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  Daily Search Forum Recap: April 8, 2010

  Posted: April 8th, 2010, 11:00pm CEST 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.

  
  

• 

  Google Sitemaps Now Accepting Images

  Posted: April 8th, 2010, 3:28pm CEST by rustybrick

  Tags:  Google Optimization  

  Sitemaps has truly been a basic SEO step for many large or even medium sized web sites. Google Image search has been a strong driver of traffic to many sites, but sometimes it is hard for webmasters to get their images indexed. Google announced support for images in Sitemaps.

  Here is an example:

  <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
    <urlset xmlns="http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9"
     xmlns:image="http://www.google.com/schemas/sitemap-image/1.1">
    <url>
      <loc>http://example.com/sample.html</loc>
      <image:image>
          <image:loc>http://example.com/image.jpg</image:loc>
      </image:image>
    </url>
  </urlset>

  With this you can specify image, location, caption, geolocation, title and license. For more details, see this document.

  Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

  
  

• 

  Yelp To Change Review Policies

  Posted: April 8th, 2010, 3:17pm CEST by rustybrick

  Tags:  Local Search  

  For years Yelp has had controversy over reviews displayed and added to the system. In fact, recently they were sued over them.

  In response to all the questions and legal issues, Yelp decided to make two changes.

  (1) You can now see filtered out reviews
  (2) Yelp is discontinuing the "Favorite Review" feature

  Here is one comment from a WebmasterWorld thread on this change of heart:

  Ahh this is great. Watching them back peddle and clean up yet claim they are doing nothing wrong... ;-)

  Never understood how such a large brand got away with what they were doing. It just didn't seem right (how they let companies control the reviews if they bought in to advertising).

  Wonder how many companies are going to want a refund for retracking a service they are no longer offering... Get out the checkbook.

  Yes, this is a good first step for Yelp.

  Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

  
  

• 

  Google Reminds Users How To Blur or Remove Maps Details

  Posted: April 8th, 2010, 3:02pm CEST by rustybrick

  Tags:  Other Google Topics  

  Ever want to remove something from Google Maps, such as a street view image of your car or you walking down the street? Google allows you to do so. Alvin from the Google Maps teams posted a thread at the Google Maps Help forum explaining how.

  I'll quote Alvin:

  Have you found your house on Street View and prefer it isn't show for privacy reasons? Have you found a face or license plate that hasn't been automatically blurred? If so, reporting an image for review is simple. All you have to do is:

  1. Locate the image in Street View
  2. Click "Report a problem" in the bottom-left of the Street View image window
  3. Complete the form, and click "Submit".

  We definitely understand the privacy concerns users may have, so once you submit your report, we will review your request promptly. You can find more information regarding this process at the following help-center topic:

  [maps.google.com]

  - Maps Guide Alvin

  I have been looking for my car or face on Google Maps but so far I have not found it. Maybe it is because I never go outdoors? Just kidding.

  Forum discussion at Google Maps Help.