Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today, through the eyes of the Search Engine Roundtable and other search forums on the web.
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Daily Search Forum Recap: March 27, 2009
Posted: March 27th, 2009, 10:00pm CET by rustybrick
Tags: Search Pulse
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(Text) Recap of Weekly Search Buzz :: March 27, 2009
Posted: March 27th, 2009, 7:37am CET by rustybrick
Tags: Search Buzz RoundUp
I am in Israel now, so I am skipping the video this week. Here is the text based version of the weekly recap. Google seems to be pushing more search options on searchers through something being called Google Search Wheel. Google also added more search refinements and detailed (longer) snippets to Google web search. Google Blog Search finally pushed out their algorithm update for blogroll detectors. 23% of publishers say more than 75% of their income comes from Google AdSense. AdSense had major issues with double serving ads, which results in a reporting spike and a fix from Google. Did you know unpausing deleted campaigns can reactivate them in AdWords? Advertisers, publishers and affiliates are afraid over a new proposed bill that can tax more retailers. Google mobile has a big issue. iGoogle continues to sign people out. Did you know you can get Google to remove porn for Google Suggest? That was this week at the Search Engine Roundtable.
- Google Pushing More Search Options On Searchers?
- Google Adds More Search Refinements & Detailed Snippets
- Google Releases Major Blog Search Blogroll Algorithm Update
- 23% of Google AdSense Publishers Say 75% of Their Income Comes From Google
- Google AdSense Reporting Off Again: Impressions High & CTR Low
- Google Fixes AdSense Impression Glitch
- Unpausing Google AdWords Campaigns Can Activate Deleted Campaigns
- Advertisers, Publishers & Affiliates Scared Over Proposes California Tax Law
- Mobile Google Not Working For Many
- iGoogle Signing You Out?
- How To Remove Google Porn Suggestions
Next week, I am back with the video recaps.
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Google Releases Major Blog Search Blogroll Algorithm Update
Posted: March 27th, 2009, 7:23am CET by rustybrick
Tags: Google Search Engine
The much awaited update to the Google Blog Search blogroll detector algorithm has finally been pushed through.
An updated Google Groups thread has Googler, Jeremy Hylton saying:
We have launched a ranking change that reduces the number of results that are returned because of blogroll matches. There are still problems to work out, but this change appears to be a big improvement over our earlier fix. We had originally planned to launch an experiment for link: queries, but decide more recently to release this change first. We are still working on the link: change and expect to have that ready in a few more weeks.
We did expect to see an update for how Google Blog Search responds to the link query, but as Jeremy said, that won't be released yet for the next few weeks. But the blogroll matching detector, which matches for keywords in the blogroll sections of sites, should no longer return results for those keywords.
Why does this matter? Well, lets say you are like me and you track who links or mentions you via Google Blog Search. If someone has the Search Engine Roundtable in the blogroll, and the do a daily blog post, even if that blog post doesn't mention the Search Engine Roundtable, blog search would show that new blog post as a match. Why? Because it is in the blogroll and Google thinks it is part of the content of the blog post. Google said they fixed this issue but they do want feedback at the Google Groups thread.
Forum discussion at Google Groups.
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Google Safe Search Filter Bug Still Unresolved
Posted: March 27th, 2009, 7:18am CET by rustybrick
Tags: Google Search Engine
February 3rd, we reported Google Won't Let Some Searchers Turn Off "Safe Search" Filter, well, almost two months later, the issue is still not resolved. In fact, Google cannot find any issue.
The other day, Googler Skylar said he was unable to find any issue. He said in the Google Web Search Help thread:
Thanks everyone for providing information about your computers and browsers. I’ve been passing these details along to the rest of the team to check on SafeSearch filtering. We're currently unable to find errors with SafeSearch filtering. It is likely that a corrupt cookie, a third-party add-on, or an anti-virus program could be interfering with your preferences. I recommend giving the "Preferences aren't sticking" help article a try to make your preferences stick. In the meantime, I understand that it is frustrating when your preferences don't stick, and I'm sorry for any inconvenience you're experiencing.
But this does not explain why hundreds of searchers are still having this issue.
Forum discussion continued at Google Web Search Help.
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Google Fixes AdSense Impression Glitch
Posted: March 27th, 2009, 7:13am CET by rustybrick
Tags: Google AdSense
Yesterday we reported that AdSense impressions were double reporting. Well it turned out to be more than just a reporting error. Google was double or triple serving the same ads on the same site, which is not something they should have been doing. In any event, Google has announced they fixed the issue:
If you're displaying multiple ad units on your pages, you may have noticed that your pageviews were higher than normal for part of yesterday and today. Our engineers identified a bug which prevented ad units from detecting other units on the same page. As a result, our system logged a pageview for each ad unit that was loaded on a page, instead of a pageview for each page containing ads. In some cases, this also may have caused specific ads to appear in multiple ad units on the same page.
Please be assured that ad unit impressions were still logged correctly and ads were still displayed on your pages, so you were properly credited for all earnings generated from your ads. We've resolved the issue, and although you won't see the pageview count in your reports retroactively changed, your pageview tracking is now back to normal.
But like I said, some ads were double or triple served on the same page.
Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld and Google AdSense Help.
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Do Search Engines Read The Anchor Text of NoFollowed Links?
Posted: March 27th, 2009, 7:08am CET by rustybrick
Tags: Search Engine Optimization
A HighRankings Forum thread asks an interesting question. If I add links to my web page and nofollow them, does Google still read the anchor text of the link and use that in part of how they determine what my page is contextual about.
For example, if I link to Search Engine Land as follows; <a href="http://searchengineland.com/" rel="nofollow">Search News</a> would Google or any other main search engine, take the words "search news" and place that text as being relevant to what this page is about? We know Google won't pass the link value of that link to Search Engine Land, but do we know if Google ignores that text completely?
Has anyone done any tests on this yet? If not, anyone want to try?
Forum discussion at HighRankings Forum.
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Google Offering Hosting Companies Packaged Google Pack
Posted: March 27th, 2009, 7:01am CET by rustybrick
Tags: Other Google Topics
Google announced they are now offering access providers, such as hosting companies, the ability to easily give their customers access to Google's Webmaster Tools, AdSense, Custom Search, and Site Search. These access providers can sign up at [www.google.com].
Today, we're releasing Google Services for Websites, a few more tools that your hosting company can now enable to help you improve your website. This expanded program includes Webmaster Tools, AdSense, Custom Search, and Site Search, making it easier to drive traffic to your site, monetize your site through the Google ad network, and add various search capabilities to help your visitors find information on your site faster.
We have some discussion around this announcement at WebmasterWorld. WebmasterWorld admin, tedster, said:
Seems like a savvy, and potentially revenue-increasing move. Note that the web host needs to participate for this program to be available: "...a few more tools that your hosting company can now enable to help you improve your website."
The Custom Search Engine is one service that might be a real boon. A CSE is not all that easy for the non-technical site owner to set up right now, and if this service makes it easier, that's a good thing.
Google has been piloting this type of services to some web hosts in the past. Expanding it to any web host and access provider is a no brainer for Google.
Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.
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How To Remove Google Porn Suggestions
Posted: March 27th, 2009, 6:55am CET by rustybrick
Tags: Google Search Engine
Almost two months ago, we asked, Should Google Search Suggestions Show Adult Suggestions? In short, Google, on occasion, showed search suggestion for porn/adult related phrases, as you typed your query. The example I gave then, was when you typed "you," Google would offer a suggestion to youpron which is an adult site. Here is the before picture:
A new Google Web Search Help thread shows that Google listens and does remove porn/adult keyword suggestions from that list. The case in that thread was for when you search for [hvernig] Google offered a suggestion [hvernig á að totta] which in Icelandic means "how to give a blowjob."
Googler, Skylar, said last night that it has been removed. He said:
The inappropriate suggestion will no longer appear when someone types "hvernig" in the search box. Thanks again for sharing your feedback about this query suggestion so that we can improve Google Suggest.
So I decided to check the [you] query and it was gone also:
So how do you remove porn suggestions from Google? Post your complaint in the web search forums.
Forum discussion at Google Web Search Help.