« More on Trust, the Internet, and Microsoft | Main | The Internet as an organism, virii as ... virii »
August 26, 2003
GURLs: Google URLs for fun and fortune
Google is a search engine, a chaos directory. Google is a trusted source of general information, at least as close as we can get to such a thing on the Internet.
I have some confidence that the search results Google returns are deemed reliable, or at least interesting and relevant, by someone else's links to those sites. For example, a search on Google for "breast cancer" yields "National Alliance of Breast Cancer Organizations" at the top of the list, which appears relevant, and "ford tire recall" offers the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration page on the Firestone recall. Google is so confident about its ability to put the most relevant, reliable and/or interesting link at the top of the list, they will take you right to it using the "I'm Feeling Lucky" button. Why even bother looking at the results: they know what you want.
I've had my way with Google before. Could I possibly find yet another way to use the power, the prestige, the authority of the Google PageRank, for my own benefit, to further my own personal interests?
I suggest that a Google URL has much more credibility than the URL does by itself, at least for the average Internet URL. How so? A Google URL (GURL) such as http://www.google.com/search?q=computer+security includes descriptive information (I can see that this URL will return information about computer security) as well as implied authenticity (Google will show me a list of sites related to "Computer Security" ranked the way hundreds or thousands of Internet Web sites perceive their relative value, so I can assume that the top few are the most relevant and authoritative). Certainly more credibility than www.computersecurityconsultants.com (probably not more than www.fbi.gov though--but I'm talking about the average Web site owner here).
So, making this personal. Why tell people to go to my resume, http://pete.kruckenberg.com/resume, which is just a resume site like so many others out there?
Why not suggest instead that they go see who Google thinks is the most relevant, interesting and authoritative site on the topic of "network engineer": http://www.google.com/search?q=network+engineer&btnI=. Now it's not just my resume, in fact it's not my resume site at all. That's my GURL. My Google-validated resume URL.
Now, that's power and influence: that's using Google.
How can you create your own GURLs?
The GURL is the easy part. Simply go to Google, type your query in, and grab the URL from your Web browser to do some editing. Keep the http://www.google.com/search? part, the q=XXXXXXXX (up to the & part), and append &btnI= (tells Google you're feeling lucky) to the end. You'll end up with something like http://www.google.com/search?q=XXXXXXXXX&btnI= (you can reverse the q= and btnI= parts for visual appeal).
The difficult part is that GURLs only work if your site is the first one ranked by Google. So, you may not be able to use your GURL until you successfully convince Google PageRank that your site is the most relevant.
Posted by pete at August 26, 2003 12:00 AM
Trackback Pings
TrackBack URL for this entry:
Comments
Interesting idea. I agree Google validates any given url's authority on a certain subject, but how do you use it with confidence when things are always changing on Google? I guess you check it regularly and stop making claims when you can't get the desired site to show up at the top.
Posted by: Michael Kruckenberg at August 26, 2003 05:42 AM
but if you do this and like Michael says the hit results change, then your url changes and thats the whole point of a pages url - its meant to be static and never changes!
Posted by: Andy at August 27, 2003 12:58 AM