Google’s search algorithm may seem like a cold, heartless mathematical machine at times, frustrating news sites with its mad science of page rankings. The current king of search relies on factors that sites can influence to a certain degree, however, such as inbound and outbound link counts. Additionally, news sites can now utilize a “standout” tag to try and grab better placement in Google News’ front page selection process. The new HTML tag, which Google announced at the Online News Association conference in Boston last month, can be used by a site for its own stories or when linking out to another site. The tag looks like this: <link rel=”standout” href=“http://www.example.com/scoop_article_2.html” /> Google discourages sites from using it more than seven times per week on its own content, and warns that anyone using … Read entire article »