Tweet
Hi Everybody,
We all know that Google’s ranking algorithm uses hundreds of different factors to determine the position of search results – but is your mouse pointer one of them?
According to a recent post on Seo By The Sea, the answer is Yes, after Google was recently granted a patent for determining search relevancy using pointer activity monitoring.
The patent discusses how Google may use information about where searchers hover their mouse pointer as a ranking signal for how relevant those results may be to a search query. This type of monitoring may be used across organic results, sponsored links and Google one-box results.
Below is a snippet from the Google patent,
1. A typical user’s behavior is to move the mouse pointer (or any other pointing indicator) over or near a target informational item, keep the mouse pointer there for a period of time while the user reads the item’s information (e.g., title and snippet), and then click through the underlying link or move to another item.
2. Sometimes, a user may review multiple informational items responsive to a search query, moving a pointer over or near each of the informational items that the user reviews. These various pointer activities can provide another way to evaluate the user’s feedback with respect to a particular informational item.
While the patent was only recently approved, it has been 5 years in the making so there’s no guarantee on the extent that Google are currently using this technology.
Heat-map and eye tracking providers have used similar systems for many years to monitor users, so I do believe it would provide search engines some useful data.
What do you think about the patent, do you use the mouse pointer as a tracker as you read over a page? Let us know in the comments below.
We all know that Google’s ranking algorithm uses hundreds of different factors to determine the position of search results – but is your mouse pointer one of them?
According to a recent post on Seo By The Sea, the answer is Yes, after Google was recently granted a patent for determining search relevancy using pointer activity monitoring.
The patent discusses how Google may use information about where searchers hover their mouse pointer as a ranking signal for how relevant those results may be to a search query. This type of monitoring may be used across organic results, sponsored links and Google one-box results.
Below is a snippet from the Google patent,
1. A typical user’s behavior is to move the mouse pointer (or any other pointing indicator) over or near a target informational item, keep the mouse pointer there for a period of time while the user reads the item’s information (e.g., title and snippet), and then click through the underlying link or move to another item.
2. Sometimes, a user may review multiple informational items responsive to a search query, moving a pointer over or near each of the informational items that the user reviews. These various pointer activities can provide another way to evaluate the user’s feedback with respect to a particular informational item.
While the patent was only recently approved, it has been 5 years in the making so there’s no guarantee on the extent that Google are currently using this technology.
Heat-map and eye tracking providers have used similar systems for many years to monitor users, so I do believe it would provide search engines some useful data.
What do you think about the patent, do you use the mouse pointer as a tracker as you read over a page? Let us know in the comments below.