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
(325 unread)
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Official Google Webmaster Central Blog (325 unread)
SEO
(4690 unread)
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Emily Chang (347 unread)
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Search Engine Roundtable
(4343 unread)
Search Engine Roundtable (7 unread)
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Daily Search Forum Recap: October 28, 2009
Posted: October 28th, 2009, 10:00pm CET by rustybrick
Tags: Search Forum Recap
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Google News Finance Optimization
Posted: October 28th, 2009, 3:00pm CET by rustybrick
Tags: Google Optimization
Five months ago, I wrote a piece named Want Your Google News To Show Up in Google Finance? NASDAQ:GOOG which basically said, put the stock ticker in the title of your article and you're golden for showing up in Google Finance. That is, assuming you are already in Google News.
Well, we now have a new tip from Google themselves on how to optimize your content for Google Finance. Inbal from the Google News team said to markup your HTML or XML with the following tags.
<url>
<loc>[mynewssite.com]</loc>
<news:news>
<news:publication_date>2008-10-31T03:30:00Z</news:publication_date>
<news:title>Companies A, B In Merger Talks</news:title>
<news:keywords>business, mergers, acquisitions</news:keywords>
<news:content_types>Subscription</news:content_types>
<news:stock_tickers>NASDAQ:A, NASDAQ:B</news:stock_tickers>
</news:news>
</url>Adding these elements, along with the title change, should dramatically help you show up in Google Finance for that specific company.
Forum discussion at Google News Help.
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Google Base/Merchant Feeds Temporary Processing Error
Posted: October 28th, 2009, 2:57pm CET by rustybrick
Tags: Google Optimization
Those trying to submit their product feeds to Google Base or Merchant Center may be running into errors. Ronald from the Google Merchant Center team has confirmed a bug that Google's engineers are working on fixing.
A thread at Google Merchant Help has confirmation, where a Googler said:
We're currently experiencing an issue with data feed processing. If the data feed status shows as "Internal error, feed not fully processed" without any error message, please resubmit your data feed. Our engineers are working to resolve this issue.
We appreciate your patience!
There is currently not estimated time of a fix but it is good to know that Google is aware of the issue.
Forum discussion at Google Merchant Help.
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Almost Everything You Wanted to Know About DMOZ (ODP)
Posted: October 28th, 2009, 2:52pm CET by rustybrick
Tags: Open Directory Project
Debra Mastaler wrote has an excellent interview with the man in charge at DMOZ (Open Directory Project) at Search Engine Land named DMOZ: A Solid Directory Or The Great Pumpkin Of Search?
It really goes into a great number of questions and answers about the iconic web directory. I'll pull out a few Q&As that I particularly enjoyed:
Debra: Why is the directory sometimes referred to as the ODP and other times DMOZ? Is there a difference?
Bob: The directory’s “official” name is DMOZ: The Open Directory Project. DMOZ means “Directory Mozilla” – the idea was to align the directory with the Mozilla brand, even though it was not actually part of that group. DMOZ and ODP are now used interchangeably to refer to the directory.
Debra: Has there been any discussion about the ODP offering a paid review program?
Bob: This issue has been raised and discussed many times. Paid review really goes against the whole idea behind the ODP. In fact, our Social Contract with the web community takes an especially firm position on this issue.
Debra: Do you think people would be so passionate about being included in the directory if it wasn’t used by Google?
Bob: It depends if you are talking about Webmasters or editors. Clearly, webmasters would not care much about DMOZ if it weren’t for its influence on search engines. Editors, on the other hand, have a different perspective. The reasons editors participate in the ODP are as diverse as the global makeup of its participants.
The interview is a really great read, so go check it out.
Forum discussion at Sphinn.
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Google Maps to Fix One Web Box Result Bug
Posted: October 28th, 2009, 2:45pm CET by rustybrick
Tags: Google Optimization
For at least a month now, there have been complaints in a Google Maps Help thread that Google is showing, in some cases, a single map result, when it should be showing seven map results.
For example, a search on orlando dodge shows a single map result:
As you can see, it shows a place named Orlando Dodge, but not all the Dodge dealerships in Orlando, Florida. Adding on FL to the query does indeed show multiple listings, including Orlando Dodge.
A Googler from the maps team said yesterday that a fix will be out soon. He said:
Thanks everyone for continuing to post examples of this issue. Hoping to resolve this shortly. Will keep you all posted.
To submit more examples or discussion, join the Google Maps Help thread.
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Google To Update Webmaster Tools API Verification Tag
Posted: October 28th, 2009, 2:38pm CET by rustybrick
Tags: Google Optimization
Not sure how important this is, but it is one of those minor changes that I particularly enjoy covering. The Google Webmaster Tools API lets you verify and reverify sites directly in the API. The thing is, they have changed the meta tag name for the verification process and the API has yet to be updated.
For example:
Old Meta Name:
<meta name="verify-v1" content="0wrupKGUMvPxWPChV4qaKdewvwXnZQ9AJmg/mAc7An0=" />New Meta Name:
<meta name="google-site-verification" content="rlnJZRMNYtwGmLlQYpDhSNnxz41TLLd-3xZSaEIbagw" />Dennis G. from the Google Webmaster team, who is specifically involved with verification (I believe) said:
We will update the API to return the new meta tag name and content sometime (relatively) soon, but sites that are already verified with the current "verify-v1" tags will not be unverified. Only new verification attempts will need to switch to the new tag.
So I suspect, if you are trying to verify a new site using the API, it won't work just yet.
Forum discussion at Google Webmaster Help.
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Google Releases New Google Mobilizer
Posted: October 28th, 2009, 2:22pm CET by rustybrick
Tags: Other Google Topics
An ongoing Google Mobile Help thread with complaints on the Google Mobilizer feature has an update on that feature. In short, Google Mobilizer will convert a web page to make it render better on mobile devices. Google has updated it to include a "new mobilizer engine, which is faster, cleaner, closer to the look of the unadapted page," said Zeke from the Google Mobile team.
Zeke explained how to access this one devices:
On most devices:
1. Go to www.google.com
2. Go to Settings, turn "Format pages for your phone" to On, and be sure to Save.
3. Do a search. Clicking on search results will take you to the Google MobilizerOn some smartphones:
- Go to www.google.com
- Do a search. Click on Options (next to each search result) and select "Mobile formatted". You should get a mobilized page.Here is a sample of how it works on my iPhone:
Here is how the mobilized page looks like:
You can actually see it yourself on any browser, via this URL.
Forum discussion at Google Mobile Help.