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)
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Official Google Webmaster Central Blog (325 unread)
SEO
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Emily Chang (347 unread)
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Search Engine Roundtable
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Search Engine Roundtable (7 unread)
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Daily Search Forum Recap: July 15, 2010
Posted: July 15th, 2010, 11:00pm CEST by rustybrick
Tags: Search Forum Recap
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Google Search Bug Prevents Some Searchers From Using Google
Posted: July 15th, 2010, 4:09pm CEST by rustybrick
Tags: Google Search Engine
Google has confirmed a bug that prevents some searchers from using Google search.
First reported in a Google Web Search Help thread just about two weeks ago, some users are unable to get any search results at Google.
The first report said:
In Firefox, old and new versions alike, trying to do a search on a results page while not being logged into a google account does nothing.
Tried hitting enter, nothing. Tried hitting the search button, nothing.
If Google isn't working, he said the "Internet is broken."
Googler, Hach, confirmed the bug a day later, saying:
This issue has been fixed but might take a while to roll-out to everyone. Please let me know if you continue to have problems searching on the results page.
As you know, we rely on the support of our amazing user community - thanks everyone for your help!
The issue is, many are still reporting that they cannot search using Google and Firefox. Technically, I am not sure what the issue is but maybe it isn't really fixed?
Forum discussion at Google Web Search Help.
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Google Posts Maps & Places Video Answers, Like Matt Cutts
Posted: July 15th, 2010, 3:58pm CEST by rustybrick
Tags: Google Optimization
The Google Maps team has been fielding questions via Google Moderator and has produced currently eight video responses to the most popular questions. This is very similar to what Matt Cutts does on the Google Webmaster Help YouTube channel.
Google Places also has a YouTube Channel but let me share with you the 8+1 specific new videos of questions and answers:
Forum discussion at Google Places Help.
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PageRank META Tag In Real Life Use
Posted: July 15th, 2010, 3:35pm CEST by rustybrick
Tags: Google Optimization
You need a laugh, don't you? Well, I got one for you.
Spotted via a Google Webmaster Help thread, one webmaster is asking why his site "went to spam and not showing and ranking." The funny part is not the poor English or the fact that his site is indexed, but rather a look at his meta tags.
Here is a look at some, I repeat, not all but some of the meta tags on this site:
<meta name="abstract" content="AM Packers and Movers Domestic Relocation Pune, Residential Relocation services, Corporate Relocation" />
<meta name="author" content="" />
<meta name="alexa" content="100"></meta>
<meta name="googlebot" content="noodp" />
<meta name="pagerank™" content="10"></meta>
<meta name="revisit" content="2 days"></meta>
<meta name="revisit-after" content="2 days"></meta>
<meta name="robots" content="all, index, follow"></meta>
<meta name="distribution" content="global" />
<meta name="rating" content="general" />
<meta name="resourse-type" content="documents" />
<meta name="serps" content="1, 2, 3, 10, 11, ATF"></meta>
<meta name="subject" content="A M Packers and Movers - Trusted name in Packing and Moving Industry, offers Best Packers and movers in pune, Car Transportation, provides all transport and relocation services in all the Major Cites of India."></meta>
<meta name="relevance" content="high" />
<meta name="document-classification" content="Best Packers and Movers Pune, Pakcers and Movers, Relocation Services for Household Goods, Office & Commercial Shifting Services, Car Movers or Transportation Services." />Yea a meta tag for <meta name="pagerank™" content="10"></meta>
This was actually made fun of in a 2006 WebmasterWorld thread. But I haven't seen it since.
Forum discussion at Google Webmaster Help and hat tip to Colin McDermott.
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Google's Josef Frank Logo
Posted: July 15th, 2010, 3:23pm CEST by rustybrick
Tags: Other Google Topics
Visiting Google today on any Google property you will find a special Google logo for Josef Frank. It is Josef Frank's 125th birthday, he was born on July 15, 1885 and died on January 8, 1967 in Stockholm, Sweden. He is a well known Austrian/Swedish architect and textile designer.
Here is the Google Doodle for Josef Frank:
This may be the first person Google has placed a logo for with only a really small Wikipedia entry. The entry even talks about the Google Doodle:
Frank's designs were featured on Google's homepage on July 15, 2010. This is the anniversary of his birthday. Google picked Josef Frank's designs because they have similar objectives: innovation and love.
Forum discussion at Google Blogoscoped Forums.
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Yahoo Search's URL Ping Server Goes Offline. Beginning Of The End?
Posted: July 15th, 2010, 3:15pm CEST by rustybrick
Tags: Yahoo Search Optimization
WebmasterWorld's moderator, incrediBill, posted a thread at WebmasterWorld noting that Yahoo's URL Ping server seems to have gone offline recently. As he explains, when he tries to access the documented Ping URLs, he gets a dead response.
Try it yourself, try sending a ping via the documented example URLs:
- http://ping.feeds.yahoo.com/rss/ping?u=http://rss.news.yahoo.com/rss/topstories
- http://ping.feeds.yahoo.com/rss/ping?u=http://site.example.com/blog
The API URLs are dead as well, see [api.my.yahoo.com].
Is this the beginning of the end to Yahoo Search?
Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.
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Broad Match Modifier To Roll Out To All Google AdWords Advertisers
Posted: July 15th, 2010, 3:09pm CEST by rustybrick
Tags: Google AdWords
Two months ago, Google began testing a new AdWords type named broad match modifier. It basically allowed you to be "more specific with your broad match keywords, but be more lax than the phrase based match," as I explained then.
Back then, it was only available to advertisers in the U.K. and Canada. But now, Google announced they are now "rolling out globally in most languages." The exceptions are Chinese, Japanese, Thai, Arabic and Hebrew languages - Google does hope to roll it out to those languages soon as well.
Here is a graph explaining it:
Advertisers are already playing with it, it is however a bit too early to tell the results.
Forum discussion continued at WebmasterWorld.