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: May 6, 2010
Posted: May 6th, 2010, 11:00pm CEST by rustybrick
Tags: Search Forum Recap
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Google Makes Drastic Change To User Interface, Many Hate It
Posted: May 6th, 2010, 3:33pm CEST by rustybrick
Tags: Google Search Engine
Google launched a new design for their search interface and it is also live on the mobile interface. There is no way for me to do a better post on the new Google UI than Danny Sullivan, so instead of trying, just go read what he wrote at Search Engine Land. When you are done, come back here to here the complaints in the forums. There is also tons and tons of articles on this, just see Techmeme.
We nicknamed this interface the Jazz interface and I doubt Google liked it. They have been testing it since November 2009 and slowly rolled it out to more and more users over time. They even made slight updates to the user interface over time.
The thing is, those vocal in the forums hate the design. The issue with that is that Google knows best, they really do. There is no way Google would have launched this new design without testing it to death. And by testing, I mean they run statistical tests to see if it works better than the previous design. So all those complaints in the forum, they are wrong. There are hundreds of threads, so I will only share some of them. We have threads at Google Web Search Help, Google Blogoscoped Forums, WebmasterWorldand others.
Many are saying Google copied Bing. I'll say those people don't know what they are talking about. Again, Danny has a nice recap of who is copying who but who did the three-pane UI first, which one of the major search engines? Ask did under Jim Lanzone, then Yahoo and Bing and now Google. I won't get more into this, just read what Danny wrote.
Here is a video of the new design:
Forum discussion at Google Web Search Help, Google Blogoscoped Forums and WebmasterWorld.
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Are More 'White Hat' SEO Techniques Being Classified As 'Black Hat'?
Posted: May 6th, 2010, 3:22pm CEST by rustybrick
Tags: Search Engine Optimization
A WebmasterWorld thread reminded me of a piece I wrote that attracted a lot of feedback from the industry. It was named Are SEO Blackhats Turning White or Is The Industry Melting? if you have not read it yet, go ahead, read it. Back then, I discussed how tactics that may have been considered black hat by some extreme white hats were no longer seen as so black. As tactics and Google became more transparent, people gained more knowledge and understanding and thus were better able to classify things into buckets. But is this trend changing?
The WebmasterWorld thread has a rant from an SEO who is upset that there are now an influx of webmasters who think they know it all, but know very little. The user summed it up nicely at the end, where he said:
Frowning on black-hat tactics is understandable, but increasingly things that were considered white-hat before are being treated as undesirable. The "hippie" days of the internet characterized by generosity and opportunity are long gone. Now it's all about the money, and this attitude has seeped into every corner of the web in a VERY preemptive manifestation.
It's true, you have webmasters who are confused about what is good linking and what is bad linking. But as more and more webmasters begin to learn a little bit about SEO and link building, more and more form opinions and rules that may be wrong. The open nature of linking has changed from just a few years ago. Those after links, often look for the wrong qualities, and those giving links are often not giving them due to the wrong reasons. Who is to blame? Google? Me? You? I am not sure. But there has always been confusion in this area and it does seem to get worse over time.
Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.
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Google AdWords API Bringing Remarketing Support Mid-Q3 2010
Posted: May 6th, 2010, 3:13pm CEST by rustybrick
Tags: Google AdWords
It is very rare, very rare, for Google to talk about launch dates and/or when new features are coming to existing products, but today I spotted a thread in the AdWords API Forum where a Googler gave some details on an upcoming feature. A couple months back, Google launched a form of behavioral targeting, they call it "remarketing" in Google AdWords.
Remarketing isn't search ads, it is within the content network and is really a form of behavioral targeting - again, not search. That being said, it is still an effective way to drive traffic to your site and there is potential ROI with the campaigns. Who knows, maybe this will be added to targeting features within your search campaigns, and if so - it can be scary for searchers but pretty sweet for advertisers.
In any event, Google currently doesn't have support for remarketing or audience targeting in the AdWords API. An advertiser asked when will the API support these features and surprisingly, a Googler replied.
Eric Koleda from the Google AdWords API Team said to expect it mid Q3 of this year. He said:Based on our current estimates, re-marketing and audience targeting functionality should be available in the API around mid-Q3. Please note that while we're sharing these rough estimates to help you plan your API development, all dates are subject to change.
Forum discussion at AdWords API Forum.
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Yahoo's New Ad Campaign, Not Search But I Like It
Posted: May 6th, 2010, 3:07pm CEST by rustybrick
Tags: Yahoo Search Engine
This doesn't change my opinion about Yahoo's not being in search but I do love Yahoo as a portal and a home page. Yahoo, to me, was always that perfect home page and it seems like although they gave up on search, they are going back to their pre-search days, as a destination portal.
From the Yahoo Corporate Blog, Yahoo shows off their new marketing message. Take a couple minutes to watch their message in a TV commercial format and tell me, do you like it? I do.
Yahoo! Tile Video @ Yahoo! VideoForum discussion at Google Blogoscoped Forums.
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Google Image Search Update May 2010
Posted: May 6th, 2010, 3:00pm CEST by rustybrick
Tags: Google PageRankSERP Updates
Zeus, the man who is known to follow the Google Image Search index and report back on any changes, is updating us on the state of that index. In a WebmasterWorld thread, Zeus said there is a new update that just took place. He said he is happy overall with the changes, because he noticed more images added to the results when the searchsearch filter is set to on. He said this update took place on April 28, 2010.
He said:
I have noticed search with "SafeSearch moderate on" has once again added more images to that filter which before was not there, which is of cause a good thing for the search quality, so once again nothing to complain about, which has also been the case now for some time, so it looks like Google image is finally stable.
He also added an example of what he saw on one of his sites:
A site of mine have lost all images , but 2 in safe search filter on, thats a little weird be cause nothing was done to the site or links added, so now im wondering if a ad could be the reason, I will have a look, I think such things are always interesting to solve and special since last year when you dont have to wait 3 Month for a image update.
The last reported shift in Google Images before this was on February 16th.
Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.
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Google's UK Elections Doodle Is Old Logo Design
Posted: May 6th, 2010, 2:52pm CEST by rustybrick
Tags: Google Search Engine
Yesterday, as I will write about a bit later, Google launched the Jazz interface to everyone. Part of that is a new Google logo but today, Google went back to the old logo on Google UK. On Google UK, Google has a logo for the 2010 elections and the logo is the old Google style.
Here is a picture:
In any event, a Google Blogoscoped Forums thread has a comment from Roger Browne that this door in the logo looks a lot like 10 Downing Street, which is the Prime Minister's Office.
Yesterday, there was a special logo on Google Thailand, it was some sort of rocket logo. I don't understand the logo, but it lead to this search result, บุญบั้งไฟ. Here is the logo:
Forum discussion at Google Blogoscoped Forums.