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.
Feeds
5540 items (5015 unread) in 3 feeds
Google
(325 unread)
-
Official Google Webmaster Central Blog (325 unread)
SEO
(4690 unread)
-
Emily Chang (347 unread)
-
Search Engine Roundtable
(4343 unread)
Search Engine Roundtable (7 unread)
-
Daily Search Forum Recap: April 26, 2010
Posted: April 26th, 2010, 11:00pm CEST by rustybrick
Tags: Search Forum Recap
-
What's Changing With Google's AdWords Certification & API Quotas?
Posted: April 26th, 2010, 4:13pm CEST by rustybrick
Google announced significant changes to the AdWords Certification program and how they handle API call pricing.
(1) Google has redesigned their AdWords certification. It launched in 2004 as Google Advertising Professionals (GAP) program and is now going to be known as the Google AdWords Certification program.
(2) Google is pushing the AdWords partner database.
(3) They announced new preferred AdWords API pricing.A WebmasterWorld thread has eWhisper really doing an excellent job explaining what has changed. Let me quote that part:
Individual Qualification Old Days: One test and spend requirement.
Now: Two tests (one basic and any one of the advanced tests) and no spend requirement.
This seems that the individual qualification is more a resume bullet point than a way of attracting business.
Certified Partner
Old Days: This was a qualified company. Qualified companies required 3 GAPs and a nice spend requirement.Now: Need one Individual Qualification and spend $10k/quarter.
This is a much lower threshold.
Others
While Google still offers logos for analytics, website optimizer, etc - the AdWords Reseller and AdWords Company qualified logos showed both a combination of size (more than 1 employee) and spend.API
Here's the really good news. Agencies will now get API credits based upon client spend.In the old days, an individual advertiser or reseller could get free quote points, but agencies had to pay for it.
Now, just like individual advertisers; agencies can be eligible for credits if they have an agency page (a free listing page on Google's site that you can create once you're a partner).
Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.
Update: I asked Google what happens to those GAP certified advertisers, do they lose their certification? Google sent me the following reply:
Yup, they're still certified. That said, partners who are GAP certified will have to meet the new criteria, along with new terms and conditions, within a six-month period.
To be certified, each company must have one employee who has passed the Google Advertising Fundamentals exam, along with one Advanced exam (there are now four exams which cover a range of topics — Google Advertising Fundamentals, Advanced Search Advertising, Advanced Display Advertising, and Advanced Reporting and Analysis — instead of one broad exam). Additionally, the company must reach a 90-day minimum spend criteria of $10,000 USD or currency equivalent — which was previously $100k — and agree to new terms and conditions.
-
Is Google Crippling The Site: Command?
Posted: April 26th, 2010, 4:01pm CEST by rustybrick
Tags: Google Optimization
Tedster posted a thread at WebmasterWorld asking if Google is intentionally crippling the site: command. The site command basically let's you filter the Google search results to a single site, and is often used by SEOs and Webmasters to see how many pages Google has in their index.
In fact, we know Google has time and time again told us to ignore the site command. We also know that most SEOs now use Google Webmaster Tools to check the number of pages Google has indexed of their site, but still many use the site command.
Tedster said:
But these newly uninformative site: results have now been with us for many months and in the last few weeks the distortion seems to be intensifying. It is heartening that Webmaster Tools reports higher numbers in many cases - but does this mean Google won't be showing accurate numbers to anyone but those verified as responsible for the website?
Do you think this is Caffeine? Do you think Google just doesn't want to put resources towards this command? Do you think Google wants the site command do die?
Honestly, I am not sure - I just can't see Google killing the site command, it is too useful for site specific filter searching.
Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.
-
Googlers Leave Facebook, Is It Hypocritical?
Posted: April 26th, 2010, 3:44pm CEST by rustybrick
Tags: Other Google Topics
Last week Facebook announced the Open Graph program that essentially allows web sites to embed code on their pages that allows Facebook users to 'like' content on third-party web sites and automatically be included in Facebook. The issue is that technically, if this code is on web sites, Facebook is following you around the web unless you specifically opt out of this or sign out of Facebook. It gets more detailed, so read it over at Search Engine Land.
Due to this implementation, amongst other things, Googlers, including Matt Cutts deactivated their accounts. Matt explained:
I just deactivated my Facebook account using the guide at [goo.gl] Not hard to do & you can still revive it later.
Danny commented on the Search Engine Land post saying:
If it is a protest over privacy, will Matt close his Buzz account now?
I think they’ve have a few issues, as well :)
So do you think Googlers are being hypocritical here or they are deactivating their accounts for other reasons? Here is a poll:
Googlers On Facebook Deactivation:customer surveys
Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.
-
Google Has Over One Million AdSense Publishers
Posted: April 26th, 2010, 3:34pm CEST by rustybrick
Tags: Google AdSense
A Google AdSense blog post from last week was the first time Google told us a number of how many AdSense publishers they have. Google said they have "over one million publishers" in their network.
Google, I believe, has never given a size of their publisher network, outside of revenue earned as reported in their financial reports. But I do not believe they ever told anyone how large, in terms of the number of publishers, the AdSense network is.
A WebmasterWorld thread has some publishers saying they are shocked Google has so many publishers. Honestly, does one million sound like a lot? I am not sure. What do you think?
Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.
-
Google Doodle 3D Sculpture Art
Posted: April 26th, 2010, 3:17pm CEST by rustybrick
Tags: Other Google Topics
David Masse (masse.org) has been collecting Google Doodles since 1998. He has been printing and cutting them out and creating 3D sculptures of them over time.
David shared his art in the Google Web Search Help forums the other day. I wanted to make sure everyone got a chance to see them. Here they are:
Even one of them contains a picture of Dennis Hwang, Google's doodle artist.
Forum discussion at Google Web Search Help.
-
Google Says Trailing Slash & Non-Trailing Slash Are Different Pages
Posted: April 26th, 2010, 3:04pm CEST by rustybrick
Tags: Search Engine Optimization
Google posted a blog entry on how Google handles URLs with and without trailing slashes. For example, how does Google handle rustybrick.com/blog versus rustybrick.com/blog/?
Technically, Google would consider them unique pages if they didn't have the same content on them. Google said:
Google treats each URL above separately (and equally) regardless of whether it's a file or a directory, or it contains a trailing slash or it doesn't contain a trailing slash.
But Google isn't dumb and they know "trailing slash and non-trailing slash URLs often serve the same content." So they suggest you pick one and stick with it. Redirect the one you choose not to be your main URL to the other, so if you pick you want a trailing slash, then redirect the non trailing slash. Similar to what I do at rustybrick.com/blog versus rustybrick.com/blog/.
This is nothing new, we discussed this in 2004.
Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.