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: May 14, 2009
Posted: May 14th, 2009, 11:00pm CEST by rustybrick
Tags: Search Forum Recap
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Major Latency With Google Web Search & Gmail
Posted: May 14th, 2009, 6:31pm CEST by rustybrick
Tags: Other Google Topics
It seems like many people around the world are complaining that Google's properties, including Google Search and Gmail are both either down for them or incredibly slow. For me, it is working well, but I had people call, email and IM me about the issue.
Plus, if you look at a Twitter Search for google, you will see many are saying it is slow or down, at the moment.
We do have a few threads in the Google forums, here is one from the Google Web Search Help discussion forums.
I assume there are some server or network issues with the major backbones causing the slowness or downtime. I also assume things will return to normal soon.
Google has updated the App Status page to say there is service disruption today for Gmail users:
We're aware of a problem with Google Mail affecting a small subset of users. The affected users are unable to access Google Mail. We will provide an update by May 14, 2009 11:23:00 AM UTC-4 detailing when we expect to resolve the problem. Please note that this resolution time is an estimate and may change.
*This may also be affecting other services
Forum discussion at Google Web Search Help.
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Empty Google AdSense Ads is Linux Bug
Posted: May 14th, 2009, 3:49pm CEST by rustybrick
Tags: Google AdSense
A WebmasterWorld and Google AdSense Help thread reports seeing more of empty or test AdSense ads. We have seen them back in March 2007 but they have disappeared until now.
Here is a screen capture of one ad that reads "text goes here" in the ad and the URL reads yoururlgoeshere.com.
Google replied to the threads confirming this is a Google bug with Linux operating systems. Google said:
Thanks for bringing this to our attention. This issue is isolated to Linux users, and our engineers are looking into it.
Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld and Google AdSense Help.
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Twitter @ Replies, Neither Here Nor There
Posted: May 14th, 2009, 3:40pm CEST by rustybrick
Tags: Social Search
Yesterday was a very interesting day for Twitter. In short, Twitter removed the ability to see @ replies. Then they brought it back but in a limited fashion. The Twitter blog explained:
We're making a change such that any updates beginning with @username (that are not explicitly created by clicking on the reply icon) will be seen by everyone following that account.
Read that a few times. Neither here nor there.
Well, you might be able to see people who @ reply you or maybe not, it depends. That is why you might want to conduct a Twitter Search for your name and subscribe to the results via RSS. I do for both @seroundtable and @rustybrick (feel free to follow both).
To catch up on the Twitter action over the past 24 hours, TechCrunch posted a quality summary of what took place.
Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld and make sure to follow @seroundtable and @rustybrick on Twitter.
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More Nudity & Pornography Found in Google Gadgets
Posted: May 14th, 2009, 3:33pm CEST by rustybrick
Tags: Other Google Topics
Last week, we reported for the first time of Google Gadget porn becoming an issue. Well, it is now more widespread then I have ever seen.
A new Google AdSense Help thread reports seeing porn in home page of the Google Gadgets directory. Here is a screen capture:
Both Google Gadgets contain full nudity and also include sex photos. This is a clear violation of the Google Gadget terms. This was first reported two days ago, and they have been on the home page of the directory for at least two days and they still remain there. Hopefully Google will remove these soon.
Forum discussion at Google AdSense Help.
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Google's New Webmaster Tools Is Missing My Backlinks
Posted: May 14th, 2009, 3:28pm CEST by rustybrick
Tags: Link Building
The other day, Google released a redesigned Webmaster Tools area. Soon after it was released, webmasters began noticing that the linkage data found in the new Webmaster Tools was out of sync with the one found in the old Webmaster Tools version.
Google has confirmed the issue, saying:
You may notice that your backlinks data differs between the new and old versions—this is because we're still filling in data for some sites in the new version. We hope that you'll find the new data more comprehensive once it's 100% filled in.
So for these sites, the issue hopefully will be resolved shortly. No need to panic.
Forum discussion continued at Google Webmasters Help, WebmasterWorld and DigitalPoint Forums.
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Case of Accidental Search Engine Cloaking
Posted: May 14th, 2009, 3:17pm CEST by rustybrick
Tags: Cloaking IP Delivery
Gab Goldenberg from SEO ROI posted a thread at Google Webmasters Help discussion forums when he noticed Google began to drop his rankings for all his pages. I have been tracking the thread for about three weeks, but held off on posting about it until Gabs wrote his post.
How I Cloaked My Way To LOWER Rankings was Gab's title and it shows how you must be careful about who you request site changes from. One WordPress plugin conflicted with a custom plugin and it turned out to generate cloaked-like pages in the eyes of Google. Google would see virtually the same title, content, etc for all the pages on the site, while a human would see unique pages.
Clearly, this type of duplicate content issue, with cloaking, is a recipe for disaster in the search engines.
Thanks to the good help of the folks at Google Webmasters Help and for Googler JohnMu pointing out the issue, Gab is able to address the issue and fix his site, which will fix his rankings.
Lesson learned: Test your changes in a test environment and try your best to understand how the changes will impact your pages. Some times things slip through, like in this case, but don't be afraid to ask for help.
Forum discussion at Google Webmasters Help.