Google results (what happened?)

[NeoSam]

Am I allowed to start a thread here? >.<

When I used to search for an anime title on Google, one of the first results that I used to get is a link to the AnimeSuki thread for that anime I searched.

Today, something is weird whatever anime I search for, no link for an AnimeSuki forum thread appears. No link appears on the 1st page results, nor on the second page results, nor on the third, ...

What's happening? I'm pretty sure when I used to search for an anime on Google, one of the first results would be a link to the AnimeSuki thread for that anime

[NoSanninWa]

You're right. I'm also used to seeing AnimeSuki forums on the first page of any anime title search. I guess google changed their forumula for search results. They change that every now and then. Perhaps they downgraded the rating of forums.

Strange.

[NeoSam]

Maybe you are right, because even searching for: animesuki forum won't give you a result for the forum

[NightWish]

Originally Posted by NeoSam

animesuki forum won't give you a result for the forum

I get a result, but it is on page five. Searching the with a "site:" prefix still works, so we are still being indexed correctly. I guess we have "just" been "demoted" somehow, for some reason, as NoSanninWa suggested.

[Ledgem]

Not so sure about forums in general being demoted (as NSW mentioned as an afterthought). Just for kicks, to see how many "Ledgem"s existed on the net, I'd occasionally Google for my alias. AnimeSuki's profile page for my account was consistently #1. Now, some guy/girl's Xanga is #1 (that's not mine, honest), my account at another forum is #2, I think that's my account at #4 (can't remember), then there are my accounts with fansubbing forums... well, there are a lot of forums up there (most of whose accounts are not associated with me, I think) but for some reason AnimeSuki was knocked back.

It probably does have to do with an algorithm tweak, or perhaps some major site stopped linking to us. Interesting stuff, I predict we'll make a comeback anyway

[White Manju Bun]

I just googled my username and the first two responses Google gave me were from AnimeSuki so it seems we're back. 3rd response was from a TRC fict and the rest were either me, from here or the actual food This username I only use here so I didnt have to worry about seeing another forum pop up. Switched and searched xxxHolic Kei and the forth link I got was to the thread here so again I think whatever it was worked itself out.

[SeedFreedom]

Googled my user name. Anime suki was the last result on the first page, and it was for a post on the rate an avatar page. I searched anime bittorrent and anime suki was second. Seems that the anime suki site hasn't fell much, but the fourms have. I'm guessing that google is no longer giving a large weight to forum pages.

[NoSanninWa]

Since a really large percentage of our user base comes from folk who discover us through google, that will make some difference to the future of our membership. However, I can say that it is generally bad to give much weight to forums since most of them are pretty much babbling. I just like to think we're an exception to that rule. Mostly. At least more than other forums...

[NeoSam]

Originally Posted by NightWish

I get a result, but it is on page five.

I looked at the first 6 pages, I didn't get any result there

hmm... even something more interesting: if you search for any other anime forum, like:

AnimeNation forum
Animenewsnetwork forum

you'll get a result on the first page, the very first one.
Does that mean that AnimeSuki's forum got demoted even more than the other forums?

[NeoSam]

I went to the last page of "animesuki forum" search, and here it is:
http://www.google.com/search?q=anime...start=520&sa=N

its on the last page

I thought that it couldn't have been demoted after everything else, so I went to the last page, while I wasn't expecting the link to be there, but there it was

[Solace]

An oddity I noticed was that many of the "top results" were search engines themselves. The one, actual forum titled Anime Suki in the first pages was a dead board from 2007. Other than that, it seems the link crawling sites are taking precedent over actual results.

Another interesting thing - one letter makes a huge difference in the results:

"animesuki forum" shows the main forum index nearly last in results.

"animesuki forums" shows the main site page as the first result (followed by a Yahoo page where someone complains that our moderators are too strict ). A quick scan through the first 20 pages of results shows no links to the forums except the main page and the MFI removal page.

So either they screwed up the result code, the link crawling sites figured out a way around Google's result code, or our forums aren't as important in rankings as our main page is. Certainly worth investigating though, since such a specific request being placed so far back in the results isn't good for any site. Unless it's a linking/indexing one, apparently.

[Quarkboy]

Sounds to me like Google just implemented some kind of new anti-artificial page rank upping detection algorithm that mistook animesuki's forums as a site that had tried to artificially boost its page rank.
Those things generally work on complex graph theory algorithms, so it's possible that the web of websites that links to animesuki somehow resembles an artificial collection of links designed to boost its on page rank.

That would explain why just animesuki might have been effected, at least. It might be in your best interest to actually email google about this: It's possible there's a flaw in their algorithm that you could help them debug by alerting them to the issue.

[GHDpro]

I get the feeling the sponsored links at the bottom of the page may be the cause of this problem. The odd thing is that the same kind of links are on the main site as well, which isn't affected. I suppose marking them Adlinks: on the forum might have been the important difference.

Then again, the forum's pagerank is still 3, not zero, and loads of pages are still indexed. But even with a lower (but not zero) pagerank you'd expect a search for "animesuki forums" to return the forums as number 1 result -- as it properly does on Yahoo and Live Search btw.

Unfortunately I can't just yank the links of the page, as we're still paid to show them for this month. I've contacted the company who supplies the ads to see if I can't refund them and get them off sooner.

As soon as they're off I'll try to request a reconsideration through Google's Webmaster Tools, as neatly explained here. Of course, there is no garantee the links at the bottom of the page are really the cause of this issue, so even if the links are gone the problem might persist.

[Potatochobit]

lol that funny! I never really thought about googling people's user names. I already searched my name. lets see what GHDpro brings up w

[WanderingKnight]

EDIT: Scratch that, I just realized it was the first hit, but it didn't say "AnimeSuki Forums" in the title name. However, it was just a thread, not really my user profile.

I'd really put forth a complaint to Google, or at the very least, I'd ask them what is it that they changed.

[Seditary]

Yeah, searching for my username brings up all the expected stuff of people misusing the word sedentary (which is a reason I chose the nick), animesuki isn't until page 6, while things like my Veoh channels (which I don't have any and haven't been to veoh for months after I found it unsatisfactory once Stage6 died) and anime-planet profile etc are page 1.

[Synria_]

I was led to AS because I searched "Fate Stay Night Episode X Discussion", and Animesuki was near the top. O well, at least I found this site before this happened.

[TinyRedLeaf]

Originally Posted by Ledgem

Just for kicks, to see how many "Ledgem"s existed on the net, I'd occasionally Google for my alias. AnimeSuki's profile page for my account was consistently #1. Now, some guy/girl's Xanga is #1 (that's not mine, honest), my account at another forum is #2

Originally Posted by Potatochobit

lol that funny! I never really thought about googling people's user names.

Originally Posted by The Small One

That's the kind of privacy issue I thought of.

I first googled my username quite some time ago to see what comes up, and yes, it does worry me that I've left behind a rather obvious electronic trail.

On the other hand, I'm rather pleased to say that I'm the only TinyRedLeaf (sometimes spelt with a small 't') on the Internet. Whatever links you find associated with that name, they're all mine.

(I should go register it as a domain name before someone else does, lol.)

[Whitemoon648]

Originally Posted by The Small One

That's the kind of privacy issue I thought of.
IMHO it's better, when the forum contents aren't found in Google... (the forum itself (main page) is a different issue). Especially if someone has a relative unique username (doesn't seem to be the case for me) it's kind of bad.

What do you mean it is bad for privacy purposes? I mean we really dont have anything that could identify us or anything. We are only talking about anime *_*. Also Email address are hidden from other users.

[TinyRedLeaf]

Originally Posted by The Small One

There is nothing to identify us here!

I beg to differ. We have an active thread where people post pictures of themselves. I often wonder whether that is wise, because they are unwittingly making it easy for other people to identify them.

Originally Posted by The Small One

The point is, that if someone is using the same username in different forums, on different webpages, and so on, then a simple search for this username on Google will bring up a whole new overall picture (the more unique the name is, the easier it is).

A single information may be useless, but if someone is able to link different sets together, he may get something, you didn't want him to...

...especially in an age, where potential employers search the internet for information about job candidates.

Exactly. I strongly urge Internet users to be careful about how much private information you reveal online. Do not be naive. You might think the information is private, but once you've posted it online, it's as good as public information and fair game for anyone who wants to use it against you.