Many have noted that pages from the HB are often among the top 5 listed in a Google query. It is not immediately evident to me why this should be so. This is more than a point of curiousity, since the ability to appear at the top of a Google search is very valuable for vendors and others who want traffic.
I propose that the HB could be used to understand the Google search engine. To start, one would set out variables which make a HB page attractive: examples might be white background, few pictures, uniform font. Over the following year these variables would systematically differ in a random manner for new postings. For example, I might post an idea and find that it has a crimson background. Another idea might turn up with multiple images of various things attached, and another might have varying font size. Others would have the standard HB layout.
After a year, one would see how the titles of ideas ranked in Google. One would expect that with enough numbers, title variability would cancel out as a variable and one could see how other aspects of the page layout affected rank.
A faster way to do this would be retrospectively, to see if altering the layout of a page affected its rank in a subsequent google search. The algorithm could sweep through the entire HB every 3 month, with google results determined immediately prior.-- bungston, Jun 30 2006 For the image heavy pages, a random word from the text could be put into google image, and selection #1 used to decorate the page. I input "might" into google image and the first hit was very interesting.-- bungston, Jun 30 2006 have you considered it may only be the things you search for that bring HB up? I keep coming up with pretty brunettes.-- theircompetitor, Jun 30 2006 Lots of people claim to know how to game google - and try to make a living of it. ("Search engine optimization experts".) I really appreciate not having to give a damn about that.-- jutta, Jul 01 2006 [Bungston], you are bad.-- zeno, Jul 01 2006 have you seen the poetry made up of the words that turns up most frequently in click-ads? it's pretty funny stuff.-- tcarson, Jul 01 2006 random, halfbakery