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: September 15, 2010
Posted: September 15th, 2010, 11:00pm CEST by rustybrick
Tags: Search Forum Recap
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Google To Fix Lesbians & Explains Why Instant Results Are Omitted
Posted: September 15th, 2010, 4:07pm CEST by rustybrick
Tags: Google Search Engine
Google Instant added more advanced search completion and prediction to the Google interface. But when it launched, many asked why certain predictions and completions were not coming up. Google Instant shows search results as you type, but not for lesbian and other terms like bisexual.
One such example is typing in [lesbian], when you enter 'leb' the suggestions stop coming up. Entering the whole word doesn't even render results, you have to hit enter:
Google recently said in a Google Web Search Help thread that the lesbian example is a bug and Google will fix it. Kelly from Google said:
We've received some questions about why typing [lesbian] into the search box does not instantly show results. This is a bug and we are working to see if we can fix it. In the meantime, these results are available but require you to hit Enter.
She then goes on to explain why other results may not show search results:
If the results for a particular query seem pornographic, our algorithms may remove that query from autocomplete even if the query itself wouldn't otherwise violate our policies. This system is neither perfect nor instantaneous, and we will continue to work to make it better.
Kelly links to a document on how Google Instant works for additional information.
Forum discussion at Google Web Search Help.
Update: Seconds after writing this I wondered how Google could "fix" it to show search results for the term [lesbians] when the search leads to pornographic web sites. I decided to blog this question at Search Engine Land.
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Google News Search Bug or Feature?
Posted: September 15th, 2010, 4:00pm CEST by rustybrick
Tags: Google Search Engine
Since May, there have been complaints in the Google Web Search Help forum about Google News not sticking with the search query you entered after clicking on the "all x articles" link on a search result.
You can replicate this yourself by following these steps:
1. Go to Google News
2. Search for anything
3. Find "aggregated" item and click on "all x articles"You will then notice the search box is blank.
Here is a short screencast demonstrating this:
Again, it was reported at Google Web Search Help in May and then reported again at the Google News Help forum.
The first report didn't really specify Google News, so Googlers didn't understand it, nor did I. But this makes sense.
Forum discussion at Google Web Search Help and Google News Help.
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Twitter Redesign 2010
Posted: September 15th, 2010, 3:51pm CEST by rustybrick
Tags: Social Search
The big news last night was that Twitter is rolling out a redesign. If you watch the video below, start about 1 minutes and 10 seconds in, you can see the new design.
You can also read more about it at [twitter.com] or on Techmeme.
Here are the core changes:
- New design. The site has a cleaner timeline and a rich details pane that instantly adds more impact to individual Tweets while still maintaining the simplicity of the timeline. And, experience infinite scroll -- you no longer have to click “more” to view additional Tweets.
- Media. Now, it’s easy to see embedded photos and videos directly on Twitter, thanks to partnerships with DailyBooth, DeviantART, Etsy, Flickr, Justin.TV, Kickstarter, Kiva, Photozou, Plixi, Twitgoo, TwitPic, TwitVid, USTREAM, Vimeo, yfrog, and YouTube.
- Related content. When you click a Tweet, the details pane shows additional information related to the author or subject. Depending on the Tweet’s content, you may see: replies, other Tweets by that user, a map of where a geotagged Tweet was sent from, and more.
- Mini profiles. Click a username to see a mini profile without navigating from the page, which provides quick access to account information, including bio and recent Tweets.
Oh, follow me on twitter @rustybrick.
Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.
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Bing Revamping Webmaster Communication?
Posted: September 15th, 2010, 3:36pm CEST by rustybrick
Tags: Microsoft MSN Search
For the past month, I have been wondering why Brett Yount, former Bing's webmaster center program manager hasn't made a post at the forums he manages at the Bing Forums.
I then spotted a tweet by way of BigMouthMedia that says Bing's blog editor Rick DeJarnette is no longer working at Bing/Microsoft. He wrote, "After 2 years, Bing has new plans for the webmaster blog, so it’s time to move on."
So I checked Brett Yount's signature in a post and noticed he updated it recently to read, "*I no longer work for Bing."
What is going on? What is Microsoft doing to the Bing webmaster communication? I am not sure if someone replaced either Brett or Rick yet. It is clear that Rick was fired, he tweeted that Microsoft wants "to change course."
BigMouthMedia speculates that the change is due to the integration of Bing Webmaster Tools and Yahoo Site Explorer. That could be but honestly Yahoo was pretty bad at communication on the search side. At least over the past year, they were good years and years ago. Paid search side, Yahoo was and is still pretty good, but not on the organic search side.
I wonder what changes are brewing at Bing in terms of webmaster communication.
Forum discussion? Well, none really to point to sadly.
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Bing Now #2 Search Engine, They Didn't Even Have To Take Over Yahoo
Posted: September 15th, 2010, 3:26pm CEST by rustybrick
Tags: Microsoft MSN Search
Nielsen released a report showing that Bing, Microsoft's search engine, has finally surpassed Yahoo. That makes Bing the number two search engine, behind Google. Yahoo has taken the three position. This does not apparently include the fact that Bing is powering most of Yahoo Search queries.
A WebmasterWorld thread is very excited for Bing's success. One member said:
Good news. I'm pulling for Bing. Hopefully we get Google to adjust their attitude a bit which stinks lately.
I just find this funny being that Yahoo gave up on search by outsourcing the core search ranking algorithm and indexing to Bing and then Bing is eating their market share slowly and slowly. Plus, Bing is powering most of Yahoo's searches, so they get it on both ends. Good for Microsoft!
Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.
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Agatha Christie Google Logo & More Doodles For Today
Posted: September 15th, 2010, 3:17pm CEST by rustybrick
Tags: Other Google Topics
Today Google has several special Google logos or Doodles. The logos are for Agatha Christie, shown on many European Google properties, a Bicentenario de la Independencia México in Google Mexico and dia de la independencia El Salvador in Google El Salvador and día de la independencia Costa Rica in Costa Rica.
Here are those logos...
First Agatha Christie 120th birthday:
Bicentenario de la Independencia México:
dia de la independencia El Salvador:
día de la independencia Costa Rica:
Forum discussion at Google Blogoscoped Forums.