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Googlers Marching In New York Gay Parade
Fetched: June 27th, 2011, 7:12pm CEST by Barry Schwartz
Tags: Search Engine Photo Of The
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Obligatory Google PageRank Update Notification
Fetched: June 27th, 2011, 7:12pm CEST by Barry Schwartz
Tags: Google PageRank Algorithm Updates
As many of you know, I am not a huge fan of obsessing over Google's PageRank score as shown in the Google Toolbar.
But whenever there is a Google PageRank update in the toolbar, I feel obligated to report it. Why? Well, as per our purpose, we cover what SEOs and SEMs are discussing in the discussion forums. Whenever there is a PageRank update, SEOs really spend a lot of time and energy discussing it.
So after almost 6 months, Google has finally updated the toolbar PageRank values. At least that is what everyone is reporting in the forums. Personally, I did not look - but based on all the threads and posts, it seems like a global PageRank update was indeed pushed out.
The last one was about 6 months ago, and this comes about a month since Google's Matt Cutts said a PageRank update is coming soon.
So maybe Google will start updating the PageRank values twice a year instead of quarterly and before that, monthly. Google, I hope, will continue to downplay PageRank.
Forum discussion at Google Webmaster Help, DigitalPoint Forums and WebmasterWorld.
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Google Kills Google Health
Fetched: June 27th, 2011, 7:12pm CEST by Barry Schwartz
Tags: Other Google Topics
On Friday, Google announced the death of Google Health. Yes, Google Health which launched about three years ago is now being shut down.
Why? As Google said, it "is not having the broad impact that we hoped it would." Therefore they are shutting it down. I am not surprised, in fact, I expected it. I did not think when it launched Google would close it, but someone recently asked me about Google Health and I told them, I wouldn't be surprised if they closed it down within the year.
Why? You never hear anything about it. All the main Googlers in charge of the project either left the company or were migrated to new places. So it comes with no surprise that the announcement was made in 2011. Especially after the official FTC probe - I mean, it can't hurt to turn that off now.
The date it will go offline is January 1, 2012. If you are one of the few using it, you can download your data. To do that, see here.
Forum discussion at DigitalPoint Forums.
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Google AdsBot Does Not Support Canonical Tag
Fetched: June 27th, 2011, 7:12pm CEST by Barry Schwartz
Tags: Google AdWords
I spotted an interesting discussion, asking if Google's AdWords bot, aka AdBot, supports the canonical tag.
The canonical tag was launched in 2009 and has been used by many developers since then. But I've never seen it mentioned for use for Google AdWords landing pages and controlling Google's AdWords spiders.
A WebmasterWorld thread asks if it can be used to handle multiple landing pages or not.
From what I understand, Google's AdWords AdBot does not support the canonical tag. At least, I cannot find any mention of it in Google's documents, nor can I find any posts from AdWords advertisers claiming they have used it successfully.
The only thing I can find is a post from 2009 with one advertiser claiming it has messed up his Quality Score for his campaign.
Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.
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Google Tests Black Bar
Fetched: June 27th, 2011, 7:12pm CEST by Barry Schwartz
Tags: Google Search Engine
Over the weekend, Google began testing yet another user interface. This one has a new top bar, using a black background instead of a white or light gray color.
Here is a closer look:
There are some complaints from daily Google users that the black bar looks wrong. Even worse, those that customize their Google home page find the new black bar to completely ruin their custom Google home page.
That being said - Google is indeed testing the new black bar.
They are also testing a new grayed out design.
Google often tests new interfaces, positions and colors throughout the year.
Forum discussion at Google Web Search Help and Google Blogoscoped Forums.
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Google Me? Nope, Search For Me On Google
Fetched: June 27th, 2011, 7:12pm CEST by Barry Schwartz
Tags: Google AdWords
Personally, I love it when I see people or commercials on radio or TV tell others to "Google X" to find out services. Yea, it is a bit risky - what if you do not rank well or your ad is removed? But it is cool.
One advertiser said in a Google AdWords Help thread, am I "allowed to ask customers to "google: keyword"?" He wants to know if Google would sue him for using the word "Google" in a campaign for telling customers to Google him?
I doubt it but a Google AdWords representative said it is better to be safe than sorry. Instead she/he suggested "it would be far better to say 'Do a Google search for keyword" than to say Google: keyword."
Legally, maybe but it has less appeal to it, in my opinion.
Plus, I doubt Google has an issue with it.
I find it funny that Google chimed in on this topic, to be honest.
Forum discussion at Google AdWords Help.
