Extended site description - what makes the extra sections happen?

Finally I got mine

[Lexur]

Today I discovered Google now lists my site with description (as usual) and a few sections.

I saw this a few months ago in big sites and thougt it was a nice (paid?) feature for some (autorithy?) sites but finally I got mine. Now, the question is: can it have any effect in my listings?

I (deeply) hope someone in the Googleplex reviewed my site and checked the site as "Q.C. passed" to protect my site about big rises and falls every time the algo is updated.

[Lexur]

Sorry... maybe I must to be a little be more clear.

I got this now in the serps when I search for my domain name:

MyDomainName.com
Here comes the DMOZ description with around ten
words. Here comes the DMOZ description...
www.mydomainname.com/ - 22k - 27 Dec 2005 - Cached - Similar pages
Blue widgets - Red widgets - Yellow widgets - Green widgets
More results from www.mydomainname.com »

How these subdirectories (blue,red...) are selected? Are it manually selected?

[pageoneresults]

How these subdirectories (blue,red...) are selected? Are it manually selected?

I've not seen many discussions on this and I too have quite a few of those type listings.

Based on what I know and what I've seen over the past 12 months, I'd have to say some of it is based on the search phrase, the number of times your listing is clicked (click data), Google toolbar data, etc. I'm sure there are quite a few factors involved and my opinion is that if you see these types of results for your site, that you've been classified as an authority and/or hub by the algo.

[pageoneresults]

P.S. I'm also going to go out on a limb and take a guess that the Google Toolbar takes into account the number of times a page is bookmarked/saved to favorites. That Toolbar is capable of capturing quite a bit of data! ;)

[proboscis]

I get those type of listings for some searches and my site is a hub - but it defineately does not protect me from losing traffic in some updates.

[Lexur]

...you've been classified as an authority and/or hub by the algo.

...it defineately does not protect me from losing traffic in some updates.

The sections selected by the algo are those which receive a lot of traffic from Google.

It seems there is a new category of qualified sites, let say "preautority sites" because I don't understand how an autority site (from the Google's point of view) can bit the dust after a single update.

[annej]

are we talking about something beyond the usual

Google can show you the following information for this URL:

Show Google's cache of www.widgets.com/
Find web pages that are similar to www.widgets.com/
Find web pages that link to www.widgets.com/
Find web pages from the site www.widgets.com/
Find web pages that contain the term "www.wigets.com/"

I guess I can't find a URL important enough as this is all I ever see. How are the results we are talking about in this thread different?

[tedster]

Do a Google search on the term webmasterworld -- you should see the kind of listing we're discussing here.

[Kufu]

Those links are definitely not picked manually. It is an algorithmic function. This is based on what MC said on his blog.

[Jon_King]

For many it came and went. I had that very feature on two different sites and it reverted in but a few days.

[jimh009]

I think you might be reading a bit too much into it.

I have several pages on my site that show those kinds of listings occasionally.

However, when it does NOT show those listings, I'll have the first and second rankings for a particular search term.

Now, when it does show that kind of listing, I'll only have the first ranking for the search term, not the first and second.

I suspect this is a method Google is using to test out how to display their top ranking sites for various things - seeing which one works best and what users like.

I personally like the new way they are doing it myself. But I don't think it has anything to do with your site being classified as some sort of special "super hub" or anything.

Jim