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Monday, February 17, 2003 10:49 PM >>>


Weighting Links

Sunday,  02/16/03  09:21 AM

TO: suggestions@google.com; contact@pyra.com
FROM: ole@pacbell.net
SUBJECT: <A HREF= WEIGHT=>

Google:

Now that you’ve bought Pyra, you’re in a perfect position to make a slight but powerful enhancement to the HTML spec.  You should support <A HREF= WEIGHT=>.  The [optional] weight= attribute of links is ignored by browsers, but is used by search engine spiders like yours to determine the relevance of a link.  Positive weights from 1-9 mean “This content is related to this link”, with the value connoting the degree of relevance (1 means “this content is very slightly related to this link”, 9 means “this content is completely related to this link”).  Zero values mean “This link doesn’t have anything to do with this content”.  A value of -1 means “This content relates to the opposite of this link”.  The default would be +5.

Examples:

Check out <A HREF=http://www.google.com>Google</A>, a great search engine.  (Default=+5)
I just read that <A HREF=http://www.google.com WEIGHT=9>Google</A> bought Pyra.
The word <A HREF=http://www.google.com WEIGHT=2>Google</A> means a really big number.
Turns out <A HREF=http://www.google.com WEIGHT=0>Google</A> is not a pipe.
Remember that <A HREF=http://w-uh.com WEIGHT=0>Critical Section</A> is not Google.
I think <A HREF=http://w-uh.com WEIGHT=-1>Google</A> isn’t a dictionary.

This idea can be extended to images not in a link (images in a link use the weight of the link).  Examples:

A great search engine: <IMG SRC=http://www.google.com/images/logo.gif>  (Default=+5)
The Google logo is: <IMG SRC=http://www.google.com/images/logo.gif WEIGHT=9>
This logo changes on holidays: <IMG SRC=http://www.google.com/images/logo.gif WEIGHT=2>
This is not a pipe: <IMG SRC=http://www.google.com/images/logo.gif WEIGHT=0>
Not the Google logo: <IMG SRC= http://w-uh.com/images/critical_section_logo.jpg WEIGHT=0>
This logo is not gaudy: <IMG SRC=http://www.google.com/images/logo.gif WEIGHT=0>

You could support this unilaterally, and with your support the meme takes off.  Pyra could make it available in their ‘blogging tools, reinforcing the meme. 

Perhaps other blogosphere leaders like Userland would pick this up, too.  What do you think?

Ole

====================================
Ole Eichhorn
CTO, Aperio Technologies - www.aperio.com
(650) 814-9620 cell

W=UH