Questions for GoogleGuy

[Brett_Tabke]

Post your best question you would like to ask GoogleGuy and at the end of the week, we'll pull out the top 10 requests and submit them to him in another thread:

Thread Rules:
-q's about Google operation. (not gg himself)
-one question only please.
-no noise or clarifying questions.
-no specifics about your site please.
-off topic stuff will be zapped (nffc is on duty!).
-Keep it short. Don't drone on for more than 2 sentences.

[excell]

Are virtual domains that flood the top 30 or so results and are based on a template with little unique content all leading to the main domain within one or two clicks considered to be spam by google?

[dazz]

Where do you see Google in 5 years time? / What is Google's long term future?

[indigojo]

Does Google ever ponder the idea of removing the PR indicator from the toolbar?

[Andrew Thomas]

Will you ever give the same Priority to tld such as .info or .biz as you do with .com .co.uk. Expecially with regional searches with .info (in the UK)

if not why?

[soapystar]

what are the rules regarding google employee's having their own websites?

[Nick_W]

Are we now on continous update?

Nick

[Chris_D]

Would Google consider a two tier system for spam reporting?

Level 1 - the current 'report a specific spammer' - where the focus is on reporting a specific (usually competitor) url.

Level 2 - a higher level, formalised programme leveraging the skills of SEO professionals - where the focus is on reporting 'spam methods' - with an aim of improving the filters and improving the results.

Chris_D
Sydney Australia

[viggen]

1.Will the german speaking community have one day a Googlebub?

2.Have you been in Budapest lately?

[chinook]

A while ago GG made a comment about clean usable interface (ui )...Can a website constructed with this approach still rank well against a content heavy opening page? For example the google opening page versus msn opening page.

[beachlover]

What is the approximate number of factors in the 'secret sauce' to evaluate the importance of a website/webpage (100, 500, 1000 or even more factors) and what is the accumulated percentage within the 'secret sauce' of the top five factors (e.g. top five factors make 50% of the 'secret sauce'?

Uhm - I do not work for Yahoo, ATW or the KGB ;-)

[mil2k]

Do you have any plans to remove the I am feeling Lucky tab on your home page and replace it with something suitable like Google Global which will help users to search on Local versions of Google engine. Especially since you have started giving Geo-location results.

Lots of good questions. It would be a dissappointment to get only top 10 answers :(

[wackmaster]

Why not make public - perhaps via a page that mainly Webmasters visit (like the spam reporting page) - sites that are currently in 'penalty' mode with Google; dual goals would be: 1) education of newer webmasters, and 2) compliance among cheaters?

[Shak]

In the future can we expect all UK based visitors to automatically be forwarded to Google.co.uk and going further having the default search set to "pages from the UK".

This applies for all local Google sites, however i know some of them already do the re-direction bit.

Shak

[Alphawolf]

How would you characterize your feelings and the general opinion of others at the GooglePlex about a Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization?

AW

[europeforvisitors]

Do you think there's any likelihood that users might have search options such as:

"I'm searching for information on..."
(no e-commerce pages)

and

"I'm shopping for..."?
(e-commerce pages only)

[martinibuster]

My Personal Area of Curiosity
Does Google ever consider that the vast majority of web designers (graphic designers, advertisers, web design professors, web design authors) do not design web sites around search engine queries, thus leaving out important words like the type of product they sell?

For example, the many web sites who don't use the words that rely on vague marketing slogans ("robust solutions to the everyday needs of the consumer"), delivered with flash content and heavy graphics, and implemented in a Communication Arts magazine marketing-based design, instead of a search-centric design.

[sullen]

I appreciate you don't want to be too specific about what is or is not spam, but culd we possibly have a clearer definition of "doorway pages" than is given at google.com? Many sites may have "pages just for the search engines" for technical rather than sinister reasons (eg. the main site uses frames and webmaster doesn't trust javascript) does Google distinguish these?

[dvduval]

Have you ever considered inviting another Google employee to participate at Webmaster World? Might this be a good opportunity?

[parabola]

nick and edit_g

Your question about continual updates was already addressed by GoogleGuy.

Crobb asked

<<Googleguy's use of the words "gradually" and "overtime" implied to a number of people a slow, continual update of backlinks. Not just one dump of new backlinks 6 weeks later (i.e., a regular monthly update). Besides, if Inktomi and Alltheweb are able to do continual updates, who is to say Google can't (technologically-speaking)? >>

GoogleGuy Responded

<<In time, I do think things will be more gradual. However, we're still in the transition period for this system, so I wouldn't be surprised to see a traditional update for a little while longer. Hope that helps. <<

[Surround]

Is it possible that Google will die like many others by the proposal of the paid inclusions, advertisements and other money-oriented goals?

[djgreg]

When (timeframe) do you think filters will kick in and remove guestbook- and other spammers from the top positions? Are there guestbook filters?

[vibgyor79]

Does Google have any sales/feature expansion plans in Asia? Other than South Korea and Japan, are there any other countries on Google's radar?

[Macguru]

a)What is the proportion of unqualified spam reports Google receives compared to valid one?

<attempted humour>
b)Do you maintain a "snitch" database and if so, is it for sale?
</attempted humour>

[eljefe3]

ip detection. Why are you using it instead of just allowing for a " choose language" option?

[steven q urkel]

Are there penalties that last forever? And what would be a posibility to remove this penalties from ones websites?

steven

[Tropical Island]

Why can't GoogleBot determine when a site is not there? In other words why are sites with phrases such as "under construction" and "website not available" not only indexed but indexed with those words in the description.

[abcdef]

Lately things have been very busy on Google. Results on certain online Google indexes (e.g. -sj & -fi) have begun to show marked change for us, as well as www. We can watch the changes effect our statistics reports daily. Interesting phenomenon.

Will there come a time that Google results again will be consistent from search to search in between periodic updates, or will results remain "dynamic" as an intended outcome of changes taking place now?

[netnerd]

Does or Will Google change the ranking of pages based on:

1) The ip of interlinked sites. (Same ip taken as same owner/content)

2) The whois records of sites (Better to have two similar sites registered to two different owners?)

[seofreak]

what steven asked and :

Who is the actual Brain behind Google? How much time did it take after the "original idea" to completely develop google?

[born2drv]

How "complete" is Froogle and when will it be rolled out publically?