Search Engine Optimization Blog – SEM News & Opinion

Over at Googleblog they are talking about how people are created web mashups for the blind. One of the most interesting ones they mention is a website that offers a way to access Google Calendar from a phone or using skype. I’m going to try that out.

Google now has an index that is for the blind. At first I thought it was just a cleaned up version of Google but after I read the FAQ I found out it is more than that.

Regular Google search helps you find a set of documents that is most relevant to your tasks. Accessible Search goes one step further by helping you find the most accessible pages in that result set.

After doing some searching on it I found that it is a very different index. It matches a normal Google search in the since that there are some of the same sites on the first page of results but they are in a different order. Sites that are mostly text seem to rise higher. Very text heavy sites like wikipedia seem to rank higher. The algo seems to integrate accessibility into its algo for this service. I thought maybe it was more like a filter but it seems to be a lot more than that.

One thing I did see that confused me at first was a lot of flash sites ranking high for some terms. When I did a view source on these sites I noticed one had a noframes tag with lots of good text. I went to another one and it did not. It did have a good title and description. It looks like this algo still uses good titles and anchor text to help a site rank. This seems to show me Google will penalize you for adding things to your site that are not accessible but will not penalize you for having nothing.

Oh yeah and a word to Google Visually Challenged is offensive to blind people. We are blind not challanged.

I was doing my normal round at digg this morning and saw that there is a new mobile text messenger for the Blind. This is really cool.

Funny thing is the site that was talking about this is not very blind friendly. If you click on the link that says, “View all images for this article“. The page you go to has several images. Each has alt text that says, “click here to see a larger version of this image in a new window”. This does not help anyone. It already says “Click image to enlarge” below the image. It should describe what is in the image.

Yesterday I spoke with Greg Niland aka GoodROI on the Webmaster Radio show GoodKarma. We spoke about the different aspects of disabled people using the Internet. I promised I would write down what we talked about with some of the lnks I mentioned. First I want to mention I am not a WAI (Web Accessibility Initiative) expert. Everything that I talk about is from experience as a Blind user and a as a person who has trained Blind users how to use their computers. Read more…

Today July 13, 2006 4:00 PM EST I will be on the
GoodKarma show at www.webmasterradio.fm with Greg Niland aka GoodROI. We will be talking about Web Accessibility for the blind.

I am legally blind and have been working in the IT world since 1996. I am certified by the State of Texas to teach blind people how to use their computers using adaptive technology. I no longer actively go out and train but I do keep up with the world of adaptive technology. I have been to several adaptive technology conferences. I now work at home as an affiliate marketer.