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: September 14, 2010
Posted: September 14th, 2010, 11:00pm CEST by rustybrick
Tags: Search Forum Recap
-
Google Wants You To Tell Them Which Books Are Public Domain
Posted: September 14th, 2010, 4:06pm CEST by rustybrick
Tags: Google Search Engine
There are two or more threads at the Google Book Search Help forum on the topic of making more books "full view" accessible.
Full View is only available for books that are "out of copyright, or if the publisher or author has asked to make the book fully viewable." The Full View allows you to view any page from the book, and if the book is in the public domain, you can download, save and print a PDF version to read at your own pace.
Clearly Google would love if more books were full view so after one person complained that he found a book where the author died in 1821 and the book was not available in full view. Since the author died in 1821 the book should be in the public domain and available for full view.
So Googler, Sofia started a thread asking people to either post books that should be full view in the thread or submit the information via web form. The details Google needs to know to make the book available in full view are:
- Title
- Author
- URL of the book in Google Books
Forum discussion at Google Book Search Help.
-
Some Reports of September 2010 Google PageRank Update
Posted: September 14th, 2010, 4:01pm CEST by rustybrick
Tags: Google PageRankSERP Updates
There are some, not wide spread reports, of a Google PageRank update at WebmasterWorld and DigitalPoint Forums. Not everyone is agreeing on this, but there are enough people saying their PageRank values in the Google Toolbar has changed.
Some are saying they see gray bars and some are saying their PageRank is up or down a point. The last PageRank update we had was in July 2010, so I believe we are due an update now.
This may be a minor PageRank update and again, minor or not, what you see in the Google Toolbar has zero impact on where you rank in Google.
Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld and DigitalPoint Forums.
-
Poll: Google Instant Sending Less Traffic To Your Site?
Posted: September 14th, 2010, 3:46pm CEST by rustybrick
Tags: Google Optimization
There are some reports via Google Webmaster Help that some webmasters are noticing huge drops in referrals from Google since the Google Instant feature came out.
We all know that Google Instant has no impact on the ranking of search results on the Google search result page. But Google Instant does influence the types of queries people type in. So it may change how people search for buying, researching or navigating to web sites. The search query may have an impact on some sites. But are you impacted positively or negatively?
When Google launched their last search user interface redesign in May, 43% said their traffic was down since the update. But it was hard to pinpoint since the MayDay update happened just about the same time. Now we really don't have a major algorithmic update, so it may be easier to isolate the cause of a traffic drop from Google.
Please look at your traffic from Google, compare September 8 to September 13th to the previous week and see if your Google organic referrals changed. Then take this poll:
Google Referrals Change Since Google Instantsurvey software
Now have your friends take this poll.
Personally, I checked several sites and none of my referrals are down, some are actually up a lot.
Forum discussion at Google Webmaster Help.
-
Study On What Link Building Works in 2010
Posted: September 14th, 2010, 3:34pm CEST by rustybrick
Tags: Link Building
Tim Grice published a summary of a study he completed named Anchor Text Has Lost Its Edge. Let me summarize in bullet format:
- Building a strong domain is far more important than anchor text.
- Get links to all your pages, not just home page.
- Get links from a diverse set of sites
- Too many sitewide links don't help
- Use of same anchor text for all your links over and over again doesn't help
- Make sure many of your links use your brand name when linking to you
After summarizing the study, I don't think most link building experts would find these concepts new. But the thing here is, as he said:
I have the privilege of working with some of the biggest brands and best in house teams in the UK, that provides insight into multiple industries and the above trend is being played out in multiple markets, carry on doing the same thing you have been doing for years but trust me you’ll end up back at square one.
So he has a lot of data to back this, he said.
Forum discussion at Sphinn.
-
How Jessie Lunderby & Google Instant Can't "Get You Fired"
Posted: September 14th, 2010, 3:22pm CEST by rustybrick
Tags: Google Search Engine
With the launch of Google Instant Google knows what you are searching for before you even search. Or does it?
A disgruntled searcher posted a complaint in the Google Web Search Help forums saying that Google's new Instant feature can get you fired. How so?
He said he was doing a search for Jessie James but as he was typing the word Jessie, up came results and images of Jessie Lunderby, the playboy model. He said if he boss saw his screen, he would have been fired.
He seemed really upset and said, "This is the kind of thing that can get people fired."
Perhaps but maybe show your boss how Google Instant works? Maybe your boss has a friend named Jessie and tell him or her to try it? I doubt this would get anyone fired.
I found the complaint funny but yet, he does have a point. What if you have a kid the age of 8 whose name is Jessie and they begin searching for their name? Of course, Jessie is not the only example here.
Forum discussion at Google Web Search Help.
-
Google Chrome's Deadly Skull & Crossbones Security Warning
Posted: September 14th, 2010, 3:08pm CEST by rustybrick
Tags: Other Google Topics
With the latest version (version 6) of Google Chrome when you stumble upon an insecure web site, Google may show you a picture of a red skull and crossbones in the address bar. Here is a picture of what it may look like:
There is a thread at the Google Chrome Help forum with tons of complaints. One person said, "I wish they would change it back. The skull and crossbones looks way too serious."
The thing is, the security prompts comes up for security prompts such as the page being secure but also containing elements that are not secure. For example, if you have AdSense on an SSL page, it might show the red skull. Technically, the page itself is very secure and the contents of what is being passed on the page (minus some of the elements) are secure but Google is showing this very serious looking warning.
Brian from Google said:
We're experimenting with a new warning icon on the dev channel builds. The skull and crossbones icon means that some of the resources on the current page weren't loaded securely (using SSL). This is known to the nerds among us as a "mixed content warning." The old indicator for "mixed content" was less prominent, so even though the site you're seeing this on probably hasn't changed, the warning is now getting more attention.
Then after additional complaints, Tony from Google said they might swap it out:
However, we hear you that the skulls and crossbones are too alarming and we thank you for this feedback. We're currently looking into ways to address this concern and will keep everyone updated as soon as we have more information. In the meantime, I've also linked to a help article below that has some information on what the new icons mean in the interim.
Think this skull and crossbones is too severe? I think it depends on how insecure the page is.
Forum discussion at Google Chrome Help.