Search Engine Generations

This page will be about the search engines' sequence of phases and their meaning.
Facts that play a important role are keywords, metatags and more...

Robin Nobles continues here with the future of search engines and the optimization involved.

1st, 2nd, and 3rd Generation Engines
By understanding the path we've taken to get where we are in this crazy search engine business, it might give us some insight into where we're going.
You may have heard of 1st, 2nd, and 3rd generation engines, but what exactly does that mean? Michael Campbell explains,

In the beginning, search results were very basic and largely depended on what was on the Web page. Important factors included keyword density, title, and where in the document keywords appeared.
First generation added relevancy for META tags, keywords in the domain name, and a few bonus points for having keywords in the URL. Basic spam filters emerged that got rid of keyword stuffing and same color text. The portals also made their appearance, and engines started looking like giant billboards and overstuffed yellow pages.

All of this is quite familiar, isn't it? Almost too familiar.
But, do META tags hold as much importance as they once did? No. Does using keywords in various tags help as much? Generally not.
Instead, the engines took it a step further in their quest for relevant results by bringing in 2nd generation engines.
Campbell explains,

Second generation, which is in full swing with the themes thing, added much in the way of off page criteria and link analysis. A few of the major components they employ are tracking clicks, page reputation, link popularity, temporal tracking, and link quality. Then they started adding in term vectors, stats analysis, cache data, and context where two-word keyword pairs were extracted from a page to better categorize it.

We'll cover "term vectors" and other information mentioned in the above paragraph later in this article. For now, let's continue with 2nd generation engines.
We all know how important a good solid link popularity is these days. Does any old link count? Certainly not. The days of huge link exchange programs with no thought for "related" links are over.
Plus, with Google's PageRank system and DirectHit's method of tracking clicks and the length of visits, we're seeing more evidence of a 2nd generation engine.

But what is a 3rd generation engine? It's almost mind boggling to consider.
Campbell explains,

Third generation is already underway. It adds word stemming and a thesaurus on top of the term vector database to assist in keeping a search in context. Auto extraction of keyword pairs also helps automatically categorize a page, where searches like `shop for' or `find' trigger totally different search results based on the context or intent of the person doing the searching.

G3 adds Web maps which, although not searchable, are a useful filtering tool to get rid of duplicate sites and many stand alone pages that drive traffic to only a few destinations. This means pages like doorways, gateways, entry, splash, or whatever you want to call them, will soon get filtered out.

They will also be extracting as much data as possible about your individual searching habits. All the major engines plan on building personal profiles, little robots that `come to know you' over a period of time, based on past searching habits.

Okay, so we have a good idea of where the search engines are headed, but how can we keep up? The 2nd and 3rd generation engines are theme-based, but what does that mean, and how does it translate to what we need to do with our own sites?
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