Dave Winer is actually complaining that Google’s ranking system is “quirky” because it doesn’t return his site as the top ranking if you search on “weblog.”
But I’m irked that Scripting News isn’t on the top page when you search for weblog. I think it clearly belongs there. Bottom-line, I think Google’s algorithm is quirky, or the implementation is buggy, or both. When it first came out it was a miracle. Now I expect more. It’s good if they’re fixing bugs.
Of course few other people judge a search engine’s effectiveness by how it meets Dave’s standards (thank goodness).
I don’t understand why people obssess about Google rankings. For example, a search on “Brian” used to turn up my site in the top 10 list. Now I’m back at #40 or so.
Think about it — a Google search on “weblog” returns 1.87 million results. Google’s never going to have a ranking algorithm that pleases every egocentric developer who thinks his website belongs in the top 10.