Google query modification - the official word

[Robert Charlton]

Or... the words according to Google. Nothing earthshaking, just some basics....

Numerous ongoing threads here have been discussing Google query modifications, with the expectation that exact searches should return exact matches. While we know that Google is doing otherwise, I don't think I've seen Google explicitly lay out its version of how basic queries should behave or why, particularly with regard to exact searches, word order, and synonyms.

I just came across the following, the update of a Google help page that I've seen many times before, which does confirm the exceptions that we've all been seeing and hint ever so faintly at the kinds of mechanisms some of us have assumed are operative....

Google search basics: More search help
http://www.google.com/support/websearch/bin/answer.py?answer=136861 [google.com]

The help page is not an SEO document, and while it doesn't get into nuances that we've gotten into, like what we should expect from a title search or from a long phrase search, or a search for an unusual spelling, it is very clear about some basics which I've not seen Google itself actually mention elsewhere. It's of course hard to say who wrote this and how algorithmically accurate or official it is.

Here are several sections that relate to current and recent discussions. I'm going to emphasize some sections in blue....

Phrase search ("")
By putting double quotes around a set of words, you are telling Google to consider the exact words in that exact order without any change. Google already uses the order and the fact that the words are together as a very strong signal and will stray from it only for a good reason, so quotes are usually unnecessary. By insisting on phrase search you might be missing good results accidentally. For example, a search for [ "Alexander Bell" ] (with quotes) will miss the pages that refer to Alexander G. Bell.

Search exactly as is (+)
Google employs synonyms automatically, so that it finds pages that mention, for example, childcare for the query [ child care ] (with a space), or California history for the query [ ca history ]. But sometimes Google helps out a little too much and gives you a synonym when you don't really want it. By attaching a + immediately before a word (remember, don't add a space after the +), you are telling Google to match that word precisely as you typed it. Putting double quotes around a single word will do the same thing.

Exceptions to 'Every word matters'
- Synonyms might replace some words in your original query. (Adding + before a word disables synonyms.)

- A particular word might not appear on a page in your results if there is sufficient other evidence that the page is relevant. The evidence might come from language analysis that Google has done or many other sources. For example, the query [ overhead view of the bellagio pool ] will give you nice overhead pictures from pages that do not include the word 'overhead.'

The nature of the "language analysis that Google has done" or the "many other sources" is of course not described.

[BeeDeeDubbleU]

This is all right for us but personally I think Google (and the others) should be doing more to educate the general public in the use of search engines. In my experience the majority of them (including many highly educated people) don't know how to get the best from search.