Fresh Content

How does Google judge 'fresh'?

[internetheaven]

With regular .html or .htm files on the server it states how fresh the information is i.e. when it was last updated. With Google implying that they pay attention to links from fresh pages (as they will most likely reflect the content better in the anchor text etc) what does Google think of dynamic pages? As the page is created every time it is loaded in a browser does Google see this as an 'always fresh' page or does it simply ignore dynamic pages in regards to freshness?

[ThomasB]

As they have the cache of the indexed pages they can compare the cached and the newly fetched one and see if there were any changes and if yes - rate it as new.

[Chndru]

[OT]
Talking about Fresh, i wish they update their [google.com...]

[internetheaven]

Thanks for your reply ThomasB, not meaning to be rude but is that your opinion or is that stated on the Google site somewhere?

Thanks

[ThomasB]

it's my opinion and it's the only thing that makes sense imho.

[idoc]

I thought I remembered reference once in a thread by GG that we should make sure that servers headers are configured for: HTTP_IF_MODIFIED_SINCE to help the bots.

[adfree]

idoc is right, GoogleGuy pointed towards that with some notion of importance, you can check your site here:

[webmasterworld.com...]

If the HTTP_IF_MODIFIED_SINCE is setup the right way it will prevent the bots from checking all docs in a site again and again.

HTTP_IF_MODIFIED_SINCE tells the bot about the files that had a change as compared to the last visit (something the bot knows).

This way the bot will be able to spider more efficiently, does not use that much bandwidth for repeat readings and (most importantly, especially for large and frequently changed sites) will read more of the new and changed pages more frequently.

[dannyboy]

What if many of the pages, including the homepage, is dynamic? In this case wouldn't the HTTP_IF_MODIFIED_SINCE always change whenever you access it?

[jonknee]

One of my sites is dynamic and shows as fresh in Google. It just checks to see if you page changed since the last time it was there.

I think the if-modified headers only help save you a little bandwidth.

[percentages]

>I think the if-modified headers only help save you a little bandwidth.

Correct, and Google some bandwidth....all of which is good enough reason for correct implementation.

However, as for "Freshie" listings I believe it is a difference between the last cached and the current crawled.....which is not necessarily that fresh as Google may see the "same difference" for a few weeks for one change and multiple crawls. They need a better way to update the comparison IMHO so that the truly very, very, fresh are given the edge.

[XtendScott]

HTTP_IF_MODIFIED_SINCE only changes when actual page.htm or page.php are modified and saved.

But that is only one indicator and they will spider pages again even if it hasn't been modified. Just if they see the file is modified_since they may be more apt to go deeper to see if other pages are also modified. (imho)

[taj79]

Hi adfree,
How does that tool knows when was the page last changes?

Kaushik