Are there any good blogs out there on improving your Googling skills? [more inside]
posted by vizsla on Sep 8, 2008 - 6 answers

What is your formula for finding the most active online forums for discussions about very specific subjects? [more inside]
posted by zaebiz on Jun 9, 2008 - 3 answers

Why do some search engines allow you to search blank queries? [more inside]
posted by snailer on Oct 17, 2006 - 3 answers

What search engine should I use instead of Google to protest their agreement to provide a censored product for China? [more inside]
posted by alms on Feb 13, 2006 - 16 answers

Which are the best search engines that aren't Google or Yahoo? I want to find one that is good for searching but which also isn't in the business of turning this into this. [more inside]
posted by reynir on Jan 29, 2006 - 22 answers

HtAccessFilter: I’m seeking regular expressions to describe URLs that encompass search engines’ image and video search engines, but not the engines themselves, so that I can block said image and video search engines using “SetEnvIfNoCase Referer” in .htaccess. Also, I’m also seeking to block all incoming requests for one particular URL which is popular with these video and image search engines but which no longer exists – but I don’t want to serve them the normal 404. [more inside]
posted by WCityMike on Jan 5, 2006 - 6 answers

Does anyone know of a free piece of software (or internet site) that can monitor a web site's ranking in various search engines using various keywords? [more inside]
posted by mattwatson on Nov 20, 2005 - 5 answers

What are the economics of bogus search engines and other oddities found by regular search engines? [more inside]
posted by elgilito on Jun 22, 2005 - 4 answers

GoogleBombing: Suppose I register 10 domains, and upload an HTML page to each domain that has a named link - for example, "Click here to buy Cheap Shoes" - and these named links all point to the same webpage....when someone searches on Google for "Cheap Shoes", will the page that has 10 domains linking to it stand a better chance of being higher up in the rankings?
posted by SpaceCadet on Oct 11, 2004 - 19 answers

Did anyone else notice Google search behaving oddly yesterday? (more inside) [more inside]
posted by jester69 on Jun 20, 2004 - 16 answers

If I want to know where a certain website ranks for a particular Google search, is there anything I can do other than just scroll through every page of results until I find that page? For instance: This is on the 29th page of Google results for "Ask Metafilter." If I was Mr. or Ms. Ofrenda, would there be a faster way for me to learn than that simply looking on every page?
posted by blueshammer on May 26, 2004 - 3 answers

Search engine optimization... I'm happy to buy a book, but are they worth it? Do I really need to know more than the basic best-practices for Google? [more inside]
posted by o2b on May 24, 2004 - 2 answers

Is there a way on Google to have it exclude shopping sites from a search? If I search on a book or movie title, or hotel name, most of the results are just generic sales pages and not very informative. Willing to use a different search engine if I can get the desired results.
posted by billsaysthis on May 2, 2004 - 6 answers

Questions about search engines: 1) What if you regret something you say on your website, say bad-mouthing an ex-girlfriend, is there ways of sending this down the memory hole? You could delete the statement, but how do you get rid of search engine caches? And how many different engines are collecting these caches? 2) what if you say something like this on another website - is there any way to at least get Google to stop showing it, even though you don't run the site?
posted by ass on Mar 18, 2004 - 8 answers