Let’s suppose I’ve booked a flight on American Airlines. I want to know how many bags I can check. I know the answer can be found at the American Airlines website, but I don’t want to navigate through their site. So I go to google.com and type:
how many bags can be checked on American
The American Airlines website pops up first and I find my answer.
Right?
Not So Fast
Actually, the American Airlines website doesn’t show up until hit #91. It doesn’t even show up on the first page unless I’m set up for 100 hits per page. And then it shows up at the bottom.
That means there are 90 sites discussing how many bags can be checked on American that are presumably more important than the American Airlines website.
Including such internet heavyweights as Cranky Flier, the Luggage Security Coalition, Air Gorilla, a page about the O.J. Simpson trial, a site about hiking the Inca Trail, a guy posting a comment on a bulletin board about sunglasses being stolen from his checked luggage on a flight from the Dominican Republic, and a site explaining why it’s a good idea to write the date on plastic bags before you put food in the fridge.
Which site supplanted American Airlines in the #1 spot? Click here to find out.
Post Script
If I’m not in the #1 spot, I was when I wrote this.
Even though i have to crawl through too many sites to find the exact information that i’m looking for….i use google too often and i enjoy that too.
I’m a little late to the party, but I thought I’d add my two cents…
Anybody that spends sufficient time on the internet to use Google more than occasionaly, should familiarize themselves with Advanced Google Search Operators. Most people in the world use the sledge hammer of Google to tap in nails. My favorite is the “site:” operator, which allows you to search a site when that site’s search function is useless. For example, search for “checked bags allowed site:aa.com”. Voila.
Okay, not the point of the post, I know, but something everyone should know.
Jared: I use the site operator all the time. Definitely the most useful operator on google (that I know of).
What I’d really like is a proximity operator. When I search on multiple words (without quotes) I get worthless hits where the words are in completely different sections of the page.
If I could specify “bags” within 10 words of “checked” within 10 words of “american” I’d be more likely to get American Airlines and less likely to get a page about writing the date on plastic baggies before putting food in the fridge.
Are you listening Big Brother, I mean Google? Isn’t it about time for a proximity operator?!
If you had typed in
how many bags can be checked on American Airlines
you would have gotten better results. American means many things but American Airlines means an airline!
but your site was number one when I typed in my question.
and–
this site came up and it’s for ALL airlines!
http://www.cheapair.com/How_many_bags_can_I_check_and_what_items_are_forbidden_by_security-help45.htm
Donna at #4:
I just tried adding “airlines” to the end of the search query. You’re right, google does better. The aa.com site comes up #17 instead of #91. Still much worse than #1 though!
And even worse, I drop from #1 to #2!
Donna at #5:
The airlines don’t do a good job of making their own pages navigable or search-friendly. The cheapair site is a good find for someone that flies often on different airlines. It’s one-stop shopping.
Thanks for your comments!