Google Showing weather.com's ODP description (ignoring NO ODP tag)

[DFul4d]

For some reason, Google rolled back to showing the ODP description for weather.com, instead of weather.com's meta description. This is especially strange considering weather.com has <meta name="ROBOTS" CONTENT="NOODP"> in the meta tags. Anyone have an idea what is happening here?

[AussieWebmaster]

Matt has tested the tag

but your example is interesting

[AussieWebmaster]

also odp is used when keyword in title is searched for generally

[JohnW]

Not sure what they are using, it's certainly not the description tag but it isn't the ODP description either.

http://search.dmoz.org/cgi-bin/searc...eather+channel

http://www.google.com/search?q=weath...en-US:official

[beu]

I don't know folks, looks like Google is using the DMOZ description or at least at first glance:


National and Local Weather Forecast, Radar, Map and Report
Offers forecasts for cities worldwide as well as radar and satellite maps. Also includes news stories and allergy information.
www.weather.com/ - 97k - Cached - Similar pages

+ http://209.85.207.104/search?q=weath...en-US:official



# Weather.com - Offers forecasts for cities worldwide as well as radar and satellite maps. Also includes news stories and allergy information.

+ http://www.dmoz.org/News/Weather/


That said, there are a number of other sites that seem to also be using the DMOZ description.

+ http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&c...&b tnG=Search

As a result of all these other sites using the DMOZ description, it could seem as though the source for this description is DMOZ when in actuality it isn't. Just my two cents!

[JohnW]

Interesting. This is what I see at dmoz:

The Weather Channel - Forecasts worldwide, doppler radar and satellite maps, weather news, and flight and events information.
-- http://www.weather.com/ Arts: Television: Networks: Cable (1)

From here:http://search.dmoz.org/cgi-bin/searc...eather+channel

This is what I see at google:

National and Local Weather Forecast, Radar, Map and Report
Offers forecasts for cities worldwide as well as radar and satellite maps. Also includes news stories and allergy information.
www.weather.com/ - 98k - Cached - Similar pages

Not the same. Of course, depending on how you bring up te Google result (i.e., which keyword is used) the description may vary. I used kw= weather to get the above.

Edit: Further review- dmoz has a few diferent descriptions also, depending on where you find the listing. Odd. Could a dmoz editor have changed a description to match the meta description or is google goofing up here?

[DFul4d]

Google is using the ODP description found in the News: Weather Category

http://www.dmoz.org/News/Weather/

The strange thing is that the switch happened around 3:00 pm EST yesterday. One query of weather showed weather.com meta description, then another query a few minutes later showed the ODP description.

[DFul4d]

Originally Posted by beu

As a result of all these other sites using the DMOZ description, it could seem as though the source for this description is DMOZ when in actuality it isn't. Just my two cents!

Interesting theory, but where else would Google pull the meta description from? It is not a page snippet.