Forum Moderators: Robert Charlton & goodroi
[webmasterworld.com...]
Notice that the thread is from 2003. Then, when I did the same search a little while ago, it had a timestamp of 12:11 PM next to the title.
I just clicked on it again and used the back button and it became more interesting. This is the thread title in the SERPs.
Reading text file into an array (PHP) - 2 visits - 12:32pm
Search for url in array php [google.com]
No doubt it's being "personalized" by phoning home, but I'm considering whether this type of information is something that's being used for testing - like for the "strange" #6 and #4 phenomena we've been seeing.
Thinking about 3 or 4 pages being rotated in and out of a spot, wouldn't they be looking at bounce rate and return visits, time duration and intervals between clickthroughs?
Thanks for the report Marcia. The time stamp is of course a record of your last visit, and not the last spidering. In fact, I don't even see that particular url on the page when I do the search.
It surely can be the case that toolbar data is being used, but the key would be if that data affects non-personalized search. My best guess - you're right, and it does.
[edited by: tedster at 3:39 am (utc) on May 16, 2008]
That is what I wanted to know. I thought I had search history disabled but apparently not, and I had done about 6-7 similar searches, a couple of them specific to site:webmasterworld.com so that may have come into play.
But - I just did a search for a different type of phrase entirely, and not only did they bring up an "authority site" first thing with site links, but they changed the search term used in my query to the name of that site.
I didn't exactly appreciate that change being made, I think Carnac the Mind Reader is taking this a step too far.
Edit: I'll repeat it later to see if i get any changes
Edit2: Nope, no timestamp or visits
[edited by: Tomzen at 1:09 pm (utc) on May 16, 2008]
