I Googled for the lyrics to “You’re a Mean One, Mr. Grinch” and up came [this ancient HTML document from the days of Web 2.0](https://stuff.mit.edu/people/dpolicar/writing/poetry/poems/meanGrinch.html).
I’ve noticed that Google will often point me to these very old, rudimentary webpages that are 20 years old or so, and often hosted at American universities like MIT.
So my question is, why do these websites exist in the first place, and why do they still exist?
In: 2187
Imagine going to a library and searching for a specific book. You will probably need help from the librarian (that’s Google). They point you to your specific book or a section in the library. So if you search for something specific they will point you to a trustworthy specific source (a single book) or if you search for something vague – to a whole section. That’s how Google works ELI5.
In this specific case, Google suggested the edu website (that’s how we call them) because it’s an authority source and it answers your query perfectly. Even if someone creates a website with modern design that answer your question perfectly as well, it won’t be as trustworthy and Google is less likely to show it in the search results.
Basically, the librarian (Google) takes into account hundreds of factors when they recommend a specific result. Authority, age of the website, links pointing to that website, content of the website, speed, mobile friendliness, and many more. That’s why these websites still appear. They answer your question as good as another website will but they are much more authoritative than newer ones.
Lyrics websites also are special as Google has difficulties with them, the search engines often consider them as filled with plagiarism (duplicate content from other websites).
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