Google, Yahoo! and Microsoft say they will collaborate on a new web standard allowing the deletion of duplicate pages across the internet. The move will allow the normally bitter rivals, and other search engines, to find and index more pages, making their searches more comprehensive.
Many websites have multiple URLs pointing to the same page, leading to repeated listings of one page in search results.
Google’s engineers have apparently come up with a ?canonical tag? which allows website publishers to tag the primary URL for a page with multiple addresses. PageRank and similar statistics will be transferred to the primary page.
Web users shall notice little change due to the innovation, bar a few fewer duplications in searches and shorter URLs. However, the most impressive facet of the deal is the collaboration itself.
?It is an important step because all the search engines are coming out with it,? says Priyank Garg, director of product management for web search at Yahoo!.
Many are hoping for further collaboration between the market leaders.
StrategyEye's related categories: Search - Web Search
