Mouse movements may influence Google search rankings
July 13 2010, 10:13pm
Google's extensive arsenal of ranking factors used to determine a website's position in search results has broadened even further, with the granting of a new patent that accounts for the position of a user's mouse cursor on the screen - even without any clicks.This innovative 'system and method for modulating search relevancy using pointer activity monitoring' was assigned to Google on Tuesday and credited to Taher H Haveliwala. It allows the search engine to collect information about where users hover mouse pointers when viewing search results and advertisements, and when using Google's OneBox music service.Writing for SEO by the Sea, Bill Slawski explained that such information may be more useful to Google when determining page rank than relying on click-through rates (CTR), partly because some search results alone will already provide all the information searchers are looking for without them needing to advance to the page - particularly with Rich Snippets and Google's inclusion of site hierarchies in search results.While the behavioural science underlying this new development is far from clear-cut, the search giant has certainly done its homework when it comes to analysing browsing habits.Google explained: "A typical user's behavior [sic] 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."Google is making a number of assumptions that may not hold true with all users - with actions such as a longer hover over a search result being indicative of either sustained interest or perhaps confusion over its meaning. However, it remains to be seen how seriously webmasters will need to take into account this additional factor when bumping their pages through the rankings of Google's untouchable search engine.Digg | delicious | Reddit | Google | Twitter | Sphinn | StumbleUpon | YahooBuzz | Facebook | Mixx | Contact bigmouthmedia
