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Different SERPS for Capital Letters

Since when are SERPS different for widget and Widget?

         

zgb999

11:51 am on Nov 15, 2004 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



Maybe I missed a thread but I never realised that Googles shows different SERPS for words with capital letters.

We found some quite generic German words where Google shows different SERPS for widget and Widget.

Is this a new behaviour?

Marketing_C

2:08 pm on Nov 19, 2004 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



I never realised this before but Google really seems to have started to make a difference when I am using capital letters in my search.

skippy

3:02 pm on Nov 19, 2004 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



It has been that way for a while. Also capitalized keywords in urls are not highlighted.

zgb999

3:36 pm on Nov 19, 2004 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



Where is the difference coming from?

I checked some German words and still find this strange:
For words where probably anybody writes it in capital letters (as it would be a spelling error otherwhise which hardly anybody would do who passed the first few lessons of learning German) Google makes a difference between widget and Widget.

Is Google using click through data? Only few searchers enter querries in capital letters. So on all pages Widgets would be written in capital letters but a searcher would usually enter widgets as querry.

If Google tracked how many people went to a specific page after entering widgets and how many did so after entering Widgets then this could explain a difference.

Tropical Island

3:44 pm on Nov 19, 2004 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member



We just checked our place name in both small and caps.

In small letters it is:
Site 1
Site 2
Site 3
Site 4

With the first letter of this 2 word phrase in caps it is:
Site 2
Site 1
Site 3
Site 4

Verrry interesting!

androidtech

3:45 pm on Nov 19, 2004 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



Google is also returning massively different serps for some keywords based on simple differences in plural forms: e.g. "widget" vs "widgets".

This makes page formatting for good search engine placement annoying. You could rank well for "widget", and be nowhere to be found for "widgets" in Google's SERPS.

I think this and the next two years will be remembered as the "The Great Google Algo Tweak Transition".

Please note, in keeping with current times I have taken the following protective steps: (see SlashDot's latest patent related posts)

The phrase "The Great Google Algo Tweak Transition" has the following intellectual property protections:

- I have trademarked the phrase in every country on this planet and on the primary domains of Mars, Saturn, and Neptune (screw Pluto, it's too cold).
- I have patented the process of trademarking the phrase "The Great Google Algo Tweak Transition".
- I have copyrighted that patent.
- I have established a monopoly corporation to protect the copyright for that patent.
- I am filing an anti-monopoly action against my own monopoly corporation. This will force the government to break up my monopoly into smaller now legally protected parts that really don't compete with each other, further strengthening my legal grip on the phrase.

:)

Thanks.

Thanks.