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  Daily Search Forum Recap: January 22, 2010

  Posted: January 22nd, 2010, 10:00pm CET by rustybrick

  Tags:  Search Forum Recap  

  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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  Video Recap of Weekly Search Buzz :: January 22, 2010

  Posted: January 22nd, 2010, 9:15pm CET by rustybrick

  Tags:  Search Buzz RoundUp  

  In this weeks recap, we go a bit all over the place to get through the most important topics we covered in the past 7 days. We talked about a study that showed the minor impact Google personalized search has on SEO. There may have been a Yahoo Search update this week. Microsoft says they will purge their search data within 6 months. Bing's auto-search suggestions get more current. Bing also shows search results for related queries. Google increased the Sitemaps limit. Google AdWords now has four professional exams. Yahoo released the network distribution feature, finally. SEOmoz built Open Site Explorer, a neat new useful tool. Google Maps lets you add real time content to your business listing. Don't use the same phone number as your competitor, if you don't want issues on your Google local listing. Search for Jesus on Google Images and you'll catch him smoking and drinking. Google continues to cash in, they announced awesome 4th quarter earnings. SEO is being trademarked again, but the story is different. Martin Luther King day was this week, we have the logos for you. That was this past week at the Search Engine Roundtable.

  Make sure to subscribe to our video feed or subscribe directly on iTunes to be notified of these updates and download the video in the background. Here is the YouTube version of the feed:

  
  For the original iTunes version, click here or to see the YouTube version in higher quality, click play & hit "HD."

  Search Topics of Discussion:
  

  • Study on Google Personalized Search & Re-Ranking Shows Minor SEO Changes
  • A Real Yahoo Search Update for January 2010?
  • Microsoft To Purge Search Data on Bing After 6 Months
  • Bing's Auto Search Suggestions Gets More Current
  • Bing Showing Related Search Results By Default
  • Google Increases Sitemaps Limit to 50,000 from 1,000
  • Google AdWords Certification Program Now With Four Exams?
  • Yahoo Search Advertisers Rejoice Over New Network Distribution Feature
  • SEOmoz Builds Open Site Explorer, Community Likes
  • Add Real Time Content to Your Google Maps Listing
  • Google Maps Can't Handle Two Plus Businesses With Same Phone Number
  • First Image for Jesus in Google Images is Offensive
  • Google Continues The Cash Drive: Revenue Up, Profits Up, Everything up (GOOG)
  • SEO ≠ Search Engine Optimization, Rather Strategically Elevating Optimization
  • Martin Luther King, Jr Logo from Google, Yahoo, Bing, Ask, Dogpile & Others in 2010

  Please do subscribe via iTunes or on your favorite RSS reader. Don't forget to comment below with the right answer and good luck!

  
  

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  Google Maps Can't Handle Two Plus Businesses With Same Phone Number

  Posted: January 22nd, 2010, 2:32pm CET by rustybrick

  Tags:  Other Google Topics  

  Remember, a few months ago, I wrote how some Google Maps reviews were being posted on competitors Google Local Business listings? In summary, a Doctor was complaining that his competitors were obtaining his reviews, even though his business has a different name.

  What I did not see then was that his competitor(s) have the same phone number as he does. Yes, there are many doctors share an office and the office staff with their competitors to cut costs. I honestly see this all the time in New York, where I live. You call a Doctors office and the same person who answers the phone for your doctor, would answer the phone for another doctor.

  So these doctors are at the same location, offer the same medical expertise, compete with each other and even share a phone number. I honestly did not know the doctors don't have their own numbers. But I guess in some cases (possibly many cases) this is the fact, competing doctors share a phone number.

  Because of this issue, Google is placing the reviews from one doctor to an other. Google's Joel explained:

  It's a difficult problem to solve. I'm not saying we're doing the right thing in every case, but I am trying to give you guidance on how to satisfactorily resolve the issue on your end. If this is a distinct competitor, it seems to make sense to have a separate phone line. Even if the front office is shared.

  In response to that, the doctor replied:

  I appreciate your help up to this point, but I hardly think suggesting your paying advertisers change their business practices to accommodate your company's inability to fix a problem is appropriate. I hope this is not a signal that Google is changing into just another corporate giant, stepping on the heads of small businesses.

  Sorry to be harsh, but these reviews were entered under my name in your system and then changed to a different name. I find it hard to believe that this is unfixable.

  From a technology point of view, I see the issue but from a users point of view, this is serious.

  Forum discussion at Google Maps Help.

  
  

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  SEO ≠ Search Engine Optimization, Rather Strategically Elevating Optimization

  Posted: January 22nd, 2010, 2:24pm CET by rustybrick

  Tags:  Search Engine Industry News  

  Yesterday, the HuoMah blog uncovered a new person trying to trademark the term SEO. Yes, this was not the first person, see here for the other. I then wrote about it, with Danny Sullivan, at Search Engine Land.

  It turns out that this guy is not looking to trademark the term SEO as Search Engine Optimization. Even though this guy's company is under the DBA of "Search Engine Partner." Instead, he is claiming that he coined the acronym SEO for the term Strategically Elevating Optimization back in September 23, 1996 with first commercial use on September 24, 1999.

  So there you have it, from now on, when you say SEO you cannot think Search Engine Optimization. Instead, he wants you to think SEO means Strategically Elevating Optimization.

  Either case, I doubt this guy will win a trademark on that term, but what do I know.

  Forum discussion at Sphinn.

  
  

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  Google Increases Sitemaps Limit to 50,000 from 1,000

  Posted: January 22nd, 2010, 2:18pm CET by rustybrick

  Tags:  Google Optimization  

  I am not sure when this happened, but fairly recently, Google has changed the number of Sitemaps you can reference in a Sitemap index file. The number use to be 1,000 sitemaps can be referenced in a Sitemap index file, now the number is 50,000 Sitemaps. This is a huge increase in capacity.

  Still, each Sitemap file can contain up to 50,000 URLs, so technically 50,000 multiplied by 50,000 is 2,500,000,000 or 2.5 billion URLs can be submitted to Google via Sitemaps. That is if I can add correctly.

  Googler, Jonathan Simon, said this in a Google Webmaster Help thread:

  Thanks for resurfacing this thread as we've improved our capacity a bit since then. The limit used to be 1,000.

  The Help Center article you point to is correct. The current maximum number of Sitemaps that can be referenced in a Sitemap Index file is 50,000.

  Forum discussion at Google Webmaster Help.

  
  

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  Google's Matt Cutt's State of the Index 2009

  Posted: January 22nd, 2010, 2:11pm CET by rustybrick

  Tags:  Google Search Engine  

  If you missed Matt Cutts at PubCon this year and you didn't catch our coverage you are in luck. He "re-created" his presentation given at PubCon in November 2009, on the State of the Index 2009.

  Here is the 25 minute video:

  Here are the slides:

  As a bonus, here are Matt's predictions for 2010 (3 minute video):

  Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

  
  

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  Google Continues The Cash Drive: Revenue Up, Profits Up, Everything up (GOOG)

  Posted: January 22nd, 2010, 2:03pm CET by rustybrick

  Tags:  Other Google Topics  

  Last night, Google announced their 4th quarter earnings. Guess what? They beat expectations and overall, everything was up. Greg Sterling posted the key highlights and nice graphs:

  • Revenues – Google reported revenues of $6.67 billion in the fourth quarter of 2009, representing a 17% increase over fourth quarter 2008 revenues of $5.70 billion.
  • Google Sites Revenues – Google-owned sites generated revenues of $4.42 billion, or 66% of total revenues, in the fourth quarter of 2009. This represents a 16% increase over fourth quarter 2008 revenues of $3.81 billion.
  • Google Network Revenues – Google’s partner sites generated revenues, through AdSense programs, of $2.04 billion, or 31% of total revenues, in the fourth quarter of 2009. This represents a 21% increase from fourth quarter 2008 network revenues of $1.69 billion.
  • International Revenues – Revenues from outside of the United States totaled $3.52 billion, representing 53% of total revenues in the fourth quarter of 2009, compared to 53% in the third quarter of 2009 and 50% in the fourth quarter of 2008... Revenues from the United Kingdom totaled $772 million, representing 12% of revenues in the fourth quarter of 2009, compared to 12% in the fourth quarter of 2008.
  • Paid Clicks – Aggregate paid clicks, which include clicks related to ads served on Google sites and the sites of our AdSense partners, increased approximately 13% over the fourth quarter of 2008 and increased approximately 9% over the third quarter of 2009.

  You can watch the investors call on YouTube.

  Here are some comments from members of WebmasterWorld on this financial news:

  Hah, mere pocket change.

  That's about 300-400 million net profit off Adsense. Not bad for a program that serves ads.

  There is more analysis of the announcement in the thread.

  Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.