Joel Bresler emailed me this morning and since his email is self-explanatory, I present it here (slightly modified):
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I have recently launched a web site dedicated to the American folk song, "Follow the Drinking Gourd." The site presents an interesting test case, for the following reasons: First, there has been virtually no new research on Follow the Drinking Gourd in twelve years. Second, this site represents the most comprehensive research published on the song. Third, some web pages that recently ranked highly on a "follow the drinking gourd" search just a few weeks ago were removed in February. I analyze search engine performance on several different parameters:
- How quickly did the engines find this site and how did its rank
change after launch? - How much of the site is covered (indexed)?
- How often was this site visited and its pages indexed?
- How quickly did the search engines drop other sites' pages once
they were removed?
I hope you and your readers are interested in the findings. One key point: Yahoo and MSN's performed well presenting fresh material. Both sites do a significantly better job than Google at showcasing new information and keeping site-wide content current. Google users should consider supplementing their results with those from Yahoo or MSN, too.
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