Custom 404 Error Pages With Google

It happens to the best of us - 404 errors. Whether it's because of a mistyped URL, broken or truncated link within an email or because of content that has been moved, end-users often see these error pages - but there are ways to help visitors get the most from this experience.

Google has added a section called "Enhance 404 pages" to its Webmaster Tools service. The embeddable widget can be included in a custom 404 page to help visitors find what they are looking for by providing suggestions based on the incorrect URL. For example, say a user visits a link which for whatever reason gets cut off and a 404 page appears.

Google will not only attempt to correct the URL but suggest a link to the parent subdirectory, a sitemap webpage and provide a site search query suggestion and search box. If you're interested, simply sign into Webmaster Tools and generate a JavaScript snippet which can be copy and pasted into your existing 404 page code.

Google Launches Street Map View in Australia

Google Maps adds a new outlook on the Australian urban landscape: Street View lets you follow the map down the streets of Australia’s big cities Sydney, Perth, Brisbane and Melbourne. Go to Google Maps and hit the "Street View" button to check it out.

How Does A Search Engine Work?

Many search engines are made up of three major components:

1. a crawler
2. an index
3. a search interface

Let's look at each part individually to get a better understanding of them. Each part has its own role to play in the process, with all parts working together to make searches possible.

1. The Crawler:

Also known as a "spider" or "bot", this part of the search engine wanders the web, following links and picking up information for its database. Crawlers do most of their work at times of the day when search engines are less busy, but they typically visit frequently updated pages more often. This is something to keep in mind when you are working on your pages.

2. The index.

Once the crawler has collected all that text, it is then stored and indexed. This allows people searching for key words and phrases to get results relating to what they were searching for - their search results. Most sites will incorporate rating systems such as Google Page Rank or Alexa Rankings in positioning your site. These ratings are used attempt to ensure that sites that are important receive more traffic than unimportant sites.

To see this in action, go to a search engine and type in a word. You'll see some text on the page saying something like "results 1-10 of 1,234,000". This means that the search engine's index contains 1,234,000 pages it believes are related to the word you typed. If you wanted to, you could look through all these pages to find the information you're looking for.

3. The Interface.

Search engines provide a public interface for users who want to find information on the web. They can type the word or phrase they're searching for, and the interface will run an algorithm to find the pages relevant to their search and display them.

These algorithms are an important part of the SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) business. You'll notice when the algorithms change, the rankings of your website will change with them. No two search engines have the same algorithms. They all work differently, with their unique features, and they will all respond to your website in their own way.

The most popular search engines today include Google, Yahoo and MSN.