Google tweaks search algorithms

Each year, Google makes about 500 changes to its search algorithm and they're usually pretty small. Google's also usually pretty clandestine about their algorithm changes for pretty obvious reasons. Websites that try to reach the top of search results look at the way algorithms work and manipulate themselves around it. However, this time Google made their algorithm changes public. According to the New York Times, these changes affect results that are date specific, as well as those that are in Hindi, Swahili, Welsh and other languages, among other changes. Google will now also translate search pages that are relevant, but in English into those languages and will show them in search results.

Google's tweaking your search

One reason Google made these changes public is that they do not tend to affect search results. Another reason is that Google is facing flak from government agencies for antitrust practices. The issue here is that Google reveals very little about their method and the entire web business is at stake. Other changes that Google has made, which they've described on their blog, include more relevant page content in Snippets. This means that when you're searching for a website and you see a Snippet of the site when you hold your cursor over its search result, Google will add more relevant text in the Snippet box that shows up, instead of just the preview of the website. They've also changed how they rate fresh, more recent content. They said this change affects roughly 35 percent of all searches.