GrenadePod

SEO is killing Google

pulegium — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 20:30:47 +0000

Google is not as useful as it used to be. This whole SEO business is just killing it. Granted, the page rank they invented made a big difference to the search results. Everyone else were just counting keywords and stuff whereas Google started to count incoming links in combination with the keywords. Obviously this is really simplistic representation of their algorithm, but should suffice for the purposes of this post.

So, no one really knew how it worked, or rather had some ideas how it works, but had little influence over the results. And as consequence we had so precise and spot on search results that made Google so popular. If you used other search engines you’d get pages with the most repetitions of your search keywords, with Google you’d get pages that have keywords, but also the number of external references and the “ranking” of those references counted. In other words your top results would be credible pages that have the keyword you were looking for. No one would link to pages that aren’t informative, or would they?

This is where SEO comes in. And spoils everything. People started to create pages full of keywords and link from other pages to them. So creating some sort of mesh of interlinked sites. Yeah, they’d probably get one or another link from external source, but not a lot. Yet each page in this SE mesh has loads of incoming links. And just what sort of pages these are? Well, if it’s not porn, then it’s all about online shops. Or price comparison sites if you’re too lazy to run an online shop.

All you have to do is link to several online shops, get the results (sorting is optional) and that’s it. No, not really, what’s a point in having price comparison site that no one’s using? So you create another 1000-2000 equally useless pages. What happens next? You’re on the top of the Google search results alongside other “competitors”.

All very well and good. For you. But not for me. I don’t give a damn about your price comparison stuff. I don’t even want to buy that stuff. I’m after the information. I used to type in (rather technical) phrase and Google would come back with the manual or some troubleshooting guide or links to forums. Not anymore. First gazillion pages would list price comparison sites. Or online shops.

Thank you Google. You’re not that good anymore. Still quite useful, but not amazing. As you used to be. Alternatives? None as yet.

So that this doesn’t sound like a pointless rant, let me illustrate my point. I’m on Server Fault, trying to give my 2p in the discussion about built-in RAID controllers. This guy’s asking about A6VMX motherboard RAID setup and whether that would work with his choice of Linux. I’ve spent decent amount of my life working with “proper” hardware RAID controllers and never met the built in one. So I’m off to do some research.

I go to the manufacturer’s website, but unfortunately their manuals don’t have enough information. No worries, I’ll google it. There must be someone out there that uses these motherboards. And if they (MBs) sport RAID controllers, someone must have written at least few words about it.

Ok, I’m not that naive, I’m not searching just for A6VMX (although why not???). I use more specific search term: “A6VMX raid configuration“. And what’s the result? Ha ha, surprise-surprise… A list of online comparison sites:

And only the second page of results reveal some posts on hardware related forums. Not very useful, but at least some non-automatically generated content… Mind you, the search was rather specific. Try something less obvious and you’ll be lost. I was looking for my TV reviews. Yeah. I wish there were any…

So Google, you’ve done great job, but failed to keep fighting against the SEO herd. I just hope you’ll find a clever way to fight back and make your search results as good as they used to be.

Automatically mount filesystems on demand

pulegium — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 18:57:38 +0000

It is convenient to mount some filesystems on when-needed basis. What deamon provides this functionality? What configuration files are involved? How to check the status of this daemon? List some common use cases when this functionality is useful. Related posts:Query data from Django site with jQuery Related posts:

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Kickstarting server over the network

pulegium — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 18:52:09 +0000

What infrastructure is required to kickstart a server from network? Briefly describe configuration of each component that is involved in the kickstart process. What are alternatives for retrieving the installation packages? Related posts:Sorting out YUM repositories on CentOS 5.4 Related posts:

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File system attributes vs file permissions

pulegium — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 18:28:33 +0000

What is the difference between changing file system attributes for a file and file permissions?

What are the commands to set filesystem attributes and permissions?

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Journaling filesystems

pulegium — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 18:25:10 +0000

What is a journaling file system? What are the advantages of journaling filesystem? Name several journaled filesystems? When would you not use journaling filesystem?

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Disk partitions: primary vs extended

pulegium — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 18:22:25 +0000

What is the difference? How many primary and how many extended partition can be defined on a disk? Which one to use when and why?

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Issue with server initialisation

pulegium — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 14:10:16 +0000

Scenario: You are booting your server, but it appears to start in run level 1. You check your /etc/inittab and the default run level is set to run level 3:

id:3:initdefault:

What could be the possible cause for the server to start in different run level, and to confirm that?

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Runlevels

pulegium — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 14:02:04 +0000

Why do we need different runlevels? What are they on a typical Linux system? For advanced users: what are the runlevels on non-Linux systems?

Briefly discuss the purpose of each runlevel.

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The very first process

pulegium — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 13:59:52 +0000

What is the very first process started by the Linux kernel? What does the first process do and in what order?

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Device drivers

pulegium — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 13:57:30 +0000

It is possible to build device drivers into the Linux kernel or load them as modules. Discuss the differences between drivers being built in and drivers being available as modules. What are the advantages and disadvantages of each approach? When it is recommended to build the drivers into the kernel? Related posts:Electronic contact lens Related posts:

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