Google Preview - Check this out...

[yukon]

I was checking the Google preview for a forum I get traffic from (not the forum below), & noticed the new google preview will highlight & bold the on-page text (inside the preview image).

Kinda cool...

Do a Google search for the keyword (in qoutes) "Powered by vBulletin"

Then click the preview for the "www dot overclockers dot com" link on the first page of the SERPs (see image below).

[brandonbaker]

Yeah I noticed that one, too.

Google Preview is pretty cool, although "pretty cool" doesn't always mean "good idea." We'll see how it gets received.

I warmed up to Google Instant after a few weeks, but if you ask me, Google Preview isn't valuable enough for it to merit a permanent spot on Google's near-sacred search results pages. I just can't get much out of a shrunken image of a website...

[yukon]

The reason I find this really interesting is, I'm a member of a forum (not this forum) that I get a lot of traffic from.

The other forum I belong to won't let you have a live link in your Sig (like this forum will). So, I added a text only url to my forum Sig.

Google preview is picking up that forum Sig in the preview image, highlighting & bloding the Sig text for my sites text-only url.

All I did was search for the TLD name of my site.

[kaceykk]

Ya I just noticed Google Preview today. This might cost some websites their traffic if they keep it.

still don't know if it is good or bad though in the long run.

[yukon]

This very well could be a new backlink strategy.

On-page text only URLs pointing to your own site.

I'm testing a few sites, & can't get the preview to highlight or bold any text that is anchor-text. So far it looks like it's only working for plain text, without a link.

[orvn]

Originally Posted by yukon

The reason I find this really interesting is, I'm a member of a forum (not this forum) that I get a lot of traffic from.

The other forum I belong to won't let you have a live link in your Sig (like this forum will). So, I added a text only url to my forum Sig.

Google preview is picking up that forum Sig in the preview image, highlighting & bloding the Sig text for my sites text-only url.

All I did was search for the TLD name of my site.

no wayyyyyyy

[Fraggler]

Originally Posted by yukon

This very well could be a new backlink strategy.

Google has been doing this for quite some time and it has been brought up in the past - whether plain text URLs are counted as a 'backlink'. (PDF, DOC files etc often use URLs rather than hyperlinks).

I don't think there is any evidence either way.

You have to remember that a Google for a TLD is still just a search string. It should return most results that mention that search string.

[yukon]

Originally Posted by Fraggler

Google has been doing this for quite some time and it has been brought up in the past - whether plain text URLs are counted as a 'backlink'. (PDF, DOC files etc often use URLs rather than hyperlinks).

I don't think there is any evidence either way.

You have to remember that a Google for a TLD is still just a search string. It should return most results that mention that search string.

I realize that, I actually have a few high PR pages from a MS webpage for a Windows Live Writer plugin I wrote a couple of years ago.

However this is new (Google preview) & how it handles the "on-page text" + "search string" inside the preview.

[socialbookmark]

I checked it but its not useful at least for me. I prefer to click on the result instead of watching a small snapshot of it.

[Fraggler]

Originally Posted by yukon

However this is new (Google preview) & how it handles the "on-page text" + "search string" inside the preview.

Sorry, I was responding to how you said this might be a new backlink method.

It's no different to anything else they do with the search query. The final image is generated on the fly - from their cached page screenshot and dynamic overlay of the location and text extract.

The bolding extract is already done (and has been done for quite some time) and is simply overlayed on top of the image with reference to the location.

[yukon]

Originally Posted by Fraggler

Sorry, I was responding to how you said this might be a new backlink method.

It's no different to anything else they do with the search query. The final image is generated on the fly - from their cached page screenshot and dynamic overlay of the location and text extract.

The bolding extract is already done (and has been done for quite some time) and is simply overlayed on top of the image with reference to the location.

I don't think Google is getting that screenshot from the Google Cache.

The screenshots below are from this search here (first position in the SERPs).

It's hard to read the text in the box in the screenshots below, still you can count the little red icons in the left columns & see those pages are not from the same source (Google Cache).


The first image below is from the Google Preview.

The 2nd image is from the Google Cache.

Google Preview:

Google Cache: