How is infectious disease a computer virus?

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   Healthy Pursuitsposted 12 years ago

   I just looked at my polio hub, which has "infectious disease", "polio" and "world health" as tags. Related Hubs displayed include two that are related. One might be related, if you're a sick chicken. Another one is a recent history of Myanmar. The others are computer viruses. I think the related hubs is just so far off the mark. For those of you who have written using the new formats, are the related hubs any better?

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      janderson99posted 12 years agoin reply to this

      NO
      But the first two are your own provided your use 'groups'
      Supposedly HP are looking at better algos.
      But the layout update has withered and died. The last post about the new design was 13 days ago!! Last Staff post was 3 weeks ago
      http://hubpages.com/forum/topic/97175

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      IzzyMposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      I wouldn't worry too much. If you think about it, someone who wants more information on what you have written about is more likely to click on a related ad on your page if the 'related hubs' don't seem relevant.
      
      I'm sure I read somewhere that tags, being feeds, provide an excellent backlink for your article if your hub makes it on the top 10 of a related feed.
      
      If you write on a topic no-one else has covered, then you may find the feed empty. That is your opportunity to fill it with related articles, AND find yourself some nice backlinks.
      
      Tags/feeds on oversaturated topics are a waste of time unless your article is exceptional.
      
      If you think of tags as being backlinks, then you worry less about them and the related hubs shown, and just think a bit more about writing really great articles that deserve to be top of their feed.
      
      Well, that sounds good, doesn't it?
      
      Back to totally not bothering about tags or related/unrelated hubs! Getting traffic to your hubs is far more important, and if you get that, don't worry about the other hubs shown.

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      Marisa Wrightposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      The related Hubs are based on tags and titles.  Those authors have probably used the word "virus" in their tags, and I assume you've used the word in yours, and it's in your title.  Matching titles and tags = related.
      
      You could try removing the word 'virus' from your tags.  Having said that, when I looked at the Hub, all the related ones were health topics.

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   psycheskinnerposted 12 years ago

   Most likely the ads are based on your own browsing history.

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      Healthy Pursuitsposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      I'm not discussing ads, but tags.

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         mega1posted 12 years agoin reply to this

         You can select the tags you want - and delete tags you don't want - you don't have to use the ones they suggest.  When you edit your hubs look at the tags on the side there and there is an option to delete or edit or add tags.
         
         just checked on that -  there is a "tags" box and each tag has a x next to it, click that if you want to eliminate the tag - and there is a dialogue box where you can add new tags.  These are totally within your control.

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            Healthy Pursuitsposted 12 years agoin reply to this

            I do that. I change my tags sometimes, just because I think the related hubs listed are so not relevant.  Thanks for helping, though.

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   mega1posted 12 years ago

   I've experienced that the "related hubs"  ( not ads, but hubs) are often not even vaguely related to mine - its not humans making these choices, I'm sure.  So there's nothing to be done about it.  It is kind of funny though, if you see it that way - in fact, could write a hub about the spectacularly un-related hubs that show up sometimes!

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   SmartAndFunposted 12 years ago

   I have been having trouble with related hubs for months. It's better than it used to be, though. For a while all the supposedly related hubs listed on my articles had to do with automobiles and motors, even though that's a topic I have never written about. HP stepped in and fixed that. Now most of my hubs feature truly related hubs, but some are still problems.
   
   For example, my article my on power tumbling/gymnastics has these hubs listed as related:
   
   *Part 2: Training your body to develop home run power
   *Alexander Hamilton's Financial Plan
   *Categorizing Hubs, Part One
   *48 state charity motorcycle ride "Stumpin' Across America"
   *electricity usage monitor kill a watt
   *Barbie Power Wheels - Ride On Toys for Girls
   
   Perhaps some were chosen by the algo based on the word "power." The others are a mystery. Alexander Hamilton's Financial Plan? Stumpin' Across America?

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      Marisa Wrightposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      Yes, more than likely.  I noticed a similar problem on some of my Hubs. For instance, my belly dancing Hubs tend to attract related Hubs on weight loss (belly fat!).  It's annoying that the algo takes individual words out of phrases, but there's not much we can do about it.
      
      However, I do think you overdo your tags and that may be part of the problem.  Tags on HubPages are not like tags on a blog - they're only for internal use to create the feeds, as Izzy says, so there's not much point in having "what is power gymnastics" as well as "power gymnastics", for instance.  And I'm wondering if all those abbreviations are matching up with abbreviations in other fields.

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         SmartAndFunposted 12 years agoin reply to this

         Thanks Marisa. I went in and deleted the abbreviations and a few other tags, and hopefully that will do the trick.
         
         I have a hard time with tags. I tend to use too many tags (although they are relevant), because I somehow can't shake the feeling that they are used by search engines to find my articles, and I don't want to miss any opportunities.
         
         There is very little official info from HP about exactly what tags are used for. In the learning center, one small sentence in a "getting started" article says they are used by search engines, although I have seen many hubbers state that they are for internal use only.
         
         There used to be a learning center hub about tags, but I can't find it now. Even that hub gave few specifics, as I recall, and did not answer how many tags are enough, too much, ratio of tags per words, internal vs. external, etc.
         
         I don't know why I keep letting tags hang me up. I need to just get over it and stop using so many, I guess! Thanks for your help!

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            Marisa Wrightposted 12 years agoin reply to this

            That's because they are used for exactly that purpose on a blog or website, and any discussions you see off HubPages will talk about them in that way. 
            
            
            
            That's interesting (the mention in the article).  I can't recall when I learned that they were internal, it must've been a forum discussion I think.  However, did you notice they're not even visible on the new layouts, so the search engines can't even see them - I think that confirms it!

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   SmartAndFunposted 12 years ago

   Although tags are said to play a part in helping the algo choose related hubs to display on our articles, I'm not so sure that tags really play a role. If they did, I would have related hubs about gymnastics or trampolining listed on my tumbling hub. It seems to me that the algo is choosing hubs based on words in the title, regardless of what category the hubs are in or whether or not the hubs have related content.
   
   I have read the hub on tags in the learning center, but as I recall it doesn't say exactly what function tags have, and how many tags is too many or not enough. I would love to find some reliable information on this.

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   SmartAndFunposted 12 years ago

   Good point, Izzy. Thanks.

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