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Search Engine Optimization

Roger Gonzales

The Teoma Algorithm

In addition to utilizing existing search techniques, Teoma applies what they call authority, a new measure of relevance, to deliver search results. For this purpose, Teoma employs three proprietary techniques:

Refine, Results and Resources.
Refine
First, Teoma organizes sites into naturally occurring communities that are about the subject of each search query. These communities are presented under the heading "Refine" on the Teoma.com results page. This tool allows a user to further focus his or her specific search.

For example, a search for "Soprano" would present a user with a set of refinement suggestions such as "Marie-Adele McArther" (a renowned soprano), "Three Sopranos" (the operatic trio), "The Sopranos" (the wildly-popular HBO television show) as well as several other choices. No other technology can dynamically cluster search results into the actual communities as they exist on the Web.

Results

Next, after identifying these communities, Teoma employs a technique called Subject-Specific PopularitySM. Subject-Specific Popularity analyzes the relationship of sites within a community, ranking a site based on the number of same-subject pages that reference it, among hundreds of other criteria. In other words, Teoma determines the best answer for a search by asking experts within a specific subject community about who they believe is the best resource for that subject.

By assessing the opinions of a site's peers, Teoma establishes authority for the search result. Relevant search results ranked by Subject-Specific Popularity are presented under the heading "Results" on the Teoma.com results page.

In some instances companies pay to have their Web sites included within Teoma's dataset, otherwise known as the Teoma Index. Like all Web sites, these sites are processed through Teoma's search algorithms and are not guaranteed placement in the results. This ensures that relevancy is the primary driver of results.

Resources
Finally, by dividing the Web into local subject communities, Teoma is able to find and identify expert resources about a particular subject. These sites feature lists of other authoritative sites and links relating to the search topic.

For example, a professor of Middle Eastern history may have created a page devoted to his collection of sites that explain the geography and topography of the Persian Gulf. This site would appear under the heading "Resources" in response to a Persian Gulf-related query. No previous search technology has been able to find and rank these sites.


Sponsored Links
Search results appearing under the heading "Sponsored Links" are provided by Google®, a third party provider of pay for performance search listings. Google generates highly relevant sponsored results by allowing advertisers to bid for placement in this area based on relevant keywords. These results, which are powered by Google's advanced algorithms, are then distributed across the Internet to some of the world's most popular and well-known Web sites, including Teoma.com and Ask Jeeves.

Other factors
Boolean Searching
Limited Boolean searching is available. Teoma defaults to an AND between search terms and supports the use of - for NOT. Either OR or ORR can be used for an OR operation, but the operator must be in all upper case. Unfortunately, no nesting is vailable.

Proximity Searching
Phrase searching is available by using “double quotes” around a phrase or by checking the "Phrase Match" box. Teoma also supports phrase searching when a dash is used between words with no spaces. Until Nov. 2002, Teoma's help page stated that "Teoma returns results which exactly or closely matches the given phrase" which meant that not all phrases matches will necessarily be accurate. As of Nov. 2002, that appears to have been corrected and phrase searching now works properly.

Truncation
No truncation is currently available.

Case Sensitivity
Searches are not case sensitive. Search terms entered in lowercase, uppercase, or mixed case all get the same number of hits.

Stop Words
Teoma does ignore frequently-occurring words such as 'the,' 'of', 'and', and 'or'. However, like at Google, these stop words can be searched by putting a + in front of them or by including them within a phrase search.

Sorting
By defaults, sites are sorted in order of perceived relevance. They also have site collapsing (showing only two pages per site with the rest link via a “More Results” message. There is no option for sorting alphabetically, by site, or by date.

Display
Teoma displays the title (roughly first 60 characters), a two line keyword-in-context extract from the page, and the beginning of the URL for each hit. Some will also have a link to "Related Pages" which finds related records based on identifying Web communities by analyzing link patterns. Two other sections displayed are the "Refine" section (formerly folders) that suggest other related searches based on words that Teoma uses to identify communities on the Web and the "Resources: Link collections from experts and enthusiasts" (formerly "Experts' Links") which are Web pages that include numerous links to external resources -- metasites or Internet resource guides. Some "Sponsored Links" may show up at the top. These are ads from the Google AdWords program.
Teoma will only display 10 Web page records at a time; however, up to a 100 at a time can be displayed through a change in the preferences and on the advanced search page. Teoma may also display up to 10 metasites under the "Resources" heading and up to 6 Refine suggestions.

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How Inktomi Works

Copyright © Roger Gonzales
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