Google Patent

[Koz]

Google Patent (http://www.wildfiremarketinggroup.com/blog/index.php/2005/06/26/title)
37. The method of claim 36, wherein the user behavior relates to at least one of a number of times that the document is selected within a set of search results and an amount of time that one or more users spend accessing the document.

Can anyone comment on the above quote from Googles patent?
Just taking a guess here, but does it mean that the more users clicks on a link in the serps, the greater "importance" given to the link?

cheers, koz

[Blazingpie]

well, that is what it is suggesting, however that system is very open to manipulation. All you'd have to do is create bots that'd go and do a query and select a certain site. Do it slowly and randomly to look like a human searcher and you can artificially inflate your rankings. Plus, if they tried to apply a ban for abuse of this system, you could hammer your competition's results.

remember that if something is patented, it doesn't mean that it is implemented. A lot of times companies patent stuff "just in case" to prevent any one else doing it, in case it can prove to be useful later on or can make them money

[Paz]

Yes,

that's true, but what I think they are saying here is that Google could, and perhaps they are already, monitoring the time a person spends reading one off their search results.

You know the story, you click on a Google #1 search result - if it's completely irrelevent and you go back to Google for a new one a few seconds later, it might might sense to reduce the "relevance score" for the #1 result, for that search.

Needless to say, more than ever, it would be absolutely vital to make your site a "sticky" one!

Cheers,
Paz.