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• 

  Daily Search Forum Recap: July 2, 2010

  Posted: July 2nd, 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 Kills 100 Result Output Page? Scroogle Taken Down Again

  Posted: July 2nd, 2010, 3:51pm CEST by rustybrick

  Tags:  Google Optimization  

  An ongoing WebmasterWorld thread has been tracking the various advanced search result pages from Google since the Google redesign.

  Back in the day, google.com/ie would let you set a special URL parameter to show 100 results on the page. Google killed it and it gave Scroogle a set back for a little while.

  But webmasters and Scroogle found an alternative URL to get the same results. The alternative URL was adding on &output=ie to the Google URL.

  Today, that URL also no longer works for many. It does work for me, but I guess it is a matter of time until the URL goes away. Try it yourself.

  As Tedster said at WebmasterWorld, "Curses, foiled again! Time to get a script written, I guess." But as I said, Scroogle is out of business also. They wrote a message on their site saying:

  We regret to announce that our Google scraper may have to be permanently retired, thanks to a change at Google. It depends on whether Google is willing to restore the simple interface that we've been scraping since Scroogle started five years ago. Actually, we've been using that interface for scraping since Google-Watch.org began in 2002.

  ...

  
  Thank you for your support during these past five years. Check back in a week or so; if we don't hear from Google by next week, I think we can all assume that Google would rather have no Scroogle, and no privacy for searchers.

  What will happen is unclear. Google never particularly went after Scroogle, but they won't go out of their way to let a scrapper site do their work. Time will tell.

  Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld& Google Blogoscoped Forums.

  
  

• 

  Google Sitemaps Now Allows One File For All Formats

  Posted: July 2nd, 2010, 3:43pm CEST by rustybrick

  Tags:  Google Optimization  

  Google announced you can now use a single sitemap file for all the various content types. Vanessa Fox has the best analysis of what this means to webmasters and other search engines at Search Engine Land.

  In summary, it may lead to making things easier for SEOs and webmasters to worry about a single file. But sometimes, it makes sense to keep them separate. At the same time, it is questionable if Bing and other search engines will support this or not. As Vanessa said:

  A lot of work went into the launch of that alliance, with the goal of making things easier for content owners web-wide, and not just for one search engine. So the partial dismantling of it, even in spirit, is a bit disappointing.

  So will this confuse webmasters and just benefit Google? Time will tell. I guess the other search engines can just follow Google's lead?

  Forum discussion at Sphinn.

  
  

• 

  Users Revolting Over Google News, Google Doesn't Care

  Posted: July 2nd, 2010, 3:33pm CEST by rustybrick

  Tags:  Google Search Engine  

  Google News did a major redesign the other day and the Google News Forum in covered with complaints. There has to be hundreds and hundreds of complaints from users.

  But Googlers are replying with the following message:

  Thanks for your concern, everyone. We understand your frustration, but we have no plans to revert to the old version of Google News.

  Abe from Google replied after posting this explaining why Google made the change:

  We definitely made changes to the new version based on user feedback during the experimental phase. For example, one of the biggest things users told us was that they wanted more control over which sources they saw articles from. We took that feedback seriously, along with everything else users told us, and made that feature a launch priority. Users can now tell us which sources they want to see more or fewer articles from, and we think that feature makes the product much stronger. We're going to keep listening to your feedback, and we're going to keep improving the product based on it.

  Here are some select threads, I love the last one:

  • Google News has been redesigned
  • Homepage Redesign experiment
  • The new google news site sucks so bad that I am currently looking for an alternative. Anything else close ?
  • How to change news back to normal
  • PLEASE GIVE US A WAY TO OPT OUT OF THIS EXPERIMENTAL VERSION! ... ASAP!!!
  • Google News is experimenting with new features. Please let us know what you think!
  • here is how I rolled back to old google news layout
  • PLEASE return to old news layout.
  • Do you plan to allow those of us who are daily users to have the old format back? Hate it after being best fan !!!
  • Does anyone else think the changes to the Google news page suck?
  • Please allow reverting to the old version. The new version requires too much scrolling. Use two columns for news.
  • Can we have the option to keep the old version?
  • Does Google hate us?

  But we know, with the Google fade in and search redesign, people seriously complained, Google stuck to their guns and we don't hear so many complaints anymore.

  Please take the poll I posted yesterday, here it is again:

  Do You Like The New Google News Design?online survey

  Forum discussion at several dozen Google News Forum threads.

  
  

• 

  Google Webmaster Tools Reporting Slow For New Sites

  Posted: July 2nd, 2010, 3:25pm CEST by rustybrick

  Tags:  Google Optimization  

  A Google Webmaster Help thread has confirmed reports that for new sites and some others, the reports in Google Webmaster Tools may be delayed.

  JohnMu from Google said in the thread:

  It looks like this is a general slow-down in our Webmaster Tools reporting pipeline for some new sites and not something due to your site in particular. I would just give it more time, though I'm afraid I don't have any particular timeline that I can promise. Thanks for your patience :)

  There is clearly something clogging the pipes and Google for some sites. Whereas others are recently seeing huge increases in reporting numbers at Google Webmaster Tools.

  Forum discussion at Google Webmaster Help.

  
  

• 

  France May Fine Google Over Suspending AdWords Advertiser

  Posted: July 2nd, 2010, 3:17pm CEST by rustybrick

  Tags:  Google AdWords  

  Every day I hear of several reports of Google banning and suspending AdWords advertisers with no cause - at least according to the advertiser. Until now, no one really made Google shiver after them being suspending. Yea, there were some court cases, but typically Google always wins.

  Maybe not this time!

  Reuters reports the French authorities are requiring Google to "clarify within four months the scope and impact of the AdWords conditions applicable to devices aimed at evading traffic speed cameras and said Navx's AdWords account should be restored within five days." If they don't, Google may be fined.

  First Italy beats Google, which leads to more transparency. Now, France is going after AdWords to provide more transparency. Transparency is great, so I do hope this leads to something positive - a win win - for both advertisers and Google.

  I need to say, this is a significant 'order' from the French regulators that Google must comply with or fight in court. This is a significant event in history of the SEM industry.

  Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

  
  

• 

  Google To Take Over Airline Booking Industry, Buys ITA

  Posted: July 2nd, 2010, 3:09pm CEST by rustybrick

  Tags:  Google News Press  

  Google announced they have purchased ITA for $700 million. ITA is a flight information software company and will enable Google to "work on creating new flight search tools that will make it easier for you to search for flights, compare flight options and prices and get you quickly to a site where you can buy your ticket."

  The truth is, this may be the beginning of the end of other travel web sites. And Google knows it. Which is why they are already creating web sites specifically designed to convince the public that this is a good thing and the FTC shouldn't block it.

  Greg Sterling feels that Google will be under a lot of pressure about this deal and it might ultimately not be approved. I guess time will tell, but flight sites need to prepare.

  Forum discussion at Google Blogoscoped Forums and WebmasterWorld.