Google is constantly developing new technologies and methodologies for staying ahead of the curve in search. One possible method that Google’s considering to manipulate search results is applying a user’s pointer activity as a ranking variable.
While it’s probably something that most of us do without even realizing it, hovering over what you’re viewing on a Web page with your cursor is an extremely common user behavior. Google describes this behavior in a recently granted patent as follows:
A typical user’s behavior is to move the mouse pointer (or any other pointing indicator) over or near a target informational item, keep the mouse pointer there for a period of time while the user reads the item’s information (e.g., title and snippet), and then click through the underlying link or move to another item.
Sometimes, a user may review multiple informational items responsive to a search query, moving a pointer over or near each of the informational items that the user reviews. These various pointer activities can provide another way to evaluate the user’s feedback with respect to a particular informational item.
This user behavior raises the question: What if you’re hovering over a search result but don’t click on it? Does it mean the result is irrelevant, or does it mean you found what you were searching for via the result’s title or description?
According to this new patent, it’s not outside the realm of possibility for Google to consider mouse pointer movement to help rank results. For example, if a user is searching for a phone number for a local business and finds it within in a result’s description, the user’s cursor hovering over the result might signal that the result is relevant for that user’s query, even if it doesn’t yield a click-through to the website.
The summary of the patent reads as follows:
According to some embodiments, one or more informational items are displayed in response to a search query. Each item occupies a respective region on a display and has a relevancy value associated with the search query. The user’s browsing (e.g., pointer placement and/or movement) activities are monitored with respect to the displayed informational items. At least one informational item’s relevancy value is adjusted in accordance with the user’s browsing activities with respect to the item’s respective region.
The patent is said to be useful for tracking mouse behavior not only on search results, but also for advertisements and even Google’s OneBox music service.
Whether Google is using this methodology right now is unknown, but with the market share of Yahoo! and Bing growing, Google needs to devise new ways to give users more of what they want in order to stay on top.
Already, Google considers a wide range of variables to determine how relevant a page might be for a specific keyword, and then ranks it accordingly. If pointer activity becomes a ranking factor, titles and meta descriptions will become far more important. The description in particular has largely been irrelevant when it comes to rankings, but Google’s insatiable drive for innovation and this new methodology might bring it back from dormancy soon enough.
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Image Credit: jared
