Twiddlers
Google's internal term, surfaced in antitrust testimony and leaked documentation, for re-ranking functions applied on top of a core…
Algorithms
Navboost
A Google ranking component, described in United States antitrust testimony, that uses aggregated historical click and query data to adjust rankings.
In full
Navboost became public through evidence and testimony in the US Department of Justice case against Google, where witnesses described it as a long-running system built on click logs over an extended window. It is not documented by Google in its public ranking systems guide, and Google has historically disputed simplistic claims that clicks are a direct ranking factor. Treat it as evidence that user interaction data informs ranking in some aggregated form, not as a mechanism to game with click bots.
Example
Practitioners cite Navboost when explaining why long-established pages with strong engagement histories resist ranking changes.
Related terms
Google Content Warehouse API leak
The May 2024 publication of thousands of internal Google Search API documentation attributes, which named ranking-related features not…
Click-through rate
Clicks divided by impressions, expressed as a percentage; in search it measures how compelling a result is at the position and in the SERP…
Google ranking systems
Google's documented list of the systems that generate rankings, distinguished from one-off 'updates' to those systems, and including…
Brand search
Searches containing a company or product name, which behave differently from non-brand queries and should always be reported separately.
Where to read more
- Secrets from the Google Algorithm Leak · Landmark Post · ipullrank.com