Google says "David Miller" + "mayor" = "Rob Ford"
We have taken note of Mayor Rob Ford putting his stamp on the city and its government.
There are the new blurbs about Toronto at the end of press releases, which replace boasting about environmental sustainability with boasting about customer service.
And the mayor's decision to change the main number for his office from 416-397-CITY to 416-397-FORD.
Look at the splash page for the City of Toronto's website and you'll see that one of the scrolling photos is a very political "No more personal vehicle tax" banner and a photo of Ford next to a woman holding the mock licence plate "NO CAR TAX."
So our antennae twitched when we put "David Miller" and "mayor" into Google and the top result is: "City of Toronto: Mayor Ford's office".
Click on it and you are at Ford's official bio. Nowhere do the words "David Miller" appear. Nor are they among the keywords built into the page.
Maybe Google's algorithm elves code from the right?
If you click on the Google cache, you'll see, "These terms only appear in links pointing to this page: david miller"
I suspect there are lots of links on the web talking about David Miller and linking the Mayor's page. In time, I'm sure this will change.
Posted by: Darwin O'Connor | 01/17/2011 at 12:52 PM
I have never seen a newspaper more bitter. Yes everyone know The Star did not endorse Ford, and they have been on a crusade ever since to prove he is the wrong choice. These subtle changes have no effect over Toronto and The Star needs to get better reporters and stories, instead of Dimanno trying to crucify Toronto Police for beating down some punk kids at "protests".
Posted by: FordoverMiller | 01/17/2011 at 01:18 PM
The page it points to is www.toronto.ca/mayor/ and was probably David Miller's mayor page before. Google still has it as the number one page for him and hasnt corrected the pointer yet especially as it is based on external links that may not yet be updated yet either. Not a big deal, not newsworthy, and not a Google conspiracy.
Posted by: Not David Miller | 01/17/2011 at 01:22 PM
Good catch!
No political conspiracy here though - this is the way that Google is designed to work. As someone who has worked in the Search Engine industry for over 10 years, I can assure you that during Mr. Miller's time in office, many other websites linked to his official page using the words "David Miller" and "Mayor" as the clickable words in the link. That tells Google that the page is about "David Miller", and "Mayor" - and that history won't rub off in Google quickly.
Given that Mr. Ford has several years ahead of him in office, it's only a matter of time before searching for "Rob Ford" and "Mayor" brings up the official Toronto Mayors page, and not Mr. Ford's "Ford for Mayor" page that comes up now. This is one of those quirks of search engines - they're not always as quick to catch up as people.
Posted by: Helen M Overland | 01/17/2011 at 01:30 PM
Darwin -- You're absolutely correct. Google analyzes four main sources when determining search results / "page rank" for any particular page:
1) how relevant is the content on that page,
2) how does the rest of the site view that page (e.g., is it hidden "deep" in the site or is it referred to a lot and on main menus),
3) how relevant is the page according to other sites, and
4) how often do people make use the page when they see it in keyword-based search results.
1 and 2 are within the control of the owners of the site, but 3 and 4 will take a long time to change... but it will change when more and more people start to create sites that talk about Rob Ford and then link to the city's web site.
The author of the article, David Rider, should have consulted someone at least semi-knowledgeable before writing this non-article.
Posted by: Steve | 01/17/2011 at 01:47 PM
Rob Ford is controlling information MAAAANNN!!!
Posted by: Wayne | 01/17/2011 at 02:13 PM
If you google "david miller" mayor -ford you will get some sensible results.
Posted by: MarySunshine | 01/17/2011 at 03:29 PM
This reporter obviously does not know how to use Google search. The search term:
+"David Miller" +"mayor"
returns relevant articles.
I recommend the reporter learns the difference between boolean OR and boolean AND.
Posted by: dbithead | 01/17/2011 at 03:49 PM
Type in "the president of the united states" and "george bush" and Barack Obama is the first link. You're reading too much into this. Search engines are complex and try to anticipate what you are looking for to gain efficiencies. no conspiracy here - carry on....
Posted by: Ken Horton | 01/17/2011 at 04:16 PM
416-397-CITY changed to 416-397-FORD.... 416-397-FORD = 416-EXPENSE
Posted by: mark. | 01/17/2011 at 06:02 PM
David Rider - consider a stroll through your recent articles, and how you always tend to the aggressive side of journalism. Then read the description of what The Goods is supposed to be on the top of the right column. Try getting back to discussing what's fascinating about this city instead of picking at our differences.
http://thestar.blogs.com/thegoods/author-david-rider/
Posted by: Ryan Maule | 01/17/2011 at 06:34 PM
What's the big deal? Rob Ford is incumbent mayor; David Miller is one has-been.
Posted by: Romy Marquez | 01/25/2011 at 10:01 AM