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February 04, 2005
Sea-change in Google algorithm?
SPECIAL REPORT: Latent Semantic Indexing - LSI
Internet discussion forums have been alive with speculation that not only is Google currently implementing major new search technology - but that it has been incrementally introducing the new features for months.
Latent Semantic Indexing (LSI) has been suggested as a major new player in Google's algorithm.
What LSI actually does is compare the relationship between keywords on a page, in comparison to their apparance - or related forms - on another linked document.
In short it is effectively a way of shoring up links that appear to be linked in some way by topic - a basic form of "theming".
Although the actual concept is decades old, and though a the company Applied Sementics (acquired by Google in 2002 and a prime engine behind AdWords) had apparently developed a working form, it has always been believed to be computationally too intensive to apply to large-scale commercial search.
Whilst there are no guarantees that LSI has actually been implemented, some of the criteria of the concept appear to be applied in Google's search results. Even if it is simply another form of semantics processing, of which there are many, it does emphasise to SEO's the paramount need for on-topic links.
As described in Google Update: Yorkshire, themed links are the ulimate goal of SEO, but can be very difficult to develop for new sites - especially commercial ones, which are loathe to link to competition (and, conversely, non-commercial resource sites are unlikely to promote large numbers of commercial sites).
Danny Sullivan brings together key links on the discussions at Search Engine Watch in Feeling Like Google Dance Time, while Aaron Wall at SEO Book makes extensive commentary on LSI, and how to deal with it, in Google Latent Semantic Indexing Technology.
More links and resources on LSI can be found in the Platinax discussion forum thread: LSI: Latent Semantic Indexing.
Interestingly enough, self-claimed Microsoft search developer Xan, who describes LSI in Latent Semantic Indexing - what is that? objects to the entire argument that LSI might have actually been applied to any extent, as in his post here at the SEW forums. However, as pointed out in the Threadwatch discussion Google and Latent Semantic Indexing, it could be being applied to anchor text only on a page, rather than an entire document content.
This would certainly match up with observations on AdSense behaviour as described by the Gem Effect, in which the context of AdSense displayed on a page can be determined by the topics of links in proximity to links pointing to such pages. The point was demonstrated by a poster on a forum who used the name "Gem", who ended up having the AdSense on a site in his forum signature displaying ads for precious gems. He since had his forum name changed to "Solicitors Mortgages", and even 3 months later, the target site is displaying legal and property AdSense ads, as stated here.
Posted by at February 4, 2005 09:49 PM
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