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: June 22, 2009
Posted: June 22nd, 2009, 11:00pm CEST by rustybrick
Tags: Search Forum Recap
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Naver Launches Closed Beta For Japan Search
Posted: June 22nd, 2009, 4:24pm CEST by rustybrick
Tags: Other Search Engines
A WebmasterWorld thread has discussion on a closed beta launch of a new Japanese search engine by the very popular South Korean portal, Naver. The search portal can be found at [www.naver.jp] and it is currently a closed beta.
The early feedback on the new search engine seems positive from what I can tell in the thread. In fact, one member said, "quite positive, and the patented combo SERPS, clean design and cool integrated flash elements seem quite nice." Another said, "Some of beta testers report Naver Japan. It seems to have its original features extisting search engines such as Google and Yahoo! don't have."
I cannot read the language so, hard for me to translate this review properly. But maybe someone will and post the details in the forum.
Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.
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Google's iPhone Voice Search Breaks with iPhone 3.0
Posted: June 22nd, 2009, 4:07pm CEST by rustybrick
Tags: Other Google Topics
Google Voice Search for iPhone no longer works exactly like it did in the past. If you installed iPhone 3.0 operating system, you may notice that lifting the receiver to your ear and speaking your command will no longer function with the current Google Mobile app for the iPhone.
This is a bit funny, in that Google admittedly broke Apple's rules by releasing such a feature. Specifically, moving the phone to your ear and having the application change to listen for you to speak, is not a supported developer feature in the iPhone SDK.
So when iPhone 3.0 OS came out, it seemed to have broke that neat feature.
Bret at Google posted in the Google Mobile Help discussion area that Google is aware of the issue and working on a fix. The iPhone application still works, but the feature where you put the phone to your ear no longer functions.
In fact, Bret said they submitted a new version to Apple, which is waiting for Apple's approval. Will Apple let this one slide through also?
Forum discussion at Google Mobile Help.
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Google Testing Commission-Based "Product Ads"
Posted: June 22nd, 2009, 3:59pm CEST by rustybrick
Tags: Google AdWords
Google Blogoscoped and Wall Street Journal are reporting on a new beta advertising product from Google named "Google Product Ads Beta." The new beta is invite only and seems to be a new way of advertisers paying for their ads, this time, based on conversions and commissions.
The ads are priced not based on click but on commission set by the advertiser for a conversion. Here is the FAQ emailed and captured by Google Blogosoped:
You specify the commission rate for conversions that take place via clicks on Google product ads. Minimum pricing is your standard publisher rate, plus the network fee. To maximize your competitiveness among advertisers participating in product ads, we recommend a higher commission with the Google product ads relationship.
These product ads will run independently of AdWords, but seem like they will show up in the AdWords location, as far as I understand. To be included, you must have a Google Base product feed. The ad rank technology is similar to AdWords, but differs based on the commission. Ad Rank = Commission × Quality Score.
Some believe the product ads on this commission are in form of what we reported earlier with product from AdWords ads and even the one line product links, here are screen captures:
Having products show up in the AdWords listings is extreme enough, having them prices based on an affiliate model is way more extreme.
Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld and Google Blogoscoped Forums.
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Google Upsets The Southern Hemisphere Over First Day of Winter Logo
Posted: June 22nd, 2009, 3:45pm CEST by rustybrick
Tags: Google Search Engine
Yesterday was not only the day Google posted a Father's Day logo, but it was also the day Google posted logos for the first day of Summer and Winter. Here are those logos:
Google showed the winter/summer logos in countries that do not celebrate Father's Day on June 21st. It showed the winter logo in the Southern Hemisphere and the summer logo in the Northern Hemisphere. The issue is, just like when they showed the first day of Spring logos and ended up showing "First Day of Fall" and not the "First Day of Autumn" in the Southern Hemisphere. This time Google seemed to upset folks from that side of the globe.
A Google Web Search Help thread has posts from people in that hemisphere who are a bit upset. The original poster said it is a bit more complex:
The history of seasons associated with calendars is a bit more complex than just the Winter Solstice. Yes, the Winter Solstice (traditional time of MID-Winter festivals) falls on that date according to our modern calendar. No, that does not make it the beginning of Winter. In civil calendars (at least in Australia), Winter begins with the first of June. Earlier calendars involved the cycles of the moon and counts of days more than they involved the sun (the SOLstice being related to the sun).
In any event, it seems like Google may have ticked off a few people in that hemisphere.
Other than that, I hope you had a nice Father's Day and we decided to launch our "Welcome Summer" theme a day late, in respect for Father's Day. Here it is:
Forum discussion at Google Web Search Help.
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Your Google AdSense Earnings Reports Not Adding Up?
Posted: June 22nd, 2009, 3:34pm CEST by rustybrick
Tags: Google AdSense
Recently, there was a swarm of threads of complaints in that various AdSense forums about how it appears the Google AdSense earnings reports are not adding up correctly. I'll isolate two Google AdSense Help Threads that have discussion about this.
The issue is really not a calculation error but rather that you are looking at the wrong date ranges.
Alan7769 explained in the thread that the problem is, "since last payment reporting is going back exactly 30 days from the current day, instead of back to the first of the month after your last payment was done." Alan recommends you use the "advanced reports and put in the actual dates from and to for your report, at least until adsense fixes the problem with the since last payment reporting."
There is a terrible amount of confusion now about this so hopefully Google will make things a bit clearly on those default reports.
Forum discussion at Google AdSense Help Threads.
Update: Google has posted a statement:
If you've seen a sudden drop in reported earnings, please note that it likely isn't due to a decrease in earnings but more because of a change in the date range.
You can confirm this by going to the reports section of your account and selecting the correct date range and running a report. For instance, if you were paid on May 26, then the Overview page will show earnings from May 26 to today's date, when you select 'Since last payment' from the drop-down.
However, when you run a report in the 'Advanced Reports' section and select May 1 to today's date, you will find the actual unpaid earnings for this period.
I've consulted our specialists and will follow up once they revert.
In the meantime, please refer any affected publishers to this thread.
Still, not all publishers are convinced or happy.
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Google Sitemaps Pending Status "Normal"
Posted: June 22nd, 2009, 3:25pm CEST by rustybrick
Tags: Google Optimization
There are many threads across the web with webmasters concerned that their sitemaps file is in "pending" status in Google Webmaster Tools. One such thread is at Google Webmaster Help where a few webmasters are complaining about the issue.
Google issued an announcement about the "pending" Sitemaps status. Google said it is normal;
Most sites that submit Sitemap files are regularly seeing a "pending" status in Webmaster Tools for their Sitemap files. This is normal and to be expected. It shows that we are planning on fetching your Sitemap file again and that we will update the statistics as soon as we have done so. This is not a cause for alarm. Thank you for using Google Webmaster Tools and submitting Sitemaps.
That is one reason why the Sitemap file might be in "pending" status, but there are others. JohnMu explained there is a "Sitemaps processing pipeline" that has a priority queue based on Google's available resources at the time. Things that can slow the crawl of a Sitemaps file include "servers with slow response times" or "sites that do not meet our [Google] Webmaster Guidelines."
Forum discussion at Google Webmaster Help.