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Huge Android Balloon Art
Fetched: December 15th, 2011, 3:10pm CET by Barry Schwartz
Tags: Search Engine Photo Of The
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Official: Holiday Break For Google Panda Updates
Fetched: December 15th, 2011, 3:10pm CET by Barry Schwartz
Tags: Google Search Engine Optimization
Update: This is now official, Google tweeted that there won't be any new Panda updates until after the holidays. Google tweeted it several hours after we posted this assumption here. I'll embed the tweet at the bottom of this post.
It has been almost a month since the last official Google Panda update, which we named 3.1 and took place on November 18th.
Since then, we had some rumors of updates and fluxes but nothing confirmed from Google.
When I was at Google the other week, I asked if there were any updates. Matt Cutts didn't seem to know off the top of his hand but I know for a fact he has not announced anything since.
I assume at this point, Google will hold off on any major updates to both the search results algorithms and Panda algorithm. They do not want to cause a repeat of the Florida update at the most sensitive time for online retailers or shoppers.
There is a WebmasterWorld thread discussing the lack of Panda updates recently.
Here is the timeline of Panda updates, as you can see, there has been a major gap now since 11/18.
Panda Updates:
- Panda 3.1 on November 18th
- Panda 2.5.3 on October 19/20th
- Panda 2.5.2 on October 13th
- Panda 2.5.1 on October 9th
- Panda 2.5 on September 28th
- Panda 2.4 in August
- Panda 2.3 on around July 22nd.
- Panda 2.2 on June 18th or so.
- Panda 2.1 on May 9th or so.
- Panda 2.0 on April 11th or so.
- Panda 1.0 on February 24th
For more on Panda, see our Google Panda category.
Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.
Image credit to ShutterStock for holiday panda.
The Tweet:
Here is the tweet:
Search weather report: no major Panda updates until the new year. Context: goo.gl/XqLuN
รข" A Googler (@google) December 14, 2011 -
Google Author Stats in Webmaster Tools
Fetched: December 15th, 2011, 3:10pm CET by Barry Schwartz
Tags: Google Search Engine Optimization
Google announced a new feature yesterday for Webmaster Tools. The new feature is named "author stats" and can be found under the "labs" section of Google Webmaster Tools.
It basically provides click and impression for content authors have written and shows up in the Google search results page.
Here is a picture of the chart, which I do not yet see in my Google Webmaster Tools account:
John Mueller at Google posted this on his Google+ profile. He said, "Hey Google+'ers! Have you ever wanted to know how frequently your Google+ posts get found and clicked on in web-search ?"
Forum discussion at Google+.
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Google Promotes Google+ With Authorship More Link
Fetched: December 15th, 2011, 3:10pm CET by Barry Schwartz
Tags: Google Search Engine
A month ago, Google enabled the ability to click the author's name in the search results and go to the author's profile.
Now, Google added yet an additional link that says, "more by [author name] that takes you to a page with posts from the author's Google+ profile and more articles indexed by Google written by that author.
Wissam pointed me to this via his Google+ profile.
Here is a picture of the new link in Google's search results:
When you click on it, it takes you to this page:
AJ Kohn said:
The result of clicking that link is ... interesting. Definitely a MVP in my opinion. Promising but needs polish.
Forum discussion at Google+.
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Google's Hotel Comparison Ads Now Live
Fetched: December 15th, 2011, 3:10pm CET by Barry Schwartz
Tags: Google AdWords
A WebmasterWorld thread has reports of searchers noticing a new ad format available for hotels. The ad came up for a search on [las vegas hotels], although I cannot replicate it myself, and you see the typical comparison ads.
Matt McGee posted a picture of the ad on Search Engine Land:
This seems to be powered by the comparison ad feature, along with Google's hotel finder tool, as we also saw in the maps results.
Alex posted at WebmasterWorld saying:
This is an extremely aggressive move by Google. They will eat up the clicks share for these valuable keywords, drive more traffic to Hotel Finder and ultimately command higher rates that OTA's will have to pay to play. If this strategy works, Kayak is in big trouble. I see the exact same thing happening for Flight searches.
How do you feel?
Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.
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Daily Search Forum Recap: December 14, 2011
Fetched: December 15th, 2011, 12:27am CET by Barry Schwartz
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.
Search Engine Roundtable Stories:
- Holiday Break For Google Panda Updates?
It has been almost a month since the last official Google Panda update, which we named 3.1 and took place on November 18th. Since then, we had some rumors of updates and fluxes but nothing confirmed from Google. When I was at Google the other week... - Google Bug Leads To AdWords Gambling & Pharmaceutical Red Flags
Several Google AdWords advertisers posted complaints in the Google AdWords Help forum that their ads are being labelled as either gambling related or pharmaceutical, resulting in either special certificates required... - Babysitters: Don't Search For Young Babysitter On Google
A complaint arose from the Google Web Search Help forum that the results for babysitters learning about babysitting in Google is outright dangerous. The complaint comes from a person from the Babysitting Magazine... - Google Places Bug Prevents New Images
There are several threads and complaints from business owners that they cannot update their photos on their Google Places page. The central thread is at the Google Places Help forum where Google has confirmed the issue... - Google May Ramp Up Suicide Message For Holidays
For clinically depressed individuals, the holiday season can be a very hard time. A HackerNews thread talks about that but someone mentions that Google should ramp up their suicide messages for more and more countries. Currently, if you search for suicide like keywords in Google... - Google Holiday Present: Chromebook Cart
Seems like Google is giving away free Chromebook carts to Google Apps users who bought Chromebooks. Maybe this is part of Google's holiday gift for 2011? Krysss Nash posted the picture and the story
Other Great Search Forum Threads:
- Christmas SEO. What to change and why, WebmasterWorld
- Google WT API can't change wt:craw-rate, Google Webmaster Help
- A Site Url Problem For An Awkward Client., HighRankings Forums
- Doodle Flaubert, Google Blogoscoped Forum
- Holiday Break For Google Panda Updates?
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Holiday Break For Google Panda Updates?
Fetched: December 15th, 2011, 12:27am CET by Barry Schwartz
Tags: Google Search Engine Optimization
It has been almost a month since the last official Google Panda update, which we named 3.1 and took place on November 18th.
Since then, we had some rumors of updates and fluxes but nothing confirmed from Google.
When I was at Google the other week, I asked if there were any updates. Matt Cutts didn't seem to know off the top of his hand but I know for a fact he has not announced anything since.
I assume at this point, Google will hold off on any major updates to both the search results algorithms and Panda algorithm. They do not want to cause a repeat of the Florida update at the most sensitive time for online retailers or shoppers.
There is a WebmasterWorld thread discussing the lack of Panda updates recently.
Here is the timeline of Panda updates, as you can see, there has been a major gap now since 11/18.
Panda Updates:
- Panda 3.1 on November 18th
- Panda 2.5.3 on October 19/20th
- Panda 2.5.2 on October 13th
- Panda 2.5.1 on October 9th
- Panda 2.5 on September 28th
- Panda 2.4 in August
- Panda 2.3 on around July 22nd.
- Panda 2.2 on June 18th or so.
- Panda 2.1 on May 9th or so.
- Panda 2.0 on April 11th or so.
- Panda 1.0 on February 24th
For more on Panda, see our Google Panda category.
Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.
Image credit to ShutterStock for holiday panda.
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Google Bug Leads To AdWords Gambling & Pharmaceutical Red Flags
Fetched: December 15th, 2011, 12:27am CET by Barry Schwartz
Tags: Google AdWords
Several Google AdWords advertisers posted complaints in the Google AdWords Help forum that their ads are being labelled as either gambling related or pharmaceutical, resulting in either special certificates required, delays in ad approvals or disapprovals of ads.
Laura from Google confirmed there is a bug with the Google AdWords automated ad approval system. She said:
This morning we found a bug in the approval systems that was incorrectly flagging some ads as gambling- or pharmaceutical-related when they shouldn't have been. We're in the process of sending all those back through our systems and re-reviewing them from scratch so the problems get fixed. There's no ETA yet, but I hope it will be soon.
I apologize for the mix-up.
So if you have this issue, I assume you just need to wait for Google to fix it.
How long? There is no ETA.
Forum discussion at Google AdWords Help.
Image credit to ShutterStock for colorful test tubes.
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Babysitters: Don't Search For Young Babysitter On Google
Fetched: December 15th, 2011, 12:27am CET by Barry Schwartz
Tags: Google Search Engine
A complaint arose from the Google Web Search Help forum that the results for babysitters learning about babysitting in Google is outright dangerous.
The complaint comes from a person from the Babysitting Magazine, a resource for babysitters.
She said that when you search for [young babysitter] or other keywords like it, the majority of the results, like 90% are links to pornographic and adult oriented sites.
I took a look, although I did not click through, I labeled the obvious pornographic sites with XXX. I am not sure if the ones I did not label led to adult related content or not, they may have:
I assume most people searching for [young babysitter] is looking for porn. But that new babysitter looking for tips on how to be a young babysitter may find herself getting tips about other professions.
Google to blame?
Forum discussion at Google Web Search Help.
Image credit to ShutterStock for baby approved graphic.
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Google Places Bug Prevents New Images
Fetched: December 15th, 2011, 12:27am CET by Barry Schwartz
Tags: Google Maps
There are several threads and complaints from business owners that they cannot update their photos on their Google Places page.
The central thread is at the Google Places Help forum where Google has confirmed the issue.
The issue seems to be where using the image source feature from a third party site. It simply won't add a new image that way. Here is a picture:
Another issue I see is that all my business places images I uploaded years ago seem to be gone - maybe it is part of this bug.
Google's Vanessa confirmed the issue saying:
We know you're having trouble, and we're working on it -- but in the mean time, if you're having trouble uploading your photos via the Places dashboard, use the photo upload tool via the listing itself, and manage them via your Picasa web album.
Forum discussion at Google Places Help.
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Google May Ramp Up Suicide Message For Holidays
Fetched: December 15th, 2011, 12:27am CET by Barry Schwartz
Tags: Google Search Engine
For clinically depressed individuals, the holiday season can be a very hard time.
A HackerNews thread talks about that but someone mentions that Google should ramp up their suicide messages for more and more countries.
Currently, if you search for suicide like keywords in Google.com, Google UK, Google Australia and many other countries. Google will provide a toll free hotline for the country's suicide hotline.
Here are some pictures:
But for many countries, Google does not provide the hotline for that country. I assume many times, the country simply doesn't have an official hotline for people to call but the larger problem, it is hard for Google to manage. Thing is, Google is all about making information that is hard to find, easier to find - so I am sure they are up for the challenge.
Google's Matt Cutts replied to the thread that he will try, he said in reply to "Yep. It'd be nice if they added some different numbers for different countries. Paging Matt.."
Getting the numbers for different countries and making sure that they're current might be tricky, so I don't know how hard this would be, but I'll pass the request on.
Weird, because I tried it in Google UK and it worked but some say it does not.
In any event, if Google can save even one life - I am sure it would be worth it.
Forum discussion at HackerNews.
Image credit to ShutterStock for suicide dice image.
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Google Holiday Present: Chromebook Cart
Fetched: December 15th, 2011, 12:27am CET by Barry Schwartz
Tags: Search Engine Photo Of The
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Daily Search Forum Recap: December 13, 2011
Fetched: December 15th, 2011, 12:27am CET by Barry Schwartz
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.
Search Engine Roundtable Stories:
- Google Hides/Shows +1 Button In Search Results
As I reported at Search Engine Land as Google Operating System noticed, the Google +1 button in the search results is by default now hidden until you place hour mouse cursor over the search result. When you mouse over the search result, the +1 button appears... - CTR Dropping For Google AdSense Publishers?
A WebmasterWorld thread has complaints from some Google AdSense publishers of low click through rates (CTR) compared to the average. I don't use AdSense that much... - Google Drops Scholar From Navigation Bar
There are complaints in the Google Web Search Help forums that Google has removed the Google Scholar option from the main drop down navigation menu. This change came with Google's new top bar change from a week or so ago - that is still rolling out slowly... - What Google Thinks Of An English Person
There are several threads at the Google Web Search Help forum with complaints about an offensive search result. If you search Google for [define an english person] Google returns the Wikipedia result for the term "Cunt"... - Google Lego High Heels
I spotted this paid of Googley high heels made out of legos designed by Finn Stone posted on M Monica's Google+ page. Would you wear these?
Other Great Search Forum Threads:
- Panda Release in Brazil, Chile, Argentina?, WebmasterWorld
- A snapshot of the way Google Search now pushes big brands to the top, WebmasterWorld
- Blogger gets G+ Sharing Feature, DigitalPoint Forums
- Christmas Time - Google AdWords Search Advertising Best Practices, Google AdWords Help
- Click-to-call in Google AdWords ads: Share your experiences and tips on using this AdWords product feature, Google AdWords Help
- Google AdWords Community Account Development - Aaron's 'Grab 1 Snack Bars' need help with Display Network Performance, Google AdWords Help
- Google Promoting Hotel Price Ads in Paid Search - Major Update, WebmasterWorld
- HP's WebOS Released As Open Source, WebmasterWorld
- Image ads in Google AdWords ads: Share your experiences and tips on how to use this AdWords product feature, Google AdWords Help
- Typing 'do' then space or / or results in the page rotating. Is this expected?, Google Web Search Help
- Google Hides/Shows +1 Button In Search Results
