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: October 25, 2010
Posted: October 25th, 2010, 11:00pm CEST by rustybrick
Tags: Search Forum Recap
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Daily Search Forum Recap: October 25, 2010
Posted: October 25th, 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.
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Was The Google German Testing Blog Hacked?
Posted: October 25th, 2010, 4:03pm CEST by rustybrick
Tags: Other Google Topics
In 2008, Google launched the Google German Testing blog at googletesting-de.blogspot.com. If you visit the German Testing Blog today, you will see it has a totally irrelevant and off topic, hack-like look.
Here is a picture:
Google announced it's launch on February 02, 2008 at the Google English Testing Blog, saying:
For those German-speaking folks among our readers of this English Google Testing Blog we have exciting news: We have just launched the German Testing Blog!
Thing is, they had one post on that blog and that was it. So maybe the blog elapsed and someone took it over and it wasn't hacked?
Forum discussion at Google Blogoscoped Forums.
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Google Says "Don't Be Afraid" Of Duplicate Content
Posted: October 25th, 2010, 3:52pm CEST by rustybrick
Tags: Google Optimization
One session we did not cover in our SES Chicago coverage was the duplicate content session and now I am regretting it. Susan Moskwa from Google presented and offered some advice and tips on the issue, from a Google's perspective.
Of course, she said the same thing Google always says about the topic. There is no real penalty for having duplicate content, it is a filter, not a penalty. Okay, okay, so what is new?
According to the coverage by Top Rank, Susan explained when webmasters should not worry about duplicate content. They include:
- Common, minimal duplication.
- When you think the benefit outweighs potential ranking concerns. Consider your cost of fixing the duplicate content situation vs. the benefit you would receive.
- Remember: duplication is common and search engines can handle it.
I honestly felt this way for a long time, but in many cases it might just make sense to make sure you do not have major duplicate content issues. Not always, but in many cases.
She added one more interesting tidbit:
A lot of people think that if they have duplicate content that they'll be penalized. In most cases, Google does not penalize sites for accidental duplication. Many, many, many sites have duplicate content.
Google may penalize sites for deliberate or manipulative duplication. For example: auto generated content, link networks or similar tactics designed to be manipulative.
Most cases, Google won't penalize for duplicate content, as said above. But if it is being done as a spam technique, then of course.
I do like one comment in the WebmasterWorld thread discussing this coverage:
If I had a nickel for every time I had to explain to someone the difference between a penalty and a filter... I'd have a lot of nickels.
Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.
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Want a Tour of Google? Are You From The Marines?
Posted: October 25th, 2010, 3:35pm CEST by rustybrick
Tags: Other Google Topics
Many people in this world would do a lot to get a personalized tour of Google. Especially those reading this site and those who use Google's products each day. Like it or not, Google is still perceived by the general population as a cool company that is not evil. And because of that, many people want to visit Google but Google doesn't open their doors to everyone (at least I don't think they do).
So how do you get a personalized tour from Google at the GooglePlex? Say you are from the Marines!
A Google Web Search Help thread has Lance Corporal Derrik Trace, a member of the United States Marine Corps. He said he "recently got back from a deployment to Afghanistan" and would love to tour Google. He said he "absolutely loves Google," and explains why:
Heck, I even used Google to look up the Marine Corps when i first thought of joining. It has been a dream since I first used Google to want to tour the facility, even if it's just to shake the engineer's hands. When I got stationed in Camp Pendleton, California, I knew it was time to pursue it. Next thing I know, I was put onto a deployment list with Security Company and went overseas to the glorious country of Afghanistan. I'm not complaining though, it was a blast... No pun intended. Now I'm writing this email hoping that it doesn't fall on deaf ears, as I'll probably still make the journey to Google's HQ to snap a few pictures in front of it, and I promise you they'll end up as my Facebook.
Great story and guess what? He got a pass. Kelly F from Google replied saying she will email him directly to touch base. She said, "First off, thanks for your service! I'm glad to hear that you love Google so much. Would you mind if we continued this conversation over email?"
I assume Lance Corporal Derrik Trace and his friend will be visiting Google in the near future for a private tour of the GooglePlex.
The rest of you? Well, you can visit the Google Culture page to get your virtual tour.
Forum discussion at Google Web Search Help.
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When Google Rewrites Your Title Tags
Posted: October 25th, 2010, 3:23pm CEST by rustybrick
Tags: Google Optimization
A Google Webmaster Help thread has JohnMu from Google explaining when Google may rewrite your title tags in the search results.
Typically, the title attribute used in your source code of your page is what Google would display in search results. But sometimes Google will change it and show something different.
John explained when Google may use the liberty to change the snippet's title from your title tag to something else. He offered three cases, I am sure there are more:
- Titles are particularly short
- Titles are shared across large parts of your site
- Titles appear to be mostly a collection of keywords
What do you do if this happens to your titles? John said:
One thing you can do to help prevent this is to make sure that your titles and descriptions are relevant, unique and compelling, without being "stuffed" with too much boilerplate text across your site.
Forum discussion at Google Webmaster Help.
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Google's Realtime Counter & Shared By In Web Search Results
Posted: October 25th, 2010, 3:12pm CEST by rustybrick
Tags: Google Search Engine
Danny and I reported at Search Engine Land on the Google Web Search Tests Getting More Social. Last week, Google began adding a realtime counter and "shared by" links in the web search results, on certain news one box results.
The Google Blog acknowledged it over the weekend. They said:
Since Realtime Search launched in December of last year, we’ve steadily updated the feature making it more comprehensive and easier to use. This week we added a Realtime counter underneath the News section of your search results. Now, when people on your favorite social networks are commenting on a particular topic you’ve searched for, you can easily see how many updates have been shared, all in real-time. This makes it easy to see when a news story is popular on the social web. Click the link to see the full Realtime Search results page.
Here is a picture:
Search Engine Land has many more images, so check it out. I personally only see the shared by links and not the realtime counter feature. There is not much forum discussion on this user interface and functionality addition to the Google web search results, at least not yet.
Forum discussion at Google Blogoscoped Forums and WebmasterWorld.
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Google Fixes Blogspot Indexing Issue: New Content Being Indexed
Posted: October 25th, 2010, 2:56pm CEST by rustybrick
Tags: Google Optimization
On Friday we reported on early reports of Google stopping indexing Blogger (aka blogspot.com) content. Any new content published on many blogspot URLs were not being indexed by Google.
Google's JohnMu commented this morning saying that this is now resolved. I checked the thread and as of yesterday it appears the bloggers are now telling us their new posts are being indexed again by Google.
John said:
This issue should be resolved now. It may still take a day or two for the content from that timeframe to be indexed, but new content should be getting indexed normally. If you are still seeing issues with indexing of new content, it's likely to be a different problem & I would recommend posting in our help forum with all the details. Thanks!
I honestly thought this wasn't a huge issue, but after posting it, it seems like more and more bloggers checked and notice and complained.
One blogger was thankful:
Everything has vastly improved. New posts are indexed within minutes, and all the posts between 10/19 and now that didn't get indexed are slowly joining the mix. A million thanks to Google for responding to this issue.
Keep in mind, if you are still seeing an issue, wait a couple days and if nothing is improved, post something in the forum. Your issue likely would have nothing to do with this specific Google bug.
Forum discussion continued at Google Webmaster Help.