Description presented in SE results

[freehits]

Any insight on this would be appreciated. I am curios what other find is used in the description shown in results.
Google seems to show something different in the page description based on the search that found it, and it shows almost nothing in some cases.

So for each major player SE what is being used to generate the description shown in results? any insight on how to be sure to display just what I want a surfer to see would be helpful, for both Yahoo and Google. I havnt had any major roadblock, but to show just what I want in the description seen could make for a much better conversion.

[cbp]

5. The description of my site is wrong in the results.

Site descriptions in Google results are actually quoted from the web page in question. Google automatically generates different descriptions based on the search terms used to find the site (these "snippets" display the search term(s) in the context of the page on which they appear).

For example, if there is a pet site that deals with cats and dogs, and someone enters a search for the word 'dog,' the site description on Google will only talk about 'dogs.' If a person searches Google for 'cats' and the same site is delivered as a result, the description will be different – it will contain references to the word 'cat' as it appears on the website.

Google does not display a standard description. We look for the search terms specified (and in some cases, variations of those terms) and show snippets of where those terms appear. This is a completely automated process and editing is not an option. If you alter the relevant text on the page itself, Google will pick up those changes during our next crawl in a few weeks.

http://www.google.com/intl/en/webmasters/3.html

[freehits]

I thought I was the only geek here at 4am, and seeing how I expected you to be the one to serve up an answer this is pretty cool.

This is about what I expected from google, it seemed as the were taking the sections in close proximity to the keywords of the search made.

Any clue on what it uses for a break point...as in I could keep these break characters away from my keywords and thusly prompt a longer description to get used.

I just looking for what has personally helped to get longer descriptions in the results?

[cbp]

I thought I was the only geek here at 4am

I am in Australia - its 9.00PM here.. (watching CSI on the box)

CBP

[Duncan Pollock]

I'd be astounded if there was some way in which you could "arrange the right wording" in the snippets that appear when people reach your site because they've punched in a particular key word or phrase. You'd need to know all the intricacies of Google's algo and no one seems to have this knowledge. Indeed, I can't help wondering if it's possessed in its entirety by one single Google employee. Rather, if only for the sake of internal security, I suspect a number of people have some of the pieces but not one of them has them all.
In any case, the best way to increase the likelihood of people reading what you want them to read is to have a sufficiently varied and complete website content. Think of all the questions that searchers are likely to ask -- or all the aspects of your subject that they could be interested in -- and then write enough on your page(s) to cover it all. This is support for the argument that content does matter (even more than links?), but it's also a case of saying so much to so many people that your chances of being found are well above the norm. And that's what you want more than "saying what you think should be said", isn't it?

Duncan

[freehits]

I agree a good working knowledge would be needed to completely dictate what shows in the description to the letter, Bu ti would assume there is a coimplex method for choosing each snippet but in some simpler way each snippet would have common factors concerning length of snippet, breaking off at the next nearest comma after so many characters or something of the like.

With just this knowledge smart advertising would say to include the selling words near the keywords or within a certain distance in order to make sure these words get displayed in the description for the major searches.

Again, natural targeted phrasing would probally sove this before any research is needed, but the displayed description is so important for clickthrough I would be will to look at any examples some board legends could show me for what seems to get included in their descriptions from their pages, and any pattern it follows.

I tend to use A large comment near the top, not use commas in the META desc, and make sure my topmost picture has a long ALT tag. This was under an old school of thought that top of the page ends up in the descriptions.

I am ready for a more scientific methodology to be sure my top spot says what I want it to to ths surfing sheep.