Many people may have noticed that there has been a huge shift in the Yahoo index. TheYahoo blog site confirms that there has been a major algorithm update. Yahoo themselves have not leaked out very much information on this new index update but others interested in updates and by research on my own queries, it is certain that Yahoo has two separate algorithms floating through their datacenters. When you do a search on Yahoo, you have a 50/50 chance on what algorithm you are stuck with to do your searches. The newest algorithm is the better of the two. To see what the newest algorithm looks like without having to do search after search trying to find the newest datacenter you can head over to www.yahoo.dk as they have only one algorithm, the good one. It also looks like the prioritizations of Back Links changed as well. It is a good possibility that they are starting to use a Trust Rank algorithm now. (Just like Googles or maybe it is Googles) You can read more on Trust Rank here: http://www.search-marketing.info/newsletter/articles/trustrank-company.htm
It takes time for companies like Yahoo to implement their changes to all of their datacenters as they adjust and tweak to make sure it is perfect before they release it to take over their whole network. Therefore, do not let all of the search engine result pages (SERPS) fool you. When in doubt check a data center you know is holding the newest update such as the www.yahoo.dk. Only pay attention to the newest datacenters. I know traffic may decrease due to people searching the old datacenters but if you are sitting pretty on the new index then you will be sitting even prettier once the new index engulfs all of the other datacenters.
There are definitely two algorithms floating around the net - Yahoo.co.uk, Alltheweb and Altavista seem to permanently have the old/bad algorithm, meaning it does not rotate back and forth from old algorithm to new algorithm while, Yahoo.it, au.yahoo.com, Yahoo.dk only have the good algorithm. The American datacenters for Yahoo.com are still in a state of rotation between the new and the old algorithms.
This seems to make for a huge update and as far as I can see with our own SEO clients, it is all good. The ranking are going up and up but because not all versions of Yahoo show the same result pages it is hard for clients to trust in their SEO companies. With all the negative content, you can find on the internet, who can blame them. When an SEO company says hey, you have #3 spot for “widgets” and the client does a search and cannot find him or herself it does look bad. Fear not faithful viewers, as there really is two sets of algorithms and the old ones will be switched to the new one in a matter of time.
On a different note, the same thing can be said of the monster search engine, Google. We still see two separate algorithms for them as well. When doing a Google search you have a 50/50 of hitting what used to be the old algorithm and the new one dubbed “Big Daddy”. If you want to see what the newest algorithm of Google will bring up without weeding out all the old SERPS then head to IP http://64.233.179.104. This IP is a confirmed Big Daddy data center and is showing the newest SERPS.
I will be researching further into these updates as more and more information becomes assessable. Until next time, Happy searching! -jmt
Yahoo Index
By: James Trivolette
