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: April 1, 2010
Posted: April 1st, 2010, 11:00pm CEST by rustybrick
Tags: Search Forum Recap
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Breaking: Google Caffeine Now Live, Renamed 'Kaffein'
Posted: April 1st, 2010, 4:21pm CEST by rustybrick
Tags: Google Optimization
We have been tracking the Google Caffeine index for a really long time. We recently reported it was almost live but today is that day - Caffeine is live!
What took so long? Well, we knew it would launch soon but due to mormons being upset with the code-name "Caffeine," due to their dietary restrictions, Google had to change the name.
Changing names is a very political and long-process at Google. Google, being Google, decided to go with the German spelling, "kaffein." A German chemist, Friedrich Ferdinand Runge, came up with this in 1819. So due to the issues with naming it "Caffeine," Google decided to put the breaks on that and use a less known word for it, kaffein.
Now that Google Kaffein has been renamed, Google has now taken it live.
Webmasters at WebmasterWorld seem to confirm the launch of kaffein. We have dozens of reports that it is now live, the reports starting coming in last night.
This does not appear to be an April Fools joke!
Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.
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Google & Other's April Fools 2010 Jokes
Posted: April 1st, 2010, 3:14pm CEST by rustybrick
Tags: Search Engine Industry News
I am keeping a running list of Google and other search related sites April Fools jokes at Search Engine Land. So please check out that post for more on the various jokes.
My favorite are the 3D ones, especially since YouTube is really 3D and they went text only. Of course, Google changed their name.
Plus a lot more.
Forum discussion at Google Blogoscoped, Google Maps Help, WebmasterWorld, DigitalPoint Forums, Google Web Search Help and Google Webmaster Help.
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Bing Uses Hyphens As Word Separators in URLs
Posted: April 1st, 2010, 3:09pm CEST by rustybrick
Tags: Microsoft MSN Search
A Bing Community thread has Bing's program manager, Brett Yount confirming that Bing prefers hyphens in the URLs as a word separator.
He said:
Hyphens are the preferred character for separating two words in URLs.
Google also uses hyphens as word separators so it is a good thing to know both engines handle them pretty much the same way.
Nothing ground breaking here, but a solid SEO point to have in your toolkit.
Forum discussion at Bing Community.
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Yahoo Shuts Down Yahoo Publisher Network, No One Surprised
Posted: April 1st, 2010, 3:04pm CEST by rustybrick
Tags: Yahoo Publisher Network
Yahoo announced they are closing down the Yahoo Publisher Network, which is the self-service contextual ad network that was set to compete with the extremely successful Google AdSense network. Yahoo's version has always been a failure when compared to Google, for many reasons.
Yahoo said:
Earlier today, Yahoo! emailed a small group of publishers participating in the Yahoo! Publisher Network self-service beta program (also known as “YPNO” or “Yahoo Publisher Network Online”), to inform them that we have decided to close the program effective April 30, 2010. This only affects our self-service platform for small publishers who syndicate our Content Match (contextual) listings.
At least, people will stop posting in the forums about how they can get accepted into the YPN program.
Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld, Search Engine Watch Forums and DigitalPoint Forums.
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Microsoft Behind Google Because Of Long-Tail Keyword Relevancy?
Posted: April 1st, 2010, 2:58pm CEST by rustybrick
Tags: Microsoft MSN Search
During Yusuf Mehdi's keynote last week at SES, Yusuf said Microsoft is behind Google due mostly on how they handle the long-tail keyword. eWeek explores this in more detail saying:
Microsoft fell so far behind Google in the search engine market because it failed to retrieve relevant results for a long line of less popular queries, a senior Microsoft executive told the crowd at the Search Engine Strategies show here March 25.
Such was the key reason Yusuf Mehdi, senior vice president of the Online Audience Group for Microsoft Bing, offered for why Google is light-years ahead of Microsoft in the search market. Google commands 65 percent of the U.S. share search market, compared with 11.5 percent for Microsoft Bing.
Mehdi, responding to a keynote host's observation that Microsoft was late to the Internet and search, said, "We missed the boat early on that the focus was about the long tail. We actually focused a lot on the head of the queries. ... It turned out the long tail was much more important."
It seems that webmasters and SEOs agree that although Bing is pretty good at the short types of keywords but when it comes to longer, more specific keyword searches, they don't do a great job.
Do you agree?
Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.