What is going on with the SL Search ???

Since this exists when someone type HOMES I appear on top of the page#1...

I'm still on top...but page#2

Wrost to BellaRose...She was the top of page 1 since the new search raised.Now she appear on the page #16 !!


Is LL making some heavy changes ?? Anybody know something about it ?

I Can't find anything on the forum, blog, etc...

TY !

I'd rather that the results of the search be unfathomable and that the only way to get yourself at the top is to have the exact thing that I am looking for.

Have you looked at the results that precede you and thought about how they might actually fit better? Are they paying for picks? Why do you assume that LL changed something? #1 result is not a right.

Haha...I'm inworld right now so I opened search to see if anything looked different, and ...the all search is totally non-responsive for me right now.

I'm with Cristalle though, just because you have a certain spot doesn't mean you will keep it. New people are entering the search and trying to get a higher position all the time, as are people who have been in search but are trying to improve their ranking.

Classifieds and Showcase are all messed up. This suggests they are doing some kind of monkeying around with the search. They may also be working on changes for the Adult Content policy. It may be totally unrelated to the OP's situation, but something is going on with the search.

Although I know this is LL we're dealing with, the only thing that should change is a visibility bit for adult content that is flagged as such. They may change the algorithm but anyone that checks their position periodically can see changes to their or others' position and shouldn't automatically assume that it is because of LL.

I clicked on a link for one of my favorite places in the All search tab and got this - "Page not available. We're sorry: This item's privacy settings prevent us from showing you any further details about it."

I have never seen this before and let the owner of the place know and she has no clue why it is doing that either. I did not know there were privacy settings for search listings now.

I've seen that error before, seemingly at random, and I have never been able to figure out why it happens at certain times and not at others.

Like I said, the entire all search is offline for me tonight. No status update about it I can see yet though.

One thing is clear to me...

Before all of this, residents to be elective to appear on search results must have:

- Payment info or be a founder of a group
- Have the "Appear on search" flagged on the perofile.

Now...

Be a founder of the group no longer set the residents as elective anymore...

So, considering that tons of these residents is no longer on the search anymore, the relevance by picks of several places has been dropped.

But Im sure that this is not the only changes...I'm still trying to figure out anymore.

nevermind...

This is not exactly the reason for tons of ppl dont appear anymore on the search...

I've another theory: Active Residents.

Probally there is a new formula to the search like "Residents where the last login was "X days" or "X Months" is no longer relevant.

I will research more...

It's kinda sorta interesting to compare the first ranked in Places v. All
In "Homes" just for one example, the first ranked in Places scream 'traffic bots' just from the numbers, and a 'Show on Map' confirms this with great stacks of dots.

What might be interesting to research would be the techniques used by the egregious traffic bot users who also appear high in All Search.
It would be a safe bet that they are also gaming All search to the maximum extent possible.

That sort of person would almost certainly game Picks as an obvious first port of call.
I wonder if a look at the bots would tell us something about the type of avatar that probably have an influence with their Picks.
If they still rank high in All, it might be that they have the right sort of Picks.

I'd love to be let loose with queries on the SL databases

How about visualising the population as a 3D cloud, with avatars clustered according to their various connections to one another?
Last IP used
Groups
Picks
L$ transfer
Time spent on the same parcel
... whatever

Well...Im on the top#1 at the "homes" KW since the new SL Search was implemented..

and I dont use bots...

In fact traffic on the current days is not so relevant...

But I agree that the criterias should be more accurate...

such as...

- How muth the agent spend on the same sim or same parcel..whatever.
- Parcels or sims where ppl spend more should appear on first...
- Residents that's spend more money in SL should be more heavy when add a pick entry - This probally can finish with the Pay Per Picks or reduce dramactically.

BTW...Ive some friends thats sell things in SL...SL Merchants like me...and these friends is in trouble too because the search.

You misunderstood the point that I was trying to make.

Of course you can be at #1 in the new All Search without using bots.
Traffic is said to have some influence on it, but a minor one.

The point is that those with huge bot-generated traffic numbers at the top of the Places are possibly interesting candidates for analysis if they also rank high in the new All Search.
If you want to find gaming of All Search, those Places gamers definitely have the mentality that will drive them to find ways of doing it.






Your "such as"s can be gamed to hell and back.
The first two are covered by traffic bots - whether up in a box or down on the ground as models or walking about and even chatting inanely.
The second two would be covered by having pick bots that spend big money and get it back immediately to spend again.

Anything related to the activity of an avatar is not suitable for use as a search ranking factor.

Here's why being too mysterious about how the Search Engine works doesn't lead to having results produce what the searcher wants.

Everyone has limited time.

Merchants who spend the majority of their time perfecting their products, and only have limited time to figure out the search engine, can't figure out how to craft a search entry that puts their products at the top when you are searching for them.

Merchants who spend a majority of their time figuring out the search engine will eventually learn enough secrets that they can get their search entries over those merchants who don't have the time to figure out the search engine (because they spend their time making good products).

End result: Too much mystery rewards the dishonest (who spend their time figuring out how to game the system), and punishes the honest (who don't have the time to figure out how to game the system since they are making good products).

How the search engine functions should be largely transparent to put everyone on equal footing, so the gamers don't have the competitive edge. Some of the ability for merchants to game the system can be taken out of the gamers hands by giving more options for searchers to use to tailor results to their liking (instead of the programmers of the engine making secret determinations about what I want to include in a search). And the factors that are actually used to determine results should actually relate to what the searchers want.

(That's the failing of Traffic. At some level there is a logic to "if other people have been there, it must be popular, and that means searchers might find it popular too." But the measure is just too remote. And at the end of the day, it's like concluding that since 150,000 people in the world died yesterday, you must want to die too.)

There's a reason that Google provides all kinds of help pages advising people how to improve search rankings for their pages. Because ultimately, the very best way of helping googlers find relevant results is for webmasters to make pages that will show up in relevant searches.

Well....

Im very honest...I don't wanna to be rude but this is very innocent of you beliefes that try to figure out how the search works is not honest...

It's very simple.This rule apply in RL Businnes and SL Business: If you don't do it...Someone will !

Business is not like a cooperative community.It's competition !

So far...I'm still falling...now almost in page 3...

But I'm totally in focus about how the changes that's caused all of this and I will try to revert as long I got new clues.

And Also...I know several good and honest ppl that's falling too and these ppl don't deserve.

Anyway...plz, I opened this thread to share knowledge.Not to judge anything or anyone...

I really wish to continue this discussion without judgement.Because honestlly: I never cares (in RL too) about what ppl thing about me or about others.

This thread has nothing whatsoever to do with traffic. It's about the All search.

LL is no different. Webmasters have to dig to find Google's information, and SL business owners also have to dig to find LL's information but, just like Google, it's there for anyone to read who will look for it. In fact, I'd go so far as to say that LL provides more information on how to rank well than Google does.

Something has definitely changed, I've compared a couple of parcels and parcel b which has no picks as it's under development scores better than my parcel with much higher traffic and picks.

I agree that something has changed in about the last week or so...I have had inquiries from folks about why they are so much higher when they have changed nothing. I have not had a chance to check where I stand but I will as soon as I can.

right now, the ONLY part of search i can get to work is the ALL search. events, groups, places & people searches all will not load for me. maybe it's just borked right now and throwing everything off kilter. maybe traffic is not being counted, and it DOES make a bigger impact than previously claimed (there's a lot of big talk here about traffic counting or not, but no one here knows for sure)

Well earlier in the week people were complaining that classifieds weren't showing, so maybe something is borked.

Guess !!! happend with me ! I noticed this 5 minutes ago.My Secundary parcel on my sim now ranks better then my parcel thats have landing point !

The differences bw one and another ? let's try to analyze:

Main Parcel:
Name: Ayruma Homes : Prefabs, HOMES, Houses, Home, Prefab, house
Traffic: 962
Area: 7328

Secundary Parcel:
Name: HOMES by Ayruma : Prefabs, HOMES, Houses, Home, Prefab, house
Traffic: 2302
Area: 56912

Ok, we can really make a conclusion that the Traffic and the Area is the cause ! But considering that the new mechants on the page #1 at the HOMES kw...
I can deduce that a good description now matters more then keywords...
For example: The name of my main parcel have reduntant words and stuff...it's a bit durty in fact.
The name of my secundary...Well, not a good description too...but At least "Homes by Ayruma" tell us something...

all search is the only search that will work for me to .. if i try ppl or any other i get none as a result .

I have also got this once!

i believe all these have as great an impact on ALL search results as picks. we'll see if everything goes back to normal when the other portions of search are restored.

traffic matters. description matters. parcel size matters. picks matter.