So, I've got Google Alerts set up to let me know when anyone in the blogosphere is talking about findingDulcinea.com - which makes sense because constantly searching for our site name was driving me a little crazy - and was a less than ideal way to get information.
However, I'm finding a few flaws in the Google Alerts system - specifically that the "alert" should more aptly be named "whenever we get around to letting you know."
For example, about a month ago I did a video for another site highlighting our holiday shopping guide. This was perhaps one of the worst instructional videos ever made - which my friends were happy to tell me - and we put a copy of it on YouTube.
Today - one month after the fact - I got a google alert about the video.
Now, I'm not Father Time or anything, but a month seems like an excessive amount of time for an "alert" - if I'd been waiting for an alert about something more serious - say a tornado warning or an after thanksgiving day sale - I'd be out of luck (and if I'd been in the Wizard of Oz - I'd no longer even be in Kansas).
The other (and perhaps more serious) flaw is that this "alert" has never "alerted" me to any of my own findingdulcinea - related blogging. I'm not sure if you are aware of this, but my blog has a site rank of just under 8 million (and getting better - I might add) and - if you haven't also noticed - is housed under the Google-owned Blogger.
So - okay - my blog rating is terrible (but not as bad as it could be) - but even with a bad rating - wouldn't you expect that google would search it's own family of blogs for the words for which it alerts google users? I would.
Maybe google is sending all of its alerts by old-timey horseback post mail (I was going to say telegraph but realized that even that would get to me almost immediately), maybe my blog in particular is not being searched for google alerts because of its incredible content, or maybe, just maybe, I need to find another blog alert application - any ideas?
I think I'm going to start an experiment called "how long will it take for google to find my findingdulcinea related blog posts?" and when it does maybe I will have a party. And if my alert really does arrive by old-timey horseback post, then perhaps the postman will stay for a slice of cake and some fruit punch.
Until then, we wait.
Wednesday, January 23, 2008
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2 comments:
Google Alerts does return content from Blogger blogs. There are several possibilities: one, it can't return content until the GoogleBot crawls the blog. If it hasn't gotten around to you, well...
Also, if you have certain errors in your template, or in any of the links, etc. you've set up those errors will prevent the GoogleBot from crawling your blog. In that case, Google will never put it in the index.
On some blogs, the problem is that they appear to Google's algorithm to be splogs, but I don't think this one would match the criteria. Although using the word p0rn several times might tip some balance - splogs love words like that.
Love the Pony Express reference :) An interesting problem, my thoughts a link back to you here: http://www.greatcitydogs.com/2008/11/getting-your-blog-noticed-by-google.html
great blog, thanks for flagging this question.
- Rob
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