Brian White

Inside Google, we email queries around a lot. An example might be

Hey Brian, check out “mexican food in Dublin”

Now, does the person who sent that to me want me to search in quotes, or without? When we email queries around, we use brackets ([]) to represent the search box:

[mexican food in dublin]

If I want the quotes,

["mexican food in Dublin"]

Saves an email back, “did you want me to put that in quotes or not?”

While we’re on the topic, this will probably help me:

["* mexican food in dublin" +ireland]

Looks like I’ll be taking the DART out to Howth…

Skeptic: My Google Toolbar PageRank indicator says 0/10 for your site. (Nelson laugh) ha-ha.
Me:Yes, but I started getting referrals from Google, including referrals from the search phrase [brian white]. I must have *some* PageRank…

Indeed, to rank for Random Stuff™, you need some PageRank. PR is calculated pretty much continuously inside of Google which keeps our results fresh, but the Toolbar PageRank value is refreshed not nearly as often. Thus, one should not pay too much attention to PR, and instead rely on their own logs and analytics applications.

How did I get PageRank? I’ve met a few industry folks at shows like Pubcon and SES, and have been getting links to my posts from search industry news sites and blogs by them or from those who have heard of me (self-rating: I’m a C-lister at best). That little bit of effort has turned into a nice stream of traffic, although I’m not focusing on that at all.

Update: In the comments, Adam Senour points out quite correctly that PageRank is just one of over 100 factors in how pages or sites rank in Google.