Google to treat subdomains as folders in search

Update: It appears the change was much smaller than originally explained, and that it has already taken place. Therefore, I can assume searches on .edu domains will behave as normal.

The Search Engine Roundtable has a report this morning stating that Google will be implementing a "feature" that will treat subdomains (ex: the xxx in http://xxx.college.edu) as folders, and will limit the display from each domain to a maximum of two.

This has a very large impact on higher ed, as many of our departments utilize a subdomain. Quite a few departments host their sites on servers different than the main .edu site, thus requiring a subdomain for browser navigation.

In the past (and as it currently stands), a search for a particular University would usually display the main .edu site, and some of the subdomains on the first page (in addition to other sites with high page ranks for the search query [Wikipedia, for instance]). For example, a Google search for "University at Buffalo" would display:


Notice the subdomains:

• wings.buffalo.edu
• ubathletics.buffalo.edu
• ubib.buffalo.edu
• sdm.buffalo.edu
• pharmacy.buffalo.edu
• mgt.buffalo.edu
• law.buffalo.edu
• smbs.buffalo.edu
• cse.buffalo.edu

With the new "feature" only the main .edu site will appear, and one other site. The rest of these subdomains will not be displayed, therefore making the required search queries for these departments more complex. If you want to find the law school at the University at Buffalo, you will need to include "law" into the query and hope the law site has a high enough page rank for this query.

Apparently, Google will be implementing for most subdomains. Hopefully Google will realize higher ed's unique circumstances and exclude our sites.