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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Google
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Official Google Webmaster Central Blog (325 unread)
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Daily Search Forum Recap: October 12, 2010
Posted: October 12th, 2010, 11:00pm CEST by rustybrick
Tags: Search Forum Recap
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Google Maps Penguins - Peguins For Street Views
Posted: October 12th, 2010, 4:40pm CEST by rustybrick
Tags: Other Google Topics
Did you know that in Antartica, Google uses Peguins (aka Penguins) instead of the Pegmans used elsewhere?
Here is a picture of the various rotations of the 'Peguins' used by Google Maps Street Views in Antartica:
Websonic posted this at the Google Blogoscoped Forums today, and linked to an example street view (which shows Penguins hanging out). Here is an screen capture:
How cute! FYI - I don't know if this is new, but it is cute...
Forum discussion at Google Blogoscoped Forums.
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What Is Google's "Unknown News Site" Webmaster Tools Error?
Posted: October 12th, 2010, 3:57pm CEST by rustybrick
Tags: Other Google Topics
A Google News Help thread has one news publisher saying he is receiving a news specific error in Webmaster Tools named "Unknown News Site."
I couldn't figure out what it was, I didn't see it in the News-specific crawl errors dictionary provided by Google. Eventually, I spotted the answer in this help document:
This error is displayed if your Sitemap is on a site that is not in the Google News database. Google News can only accept Sitemaps from sites that we crawl. If your site is crawled by Google News, please check that the URL of your Sitemap agrees with the URLs of your articles as they appear on Google News, including any leading "www". If you would like to request inclusion of your site in Google News, please contact us.
The thing is, even if your articles are showing up in Google News you still may see this error. I am not sure if it is just a timing issue or not.
Forum discussion at Google News Help.
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Bing's Former Program Manager Now Giving SEO Advice In Bing Forums
Posted: October 12th, 2010, 3:44pm CEST by rustybrick
Tags: Microsoft MSN Search
As you know, Bing is revamping their webmaster communications and thus let go most of the personalities we have grown to love in the Bing support area.
One such personality was Brett Yount, former Bing's webmaster center program manager who spent a lot of his time bridging the communication between webmasters and Bing within the Bing forums.
Since his departure, about 8 weeks ago, he has been silent in the forums. But yesterday he came back to life offering SEO advice for Bing, as a non-Bing employee.
In a Bing Community thread, Brett replied to a thread saying:
Links matter- Period.
If the page is indexed and if it fits your quality guidelines, go after it.
Having many low quality links from NON-SPAM sites (think P1 here...new sites, etc.) will help some.
Having a few high quality links from high PR sites will help more.
The web is called the web because your site should connect to many other relevant sites that eventually combine to make a web pattern.
YOUR TOP PRIORITY - becoming that little space in the middle of the spider's web. When you reach that, when you have many concentric rings of domains pointing to your domain at the center, at that time you will become the authority in your web-sphere of influence.
It makes you wonder how much of the algorithm Brett still or ever knew and his deeper understanding of how to make results pop on Bing?
In any event, it is good to see Brett participating in SEO discussions as a non-search engine representative. We see the same with former Googler, Vanessa Fox and others.
Forum discussion at Bing Community.
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Google Merchant Center Scheduled Uploads Not Working Again
Posted: October 12th, 2010, 3:36pm CEST by rustybrick
Tags: Google Optimization
Those of you who are Google Merchant Center / Base merchants should be aware that the scheduled automatic uploads are currently not working.
Ronald from Google posted a thread at the Google Merchant Center Help area saying:
We've noticed that a few users have reported that the scheduled uploads feature is not working since the last few days. Our engineers are aware of this issue and working to resolve it. In the meantime, please upload your data feeds manually. We will update this thread once this issue is resolved.
This is not the first time, it happened a few months back as well.
There is no estimated time for a fix, but I suspect it will be resolved within 48 hours.
Forum discussion at Google Merchant Center Help.
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Google Testing Highlighting Search Results On Mouse Over Event?
Posted: October 12th, 2010, 3:27pm CEST by rustybrick
Tags: Google Search Engine
A WebmasterWorld thread has one SEO noticing that Google is testing a new search results user interface. The new interface tends to highlight the background of a single search results, in a light blue, when a mouse moves over that result.
Supposedly, it looks a lot like the Google page previews test, but without the magnifying glass and page preview option. So I suspect it looks like this (I mocked this up off the page preview screens):
Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.
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Google News Showing News Based On Twitter Friends
Posted: October 12th, 2010, 3:14pm CEST by rustybrick
Tags: Other Google Topics
A week ago at Search Engine Land, I reported Google News is testing Twitter integration. Google News is experimenting with allowing some users enter their Twitter username and receive personalized news based on what their friends are reading and their friends interest.
Google describes this feature as "an experimental section in the side column that helps you find news articles that your friends are sharing on Twitter." Of course, technically you can enter anyone's Twitter username and see news related to their friends - which is not a privacy issue, but it is available. Google explained, "If someone you follow has shared an article or a link that cannot be found in Google News, then you will not see that update in the Friends section."
I should note this is a limited test and I personally do not see it. But @jblukin and @dacort both posted screen shots:
Forum discussion at DigitalPoint Forums.