Do AskMe answers that have a lot of Favorites get weighted differently in Google searches? Should they be?

January 11, 2012 11:57 AM

Do AskMe answers that have a lot of Favorites get weighted differently in Google searches? Should they be?

Occasionally someone will give a really kickass answer right off the bat in AskMe, and it will get 50+ Favorites, indicating it was especially helpful or true. Does that affect the SEO rankings of that page? If I were to ask the same question in Google, do those 50+ Favorites help push that page to the top of the results? Should the Google search result actually display a direct hash (#) link to that answer within that page? Is that even desirable?

I was just curious how authoritative AskMe answers could/should be in the larger context of the internet. Or if the MeFi mods had control over something like that.

posted by critzer to Feature Requests at 11:57 AM (39 comments total)

I would guess that they do not, since favorites are kind of idiosyncratic bit of Mefi's world-facing presentation. This is black-box stuff on Google's side, in any case, not something we'd have any control over.
posted by cortex (staff) at 11:59 AM on January 11

(Consider the problem from google's side of using a number rendered on a page as input to how high to weight that page in search results. There's no disincentive for an unscrupulous site owner to make sure that there's a hundred threads about Mesothelioma, each with some nice one-million-favorite answers.)
posted by cortex (staff) at 12:03 PM on January 11

Yeah it's definitely not something that we can control and favorites [thank jehu] are not some sort of interoperable standard. So, to the best of my knowledge, no, but I'd be curious if there's some sort of "favorites effect"
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 12:03 PM on January 11

it will get 50+ Favorites, indicating it was especially helpful or true

I wouldn't bet on that, personally.
posted by Admiral Haddock at 12:06 PM on January 11 [2 favorites]

Presumably there's a popular-comment-gets-tweeted-linked-and-mentioned-elsewhere-more-often-and-so-the-page-it's-on-becomes-more-heavily-linked-to-and-so-becomes-kind-of-more-popular-though-not-directly-from-favourites effect.

But if there is then it's hard to prove.

Also, if there is then we should come up with a better name for it. I choose the Critzer Effect.
posted by Jofus at 12:07 PM on January 11

Yeah, I figured it's all so subjective that no Google algorithm could really authoritatively call something the "right" answer just because people 50+ agreed. I'm just interested in sites like AskMe that seek to almost create an "oracle" experience that get us closer and closer to finding answers about things and how Google searching plugs into that. But I guess answers which are "popular" are not necessarily answers that are Correct...
posted by critzer at 12:11 PM on January 11

Here's the list of the most favorited comments on AskMe.

My guess would that other people, outside of MetaFilter, that link or blog to the a comment give it more weight in Google.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 12:19 PM on January 11 [3 favorites]

You actually do have control over this if you use Google Webmaster and have a sitemap.xml.
posted by feloniousmonk at 12:21 PM on January 11

You being MetaFilter, of course.
posted by feloniousmonk at 12:22 PM on January 11

Wozniak isnt the top ?
posted by sgt.serenity at 12:22 PM on January 11

Not according to Kathy Griffin, no.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 12:22 PM on January 11 [2 favorites]

Ah, nevermind, that was a custom feature that doesn't appear to be there anymore, or it was only available to certain sites or something. You used to be able to specify relative priority for both indexing and abstract "importance."
posted by feloniousmonk at 12:24 PM on January 11

If you do use Google Webmaster, I'd take a look at it though. It's possible priority could be used to indicate which threads have marked best answers.
posted by feloniousmonk at 12:25 PM on January 11

He didn't even get a best answer - tough crowd.
posted by sgt.serenity at 12:25 PM on January 11 [1 favorite]

He didn't even get a best answer - tough crowd.
posted by sgt.serenity at 12:25 PM on January 11 [+] [!]



And how the hell did that thread not get closed as chat-filter?
posted by Stagger Lee at 12:40 PM on January 11

Here's the list of the most favorited comments on AskMe.

I had a real Darmok and Jalad at Tanagra moment looking at that list. I can tell you what each of the top 10 or 20 comments are just by the poster and the thread title. The only ones I missed were TryTheTilapia's and Elsa's. I spend too much time here, clearly.
posted by Rock Steady at 12:42 PM on January 11

And how the hell did that thread not get closed as chat-filter?
posted by Stagger Lee at 8:40 PM on January 11

It was chatfilter about something the mods were into, and a famous nerd showed up.
posted by Decani at 12:52 PM on January 11

And how the hell did that thread not get closed as chat-filter?

Seems perfectly answerable question, finding the appeal of particular celebrity.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 1:08 PM on January 11

Yeah, it's a touch chatty but didn't get flagged much and people ran with it. The grey areas between Totally Totally Fine and Totally Totally Chatmonster are rife with iniquity and confusion.
posted by cortex (staff) at 1:10 PM on January 11 [2 favorites]

or because the line of what is or is not chatfilter was different in 2006 when the userbase was much smaller and there were far fewer mods. besides - "why is this man still famous" is a totally answerable question, even if it was jerkily asked.
posted by nadawi at 1:11 PM on January 11

Tell me more about this Totally Totally Chatmonster.
posted by SpiffyRob at 1:15 PM on January 11

It's a Japanese arcade dancer in which you engage in "competiversation" with various NPC opponents—a salaryman on the Tokyo subway, a geisha, a schoolgirl, Iron Chef Morimoto, etc.—by stepping on the correct dance pad arrows to fire off the words that construct an effective riposte to their latest rhetorical gambit.
posted by cortex (staff) at 1:22 PM on January 11 [8 favorites]

The grey areas between Totally Totally Fine and Totally Totally Chatmonster are rife with iniquity and confusion.

Please tell me you were leaning over a crystal ball and cackling madly as you typed that.
posted by mannequito at 1:51 PM on January 11 [1 favorite]

It's a Japanese arcade dancer in which you engage in "competiversation" with various NPC opponents—a salaryman on the Tokyo subway, a geisha, a schoolgirl, Iron Chef Morimoto, etc.—by stepping on the correct dance pad arrows to fire off the words that construct an effective riposte to their latest rhetorical gambit.


Fantastic Icebreaker! 4x Segue C-C-C-Combo!
posted by Rock Steady at 2:25 PM on January 11

He didn't even get a best answer - tough crowd.

The best comment in that thread was jscott's pointing out that although the concept of fame has largely been co-opted by Andy Warhol style 15 minutes of media celebrity, there are also people who will be famous their entire lives because they accomplished something of great importance.

(Ironically Andy Warhol was one of these people.)
posted by Tell Me No Lies at 2:27 PM on January 11

Should the Google search result actually display a direct hash (#) link to that answer within that page? Is that even desirable?

and

something the "right" answer just because people 50+ agreed.

Your large unstated assumption, and apparently unexamined assumption, is that you can tell what a favorite means. We've had this discussion multiple times, but it bears repeating that people use favorites differently, and one cannot say what that single-dimension means to someone without asking them.
posted by OmieWise at 3:05 PM on January 11

Or, as I've said before, when I favorite something it's a bookmark, when someone favorites something of mine, it's agreement.
posted by OmieWise at 3:06 PM on January 11

Weird, that's true for me too.

But does the guard at the left door always lie?
posted by Tell Me No Lies at 3:18 PM on January 11

Here's the list of the most favorited comments on AskMe.

"AskMe, what is best in life?"
"To outwit the rude, especially queue-jumpers, to have a truly awesome Halloween costume, to learn to truly respect the viewpoint of others, to let someone down gently, to know when to ask for help, to find your passion, to not get screwed over by car salesmen, to rescue sex slaves, enjoy dirty talk, and to know how to dump a body."
posted by Diablevert at 3:58 PM on January 11 [2 favorites]

Right now metafilter has a shitton of weight with google. You guys thing the new google social search is going to help or hurt?

Don't mean to gloat but I called it like a year ago and everyone was all "lololoololo you are a moran social is stupid"
posted by Ad hominem at 6:53 PM on January 11

Also, is there a metafilter circle on G+?
posted by Ad hominem at 7:13 PM on January 11

Also, is there a metafilter circle on G+?

M. F. Taters
posted by cj_ at 7:31 PM on January 11

(not sure if whoever was running that is still doing it, but their friend list is a pretty good starting point.)
posted by cj_ at 7:32 PM on January 11

If favorites count as links, then favorited content should get more weight. I try to google before I ask.me, and Ask.Me has enormous Google-cred.
posted by theora55 at 8:09 PM on January 11

In retrospect, I think I might have screwed up this entire post. What would probably be a better indicator is the answers that are "Marked as Best Answer," rather than those simply Favorited. But I guess that is also a subjective thing chosen by the OP, not necessarily a definitive answer. Going back to my cave now.
posted by critzer at 8:43 PM on January 11

But does the guard at the left door always lie?
posted by Tell Me No Lies at 6:18 on January 12 [+] [!] [quote]

I think it's bias confirmation.
posted by arcticseal at 9:33 PM on January 11

This thread is presently the 3rd hit for metafilter mesothelioma.
posted by finite at 10:17 PM on January 11 [1 favorite]

I'm just interested in sites like AskMe that seek to almost create an "oracle" experience

AskMe will never offer a properly oracular experience ("That man you will meet in two weeks time? DTMF preemptively") but it's a great resource for anyone who wants to read portents as clearly as possible.

Is it possible to do amniomancy by ultrasound? Will the caul even show up?

If I throw beans in a pot while boiling a donkey's head does that count as a parity check? Can anyone suggest a recipe?

Will topomancy tell me where to build my starting house in minecraft, or would applying topomantic methods to minecraft's infinite landscape render me clairvoyant?

etc.

Your transataumantic MeFortune: look at the second last comment at the bottom of this page. Interpret the third noun from the right to divine your fortune for today.
posted by justsomebodythatyouusedtoknow at 1:34 AM on January 12 [2 favorites]

"Hit". I am going to take one of the medicinal type and then go to sleep.
posted by Ayn Rand and God at 12:32 AM on January 13