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: December 24, 2009
Posted: December 24th, 2009, 10:00pm CET by rustybrick
Tags: Search Forum Recap
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Bing Doesn't Support the Canonical Tag At All Right Now
Posted: December 24th, 2009, 3:02pm CET by rustybrick
Tags: Microsoft MSN Search
There is this old and upsetting thread in the Bing Forums about how Bing handles the canonical tag. The thread is filled with misinformation. Matt McGee's post at Search Engine Land a week ago says it clearly.
Bing says it's still working on supporting the canonical tag on a single domain, and suggests webmasters should rely on other means to manage duplicate content.
You got that right, 11 months ago, Google, Yahoo and Bing announced support for the Canonical tag. As far as I know, only Google really uses it and they even added cross domain canonical support this month. Where is Bing at this? Well, in the next several months they hope to support a single domain use of the canonical tag and hopefully soon after the cross domain support. So it would have taken Bing over a year since they announced support of this tag to actually support it?
I am not too upset about that, to be honest. What I am more upset about is that official Bing support representatives are pretty much lying in the Bing Forums. Brett Yount, the Product Manager of Bing Webmaster Center said:
accourding to our blog post, http://www.bing.com/community/blogs/webmaster/archive/2009/02/12/partnering-to-help-solve-duplicate-content-issues.aspx, the canonical tag is used as a hint only.
No, it is not used as a hint or anything. It is not used period, not yet. Maybe in four months, but not yet.
Forum discussion at Bing Forums.
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Did Google Pull Back on Webmaster & Advertiser Support in 2009?
Posted: December 24th, 2009, 2:41pm CET by rustybrick
Tags: Other Google Topics
As a continuation of Brett Tabke calling out Google for stiffing webmasters over the Christmas gift this year, Brett explains more of why he is a bit upset with Google in 2009. Brett lays out what he believes Google is moving towards and it seems to really upset him and other webmasters. Brett explained:
- Google retracts almost every webmasters/siteowner outreach program it had in 2009.
- They left the trade show circut. Other than what they had contracted a year earlier, they eliminated their participation in trade shows.
- Left their own speakers to pay for their own way to industry conferences. (denying expense receipts).
- Eliminated AdWords account support.
- Layed off hundreds (thousands according to some reports) temp advertising support reps.
- Canceled the Google customer support party (Google dance).
- Eliminated the vendor appreciation programs for AdSense and Adwords.
Brett said "Everything Google has done in the last year has screamed, 'AdSense and AdWords markets are maximized or tapped out. Put it into maintenance mode and lets go see where else we can make money.'"
Is it true? Well, Google only held one Webmaster Chat session this year, which was last month, before that, in 2008 and 2007, they held tons of these. It seems like Google limited their sponsorship of conferences in 2009, including not sponsoring PubCon and did limited sponsorships for SMX and SES events this past year (i.e. sponsored sessions) I believe. I also know they cut back on sending representatives to shows, but I do not know the extent of that. They have cut AdWords rep support, laid off temp workers, did not hold the annual Google Dance, cut gifts in exchange of the donations they give anyway, and so on.
However, I did notice a step up in the support forums. They upgraded the support forum software (slowly) and added representatives to them. They added features to Webmaster Tools, posted a ton on the Webmaster Blog, Matt produced tons of support videos and so on. So it does seem like overall, they may have spent a lot less money on webmaster/advertiser relations and focused on the less expensive routes. 2009 was a recession for many businesses, but was Google recession proof? Should they have not made these cuts? I am not really to judge.
I do believe Google will be sending more reps to conferences this year, and that they are less concerned about the economy in 2010 then they were in 2009. Maybe sponsorship of events will grow in 2010? Maybe the Google Dance will come back? Maybe?
I hate to judge how other companies use their money. 2009 was an extremely tough year for many businesses. It seemed to us that Google sailed through the year with no problems at all. But who knows what decisions they made early on to help with that? This is a very sensitive topic but being that Google is a public company, I guess these questions can be asked.
Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.
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Google Offends the Dreadlocks Hairstyle
Posted: December 24th, 2009, 2:31pm CET by rustybrick
Tags: Other Google Topics
A search for [dreadlocks] sports one of those Google definitions links at the top right of the page that leads to an 'offensive' categorization of those who have dreadlocks as their hairstyle. The Google Definition of dreadlocks uses it in a sentence as, "He was turned down for a driving job when he refused to cut his dreadlocks."
Now one person takes offense to this and posted his dissatisfaction in a Google Web Search Help forum. He wrote:
While it's true that this kind of thing (unfortunately) does happen, is it crazy to anyone else to be in a dictionary? It'd be like having the definition for Asian American being "He was turned down for the driving job because he was Asian American."
Here is a picture of the definition:
If Google stayed with Answers.com as their definitions provider, they might not be taking flack for this.
Personally, I find these types of posts funny - which is why I am highlighting this one.
Forum discussion at Google Web Search Help.
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Christmas Logos From Google, Yahoo, Bing, Ask & Others
Posted: December 24th, 2009, 1:31pm CET by rustybrick
Tags: Search Engine Industry News
Merry Christmas Search Engine Roundtable readers! I believe most of the search engines have their special logos or themes live today. They include a handful of logos from Google, an animated logo from Yahoo, an awesome picture from Bing, a sweet Ask.com theme, DogPile's fun dress up and more from the industry.
Google began their logo blitz on the first day of Winter. While, we had Winter themes from YouTube, Bing and others, Google started with "the holidays." Calling it "The Holidays" made some Christians upset, mostly those in the U.K. Also, Google did not have a Chanukah logo like Bing or Ask did.
In any event, here are pictures of the Christmas logos, but this time I will end with Google, since they have so many:
Yahoo (animated) Christmas logo:
Yahoo (static) Christmas logo:
Bing's Christmas Theme:
Ask.com's Christmas Theme:
DogPile's Christmas Theme:
Baidu's Christmas Logo:
Quintura's Christmas Logo:
Clicker Christmas Logo:
Sogou Christmas Logo:
FriendFeed Christmas logo:
Zuula Christmas Logo:
BruceClay Christmas Logo:
Cre8asite Christmas Logo:
Search Engine Roundtable Christmas Theme:
Google's Christmas / Holiday Logos (so far four):
I'll update this post when I find more logos from the search industry.
For the past year's holiday and Christmas logos, see our posts from 2008, the 2007 logos, plus Google's five logos, 2006 logos, Cre8asite in 2005, also '05 Search Engine Roundtable and '05 Google, Yahoo and Ask, plus we have 2004 and some of 2003 archived for you.
Forum discussion at Search Engine Roundtable Forums, Cre8asite Forums, Google Toolbar Help, HighRankings Forums, WebmasterWorld, DigitalPoint Forums, Google Maps Help, Google AdWords Help & Google Webmaster Help.