Descriptive "snippets"

Where do they come from?

[Jimville]

Google listings - I've always heard that the copy for the Description came from DMOZ and the descriptive copy (snippets) came from text around the first use of the keyword on the page.

Many of my listings have "snippets" displaying copy from the page no where near a keyword searched for by the user. Of course,that means that the "snippets" do not sell the searcher on my site.

Question: How does Google get the "snippets"?

[Chris_D]

G'day Jim,

This is from Googles FAQ:

Site descriptions in Google results are actually quoted from the web page in question. Google automatically generates different descriptions based on the search terms used to find the site (these "snippets" display the search term(s) in the context of the page on which they appear).

For example, if there is a pet site that deals with cats and dogs, and someone enters a search for the word 'dog,' the site description on Google will only talk about 'dogs.' If a person searches Google for 'cats' and the same site is delivered as a result, the description will be different – it will contain references to the word 'cat' as it appears on the website.

Google does not display a standard description. We look for the search term specified and show snippets of where those terms appear. This is a completely automated process and editing is not an option. If you alter the relevant text on the page itself, Google will pick up those changes during our next crawl in a few weeks.

Descriptions of sites in the Google Web Directory are written by volunteers who are part of the Open Directory Project. If you'd like to have your site's description in the directory modified, contact the ODP by going to the category where it is listed, and filling out the "update URL" form.

From [google.com...]

Chris_D
Sydney Australia

[Jimville]

Chris_D,
That's a big help. Thanks!