Re: How to add your avatar to Google search results involving CPAN modules
I updated the original post http://szabgab.com/claiming-your-cpan-authorship-at-google.html with some screenshots on how to add the Google+ profile to the MetaCPAN account. Just in case the earlier explanation was confusing. Gabor
Re: How to add your avatar to Google search results involving CPAN modules
Gabor Szabo ga...@szabgab.com writes: I am sure you saw that some search results on Google have little avatars next to them showing the face of the author. It is done by a little configuration both on the web site of the search result and on Google+. Yet another attempt to seduce people into Google+. Well, not for me as long as I can avoid it... -- Johan
Re: How to add your avatar to Google search results involving CPAN modules
On Fri, Nov 22, 2013 at 03:13:27AM +0100, Philippe Bruhat (BooK) wrote: Well, I found the results of the Search distribution form not very good (I think because it only searches in the documentation?) but maybe that's because I'm used to s.c.o's grep utility (which lacks some useful linking back to the file where it found the string). You do know about grep.cpan.me, right? :)
Re: How to add your avatar to Google search results involving CPAN modules
On Fri, Nov 22, 2013 at 11:16:23AM -0800, Karen Etheridge wrote: On Fri, Nov 22, 2013 at 03:13:27AM +0100, Philippe Bruhat (BooK) wrote: Well, I found the results of the Search distribution form not very good (I think because it only searches in the documentation?) but maybe that's because I'm used to s.c.o's grep utility (which lacks some useful linking back to the file where it found the string). You do know about grep.cpan.me, right? :) Cool! I, for one, didn't know about it :)
Re: How to add your avatar to Google search results involving CPAN modules
On Wed, Nov 20, 2013 at 12:29:37PM +0200, Gabor Szabo wrote: I tried to collect my thoughts and your comments on getting more people to use MetaCPAN instead of search.cpan.org. It is not going to be easy and thus it got a bit long: http://szabgab.com/moving-from-sco-to-metacpan.html I'd be glad to read your opinion on this! The most important issue to address is why should we prefer metacpan to search.cpan. You don't cover this at all. -- David Cantrell | Cake Smuggler Extraordinaire Irregular English: ladies glow; gentlemen perspire; brutes, oafs and athletes sweat
Re: How to add your avatar to Google search results involving CPAN modules
On Thu, Nov 21, 2013 at 12:33:26PM -0900, Arthur Corliss wrote: I'm in the same boat. I have yet to hear of any reason compelling enough to make me break old habits... s.c.o can display broken or outdated data. I've seen cases where its idea of an indexed dist is quite different than PAUSE. It takes a while to get used to the new layout, but once you do, you'll never go back. The quality and depth of information available does not compare.
Re: How to add your avatar to Google search results involving CPAN modules
On 18/11/2013 09:25, Gabor Szabo wrote: In this article I explain how you can get your avatar to Google search results involving your CPAN contribution: http://szabgab.com/claiming-your-cpan-authorship-at-google.html Done. Maybe. No idea whether I've done it *correctly* or not though, as I find Google+ incomprehensible, and have no idea if I added the right link in the right place. -- David Cantrell | Minister for Arbitrary Justice Repent through spending
Re: How to add your avatar to Google search results involving CPAN modules
On Thu, 21 Nov 2013, David Cantrell wrote: Both! I mostly prefer search.cpan.org because I'm used to it :-) which, I admit, isn't a very good reason. I'm in the same boat. I have yet to hear of any reason compelling enough to make me break old habits... --Arthur Corliss Live Free or Die
Re: How to add your avatar to Google search results involving CPAN modules
On 21/11/2013 14:35, Gabor Szabo wrote: On 2013-11-21, at 9:06 AM, David Cantrell wrote: On Wed, Nov 20, 2013 at 12:29:37PM +0200, Gabor Szabo wrote: The most important issue to address is why should we prefer metacpan to search.cpan. You don't cover this at all. [reasons] David, from your post I am not sure if you prefer sco or just wanted to enhance this discussion, but if the former ... Both! I mostly prefer search.cpan.org because I'm used to it :-) which, I admit, isn't a very good reason. -- David Cantrell | A machine for turning tea into grumpiness What is the difference between hearing aliens through the fillings in your teeth and hearing Jesus in your heart?
Re: How to add your avatar to Google search results involving CPAN modules
On Thu, Nov 21, 2013 at 02:24:52PM -0800, Karen Etheridge wrote: On Thu, Nov 21, 2013 at 12:33:26PM -0900, Arthur Corliss wrote: I'm in the same boat. I have yet to hear of any reason compelling enough to make me break old habits... s.c.o can display broken or outdated data. I've seen cases where its idea of an indexed dist is quite different than PAUSE. It takes a while to get used to the new layout, but once you do, you'll never go back. The quality and depth of information available does not compare. Well, I found the results of the Search distribution form not very good (I think because it only searches in the documentation?) but maybe that's because I'm used to s.c.o's grep utility (which lacks some useful linking back to the file where it found the string). -- Philippe Bruhat (BooK) For every winner, there must be one or more losers. (Moral to the Sage story in Groo #111 (Epic))
Re: How to add your avatar to Google search results involving CPAN modules
On 2013-11-21, at 9:06 AM, David Cantrell wrote: On Wed, Nov 20, 2013 at 12:29:37PM +0200, Gabor Szabo wrote: The most important issue to address is why should we prefer metacpan to search.cpan. You don't cover this at all. I did not cover that as I was not trying to convince anyone that MetaCPAN is better for them than sco. I wanted to get those, who already prefer MetaCPAN, to have a list of things they can do if they would like to see more people reach MetaCPAN. The whole thing was triggered by the question Todd posted in reply to my earlier mail. But, as you are not the first one who raised this question I've started to collect some advantages of MetaCPAN, and I'll try to also collect the places where it is inferior to sco. I'll put them together as a blog post and if time permits (and it probably won't) I'll check if the latter items each have an open ticket on the MetaCPAN bug tracker. In addition to what Olaf already wrote here are a few advantages I found: For the casual user: * More modern look, I know there are people who prefer the good old IBM blue, but to many people the look of MetaCPAN is more pleasant * TOC can be eliminated (see Toggle Table of Contents) * Listing dependencies of the module - what else do I have to install? * Reverse dependencies - which modules use this module? * Shows the latest changes on the release page of each distribution with automatic links to RT tickets. For the more in-depth user: * MetaCPAN is Open Source * It is Actively maintained * It Provides an API that can David, from your post I am not sure if you prefer sco or just wanted to enhance this discussion, but if the former, would you share what do you prefer in sco? Gabor
Re: How to add your avatar to Google search results involving CPAN modules
On 2013-11-21, at 9:06 AM, David Cantrell wrote: On Wed, Nov 20, 2013 at 12:29:37PM +0200, Gabor Szabo wrote: I tried to collect my thoughts and your comments on getting more people to use MetaCPAN instead of search.cpan.org. It is not going to be easy and thus it got a bit long: http://szabgab.com/moving-from-sco-to-metacpan.html I'd be glad to read your opinion on this! The most important issue to address is why should we prefer metacpan to search.cpan. You don't cover this at all. I'm not here to tell anyone which site to prefer, but a few things that MetaCPAN has to offer: 1) Author profile pages * This can make it much easier to track down an author who is MIA. If you've added your G+, Twitter, etc to your profile, we now have multiple ways of trying to contact you about the patch you never applied. 2) ++ * This gives you a simple bookmarking system to track modules you approve of * This gives other people an idea of what is generally found useful among CPAN authors 3) Linking to line numbers in source code. * Being able to refer to an exact line of source is quite valuable: https://metacpan.org/source/MIYAGAWA/Plack-1.0029/lib/Plack/App/File.pm#L70 4) Easy links to repositories * When you want to patch something, just look to the left and you'll find the repo link, provided the author has added it to the META.* files 5) [Insert feature here] * It's easy to patch MetaCPAN. Many fixes and/or features get deployed on the same day they're submitted. MetaCPAN isn't perfect and some people just prefer search.cpan.org. It's good to have choices. What Gabor is addressing, though, is that since MetaCPAN doesn't do well with Google, people are often just presented with *one* option (search.cpan.org) when searching for a module. That's what we'd like to fix. Olaf -- Olaf Alders o...@wundersolutions.com http://www.wundersolutions.com http://twitter.com/wundercounter
Re: How to add your avatar to Google search results involving CPAN modules
I tried to collect my thoughts and your comments on getting more people to use MetaCPAN instead of search.cpan.org. It is not going to be easy and thus it got a bit long: http://szabgab.com/moving-from-sco-to-metacpan.html I'd be glad to read your opinion on this! regards Gabor
Re: MetaCpan SEO (Was: How to add your avatar to Google search results involving CPAN modules)
Gabor Szabo writes: I tried to collect my thoughts and your comments on getting more people to use MetaCPAN instead of search.cpan.org. It is not going to be easy and thus it got a bit long: http://szabgab.com/moving-from-sco-to-metacpan.html Thanks for writing that. I'd be glad to read your opinion on this! I think part of the problem is that Google's algorithms need to change — not just for MetaCpan, but for various content. The situation is basically this: • A site has existed for many years, over which time many people have linked to it, including putting links in automated systems and directories. • A rival site appears, and many people start linking to it in places where previously they would've otherwise linked to the old site. Some of this will be changing links from the old site to the new one, but much of it will be simply when creating new links. • Because of the history, the old site still has many, many more links to it than the new one does. And automated systems linking to it mean that new links are being generated to it. That should be something Google's algorithms can detect, and use to favour the new site over the old one. It can spot the introduction of the new site and realize that it has similar content to the old one. If it spotted links being changed from the old one to the new one (but not t'other way round, or at least in far greater numbers in one direction) that should be a sign that people overall deem the new one to be superior. Spotting that new links are going to the new site instead of the old one is harder, but not impossible to detect. Until now this I'm guessing this hasn't been a big problem for Google, because ‘website has been popular for a decade then a better rival comes along’ requires at least a decade to elapse. But as time goes on, Google is going to have to do something like the above detection to avoid becoming an archive of websites that used to be useful. Of course that doesn't mean that Google will fix this in a timely manner for MetaCpan. So an alternative course of action would be: • Get a job at Google (they seem to always be recruiting). • Join the search algorithm team. • Enhance the algorithm to address the above. Any takers? Smylers -- The UK gov's proposed gagging law will suppress protest and campaigning by charities and political groups. Read more: http://civilsocietycommission.info/ Please sign this petition: http://38d.gs/1cJ9ViA Oxfam • BHA • Quakers * Countryside Alliance • League Against Cruel Sports • CND
How to add your avatar to Google search results involving CPAN modules
Hi, I am sure you saw that some search results on Google have little avatars next to them showing the face of the author. It is done by a little configuration both on the web site of the search result and on Google+. In this article I explain how you can get your avatar to Google search results involving your CPAN contribution: http://szabgab.com/claiming-your-cpan-authorship-at-google.html I hope many CPAN authors will implement this (if you already have a G+ account it takes less than reading this e-mail) as I believe this can drive more people searching on Google to better results on MetaCPAN. Gabor
Re: How to add your avatar to Google search results involving CPAN modules
Gabor Szabo writes: In this article I explain how you can get your avatar to Google search results involving your CPAN contribution: http://szabgab.com/claiming-your-cpan-authorship-at-google.html I hope many CPAN authors will implement this (if you already have a G+ account it takes less than reading this e-mail) as I believe this can drive more people searching on Google to better results on MetaCPAN. So Google are now giving enhanced appearance in search results listings to people who are prepared to sign up to a Google+ account? That doesn't sound very different from Google giving prominence in search results to people who pay them for that privilege. (Not criticizing your article at all, Gabor — given that Google are doing this, it makes sense for Cpan authors who are on Google+ to link their accounts as you describe.) Smylers -- The UK gov's proposed gagging law will suppress protest and campaigning by charities and political groups. Read more: http://civilsocietycommission.info/ Please sign this petition: http://38d.gs/1cJ9ViA Oxfam • BHA • Quakers * Countryside Alliance • League Against Cruel Sports • CND
Re: How to add your avatar to Google search results involving CPAN modules
On Mon, Nov 18, 2013 at 11:48 AM, Smylers smyl...@stripey.com wrote: Gabor Szabo writes: In this article I explain how you can get your avatar to Google search results involving your CPAN contribution: http://szabgab.com/claiming-your-cpan-authorship-at-google.html I hope many CPAN authors will implement this (if you already have a G+ account it takes less than reading this e-mail) as I believe this can drive more people searching on Google to better results on MetaCPAN. So Google are now giving enhanced appearance in search results listings to people who are prepared to sign up to a Google+ account? That doesn't sound very different from Google giving prominence in search results to people who pay them for that privilege. (Not criticizing your article at all, Gabor — given that Google are doing this, it makes sense for Cpan authors who are on Google+ to link their accounts as you describe.) Well, it is not new for Google, I think this feature was added to G+ quite early. Anyway, to be clear, I don't ask anyone to sign up for G+ for this, but if you have already sold your soul to the Don't be evil, then it is nice to get something in return :) regards Gabor
Re: How to add your avatar to Google search results involving CPAN modules
On Nov 18, 2013, at 4:40 AM, Gabor Szabo ga...@szabgab.com wrote: On Mon, Nov 18, 2013 at 11:48 AM, Smylers smyl...@stripey.com wrote: Gabor Szabo writes: In this article I explain how you can get your avatar to Google search results involving your CPAN contribution: http://szabgab.com/claiming-your-cpan-authorship-at-google.html I hope many CPAN authors will implement this (if you already have a G+ account it takes less than reading this e-mail) as I believe this can drive more people searching on Google to better results on MetaCPAN. So Google are now giving enhanced appearance in search results listings to people who are prepared to sign up to a Google+ account? That doesn't sound very different from Google giving prominence in search results to people who pay them for that privilege. (Not criticizing your article at all, Gabor — given that Google are doing this, it makes sense for Cpan authors who are on Google+ to link their accounts as you describe.) Well, it is not new for Google, I think this feature was added to G+ quite early. Anyway, to be clear, I don't ask anyone to sign up for G+ for this, but if you have already sold your soul to the Don't be evil, then it is nice to get something in return :) I commented in the article, but I’ll bring it up here too: I want to know how we can get google to start showing metacpan results instead of search.cpan.org results. Right now if I search for Module::Build, my first page hit is: http://search.cpan.org/perldoc?Module%3A%3ABuild even duckduckgo does this. Todd
Re: How to add your avatar to Google search results involving CPAN modules
On 2013-11-18, at 7:27 AM, Todd Rinaldo wrote: I commented in the article, but I’ll bring it up here too: I want to know how we can get google to start showing metacpan results instead of search.cpan.org results. Right now if I search for Module::Build, my first page hit is: http://search.cpan.org/perldoc?Module%3A%3ABuild even duckduckgo does this. Todd I don't have a real answer here, but one problem may be the huge amount of inbound links search.cpan.org has vs metacpan.org Having been around so much longer, it's natural that search.cpan.org is the clear winner in this department. To a degree, MetaCPAN perpetuates the problem by publishing module Pod which, in many cases, links back to search.cpan.org as well. I know a lot of people are already doing this, but when linking to a module in a blog post, on StackOverflow or when linking directly to a CPAN search site in your Pod, it would be helpful if the link pointed at MetaCPAN. Also, you can can add links to your MetaCPAN author page on other sites where appropriate. That's likely not the only issue that's hurting MetaCPAN in the SEO department, but it's one that can be improved over time. Olaf -- Olaf Alders o...@wundersolutions.com http://www.wundersolutions.com http://twitter.com/wundercounter
Re: How to add your avatar to Google search results involving CPAN modules
On Mon, Nov 18, 2013 at 12:51:18PM -0500, Olaf Alders wrote: I don't have a real answer here, but one problem may be the huge amount of inbound links search.cpan.org has vs metacpan.org Having been around so much longer, it's natural that search.cpan.org is the clear winner in this department. To a degree, MetaCPAN perpetuates the problem by publishing module Pod which, in many cases, links back to search.cpan.org as well. I have this old and rejected PR against Pod::Simple to switch links to metacpan.org -- https://github.com/theory/pod-simple/pull/36 If anyone is up for writing a subclass as theory suggests, that would be helpful for the - metacpan shift. It should also be able to support other Pod:: modules that are built on top of Pod::Simple (like Pod::Markdown) so other documentation formats can also use metacpan links. (I was surprised to see that the README.md documents I generate in all my github repositories contain s.c.o links!) Also, I noticed that links on the cpantesters.org site also use s.c.o, so that's another code path to update... and then, there's 391 pages of results for http://grep.cpan.me/?q=search.cpan.org -- many of these are META.* files that are generated from some code somewhere (so one patch should fix all of these, over time), but a lot were inserted manually. This would make for a great questhub.io task for the OCD-minded (I'm looking at you pathological typo correctors). ;) -ether
