Via Javascript, John. I've never actually seen the function code itself (I suspect it's an AJAX function since that would make the most sense), but let's look at this SERP:

http://www.google.com/search?sourcei...=animal+planet

You're right in that there's an a element with an HREF, but you're wrong in that there's no javascript (maybe you had it disabled)?

<h2 class=r><a href="http://animal.discovery.com/" class=l
onmousedown="return clk(this.href,'','','res','1','&sig2=wGAAa4blsHpq011x2IhtBg')"><b>Animal Planet</b> :: Home Page</a></h2>

sig2 would likely be a session hash, and that's definitely a Javascript.

3 days, link exchange.

****. That link exchange forum is going to start getting crowded. And I don't think people will like my default answer of "I won't trade links with you because etc etc."

I guess I must have JavaScript halfway disabled somehow. In FireFox 2.0, I clicked your link to the Google query, and I see:

<a href="http://animal.discovery.com/" class=l><b>Animal Planet</b> :: Home Page</a>

In fact, I just did a search in the page source for onmousedown, and the only thing that turns up is this:

<script><!--
(function(){window.google={kEI:"RRr7ReypG6a6gAOk6t DIAg",kEXPI:"14823",kHL:"en"};})();(function(){})( );(function(){window.rwt=function(b,d,f,j,k,g,l){v ar a=window.encodeURIComponent?encodeURIComponent:esc ape,h="",i="",c=b.href.split("#"),e="";if(d){h="&o i="+a(d)}if(f){i="&cad="+a(f)}if(g){e="&usg="+g}b. href="/url?sa=t"+h+i+"&ct="+a(j)+"&cd="+a(k)+"&url="+a(c[0]).replace(/\+/g,"%2B")+"&ei=RRr7ReypG6a6gAOk6tDIAg"+e+l+(c[1]?"#"+c[1]:"");b.onmousedown="";return true};})();//-->

Maybe they're doing something more clever than I am?
</script>

Google do occasionally put tracking codes on the SERP results and use a 302 "jump" link to redirect.
Sometimes you may notice them after updates or changes to the SERP pages and/or "sponsored link" changes.
They are only on for two or three days at a time and you would never notice unless you watch the status bar. The toolbar can also hold the tracking codes and the "cached page" button may show the tracking URL rather than the target.

Google can track a lot of data about us now. I agree it won't be everyone, but it will be a lot more people than the ones using the Alexa toolbar.

Have a gmail account? Use Google reader? Analytics? Webmaster Tools? If you're signed into any of them Google can track what you do.

How about the Google custom search engine. Say an authority site in your industry that Google already trusts sets one up. Perhaps that the sites that get included in that custom search engine gain an extra measure of trust.

Have a site with AdSense on it?

What I'm saying with Google (and the other search engines) being able to collect data is that they have a lot of access points to be able to track you and I'm sure they are doing something with all that data.

The main problem with Alexa isn't so much that it's basing results on a small percentage of people, but more that it's a very select small percentage of people. It's usually webmasters and SEOs who have it installed and so the results get skewed in favor of tech and seo sites.

Google though can collect data from a much more varied sample and can probably extract more accurate and meaningful information from the data it collects.

Even through the SERPs they should know which result you click on and if you come back right away and which result you click next.

Say for the same set of 10 results Google consistently finds that people clicking the #1 result click back very quickly. They then click the #3 result and Google doesn't see them again. Maybe Google then uses that information to switch places for results #1 and #3 or something like that.

I've never seen ( or at least noticed ) that before, but it's really interesting. Especially the idea that they only do it sometimes.

Random statistical sampling should be fairly immune to manipulation like downloading their toolbar and clicking on your site a lot. ( I wonder if their toolbar knows about proxies? That would be a good hole to plug. ) Not that right after an update is exactly random, but if they're able to do it, and it's hard to notice, they may do this a lot more often than you might think.

In the webmaster tools control panel, there are searches you come up for ( and your average position ) and searches people click you for. So obviously Google knows who's clicking what. They probably don't know about back ( because that doesn't trigger a request, it's not a real navigation, at least in IE ), but if you hit back and then the #2 result from the browser's cache, it sounds like they'll know that, and it would likely be a negative vote.

This may or may not be part of the rankings today, but who knows about tomorrow?

its better to have a good serps even without pr. But having a good serps also needs backlinks help, same as PR. hmmn, those 2 are still important.

Forrest I couldn't tell you how much of that data gathering is part of the algorithm, but I'd be willing to bet Google and the other engines are collecting the data.

Now that Google is using personalized search we know that things like your Google bookmarks, your Google personalized home page, and your Google search history are ll taken into account when present results.

I don't think it's too far a stretch to see how any sites you've included in Google Reader will influence results and I think in time things in your gmail account will possibly influence results in some way.

I think we'll start seeing more things like Amazon's recommendations features where if you and I have both show interest in sites x, y, and z by bookmarking them or clicking on their pages a lot then Google will decide we have similar interests and later when I click on sites p and q they'll start offering pages from those two sites to you as well.

With the SERPs they would definitely know if you clicked result #2 after hitting the back button, but you may be right about them not knowing about the back button. I usually open things from a SERP in a new tab in FF so technically Google would see me sitting on the SERP for a long time as I work my way through a few of the results.

I'll have to check, but I think Google sets cookies just about any time you interact with them so they can track you that way as well.

I think ultimately they have a lot of different ways of tracking us. If you are logged into anything Google then you are being tracked. A lot of people do use something Google daily and i would guess most just stay logged in since it's easier.

Originally Posted by alpalino

Would my signature in the forums and groups count as a text link?

Yes.

One question, will spreading links for a page in a site (example: http://www.mysite.com/page.html) increase the page rank for the site (http://www.mysite.com) or they are completely different?

PR ( PageRank is entirely URL based ) and each individual page has it's own PR Value.

But deep links will raise PR (the real PR) of the "home" page slightly provided it links to it.

Originally Posted by vangogh

Forrest I couldn't tell you how much of that data gathering is part of the algorithm, but I'd be willing to bet Google and the other engines are collecting the data.

The first rule of programming is to start collecting the data NOW, so that you can figure out how to use it later.

I think if they didn't rely on their toolbar, and do the js or redirects with their serps, with random sampling, that would be a lot more immune to black hat. You mentioned them wanting to figure out normal user behavior, so they can ignore things like someone who clicks ten pages a second. Most people who analyze lots of data throw out the statistical "outliers," the data on the edge in both directions. One result can throw the average off wildly, and when people think 'average' they mean 'normal' not 'mean.'

Again, who knows when they'll start using this data they have? It could be last year, it could be after a decade. Maybe the only thing it'll ever be used for is making adsense more relevant. ( All that work on my robot for nothing! )

True and like you said there's no way to know for certain what if any user data that they collect will find its way into the algorithm

I'd say personalized search is an indication they are looking at user behavior and will continue to look at it. We now know Google will be altering SERPs some based on your personal home page, your Google bookmarks, and your search history and there's no reason to believe they're going to stop there.

Their goal is to present more relevant results to each user there comes a point where they need to know more than just what's on a page and what other pages point to a page to present more relevant results.

Yes your signature will count as a text link

it might, BUT don't count on it as being any value to SE ranking.

Google gives preference to mature website specially one with more than 5 years old. Just making new content and updating the site as many times as you can should be enough to get a good page rank. Like Google says: Focus on the user and everything will follow.

Get links your site will automatically rank higher.

No it won't