Search Results in Directory in Search Results

What is this stuff?

[mida68]

I've been doing some backlink related research for a client and have happened upon many pages that display what looks like Oveture ads AS directory results. This "directory" is indexed in Google.

I guess I'm not supposed to give you a direct link as an example. Let me know if I can, but I'll leave it off for now.

What puzzles me is that I'm seeing Overture ads actually indexed as search results.

To clarify, I search on site:www.example.com to see how many times that link is mentioned in Google. In the results, I click on a link which takes me to a "directory" like [snip], which has what looks like a search page, it reads "you searched on [search term]" at the top. When I mouse over the links, I see "Overture" in the URLs.

What's going on? How can Overture results be indexed in Google. And, IF these are sites that actually use ads as hard coded pages, will they count towards back-links?

Sorry to be long winded, I've posted related questions on other forums, trying to work this out. I think I'm more focused now, it's something to do with Oveture being used in a sketchy way.

Thanks!

[edited by: pageoneresults at 3:48 pm (utc) on June 4, 2004]
[edit reason] Examplified Specifics [/edit]

[Brett_Tabke]

Sorry, but this is old news... Dozens upon dozens of search sites are indexed. Google even *gasp* indexes alot of Yahoo (including serps at times...). In the past, they had 500k of Alta indexed and a large hunk of Fast/AllTheweb too.

[mida68]

Sorry to re-hash an old subject. I did try to search first ;-)

Can you tell me how a SE like Google can index SERPs that don't exist until someone searches on them?

SERPS are infinite, right? They are not yet created until someone enters a search term. How can Google index something not yet created? Does it choose it's own terms?

Thanks!

[mars9820]

some people have links on their homepage.

like

TRY GOOGLE TO SEARCH FOR WIDGETS

with the following link

[google.com...]

This will display the first searchpage for that keyword :)

[mida68]

Wow, that's interesting! Now why would someone send a user away from their site to a SE for search results? Maybe using it as a demonstration like "As you can see there are many results for "widgets" on Google ....example search URL...."
~Just trying to understand why this would happen.~

Would the links on these indexed SERP results count as backlinks? If so, could someone do this using their own keywords to artificially inflate rankings?

I've also noticed these results with Overture ads, instead of SERPs. Example: You search on "widgets.com" to find references to this site or company. You click on a resulting link which leads to a "directory" with lots of ads around the side. The directory might read "You searched on "some term related to widets". In the middle is a long list of Overture results.

Interesting! Thanks for your answers!

[mars9820]

There are a zillion fan sites that direct people to search engine results.

As well there are many DMOZ clones out there that run adwords or overture ads on top or the side.

All these pages get crawled from time to time and most of them show up as backlinks (at least they do for me).

[mida68]

Thanks mars - you've been very helpful. Consider me educated!

Thanks!

[whiterabbit]

Hi mida68

How can Overture results be indexed in Google.

Overture use a PPC business model for some of their advertisers.

Overture have affiliates who display monetised linklists.

Overture affiliates get payed for each click the surfer makes on a paying advertisers link.

Affiliates don't need to spend any time or energy creating these pages, as there are 1001 scripts out there to do the job for them.

You may notice Espotting or Inktomi in the URLs, the Overture model applies to these two as well.

Its all about money. Just like adsense publishers, except the O, E, I, publishers get some fantastic, optimised text for their auto-generated pages, which Gbot gobbles up greedily.

Win-Win.

Tony