Google Improves Search Results Overnight

Major changes affecting SEO have taken place OVERNIGHT in Google's ever changing, ever improving algorithm. Straight from Google:

We are constantly looking for ways to get you to the web page you want as quickly as possible. Even if you don't notice all of our changes, rest assured we're hard at work making sure you have the highest quality search experience possible.

Semantic Technology vs Information Technology

Semantic Technology, forecasted to be the future of search, is built on contextual relationship and meaning. Traditionally computers were limited to very mathematical relationships. Context and meaning were relegated to only human activity, something computers were not equipped or built to provide. Evolving semantic technology redefines the type of intelligence which can be utilized. Computer programs have evolved from one on one preprogrammed predefined relationships to functions based on intuitive concepts and abstract relationships.

This is a profound change for SEO. Semantics is the study of meaning. Semantic Technology enables the computer to make cognitive jumps between related words based on context. Semantic based search will draw in words based on context not just content.

Straight from The Official Google Blog

Starting today, we're deploying a new technology that can better understand associations and concepts related to your search, and one of its first applications lets us offer you even more useful related searches (the terms found at the bottom, and sometimes at the top, of the search results page).

Longer Snipets for Searches of Three of More Words

When you search for a phrase in Google you will notice that the words you queried are bolded in the results. The small description found with each search result is referred to as the snipet. When you put a short search in the query box, a search of one to three words, there is plenty of opportunity to display those highlighted terms within a two line snipet.

For searches of more than three words a snipets will now be occasionally expanded to three lines to allow for the highlighting of more terms from the query.

• Remember that your average searcher on the internet has gained in sophistication and that longer multiple word searches have become standard practice.
• Snippets are what searchers use to choose which links from the search results will most likely solve their problem or answer their question. An extra line of snippet is more opportunity to provide quality information about your site.