It's widely believed that Google search results are produced entirely by computer algorithms - in large part because Google would like this to be widely believed. But in fact a little-known group of home-worker humans plays a large part in the Google process. The way these raters go about their work has always been a mystery. Now, The Register has seen a copy of the guidelines Google issues to them.
The 160-page manual gives detailed advice for raters - on relevance, spamminess, and - more controversially - the elusive "quality". For relevance raters are advised to give a rating based on "Vital", "Useful", "Relevant", Slightly Relevant", "Off-Topic or Useless" or "Unratable".
Se i tanti "piccioni" votano i vari Amazon, eBay, ecc come "Vital" potrebbe significare che a parità di condizioni (chiamale SEO, links, ecc, ecc), questi hanno il parcheggio riservato nelle prime posizioni e gli altri no...