Thursday, August 7, 2008 

How Search Engines Work - By Real Life Algorithms

There is a lot of litter on the street, and the weird thing is that those things that do not belong there (litter, etc) is what catches your eye first. The search-engines seem to have adopted this rule.

The virtual world is like the real world. When I take my bike to the mountains in only half an hour ride, I'm surrounded by nature. A closer look reveals that nature and nurture can't be separated, perhaps on a few Virgin Islands in the ocean, where nature is unaffected... A few yards away the first litter triggers my eye; a red agricultural machine, a sort of a lawn mower in the bush, a few miles further a somehow whitish fridge once pulled down the edge of the mountain, cans of coca-cola, plastic bottles, you name it and you will find it. Rubbish and litter.

The internet is like that, the real and virtual world are populated by the same people. Rubbish is everywhere, but how do search engines deal with this? Do they show pure nature or do they focus on the litter and rubbish down the road?

Testing is the ultimate activity before launching a product. A test shows some quality characteristics of a product. Fool-proof is a simple and interesting test where you enter BS data and check the response of the system. It is often a first indication of the overall quality...

A test needs data and having written a few hundred articles gives you enough data to perform some simple investigations. Anyone with a few hundred articles may check this.

The fool-proof test I performed was by using my name (by using quotes and without initials. This may not work with all names as mine is quite unique) and submitting these to the main search engines. This is the result:

1. Google's first page:

The fourth entry shows litter. Someone from Pakistan has misused my name (I'm quite sure that it doesn't fit the The Dark Knight Curse context) and put in in their url. Google finds it probably as being weird and therefor significant. The URL in question refers to a youtube video.
On the ninth place there is another occurrence of misuse with my name and showed again in a wrong context. Perhaps the same person , also from Pakistan.

2. Live Search is free from rubbish on the first page, the second and other I didn't check.

3. Yahoo doesn't show the Youtube results (because they have their own video site), but also there on the first page they show a link out of context. Again my name is used. This is shown on the 6th place.
On the fifth place there is another wrong reference from a site called "swik.net" that misused my and very likely other peoples names.

What does this mean? It means that littering is not only accepted as in the real world, it attracts the attention. In this case, the attention of the mayor search engines.

The search engines represent the eye of the visitor that drives his bike through nature. And litter is among the first that is displayed. This seems logical and fits the principle of searching: that of attention. Attention is never drawn to what you need, but to what gets you distracted.
Another view on this matter could be that Search Engines are not aware of the results they show, whereas a human check instantly signals wrong entries...

The Search engine rules are real, more real than real life itself.

H.J.B.

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Hans Bool

 

Selling Prepaid Phone Cards? How To Outdo the Competition

For budding entrepreneurs, employing accident at work compensation claim best sales technique, as well as finding the right niche market helps conference call numbers build a loyal client base, and gain a hefty increase cheap van insurance your profits. As a businessperson, you will need to have a coherent plan in place, in order to avoid pitfalls, achieve your goals, and build a profitable business.

If you wish to embark on the business of selling prepaid phone cards, you should first need to create a general overview of all the details required in starting a successful prepaid phone card business.

Important Facts To Check Out Before Starting A Prepaid Phone Card Business

In order to succeed in this field, you first need to find out some very important aspects of selling phone cards. First, find out if wholesale agents purchase call times from telecom providers at wholesale, or discounted rates?. Second, verify the amount of investment required to set up a prepaid card sale business.

Third, check out if there are any sign-up or monthly fees, or if you would be selling the services under their own brand. Lastly, inquire from your service provider if they provide customized business management, or web-based platforms to wholesale agents like you.

Sign Up with A Credible Telecom Provider

Before choosing the appropriate prepaid phone card to sell, you first need to decide from which provider/s would you be sourcing the cards from. It is important that you choose providers that are reliable, and offer good support mechanisms to resellers like you.

There may be a lot of affordable prepaid phone cards out there, however if you find out that they are from companies which have questionable records, then you need to think twice Mu and Lemuria getting the cards from them, since you could not get a full guarantee of the product, as well as the quality of service, from them.

Sell Cards With The Best Rates

It would also be good to inquire about the call rates of the prepaid phone card that you are going to be selling. Take note that that calls directed internationally may be billed at a considerably higher rate as compared to calls made locally.

You also need to ensure that the phone card you're selling fully explains and notes the charges it levies to consumers, and not have any hidden charges or fees that will eat most of the credits in the card. In doing so, your clients would be getting the best rates and service from the cards, and not make them grumble about spending more by paying for hidden charges that eat up talk time.

It's also great to make comparisons with different telecom service provide. In doing so, you'll have a clearer Weird Science of how the prepaid phone card market works, as you will find out if the different telecom providers have features such as PINless dialing, ability to store multiple telephone numbers in one PIN, Custom voice prompts, multiple recharge options, or do they have convenient methods of recharging accounts?, do they provide instant credit card charges?, what are the international callback modes?, as well as international toll free access fees. It helps to compare the quality of service of different providers, as this aids you in finding the most suitable phone cards for your customers.

Vanessa A. Doctor from http://jump2top.comJump2Top - SEO Company