overly confuse the issue, but try this:
1) Yahoo Advanced Search "furniture"
2) Note first 5 results (same as google)
3) Click to page two of results
4) Click "first page" to get pack to page 1 of results
5) Results 1-5 are different.
This has been like this for over 2 months. After the last Google update, the results changed, but not the behavior.
Testing new algo's maybe?
I'm stumped, but at least a bit gratified others are finding this odd.
