Recommendations are not “Similar Pages”

For people familiar with Google’s “similar pages” links, it is important to note that they are not at all related to Surf Canyon’s Recommendations.

The “similar pages” links on Google give users a sampling of websites that are linked to by the same websites linking to that particular result. Confusing? For example, if website A is one of the results and website B links to website A, then clicking on “similar pages” for website A will give you other websites that are linked to by website B. The theory is that if website B is linked to website A then other websites linked to by website B will be “similar” to website A. This is, of course, not necessarily the case and is, perhaps, rarely the case. The Search Engine Watch Forum has a good description of “similar pages”.

Surf Canyon’s Recommendations, on the other hand, are based on implict intent inferred from user behavior and, as a result, are considerably more valuable. Query Discovery™ technology provides the power that enables users to unlock mountains of search results in order to find relevant information buried deep within.