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.
Feeds
5540 items (5015 unread) in 3 feeds
Google
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Official Google Webmaster Central Blog (325 unread)
SEO
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Emily Chang (347 unread)
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Search Engine Roundtable
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Search Engine Roundtable (6 unread)
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Daily Search Forum Recap: September 30, 2009
Posted: September 30th, 2009, 11:00pm CEST by rustybrick
Tags: Search Forum Recap
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Porn Spammers Targets Holocaust Terms in Google
Posted: September 30th, 2009, 4:11pm CEST by rustybrick
Tags: Other Google Topics
A Google Web Search Help thread reports that Google has been the target of spammers who are trying to push their pornographic videos into Google. This is nothing new, but the terms these spammers are using now include Holocaust related terms.
A search in Google for a popular Holocaust film, Witnessing History - a Teen Second Life Exhibit returns a Google Video result in the web results (universal search). Here is a picture:
Googler, Skylar said in the thread:
This porn video should not be masquerading as an educational video. I've passed your detailed feedback to the rest of the team so we can take the steps necessary to address this issue. For the future, if you can tell from the video thumbnail that the video is explicitly inappropriate and abuses content that is clearly meant to be educational or informative, please click on the “Report problem” link next to the video and mark the video with the category that closely matches the issue.
That was yesterday, it was first reported on Friday. I really can't blame Google for this anymore. I mean, it is a bit over the top (to say the least) to target Holocaust terms with porn videos, as well as children terms. As of right now, I still see the video in the Google web search results.
This is not the first and won't be the last time, Google Video is used as a target to spam Google with porn. In August it was used to show a porn video of Rambha, a famous Indian actress. Early on, with Universal Search's launch, Google had issues with nude images and explicit porn in the web search results. Google has been much better at filtering these out.
Forum discussion at Google Web Search Help.
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YouTube Uploads Might Get Stuck "In Processing"
Posted: September 30th, 2009, 4:03pm CEST by rustybrick
Tags: Other Google Topics
One of the worst parts of uploading to YouTube, especially large and long HD quality videos, is waiting for YouTube to finish processing the video so people can watch it. I normally create a 15 minute or so video, in HD quality, upload it sometime before 11am to YouTube and it often won't be available until after 6pm. The upload process takes an hour or so and the processing can take several more hours.
On very limited occasions, those videos never make it out of the "in processing" status and then you have to reupload all over again. Never fun.
This time, Liz from the YouTube support team has confirmed a bug in the upload process. She posted a thread at YouTube Help the other day saying:
Some of you have mentioned here in the Help Forum and on Twitter that your uploads are stuck processing. This is a bug with the uploading process and our team here is currently working on a fix. Once the team's fixed the bug, uploads which are currently stuck processing will be re-processed again.
For those of you who need to upload a video immediately, try uploading a second time if your original upload attempt is stuck.
Thanks for informing us of this situation, and we appreciate your patience while we're working on resolving the matter!
It is nice to know YouTube is looking into the fix.
Forum discussion at YouTube Help.
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Sidewiki Defeat Helps Block Only Google SideWiki Comments, Not Toolbar Users
Posted: September 30th, 2009, 3:57pm CEST by rustybrick
Tags: Other Google Topics
The other week, we wrote about how to block Sidewiki users from commenting on your site. The issue was, it basically blocked all Google Toolbar users from accessing your site.
There is a new script that reportedly blocks only those who try to use Sidewiki to comment on your site, without blocking all Google Toolbar users. It named the Sidewiki Defeat and can be viewed at code.google.com/p/sidewiki-defeat.
I spotted this via a Google Webmaster Help thread. Warning, I personally did not try this, so be careful.
Forum discussion at Google Webmaster Help.
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Google Sandbox: Does/Did it Exist? Poll Results
Posted: September 30th, 2009, 3:30pm CEST by rustybrick
Tags: Google Optimization
Back in February I ran a poll asking if the Google Sandbox still exists and if so, is it US based only? I don't think I ever published those results, so I apologize.
A new Search Engine Watch Forums thread has new discussion around the topic. To be honest, the Google Sandbox, as it once was, is rarely discussed in forums anymore. As I said in the previous post, the Google Sandbox goes back to April 2004. We first spotted it when I wrote New Sites = Poor Results in Google, then it became known as the Sandbox effect and had controversial definitions. Matt Cutts confirmed the sandbox existed, somewhat, in his Coffee Talk with Brett Tabke. But since then, we really did not discuss it much.
There are some well-known and respected SEOs that still believe in it and many that don't. Which is why we ran the poll. Okay, so here are the poll results:
Question: Google Sandbox: US Based or Worldwide?
:: Worldwide said 46 respondents or 49%
:: It No Longer Exists said 17 respondents or 18%
:: US Only said 13 respondents or 14%
:: It Never Existed said 11 respondents or 12%
:: Other answer... said 6 respondents or 6%If you go by the forum discussion as a measure of if this did or currently exists, that answer is simple. It once did exist and no longer exists, based on forum chatter.
There is a nice post from a member at Search Engine Watch Forums, where he offers practical experience.
Last year we launched a new website and againt mine and our webmasters advice, our owner went on a full scale link building frenzy which included using a Submission company to submit to hundreds of directories and do hundreds of article submissions. Well, it took that site about 9-10 months to start ranking for its primary terms and now about 4 months after being released from the sandbox it is doing well. However, to contrast that, last month we launched a brand new website. This time we convinced him to take it slow and easy and utilize the link partners we have to focus on adding quality links slowly. Well a little over a month later we are on the first page for many of the terms we have optimized for. SO I definitely believe in quality over quantity when starting a new site and trying to avoid the sandbox.
Forum discussion at Search Engine Watch Forums.
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It's Froogle, No It's Google Products, No It's Google Base, No It's Google Merchant Center
Posted: September 30th, 2009, 3:16pm CEST by rustybrick
Tags: Other Google Topics
Yesterday, Google announced the launch of the new Google Merchant Center. The Google Merchant Center will replace Google Base for those who submit products through Google Base.
Confused? Google Base is sticking around, but Google has added a new Google Merchant Center, which is focused around merchants who submit product data to Google. Before the other day, all products submitted to Google, to be displayed in Google Product Search, was submitted (mostly) through Google Base. Now, Google wants you to submit that data though the new Google Merchant Center.
So what is Google Base for? Well, anything else that you want to submit data to Google. Other data includes upload real estate, jobs and vehicles. Yes, you can pretty much submit whatever you want and Google will figure out how to deal with it.
Google tried to make the migration from Google Base to Google Merchant Center as smooth as possible. Google said:
For the vast majority of users, existing settings, data feeds or items will not be affected. You will find everything in your account as you expect it to be.
However, a small percentage of users who have been uploading to Google Base both Product listings and other item types will need to sign in to Google Base and create new FTP settings. Otherwise, they will not be able to upload any non-Product feeds via FTP. Their existing FTP settings will work normally for Product feeds, and can be accessed in Google Merchant Center. We apologize for this unavoidable inconvenience. These users have been already notified directly by email. You can find instructions on how to change your FTP settings in Google Base here.
For more details about this change see the FAQs.
If you are confused by the title, just look back at the history of this product. It all started out as Froogle, yes Google named their product search feature Froogle. Then it was changed to Google Shopping and then to Google Products and then Google flipped back between Shopping and Products. Then Google Base came out, but the consumer side remained Google Shopping. And now we have yet another tool to manage, Google Merchant Center. Got all of that? I may have missed some.
Forum discussion at Google Merchant Center Help (formerly Google Base Help) and WebmasterWorld.