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: April 22, 2009
Posted: April 22nd, 2009, 11:00pm CEST by rustybrick
Tags: Search Forum Recap
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Google Video Search Results Redesign Upsets Searchers
Posted: April 22nd, 2009, 4:29pm CEST by rustybrick
Tags: Google Search Engine
It appears Google has launched a redesign of the search results pages on Google Video. For example, a search on barry schwartz returns search results on the left side and the video on the right. If you click on a search result, it shows the video directly on that page and gives you the option to click through and watch it on the site it came from.
Here is a picture:
A Google Web Search Help thread (note, the Google Video help forum is no longer, they moved it to the web search section) has a couple users who are unhappy with the new layout. The new layout is due to the fact that Google doesn't allow video uploads on Google anymore. It is now just a search engine for videos, while YouTube is their upload and user generated content (video) section.
One user said:
I am seeing a redesign of TV view when I search for a video in Google Video. The video description is takes up a lot of space, the video is smaller (and not expandable) and there is no way to rate videos (or even see video ratings!).
Alex Chitu said, "the new interface has a lot of flaws: the video player moves as you scroll down, the list of related videos is not always visible, Google Video no longer displays ratings and there's a lot of unused space."
Forum discussion at Google Web Search Help.
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Microsoft To Open adCenter Content Ads As Public Beta
Posted: April 22nd, 2009, 4:11pm CEST by rustybrick
Tags: MSN ContentAds
I spotted a member in a DigitalPoint Forums thread with a level of certainty that Microsoft will be announcing at adTech San Francisco today that they are opening up ContentAds (also may be known as PubCenter) as a public beta. ContentAds is Microsoft's competing Google AdSense product.
An open beta means that virtually anyone should be able to sign up for the product and test it against Google AdSense. It is also rumored that Microsoft will set up a companion blog for the ContentAds (PubCenter) today, April 22nd.
In March 2008, Microsoft began accepting beta users via a sign up form. Since then, it has remained fairly quiet except for some comparisons made by beta users between ContentAds & AdSense. ContentAds began being tested in June 2007 by a few publishers and some really early tests in October 2006. The earliest rumors of this product came in December 2005 and then again in February 2006.
Hopefully the big beta launch is today.
Forum discussion at DigitalPoint Forums.
Update: Microsoft confirms this and adds more details.
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Yahoo (YHOO) Reports 1st Quarter 2009 Earnings
Posted: April 22nd, 2009, 4:02pm CEST by rustybrick
Tags: Yahoo Search Engine
Yahoo announced their first quarter earnings for 2009 and it was pretty bad. Here are the highlights:
Yahoo! Inc. today reported revenues of $1,580 million for the quarter ended March 31, 2009, a decrease of 13 percent from the first quarter of 2008. Excluding the impact of currency rate fluctuations, revenues for the first quarter of 2009 would have declined 8 percent from the first quarter of 2008. The Company’s non-GAAP operating cash flow for the first quarter of 2009 of $409 million exceeded the midpoint of the outlook range provided by the Company last quarter.
Plus, Yahoo will be cutting 5% of the staff, that is an additional 600-700 employees from the layoffs they had earlier this year and last year. Sounds like Yahoo is bleeding to me.
But the thing is, Yahoo beat Wall Street Estimates and the stock is up a bit in pre-market conditions.
In any event, you can read more about this at Search Engine Land or on Techmeme.
Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.
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Google Begins Pushing New AdWords Interface on Advertisers
Posted: April 22nd, 2009, 3:53pm CEST by rustybrick
Tags: Google AdWords
Starting yesterday, many Google AdWords advertisers began noticing a message in the AdWords console asking them to give the new user interface a try. Google began beta testing the new AdWords UI in November 2008 and expanded the beta in March 2009. More recently, they asked advertisers to experiment with the new UI early because it will be here soon.
Well, now it is here and most advertisers can switch over to it. When you login to your AdWords account, you should see a bubble notification that looks like this:
Note, when I upgraded, I was told my browser (Safari 3.2) may not be fully supported and I should use Internet Explorer 7, Firefox 3, or Chrome to manage my campaigns. In any event, you likely can upgrade but before doing so, if you want to learn more about the UI, see this resource for more information.
Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.
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Microsoft To Fix Fake Referrer Data From Live Search
Posted: April 22nd, 2009, 3:39pm CEST by rustybrick
Tags: Microsoft MSN Search
Since August 2007 Microsoft has been sending out weird referrer data to people's log files. The spam like referrers were official cloaking tests from Microsoft and should have been resolved in 2007. But they came back in January 2008 and then again in July 2008 without explanation.
We are now seeing them again, starting last month. A WebmasterWorld thread said it is coming from search.live more than MSN bots.
Microsoft's Jason chimed in the other day suggesting Betsy Aoki at Microsoft via this form. But soon after, Brett Yount from Live Search's Webmaster Center came in as MSNDude and said:
I would like to apologize for the inconvenience this is causing. We are working to correct this issue ASAP.
Hopefully it will get resolved soon and forever.
Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.
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How To Verify My Google Profile
Posted: April 22nd, 2009, 3:16pm CEST by rustybrick
Tags: Google Search Engine
Google announced you can now create verified Google Profiles that potentially can show up in the Google web search results. Danny Sullivan has the ultimate guide on how these Google Profiles work. For example here is my profile as displayed in the Google web results:
It can also show up in this format:
To have your profile displayed in the Google web results, you likely need to have a verified listing. How do you verify your profile in Google? It isn't that easy.
Here is a picture of my profile, there are two verifications. (1) The profile itself (aka "verified name") and the (2) email address.
Let's start with verifying the profile (aka the name):
(1) You must go to Google's Knol site and sign in.
(2) Then go to your profile settings.
(3) Click on the "Name Verification" tab
(4) Then choose to verify by phone or via credit cardIf you verify by phone, you enter in your phone number and Google will call it. When you get the call, Google will display a pin code followed by a pound sign on the Knol web site. When prompted, enter in the pin code and pound sign and you should be verified. If you verify by credit card, just enter in your credit card information. Note, Google currently can't verify American Express or Debit cards.
Verifying your email address:
(1) Go to your Google Profile and click "edit profile"
(2) Midway through the page it says "Verified domains" and explains:You can verify email addresses and choose which domains (the part after the @) you'd like to appear on your profile. Your email addresses will not be displayed. This will help visitors to your profile know that you are the real you. Learn more
If your email is already verified, it should read:
You have verified email addresses at the following domains. Check which domains you'd like to appear on your profile. Your email addresses will not be displayed. This will help visitors to your profile know that you are the real you.Learn more
Gmail, Yahoo, Microsoft and other free email accounts cannot be verified as domains. You need your own domain. You can add a non Gmail alternative to your Google account to verify your email.
That is basically how to get the verification labels on your Google Profile.
Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.
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'09 Earth Day Logos From Google, Yahoo, AOL & Others in Search Industry
Posted: April 22nd, 2009, 1:21pm CEST by rustybrick
Tags: Search Engine Industry News
Today is Earth Day and many of the search engines have created special logos to remind people of the day! We have Earth Day logos from Google, Yahoo, Microsoft's Live.com, AOL, Ask.com, DogPile and others!
Yahoo (animated):
AOL (animated):
We covered the logos for the past several years including 2008, 2007, 2006, 2005 and 2004.
Forum discussion at Search Engine Roundtable Forums & Cre8asite Forums.