what's related at Google
posted 2004.02.20
Anybody know how the algorithm works for Google's "Similar pages" links? I'm serious - I'd really like to know.
Because apparently...
- angiemckaig.com is similar to the Starsky and Hutch movie and the ROM
- iStockPhoto is similar to Books For Soldiers and Weight Watchers
- MetaFilter is similar to Neil Gaiman
- The Weather Network is similar to a graphical multiplayer war game
- Nerve.com is similar to United Poultry Concerns
- Wal-mart is similar to MapQuest
- Christmas.com is similar to ESPN and a Singapore ISP
- Holt Renfrew is similar to Costco and RiteAid
- Greenpeace is similar to Google
- Women.com is similar to GameSpot
- CNN is similar to Microsoft and eBay
- eBay is similar to Blogger and the NBA and MTV
Now, to be fair: many of the results on these pages are similar. And many others I tried brought up good results. But still, some of these similar listings gave me the giggles.
If you find more giggle-worthy examples, please share them!
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Google's 'similar pages' apparently considers pages to be similar if they have incoming links from the same source(s).
So if you linked to two sites and later did a related search on one of those pages the other would show up.
It's suggested that only pages with pagerank > ~4 are shown.