Amazon Results

I don't see them anymore

[mahlon]

I have noticed that Amazon has not been showing up in the usual searches I do anymore, they are just plain gone. Anyone else notice this?

[Brett_Tabke]

umm : 4.2 million pages indexed:

[google.com...]

[Chndru]

There were two queries which was raised during the amazon farce,
basic underwear
web database applications

They both are clean now :)

[msgraph]

Seems they cleaned out a lot of the garbage. I just checked a few phrases that were showing 6-7 pdf files in the top 20 and now they are gone. Same with the couple of amazon book listings that were there too.

[Napoleon]

>> Seems they cleaned out a lot of the garbage <<

Very much so. First they filtered down the PDFs to sensible levels, and now the spamazon/etc stuff has scaled back.

And I have to say... the results look much better than they have for a long time. Hopefully Google's back on course.

[netguy]

I have been VERY outspoken and critical of Google on this one. Dozens of searches I have been tracking resulted in unrelated PDF, DOC, .GOV (and Amazon) results on page 1 - and overall, it was just a horrible user experience for people trying to find things relevant.

In response, on 8-25 GoogleGuy said: "Still measuring on this one. Ping me in about a week and a half and I should have more data."
[webmasterworld.com...]

On the sites that I have been monitoring closely, all of the garbage was completely cleaned up by last Monday (September 1).

While I haven't been one to pass out many compliments to GG or the Google engineers lately, I will say that (disclaimer: "if it holds"), I'm very pleased with this resolve in a relatively prompt manner.

Now that this one out of the way - and they have a little extra time on their hands - maybe they can start working on why the pages continue to float in and out of the SERPs on the newer sites....
;)

[Kukenan]

Yes,

It looks like Google is listening. Results are looking better now.

I still do not have the position I "deserve" ;-)

Well... back to work.

[seofreak]

that isn't the case with the keyword *****

[it's fluctuating]

[mahlon]

Umm, Brett, if Amazon is not a widget store, should they rank second for widgets? or even blue widgets? No! Even if they have 50 billion pages!

[Napoleon]

You do have a point Mahlon... and for me, the fact that Google put right what was clearly a problem speaks volumes for Google.

Spamazon appeared everywhere, in all sorts of inappropriate places. The fact that they have corrected it, despite being a 'partner' of Amazon actually speaks volumes for Google. I have to sincerely congratulate them on this one.

[mahlon]

Yes, I am glad to see something has been done about it, for now anyway.

[GoogleGuy]

Hey, I wanted to thank everyone for the discussions we had about pdf, doc, and some commercial pages--I know it took some time to collect more data on this issue. I believe that a couple crawl engineers did some in-depth digging for what they could improve. I think it might take a few more days for the crawling changes to fully propagate, but I kept a test query of my own, and the level of pdf/doc/etc results looks more normal to me now.

[Nick_W]

ya know GG, I searched for somthing just the other day and it was HELL to find a damn webpage ;)

Glad you're getting it sorted...

Nick

[GoogleGuy]

I'm always glad to read feedback that people have for Google. Sometimes it's nice ("you guys already have results for 'gibbs aquada'? It only came out two days ago!") and sometimes it's, well, more frank, but I'm happy that people keep expecting Google to do better.

[mikeD]

There are plenty of other companies like dealtime and kelkoo with thousands of price comparison search pages in thou. Guess that's the price of dynamic pages being crawled better. If anyone has used alexa to see Kelkoo's traffic rise since the improved dynamic inclusion would testify.

[edited by: mikeD at 11:04 pm (utc) on Sep. 5, 2003]

[netguy]

GoogleGuy, that's great news and hopefully the filters will hold, but if anyone at Google has any more clever ideas to prioritize PDF's, DOCs, etc., here's something you can tack up on the cafeteria bulletin board...

PDF Usability Crimes by Jakob Nielsen
PDF files are good for printing, but that's about it. Find out why they're unfit for human consumption.
[techtv.com...]

"For online reading, however, PDF is the monster from the Black Lagoon. It puts its clammy hands all over people with a cruel grip that doesn't let go."

<added>
Just noticed that rcjordan already had the original:
[useit.com...]
</added>

[edited by: netguy at 11:33 pm (utc) on Sep. 5, 2003]

[nutsandbolts]

Yep, much cleaner. The example I gave in that thread discussing this has been cleaned up nicely now.

[NeverHome]

GoogleGuy... interesting that you slipped the 'gibbs aquada' keyword phrase into your last post. It would have to be the ultimate geek toy of the year. Might I conclude that we may see one or two of these parked at the Googleplex in the future? And hey! How about flooding the carpark and playing 'aquada waterpolo' in place of roller-hockey? That would make a statement!

[GoogleGuy]

I wish. :) Somehow I think the closest I'll get to one of those suckers is watching them in the next James Bond movie. They do look awfully cool though. :)

(For those who haven't seen them, the gibbs aquada is a car that can also jet along on the water.)

[AAnnAArchy]

It would've been perfect for the floods we had a couple of weeks ago in Vegas. I would've been the envy of all my neighbors, although there would probably have been questions about how I could afford a 250k car/boat.

And to remain on topic, I too have noticed that the Amazon swarm has calmed down. I was seeing Amazon in 8 of the top 10 for some search terms and now it's down to a reasonable single listing. Fine work! And shhh, now I'm beating Amazon again. The category doesn't make any money, but my pride is interminable.

[Rick_M]

I'm curious how much Amazon's earnings will be up this quarter.

[Arnett]

Amazon did some "funny" SEO type things at Lycos a few years ago. I'm not surprised to find them up to their old tricks at Google.

[Net_Wizard]

Clean?

Am I the only one seeing 4 Amazon with the example "web database applications", not to mention all other bookstore in the top 10?

[Yidaki]

>Amazon with the example "web database applications",
>not to mention all other bookstore in the top 10?

... because web database applications is a book title?

[mack]

A lot of us seam to think the Amazon pages are going to be removed all together, and we will not see them in the serps. We need to remember amazon is a site, and their pages will be relevant, sometimes ;-)

Mack.

[Net_Wizard]

I understand that Amazon is 'a' site but 4 Amazon? Come-on...

'web database applications' is not 'a title' of a book...it is 'part of a title' of a book...big difference...in fact 'most books' has part of the title if not all of it with 'generic word'...Does it mean that all books now should dominate the serp?

Compare the serp with that of the adwords? Which one reflect the query better...the serp or the adwords?

Or someone before have pointed out...compare the result of ATW with that of Google with the query 'web database applications'.

Do you see books dominating the top10 of ATW?