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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5033 items (4508 unread) in 3 feeds
Google
(305 unread)
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Official Google Webmaster Central Blog (305 unread)
SEO
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Emily Chang (334 unread)
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Search Engine Roundtable
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Search Engine Roundtable (4 unread)
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Daily Search Forum Recap: February 2, 2010
Posted: February 2nd, 2010, 10:00pm CET by rustybrick
Tags: Search Forum Recap
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Blue Pale Stars on Google News Confuses Users?
Posted: February 2nd, 2010, 3:02pm CET by rustybrick
Tags: Other Google Topics
Yesterday, Google announced a new feature for Google News. The feature lets users "star" news items. You can "star" news clusters by clicking on the blue pale stars.
Here is a picture:
What does starring news items do?
(1) It lets Google know that you're interested in that subject.
(2) When there are significant updates, Google will alert you by putting the headline in bold so you can get more information.
(3) You can also follow your 20 most recent starred stories in the "Starred" section of Google News.
It also confuses some people. A Google News Help thread had one person ask:
Why are there pale blue stars in front of main stories?
Nothing is wrong: I'm just puzzled.
Forum discussion at Google News Help.
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Google AdWords Disapproved For "Artificial Ad Traffic"
Posted: February 2nd, 2010, 2:44pm CET by rustybrick
Tags: Google AdWords
Some Google AdWords advertisers are reporting that their ads are being disapproved due to what is called "Artificial Ad Traffic." There are two thread at Google AdWords Help on the topic.
At this point, no one really fully understands the issue behind those warnings. An advertising policy guideline on Inflating Ad Clicks or Impressions was hyperlinked to by one AdWords helper. Then a Google representative, AdWordsPro, said that this was the correct answer to such a warning.
It says:
Don't promote inflating ad clicks or impressions.
Advertising is not permitted for the promotion of inflating clicks or impressions on ads, such as pay-to-click, pay-to-view, auto-surfing, automated ad clicking, and other guaranteed traffic programs.
An "Artificial Ad Traffic" disapproval has to do with the Inflating Ad Clicks or Impressions guideline.
Forum discussion at Google AdWords Help.
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A Week Later, Google Fixes Webmaster Tools iGoogle Gadgets
Posted: February 2nd, 2010, 2:38pm CET by rustybrick
Tags: Google Optimization
A week ago, we reported that the iGoogle Webmaster Tools gadgets were broken. Google confirmed the issue then and said they would be working on fixing them.
Yesterday, Jonathan Simon of Google said it was fixed. He said:
Good news...the Webmaster Tools' iGoogle Gadgets should be functioning as expected again. Thank you for hanging in there while we worked on getting this fixed.
Some confirmed the fix is indeed working. But when I checked it this morning, it doesn't seem to be fixed for me. Hopefully it is just me and it did not break again.
Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.