How clever is Google?

What does / doesn't he see.

[Uphill]

What does Google notice and what should he notice? Double content, doorway pages, cloaking, hidden text, link farms, etc.? Does he detect what he should and if not, is it possible to detect it.

I am not trying to find backdoors to cheat Google, because one day he will detect tricks and penalize. I only want to know Google's SE IQ.

[roscoepico]

Uphill, I think Google has the ability to determine what is duplicate content, been burned on that one before as have other members. Cloaking can be discovered with a quick hand check, although I have not seen the auto detection of this "yet". Hidden text, there has been some discussion on this as well, general consensus is Google is not finding and penalizing all sites using this method as I see it taking place is some very competitive SERPS. Link Farms have been known to get a site penalized.

[seekanddestroy]

How do we know Google is a he?!

[Die_Hard]

How do we know Google is a he?!

Yes, google is a "he". I know, 'cause I spoke with him personally... jk!

Google knows alot. Considering the network they have to the US D.O.D. (as I have understood from online publicized info), and all that valuable data they mine, I am sure they have considerable knowledge. There is not much you can get by with, with google... at least not for long. many try. Now, I am not saying Google can't be fooled, but for Google to find out something, and get your site penalized, or banned, is not worth it.

[GrinninGordon]

I think Google is a nematode (not directly relating to the species class of course GG, just the sexual attributes), and has no gender.

I think if Google was really clever, it would specify what is good and what is not regarding issues like link exchange, and where to / not to get links from.