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Daily Search Forum Recap: November 17, 2010

Posted: November 17th, 2010, 10:00pm CET 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.

Yahoo Clues Brings "Search Flows" To Keyword Research

Posted: November 17th, 2010, 2:47pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Yahoo Search Engine

Yesterday, Yahoo announced a very cool new search keyword tool named Yahoo Clues. I did a pretty detailed write up on it at Search Engine Land, so I will try not to repeat much of that here.

In short, this is a keyword tool that shows you data for only the most popular queries. Yahoo said the tool is also updated about every hour. The tool shows you demographic data, such as gender and age, income levels, geographic location and related keywords.

The somewhat unique part of this tool is the "search flow." It shows you the most likely preview query and next query on Yahoo after searching for that term. So for those iPhone normally search for these searches prior to search for iPhone:

$8 million iphone
iphone 4
verizon iphone
iphone price
iphone rumors

And this is what they search for next:

new iphone 2010
iphone 4
iphone price
iphone verizon
iphone rumors

The chain here is important.

For more on how this works, see the help documents and the video below.

Forum discussion at Sphinn and WebmasterWorld.

Google News Asking Publishers To Tell The Truth With New Syndication Tags

Posted: November 17th, 2010, 2:40pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

One of the main issues Google has, especially with fresh news content, is figuring out where the first story or original story came from. Often you will see hundreds of different news agencies writing about the same news story, non citing where they got the news from. They all want to be known as the best, most accurate and breaking source of the news.

Google News announced a new set of meta tags that allow publishers to tell the truth. They want publishers to use the tag to either admit they are not the original source or lie and say they are the original source.

(1) syndication-source meta tag: Use this code <meta name="syndication-source" content="http://www.publisherX.com/wire_story_1.html"> when you want to say if Publisher X syndicates stories to Publisher Y.

(2) original-source meta tag: Use this code to say you are the original source: <meta name="original-source" content="http://www.example.com/burglary_at_watergate.html">

Google admitted they are "experimenting" with this and will see where it takes them.

Personally, I'd be shocked if it was used write by the main stream media.

Forum discussion at Google News Help & WebmasterWorld.

Google Voice For iPhone

Posted: November 17th, 2010, 2:35pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

I'll probably never use it, but Google Voice for iPhone may have been one of the most anticipated iPhone apps ever. Apple has finally approved the native iOS app to run on iPhones in the United States.

You can download it for free in iTunes.

The features include:

Cheap rates for international calls
Free text messaging to U.S. numbers
Voicemail transcription
Display your Google Voice number as caller ID when making calls
Push notifications to alert you instantly when you receive a new voicemail or text message
Most of calls will be placed via Direct Access Numbers, making them connect just as quickly as regular phone calls
Call contacts from your iPhone Address Book or enter new numbers on the dialpad.

Forum discussion at Google Mobile Help and Google Blogoscoped Forums.

Remove Google's Instant Previews In Firefox or Chrome

Posted: November 17th, 2010, 2:30pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Google Search Engine

Earlier this month, Google released Instant Previews. On the whole, I think most people like them, but there are many people who don't like them. There is no good way to turn off instant previews without turning off Google Instant.

Until now that is.

ArpitNext created a script for Firefox and Chrome that disables the Instant Previews from showing up on your Google search results.

So if you hate them and you use Firefox or Chrome, install it.

I monitor the forums and I see tons and tons of upset searchers over the instant previews. Again, I think for the most part, people are happy with it. But if you are not, you can not remove them.

Forum discussion at Google Blogoscoped Forums.

Google "Ads" From "Sponsored Links" Name Change Positive Impact on Click Through Rate

Posted: November 17th, 2010, 2:16pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Google AdWords

A couple weeks ago, Google changed the name of sponsored links to ads as the search ads label. I personally did not think it would have an immediate or long term impact on the click through rates on the ads.

But the Search Agents blog published a study showing click through rate is up since the change. Honestly, I am very skeptical of the data and it seems they are also.

They looked at over 80 million impressions and 1.5 million clicks between October 28 – November 10. Maybe that is the issue? This feature didn't really go live until November 5th I believe.

Either way - Search Agent promised to keep looking at the data to see if it had an impact. Not that it is all that easy to isolate the "ads" label as a variable from other Google tests or features that go live every now and then.

Here are their current findings based on what I posted above:

Average position increased 1.5%
Total impressions decreased 1.5%
Total clicks increased 9.7%
Average Click-Through Rate (CTR) increased 11.4%
Average cost per click (CPC) dropped 2.3%
Total cost increased 7.1%

Forum discussion at Sphinn.

Daily Search Forum Recap: November 16, 2010

Posted: November 16th, 2010, 10:00pm CET 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.

Official: Google Phonebook Not Working (phonebook: operator)

Posted: November 16th, 2010, 2:44pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Google Search Engine

There are many searchers complaining that the Google Phonebook is not working. A Google Web Search Help thread has some of those complaints.

It does appear to have changed the way it works. Just recently, Vanessa Fox wrote an article named Removing Your Personal Information From Google. In that article, she had a link to a Google Phonebook result for her own name, which showed several Vanessa Fox results, with addresses and phone numbers. Now, if I click on that search result, I don't see any results.

Now, there is nothing.

The thing is, if I knew the specific zip code that person lived in, I can still get phone book results. For example, [vanessa fox, 54661] returns this result:

But a simple search for Phonebook results as done in the past, seemed to have stopped showing phone numbers.

Forum discussion at Google Web Search Help.

Update: Google's JohnMu commented below that the phonebook operator was officially removed today. A Googler posted about this on his personal blog explaining.

Things change, and Google has dropped the phonebook: and rphonebook: operators for finding phone numbers (rphonebook: was for "residential phonebook" and focused on home phones). As you can imagine, this was an endless source of hassles for people (who were surprised to see themselves searchable on Google) and for Google (who had to constantly deal with all of the takedown requests and outraged letters from folks who thought they were unlisted).

Google Hotpot: Friend Powered Local Recommendations

Posted: November 16th, 2010, 2:36pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

Last night, Google announced Google Hotpot. Google Hotpot is a local recommendations engine powered by you and your friends.

Here is a picture:

The concept is simple, you and your friends rate stuff and when you search for local items on Google Places (Hotspot) you will be recommended places based on you and your friends likes and dislikes.

Vanessa Fox has one of the best write ups on this at Search Engine Land. I'll quote her conclusion:

On its own, Hotpot isn't necessarily that different than what's available elsewhere (such as on Urban Spoon, Yelp, and Facebook). But as part of a larger social and local combination (the pieces of which Google mostly has already), it could be very compelling. Particularly if Google partnered with someone like Foursquare, Google could vastly improve their personalization by not just what you search for, but by what you actually like. We'll have to watch and see if they can fulfill on this promise.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Are Google'sOne Box Results Unethical?

Posted: November 16th, 2010, 2:25pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Google Search Engine

Benjamin Edelman latest study named Hard-Coding Bias in Google "Algorithmic" Search Results tries to prove how Google hard codes their own links into the first results.

I will be honest, I have a serious problem with this "evidence." Edelman is known to be a solo watchdog on Google, but at the same time, he is extremely thorough and smart.

First let me give you his summary but take 5 minutes to read his evidence yourself:

I present categories of searches for which available evidence indicates Google has "hard-coded" its own links to appear at the top of algorithmic search results, and I offer a methodology for detecting certain kinds of tampering by comparing Google results for similar searches. I compare Google's hard-coded results with Google's public statements and promises, including a dozen denials but at least one admission. I tabulate affected search terms and examine other mechanisms also granting favored placement to Google's ancillary services. I conclude by analyzing the impact of Google's tampering on users and competition, and by proposing principles to block Google's bias.

The thing is, do you consider the one box results to be algorithmic? Personally, I am not sure. They are not Google's organic results. They are content databases, structured data, Google owns or licenses, to give searchers quick answers. Bing does it, Ask.com does it, Yahoo does it - everyone does it. Those are placed on the top, only when Google or the other search engines think the searcher is looking for an immediate answer.

You can argue the content isn't great and there may be better organic, algorithmic results - that is fine. I just don't see those one box results as algorithmic and thus I don't consider them to be hard coded algorithmic results.

Of course, whenever Google does come out with a new one box. Be it for weather, stock info, medical info or airline data - those sites that rank well for those types of terms do feel slighted. Yes, Google is pushing down their algorithmic results to place their paid, structured content above it. Is that fair? I don't know. But is Google hand coding their algorithmic results? It is a matter of definition and I think not.

Take my poll:

Is Google Unethically Hard Coding Results?online survey

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Google Product Search Update & Google Shopper Android App

Posted: November 16th, 2010, 2:13pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Google Search Engine

The holiday season is here, I have already began buying Chanukah gifts. Google introduced new features for the upcoming holiday shopping season.

They include:

(1) Local Inventory: If you search for a specific product, Google may show you if it is in stock at local stores on Google.com or Google Product Search. Merchants need to submit local inventory in their feeds for it to work, and if they do, it should show up. I tested it out and it seemed to work well.

(2) Popular Products & Aisles: These two new features are being added to Google Product Search. "Popular products" shows you what other users are viewing online, and "aisles" helps you refine your search based on product-specific subcategories. When a shopper searches for "camera lens," for example, we'll show her some popular lenses, as well as offer the option to filter her searches by relevant criteria like "maximum aperture."

(3) Google Shopper for Android: Google Shopper was updated to include search filters like "price" and "brand" to help shoppers easily find the right product. Here is a video of what it does:

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld& Google Merchant Center Help.

Facebook Launches "Seamless Messaging," Says Not Email

Posted: November 16th, 2010, 2:02pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Social Search

Everyone was expecting Facebook to announce a new email service to compete with Gmail, Yahoo Mail, Hotmail and others. Facebook made a point to say they are not producing a Gmail killer, but if their new service kills email, well - that is okay. But they are 100% not launching a Gmail killer. ;-)

If you missed the news, you can read the announcement here. In short, Facebook wants to place all your methods of communication in a single thread. So if you text message your sister, then email, then Facebook her and so on - all that communication is stored in a single thread on Facebook.com.

Here is how Facebook put it:

Today I'm excited to announce the next evolution of Messages. You decide how you want to talk to your friends: via SMS, chat, email or Messages. They will receive your message through whatever medium or device is convenient for them, and you can both have a conversation in real time. You shouldn't have to remember who prefers IM over email or worry about which technology to use. Simply choose their name and type a message. We are also providing an @facebook.com email address to every person on Facebook who wants one. Now people can share with friends over email, whether they're on Facebook or not. To be clear, Messages is not email. There are no subject lines, no cc, no bcc, and you can send a message by hitting the Enter key. We modeled it more closely to chat and reduced the number of things you need to do to send a message. We wanted to make this more like a conversation.

It is neat, but I saw a lot of feedback on Twitter as Facebook was announcing it. As some of you know, I really am not a fan of Facebook as a user. Maybe because I set it up wrong, but I personally barely use it. I know most people spend much of their day on Facebook, so I know how valuable it is.

Here is one Tweet, from Vanessa Fox, I want to highlight:

.bbpBox4239294440931328 {background:url(http://s.twimg.com/a/1288742912/images/themes/theme1/bg.png) #ffffff;padding:20px;} p.bbpTweet{background:#fff;padding:10px 12px 10px 12px;margin:0;min-height:48px;color:#000;font-size:18px !important;line-height:22px;-moz-border-radius:5px;-webkit-border-radius:5px} p.bbpTweet span.metadata{display:block;width:100%;clear:both;margin-top:8px;padding-top:12px;height:40px;border-top:1px solid #fff;border-top:1px solid #e6e6e6} p.bbpTweet span.metadata span.author{line-height:19px} p.bbpTweet span.metadata span.author img{float:left;margin:0 7px 0 0px;width:38px;height:38px} p.bbpTweet a:hover{text-decoration:underline}p.bbpTweet span.timestamp{font-size:12px;display:block}

Don't most people mostly use email for business purposes? Do we really need that communication to be more personal and immediate?less than a minute ago via Brizzly Vanessa Fox
vanessafox

But you really cannot deny the power in this. Unified messaging is nothing new. But Facebook has the power to make it work beyond everyone's wildest dreams.

What do you think?

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld and Search Engine Watch Forums.

Daily Search Forum Recap: November 15, 2010

Posted: November 15th, 2010, 10:00pm CET 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.

Some Missing Google Maps Reviews Return

Posted: November 15th, 2010, 2:32pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

A week ago, we reported that more Google Map Reviews went missing. Google actually said, for some there is a bug but for many others, they likely won't return due to Google taking a "stronger stance against spam and other forms of abuse."

As of this weekend, some have been reporting their reviews are back.

We have two threads at Google Places Help with comments from local businesses.

One said:

As of yesterday afternoon the 10 missing reviews have returned. They went missing sometime early on Monday, 11/8 and I noticed that they had returned as of late yesterday afternoon, 11/10.

Googler, Cecelia replied to a thread saying:

Glad to know that many of the reviews have been restored. For those of you who are still having trouble responding, please know that I'm looking into this.
Thanks for the updates and examples.

With any step up in spam prevention, some non spam items will be hit. So feel free to let Google know so they can review them manually.

Forum discussion at Google Places Help.

Google Merchant Center "Offer Too Big" Error

Posted: November 15th, 2010, 2:27pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Google Optimization

Ronald from the Google Merchant Center team posted on a new error some merchants might see. The post is at the Google Merchant Center Help forum.

The new error is named "offer too big" and can occur when your feed has an "unusually high number of characters" that are not relevant to the product in the feed. Ronald explained:

In the last few days, some of you may have noticed a new error message in your data feed details page called "offer too big." This error message is for items which have unusually high number of characters and may contain javascript code, HTML, etc instead of relevant text. To resolve this issue, please remove the unnecessary text from your items and include only relevant information in the values of the attributes.

So if you get this error, you can fix it by dropping out any excess HTML or code from your feeds.

Forum discussion at Google Merchant Center Help.

Video Recap of Weekly Search Buzz :: November 12, 2010

Posted: November 12th, 2010, 10:10pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Search Buzz RoundUp

This week at the Search Engine Roundtable, I covered the news that Google has released the year long beta for all AdSense publishers to test out. Google Instant Previews officially launched and I had some suggestions for Google Webmaster Tools in regards to that. Google changes the search ads label from "sponsored links" to "ads." They also test eleven ads at the top. The Microsoft adCenter bug might mean you have been banned due to quality issues. Business.com's directory is going offline. Yahoo is cutting jobs and Ask.com officially closed their search division, cutting 130 people. PubCon was this week and I shared our coverage and my favorite session. In Google Logos / Doodles this week we have Robert Louis Stevenson of the Treasure Island, the Veteran's Day logos from Google, Bing and Ask and Google's X-Ray logo. That was this past week at the Search Engine Roundtable.

Make sure to subscribe to our video feed or subscribe directly on iTunes to be notified of these updates and download the video in the background. You can also watch this live and ask questions during the show, typically Friday mornings around 9:30 (EST) at seroundtable.com/live, follow @rustybrick to be notified when we air. Here is the YouTube version of the feed:

For the original iTunes version, click here.

Search Topics of Discussion:

Please do subscribe via iTunes or on your favorite RSS reader. Don't forget to comment below with the right answer and good luck!

Daily Search Forum Recap: November 12, 2010

Posted: November 12th, 2010, 10:00pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Search Buzz RoundUp

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.

Suggestion: Instant Previews In Google Webmaster Tools

Posted: November 12th, 2010, 2:48pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Google Optimization

I complain about Google, Bing and other companies a lot here. But it has been a while since I offered some suggestions.

This morning I tweeted that I would expect to see a new feature in Google Webmaster Tools to manage the new Page Previews in the Google results. I base these suggestions off of seeing a lot of questions, concerns and complaints in the forums.

Suggestions for Instant Previews in Google Webmaster Tools:

(1) Re-Fetch Preview Request: A way to request new screen shots of your page previews. Honestly, it really doesn't have to work, just a placebo thing, like we have with elevator close door buttons and walk light buttons.

(2) Remove Preview: A way to tell Google you don't want your page preview to show up via Google Webmaster Tools. Yes, you can do this via the nosnippet tag, but why not add it in Webmaster Tools like you have for removing Sitelinks.

(3) Preview Impressions: Show in the stats section, how many people see your Instant Preview. You can plot it against the impressions and clicks, to see if people are looking at your page preview but not clicking.

Those are my ideas. I also posted them in the forum.

Forum discussion at Google Webmaster Help.

Google Search URL: untrusted_dlcp

Posted: November 12th, 2010, 2:42pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Google Search Engine

Have you ever seen the referral URL in Google's search results contain "untrusted_dlcp" in it? A WebmasterWorld thread has one member asking about it.

He said he spotted it when searching for the Google SEO Guide, which is a PDF. The URL looks like this:

static.googleusercontent.com/external_content/untrusted_dlcp/www.google.com/en//webmasters/docs/search-engine-optimization-starter-guide.pdf

I bolded the untrusted_dlcp part.

DLCP can have several definitions according to the Free Dictionary. They include:

Diversity Leadership Certificate Program
Data Link Change Proposal
Disneyland College Program
Demountable Load Carrying Platform
Distributed Least Congested Path

I guess we can rule out most of these and maybe pick either Data Link Change Proposal or Distributed Least Congested Path.

The key word here is then the "untrusted" part?

Moderator goodroi felt one should not "be too concerned about that directory structure name." Tedster thinks it has more of a "meaning "unverified" content, rather than "suspect"."

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Robert Louis Stevenson Google Logo

Posted: November 12th, 2010, 2:33pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

Tomorrow, November 13th, is 160th birthday of Robert Louis Stevenson. Robert Louis Stevenson is well known for writing Treasure Island, an adventure novel. The Google logo, which is now available on Google Australia depicts that well.

Robert Louis Stevenson was born in Edinburgh, Scotland and died at the age of 44 on December 3, 1894 in Vailima, Samoa. His most notable works include Treasure Island, A Child's Garden of Verses, Kidnapped, Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.

For more information about him, please see Wikipedia.

What do you think of this Google logo?

Forum discussion at Google Blogoscoped Forums.

My Search Rep Friends Keep Losing Their Jobs

Posted: November 12th, 2010, 2:22pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Other Yahoo Topics

There are few things that really upset me at the level of hearing about friends with health issues. People losing their jobs really bothers me. Being a boss that is in the position of having to let employees go is not fun. Thankfully I have never had to do it for financial reasons. But it doesn't make it any easier.

Hearing of family, friends or colleagues losing their jobs really affects me.

Maybe that is why I take the downfall of Ask.com and Yahoo Search so hard. I know tons of people at Ask who have lost their jobs over the years, many have joined other companies but not all. And this week, 130 more lost their jobs. Very upsetting to me.

Yahoo has had tremendous layoffs as well. Some have moved to Microsoft but not all. Now there is new news that another 10-20% are losing their jobs in the near future. This is very upsetting.

I understand that the company as a whole has to survive so that 100% of the employees don't lose their jobs. But it doesn't make it any easier to see family, friends and colleagues lose their jobs.

The search industry is a special place for me. I hate it when good people in this industry are out of work.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Google Maps Goes At It Alone In More Countries

Posted: November 12th, 2010, 2:15pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Google Search Engine

Like they did in the US and some other countries, Google Maps is moving away from relying on third party data providers for their map data. Google wants control over the data to make changes as they see fit.

Google announced they have now done so in 10 countries. Those new countries include Australia, Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Liechtenstein, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, South Africa and Switzerland.

Brian B. a Google Maps representative announced it also in the Google Maps Forum. He said, "Along with new map data, users can report any errors in these locations using the Report a Problem link in the lower right-hand corner of the map. This will help us make sure we have the most up to date maps available!"

It is all about Google being able to update errors faster and I guess not paying third parties for this data.

Forum discussion at Google Maps Forum.

Business.com Closing: Directory Links A Thing Of Past?

Posted: November 12th, 2010, 2:05pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Link Building

There are few high quality directories out there, one of them being Business.com. Well, there will be one less soon. The owners of Business.com announced they are closing it down.

Dex One Corporation today announced it is realigning its interactive operations and will fully integrate Business.com into Dex One. As a result, the company plans to phase out the standalone, national business-to-business sales and marketing operation and focus exclusively on the Dex One business.

Of course, some link builders are upset.

But many know the future of good ranking doesn't rely on a link from Business.com. It doesn't hurt but how much can it truly help?

Yahoo has been closing directories as well. So what is the future for web directories?

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld and HighRankings Forums.

Update: @RossHudgens received an email from Business.com saying the directory will remain open. They told him, "Both the Business.com Directory inclusion and Pay Per Click Program will be continuing to run as normal on the Business.com website."

PubCon Vegas 2010 Live Blog Coverage Recap

Posted: November 12th, 2010, 2:04pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: PubCon 2010 Las Vegas

I always enjoy the people, content and time I have at the PubCon Las Vegas show and this year was no different. Thanks to Brett and the PubCon team for having us - it was a great show!

I wanted to thank Brian Ussery of Search Discovery (@beussery) and Steve Krull of BeFoundOnline for helping me with the live blog coverage. The participation and appreciation we received from the industry was overwhelming - so thank you all for reading! But a huge thanks to Brian and Steve for the extremely tiring process of live blogging the sessions.

Here is a recap of our live blog coverage:

Day One:

Day Two:

Day Three:

PubCon 2010: Content Marketing Optimization

Posted: November 12th, 2010, 12:00am CET by rustybrick

Tags: PubCon 2010 Las Vegas

Below is live coverage of the Content Marketing Optimization from the PubCon 2010 conference.

This coverage is provided by Steve Krull of BeFoundOnline.

We are using a live blogging tool to provide the real time coverage, please excuse any typos. You can also interact with us and while we are live blogging, so feel free to ask us questions as we blog. We will publish the archive below after the session is completed.

Content Marketing Optimization

Daily Search Forum Recap: November 11, 2010

Posted: November 11th, 2010, 10:00pm CET 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.

PubCon 2010: Online Brand Management Strategies

Posted: November 11th, 2010, 8:15pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: PubCon 2010 Las Vegas

Below is live coverage of the Online Brand Management Strategies from the PubCon 2010 conference.

This coverage is provided by Steve Krull of BeFoundOnline.

We are using a live blogging tool to provide the real time coverage, please excuse any typos. You can also interact with us and while we are live blogging, so feel free to ask us questions as we blog. We will publish the archive below after the session is completed.

Online Brand Management Strategies

PubCon 2010: Linkfluence: Buying Links With Maximum Juice and Minimum Risk

Posted: November 11th, 2010, 7:00pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: PubCon 2010 Las Vegas

Below is live coverage of the Linkfluence: Buying Links With Maximum Juice and Minimum Risk from the PubCon 2010 conference.

This coverage is provided by Barry Schwartz of RustyBrick.

We are using a live blogging tool to provide the real time coverage, please excuse any typos. You can also interact with us and while we are live blogging, so feel free to ask us questions as we blog. We will publish the archive below after the session is completed.

Linkfluence: Buying Links With Maximum Juice and Minimum Risk

PubCon 2010: Monetizing Twitter & Other Social Media Channels

Posted: November 11th, 2010, 7:00pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: PubCon 2010 Las Vegas

Below is live coverage of the Monetizing Twitter & Other Social Media Channels from the PubCon 2010 conference.

This coverage is provided by Steve Krull of BeFoundOnline.

We are using a live blogging tool to provide the real time coverage, please excuse any typos. You can also interact with us and while we are live blogging, so feel free to ask us questions as we blog. We will publish the archive below after the session is completed.

Monetizing Twitter & Other Social Media Channels

PubCon 2010: Morning Keynote by Tim Mayer

Posted: November 11th, 2010, 5:45pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: PubCon 2010 Las Vegas

Below is live coverage of the Morning Keynote by Tim Mayer from the PubCon 2010 conference.

This coverage is provided by Steve Krull of BeFoundOnline & Barry Schwartz of RustyBrick.

We are using a live blogging tool to provide the real time coverage, please excuse any typos. You can also interact with us and while we are live blogging, so feel free to ask us questions as we blog. We will publish the archive below after the session is completed.

Morning Keynote by Tim Mayer

Veteran's Day 2010 Logos from Google, Bing, Ask But Not Yahoo, Again

Posted: November 11th, 2010, 2:42pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Search Engine Industry News

Today is Veteran's Day in the United States and some of the search engines have logos up for the special day. We have logos from Google, Bing, Ask all have special logos for the day - but not Yahoo. Yahoo didn't have a logo either the previous years.

It is also Armistice Day in the UK and Google has a red poppy icon and Ask also has lots of red poppies on their UK site, as does Bing.

Veteran's Day Logos 2010:

Google:

Bing:

Ask.com:

Search Engine Roundtable:

Armistice Day 2010:

Google:

Bing:

Ask.com:

I should add that there is a ton of complaints about Google now having a Marine Corps Birthday logo yesterday on their 235th birthday. You can see some of the many threads on that over at the Google Web Search Help forums and Google Webmaster Help forums.

For the past year's Veteran's Day logos, see our 2009, 2008, 2007 and 2004 logos. We missed a couple years, as you can see.

Forum discussion at Google Blogoscoped Forums, Google Web Search Help.

Google Maps Shows Asian Characters On University of California San Diego

Posted: November 11th, 2010, 2:31pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

A Google Maps user asked in a Google Maps Help thread, why does the University of California San Diego Google Maps listing show in Chinese characters?

Here is a link to the map result and here is a picture:

So Googler Dave responded saying:

Why yes, that's strange. I'll investigate internally. Thanks for reporting it. By the way in the future you can also report problems by clicking the "Report a problem" link in the lower-right corner of the map.

Truth be told, someone gave the university that title. If you look at its place page, you will see the title is 聖地牙哥加州大學 . So that is what Google is using. Here is a picture:

Either the university has to claim the business and rename it or someone needs to click on the "Edit this place" link on the place page.

Forum discussion at Google Maps Help.

Why Google's Results Number Doesn't Make Sense To Searchers

Posted: November 5th, 2010, 2:51pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Google Optimization

One of the most common questions I see from searchers and SEOs is why the total results figure on Google's search results is wrong or off. If you do a search at Google, Google will show you "about x results" at the top. Here is a picture:

This figure should not be trusted.

Danny Sullivan recently posted a comprehensive article on this named Why Google Can't Count Results Properly. In there, he highlights a comment from Google's Matt Cutts where he explains why less may mean more. Let me quote:

As to why the query [A B -C] can return more estimated results than [A B], that’s easy to explain. The query [A B -C] causes us to go deeper through our posting lists looking for matches, which can lead to more accurate (and larger) results estimates. Other things can cause us to go deeper in finding matches, such as clicking deeper in search results. Results estimates can also vary based on which data centers or indices your query hits, as well as what language you’re searching in.

I have never seen this explanation before, but now it is becoming popular.

I spotted a Google Web Search Help thread where a different Googler used a similar explanation.

Gideon Wald a product manager at Google Search said:

I'm not at liberty to discuss many aspects of Google's search algorithm (nor am I personally familiar with most of them!), but I can say that a common source of this type of discrepancy is that some kinds of searches cause us to look further within our index than other types of searches. Typically, this tends to happen when the user issues a query that imposes some sort of specificity or structure over and above simple keyword matching (e.g., using the "-" operator to explicitly exclude words). In such cases, we do a deeper scan of our index, since these queries, being more complex, often have fewer results. I can't say for certain, but I might guess that quoting your search terms is one choice that triggers a deeper search.

The more specific or detailed the query, the deeper Google will reach and thus it might show more.

Very interesting.

But I am not sure how this answers the site command issue. I basic site command is a pretty deep natured query, but it isn't all that accurate. I guess adding keywords to the site command always can provide a deeper search. But both are fairly deep in nature.

Forum discussion at Google Web Search Help.

Google Maps Error Causes Military Conflict Between Nicaragua & Costa Rica

Posted: November 5th, 2010, 2:41pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

Nicaragua Raids Costa Rica, Blames Google Maps by Matt McGee at Search Engine Land reported a some what comical but yet serious matter blamed on Google.

In short, the commander of the Nicaraguan military used Google Maps as proof that he can move his troops to the San Juan Lake, which technically is not in his country. Reports say that the troops took down the Costa Rican flag and raising the Nicaraguan flag.

I believe the military is still there and the Costa Rica government is not at ease.

Yes, to me this is a bit funny but in all reality, who knows what this can lead to.

A Google Maps Help thread has one very upset person saying:

It is incredible that thanks to Google there is a big conflict between Costa Rica and Nicaragua. Your negligence has gone beyond any expectation, at least have the decency to correct it.

Pretty crazy!

Forum discussion at Google Maps Help.

2010 SEO Industry Survey Results via SEOmoz

Posted: November 5th, 2010, 2:35pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Search Engine Industry News

SEOmoz did their SEO industry survey this year and received over 10,000 responses. I strongly recommend you skim the report, if you are in the industry. The responses can be found at SEOmoz.

Here are some data points I personally found interesting, but there is a lot more data here:

Those operating outside Google's guidelines are over twice as likely to have filed a spam report about others.
30% of broker-based link buyers have sent a re-consideration request to Google (compared to 12% in the general population)
The total PPC spend has increased to over $180m / month.
SEO outsourcing and consulting budget of around $18m / month (or ~$225m / year).

For the full results, click here.

Forum discussion at Sphinn.

Google Mocks How Yahoo Removes Images From Flickr

Posted: November 5th, 2010, 2:25pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Google Optimization

There is a complaint at the Google Webmaster Help forums from a Flickr user who said he removed an image from Flickr and went through the URL removal process but the image still shows up in the Google search results.

Now this is not uncommon but the response from Google's JohnMu was interesting.

John from Google said:

It does look like Flickr's handling of removed images leaves a bit to be desired in that regard...
Thanks for passing the URL on, squibble. I'll forward it to the team here.

Got that? To me that implies that when Flickr removes an image, it doesn't return the proper status code. So I decided to test it.

I uploaded an image to this URL on Flickr and then deleted it. Flickr returns a page that reads, "The photo you were looking for has been deleted." But if you check the server code, it does not return a proper 404, page not found code, as it should. Instead it returns a code of 200 OK, which means the page is still there. Since that is the case, it confuses Google's spiders and indexer thinking the image was not removed. So speed removals are slowed and it can take longer for the images to be removed from Google.

Forum discussion at Google Webmaster Help.

Google AdSense Ad Review Center Polluted With Unrelated Ads?

Posted: November 5th, 2010, 2:14pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Google AdSense

A WebmasterWorld thread has several Google AdSense publishers complaining that the Ad Review Center is polluted with ads to be reviewed that are totally off target to the web site they are wanting to be placed on.

One publisher said:

I decided to post this now that it's been four days and nothing has changed. When I check my ad reveiew center for targeted ads, I'm getting 12 or more new advertisers UNRELATED to my website (teeth whitening, spa treatments, etc.), each day. I'm spending a lot of time checking and blocking these ads from showing. Is anyone else seeing this since Nov. 1, or is it my issue?

There are several publishers posting "me too" style replies.

Personally, I don't manually approve ads, I should, but I am lazy. So I took a look at what was automatically approved by Google on my blogs and I saw an ad for the Cocaine Cowboys show or something. No idea what it is, but I doubt it is related to most of my blog posts - it may be, who knows but just found it to stand out from the crowd.

Some are even reporting that these ads lead to "non-existen domain and broken links in placement ads."

You having issues? There is a large help section for the ad review center at Google.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Google Instant On iPhone Stinks

Posted: November 5th, 2010, 2:05pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Google Search Engine

I have no strong feelings of Google Instant. I think it works well for many people and if they don't like it, they can turn it off. Personally, I don't mind it - even as an advanced searcher.

But yesterday, when Google announced Instant was now available on iPhones (iOS) and Android 2.2 devices, I had to take a look. What I discovered was that, at least on an iPhone, it is a waste of time and not a time saver.

The whole point of Google Instant is to show results instantly based on what you are typing or what you are about to type. The issue with Google Instant on an iPhone is that there is not enough screen real estate to show you the search results as you type.

For example, here is a screen shot of Google Instant in portait mode on my iPhone. You can barely see a piece of the ad:

If you turn your device in landscape mode, forget about seeing even a piece of the search results.

So what is the point of instant results on an iPhone when you can't see them?

Yea, Google let's you easily turn it off, which is what I did. But what's the point? Am I missing it?

I will say, it does look better on an Android device, especially the ones with the larger screens. Here is a video:

Forum discussion at Google Blogoscopd Forums and more coverage at Techmeme.

Daily Search Forum Recap: November 4, 2010

Posted: November 4th, 2010, 10:00pm CET 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.

Will You Use Google's mod_pagespeed?

Posted: November 4th, 2010, 2:40pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Google Optimization

A couple days ago, Google announced on several blogs that they released a new module for the Apache HTTP Server called mod_pagespeed.

It should do what the name says, speed up your pages. Google said:

We're starting with more than 15 on-the-fly optimizations that address various aspects of web performance, including optimizing caching, minimizing client-server round trips and minimizing payload size. We've seen mod_pagespeed reduce page load times by up to 50% (an average across a rough sample of sites we tried) -- in other words, essentially speeding up websites by about 2x, and sometimes even faster.

My team tested it but we have not yet activated it or made a decision if we will.

We all know how obsessed Google is with speed and how it may play a small part in the Google ranking algorithm. But at the same time, there are some concerns.

A WebmasterWorldthread has some of those concerns:

Great stuff provided it does what it promises, my only concern is about installing any thing coming from big bro on my servers. We'd better check sources before installing.

Also, the mod does a fair amount of page code 'rewriting', something once considered absolutely not okay when browser-based because of the high likelihood it messed up your original code -- alignments changed, ditto font and image sizes, etc.

On the flip side:

I see no reason that this would send anything back to Google. Google have never lied about what Chrome does - and you can turn it off.

So, will you use it? Take my poll:

Will You Use Google's mod_pagespeed?Market Research

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

November 2010 Google Webmaster Report

Posted: November 4th, 2010, 2:21pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Google PageRankSERP Updates

As we do every month, we summarize an ongoing WebmasterWorld thread specifically designed to track Google changes. We also provide links to the most interesting Google SEO related topics we covered in the past month. You can find last month's report over here.

Here are some of the points from the WebmasterWorld thread:

Significant ranking changes
Google's holiday shopping algorithm
Ranking changes from day to day

Tedster mentioned the "holiday shopping" algorithm, implying Google knows people are now in buy mode for the holiday season and maybe Google's algorithm is a bit more product/shopping sensitive these days?

Anyway, here is a break down of the topics we covered in the past month.

Google Algo/Ranking Related:

Google User Interface Related:

Google Webmaster Tools Related:

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Link Building Tip: Discover Broken Links & Request Those Links

Posted: November 4th, 2010, 2:07pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Link Building

A WebmasterWorld thread has a short discussion around a basic but solid link building tip. Basically the strategy is to find third-party web sites that link out to sites, but those links are simply linking to pages that no longer exist. Then politely email the site owner informing them of the broken link and suggest that you know of a resource that can replace the broken link.

The tip here is credited to Martinibuster, posted by wheel. I should note, Martinibuster has given this tip for almost as long as I have known him. But let me quote Wheel's interpretation of it:

Here's what I'm doing over the next month.
1) I'm going looking in the really old 2000 era directories specific to my niche.
2) I'm going to run Xenu link sleuth on the directories to find broken links (again, these will be links to sites in my niche). i.e. I'll build a list of defunct sites in my niche.
3) I'm going to find sites that link TOO those defunct sites, i.e. busted links on other sites.
4) I'm going link begging. Basically saying "hey, you got a busted link. And while you're fixing your web page, howzabout hookin' me up?'.

Worth a shot and you are doing the web a favor. :)

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Why Google Maps Transit Routes May Not Be Correct

Posted: November 4th, 2010, 2:00pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

A Google Maps Help has one Seattle mass transit commuter asking why the transit directions are not a 100% correct. In short, the routes Google plots for some transit directions do not follow the actual routes used by that transit agency. Instead, Google will plot a straight line, and not go along the streets.

You can see an example of this by clicking here - notice the route is basically a straight line across the map. Of course, this may change if you read this article months later, but for now, this is how it works.

Google's Dave explained why this may happen. Dave said:

Currently, we rely on the transit agency to provide us with information on the route. Although transit agencies can provide us with the exact shape of their routes, not all agencies do so. So we interpolate between stops, which we think is better than showing nothing.

That makes sense but obviously it might not be too clear to those using the transit directions. So Dave added, "I'll look into whether we can do something to provide a better experience on our end."

Forum discussion at Google Maps Help.

Daily Search Forum Recap: November 3, 2010

Posted: November 3rd, 2010, 10:00pm CET 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.

Google Webmaster Tools Says "You Have More Sites" To Add

Posted: November 3rd, 2010, 2:03pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Google Optimization

If you login to your Google Webmaster Tools account, you may be prompted to add more sites to your account.

When I logged in this morning, I saw:

You have more sites!
You're also a verified owner of these sites. Would you like to add them to your Webmaster Tools account?

This was followed by a list of domains and then two buttons:

Add selected sites
Always add

Here is a picture:

I should note that many of these were the non-www equivalent of sites I have already added to my Google Webmaster Tools sites list. It is best practice to add both the www and non www.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Google Brings Back Call Tracking: AdWords Call Metrics

Posted: November 3rd, 2010, 1:46pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Google AdWords

In May 2009, Google discontinued their call tracking phone numbers, which was supposed to be used for Google Audio Ads, but often used by search AdWords advertisers instead.

Now, Google is bringing them back and naming them "AdWords Call Metrics." Greg Sterling has a great write up on it, and he explains that although calls are free now, Google may begin to start charging for them, maybe as a CPC basis.

Here is a picture of the ads now live:

Here is a video demo:

Here is a screen shot of the ad set up in the AdWords console:

Forum discussion at DigitalPoint Forums.

Google Adds Rich Snippets Support For E-Commerce Sites

Posted: November 3rd, 2010, 1:37pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Google Optimization

Rich Snippets must be working out for Google, they continue to expand the use of the feature. In short, rich snippets let webmasters markup their HTML and content to give Google a bit more meta data so Google can enhance the snippets to displayed in the Google search results.

Google has now enabled rich snippets for shopping sites. Google said:

In time for the holiday season, we now support rich snippets for shopping (e-commerce) sites! As many of you know, rich snippets are search results that have been enhanced using structured data from your web pages. Our new format shows price, availability, and product reviews on pages offering a product for sale.

Here is an example of a rich snippet used for a shopping site in the Google search results:

How does it work? Well, you can read the help document on this which explains you have two options.

Option 1: Provide a Merchant Center feed.

Option 2: Add markup to your site.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

More Publishers Seeing New Google AdSense Interface

Posted: November 3rd, 2010, 1:27pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Google AdSense

I'll be honest, I really thought virtually all Google AdSense publishers were part of the new AdSense interface, known as V3. They have been beta testing it for over a year now and I personally have been using it for a year or so now.

A year of beta testing a beta? Yea, Google is known for keeping things in beta - but they do deliver the beta to everyone sooner than a year. Meaning, they may be known for keeping the beta label on products, but it doesn't typically shy them away from releasing the beta to more and more people. A year long beta push, to me, seems long.

In any event, there are tons of threads from Google AdSense publishers on the AdSense beta console. Like I said, I have screen shots from a year ago, and yea - they have slightly changed. Some threads are at Google Blogoscoped Forums, Google AdSense Help, and WebmasterWorld.

The main questions I have seen are what is the "coverage" metric and the "RPM" metric. A thread specifically about the coverage metric has Googler Guillaume explaining that:

This is a good question. Unfortunately the documentation is not complete yet, so here is a temporary explanation:
Coverage is the percentage of ad unit impressions or queries that showed ads:

- A coverage of 100% means that AdSense was always able to provide ads to match the content of the page (Content) or the query keywords (Search).

- A coverage of less than 100% means that AdSense was not able to find ads for some ad units or search queries, which didn't show ads as a result.

RPM is calculated by adding up the price charged to advertisers (CPM) for each ad block on the webpage, then subtracting the cost of delivering that advertising.

Forum discussion at Google Blogoscoped Forums, Google AdSense Help, and WebmasterWorld.

Google Analytics Suffering Data Outage : November 2, 2010

Posted: November 3rd, 2010, 1:20pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Tracking Conversion Measurements

If you attempt to check your traffic today, November 3rd, for yesterday's data, November 2nd - you will be surprised to see that you have had no traffic to your site.

There is a wide spread bug or delay in the Google Analytics reporting tool.

There are dozens of reports of this bug at the Google Analytics Forum, and threads at WebmasterWorld and Google Blogoscoped Forums, amongst others.

Here is a picture of my report for this site:

There is no word from Google yet on the issue, but I am sure they will fix it by tomorrow.

Forum discussion at Google Analytics Forum, WebmasterWorld and Google Blogoscoped Forums.

Update: Within 30 minutes of writing this, Google has fixed the issue. We all know should see data in our analytics account.

Daily Search Forum Recap: November 2, 2010

Posted: November 2nd, 2010, 10:00pm CET 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.

Live Blogging BlueGlass Florida

Posted: November 2nd, 2010, 2:56pm CET by rustybrick

Today and tomorrow I will be covering the BlueGlass Florida conference. I figured to streamline things and since I am the only live blogger covering it here, I thought I just stream my coverage in one blog post.

Below is a live stream of my coverage of the conference.

Sessions include:

Day One:

- Online PR – The Art of Getting Your Business Talked About * 9:00 – 10:15 AM
- How to Buy & Sell Web Companies (the right way) * 10:30 – 11:45 AM
- Domaining – The Evolving World of Domains * 1:00 – 2:15 PM
- SEO for Enterprise Level Businesses * 2:30 – 3:45 PM
- Online Reputation Management – Tactics on Running an ORM Campaign and Defending Your Brand in Search Results * 4:00 – 5:15 PM

Day Two:

- Viral Marketing * 9:00 – 10:15 AM
- The Power of the Community – Leveraging and Mobilizing Organic Online Communities * 10:30 – 11:45 AM
- Advanced PPC Tactics : Styling & Profiling! * 1:00 – 2:15 PM
- Link Building : The Key Differentiation Point of Search Rankings * 2:30 – 3:45 PM
- Local Search : The Future of Search is Now and Its in the Local Box. * 4:00 – 5:15 PM

I'll cover as many of them as I can. Here is our live blog coverage of the event, all below...

BlueGlass Florida 2010

Google Image Search Now Let's You Switch Back To Old Design

Posted: November 2nd, 2010, 2:04pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Google Search Engine

I am a bit surprised to see Google Images provide a way to go back to the old Google Image Search design. In July, Google came out with a new Google Image design, infinite scroll.

As you can imagine, not everyone were fans of the new design. Webmasters didn't like it cause it slowed people from visiting their site with the actual image. Searchers didn't all like it cause it was not what they were accustomed to. There were many bugs with it over the past months as well.

Today, I believe for the first time, there is a way to go back to the old Google Image search design.

If you scroll to the bottom of the images on the page, there is a new button that reads, "Switch to basic version." Clicking on it will take you to the old classic design. You can of course then switch back to the "Switch to standard version."

Google has slowly been giving searchers a way out of their bold new interfaces. When it came to Google News, they slowly are bringing back the old design. The Google fade in went away with Google Instant and so did their redesign. But when will Google Instant be reverted?

Jeff from the Google team is telling people about the new feature in the Google Web Search Help forum. He said:

You can switch back to the older version of Google Images by doing the following:
1) Perform any search on Google Images
2) Scroll to the bottom of the page
3) Click the "Switch to basic version" link at the bottom of the page

Forum discussion at Google Web Search Help.

Update: This is old news and has been there since day one. Sorry for the false alarm.

Report: Searcher Behavior Has Not Changed With Google Instant

Posted: November 2nd, 2010, 1:57pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Google Search Engine

So Google Instant has been live for a while now and Google said it would change how people search, make it faster, more efficient and help them search differently.

Conductor released a study that is showing otherwise. In short, Conductor is saying searcher behavior has not changed since Google Instant launched. Conductor said:

The data is telling in what it doesn’t show: if Instant was having a significant impact on searcher behavior we would expect to see things like a percentage of longer tail visits (4+ words) leaking back into the head (
By now, after looking at chart after chart of visitor metrics that appear nearly identical from one period to the next you are probably getting the sense that little has changed after Google rolled out Instant with much fanfare a little more than a month ago. The traffic data suggests searchers are searching the same way they always have and, with a month of getting used to Instant already behind them theres nothing that indicates that will change any time soon.

Not all webmasters agree, but from what I see and here - it seems most webmaster would agree. Search referrers, traffic, conversions and so on have not changed for the most part. Google is saying that searchers are finding search results faster, but ultimately I guess it isn't changing how they search.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Halloween Logos From Google, Yahoo, Bing & More: 2010 Scooby Doo Edition

Posted: October 31st, 2010, 2:17am CET by rustybrick

Tags: Search Engine Industry News

Happy Halloween everyone! Here are the logos from Google, Yahoo, Bing, Ask, Dogpile and others. For the past year's special Halloween logos, see the 2009, 2008, 2007, 2006, 2005 and 2004 Halloween logos.

This year, Google has a very special Halloween logo featuring the Scooby-Doo cartoon. You can flip between the five different logos by clicking on the right arrow, clicking on the logo or clicking on the palm imprint under the logo. For those who follow the forums, you want to see the special Google forum trick. :)

Here is a short video showing off the logo:

Here are static pictures of the logo:

Yahoo (Flash):

Yahoo (Static):

Bing:

Ask Jeeves UK:

DogPile:

YouTube:

Sogou:

Search Engine Roundtable:

Special Treat (or Trick) from the Google Webmaster Help Forums:

Also, the forum personalities dressed up their avatars this year.

Forum discussion at Google Blogoscoped Forums and Google Web master Help.

Daily Search Forum Recap: October 29, 2010

Posted: October 29th, 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.

Video Recap of Weekly Search Buzz :: October 29, 2010

Posted: October 29th, 2010, 9:50pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Search Buzz RoundUp

This may be the worse video recap I have ever done, so I apologize in advance - just really distracted while doing it. I first talked about the major indexing issue with Blogger and Blogspot new posts that Google fixed this week. Google has algorithms that define which algorithms should be used at different times on different sites. Google is updating or really buggy, I am not sure. Google added a real time counter to the search results, to show shared by. Google Places was added to Google web search. Google created a Chrome extension to make spam reporting easier. Google launched "boost" for businesses on Google Places but dropped the URL option for Tags. Yahoo's transition is complete, Microsoft gobbled them up well before Thanksgiving - good job! Google had an AdWords quality score reporting bug. Google had to change their AdWords policies in France. Microsoft adCenter may have an impressions reporting glitch. Facebook's Bing integration is now showing up on Bing.com for some. Google Maps is missing reviews again. What is this Google webmaster happiness metric I am hearing about. Finally, Google's Turkey logo is using the wrong flag. That was this past week at the Search Engine Roundtable.

Make sure to subscribe to our video feed or subscribe directly on iTunes to be notified of these updates and download the video in the background. You can also watch this live and ask questions during the show, typically Friday mornings around 9:30 (EST) at seroundtable.com/live, follow @rustybrick to be notified when we air. Here is the YouTube version of the feed:

For the original iTunes version, click here.

Search Topics of Discussion:

Please do subscribe via iTunes or on your favorite RSS reader. Don't forget to comment below with the right answer and good luck!

Google Update or Bug: More Complaints Over Google's Search Results

Posted: October 29th, 2010, 4:03pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Google PageRankSERP Updates

I am not sure what to call it but it seems there are more and more complaints on the Google search results this week. Earlier this week, we reported on a May Day round two update and explained how May Day can be patient in it's attack of your site.

That being said, there are two Webmaster World threads and a bunch of threads with complaints at Google Webmaster Help with complaints on:

Ranking changes
Content missing
URLs not showing properly
Snippets and titles not showing correctly
And more...

I am not sure exactly what is going on, but these reports do seem credible. If you want, post examples for JohnMu of Google to review at the Google Webmaster Help thread.

Forum discussion at Webmaster World and Google Webmaster Help.

Microsoft adCenter Reports Impressions Drop Bug?

Posted: October 29th, 2010, 3:55pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: MSN Microsoft adCenter

There are two threads on the topic of a possible bug with Microsoft adCenter. It seems like some advertisers are reporting seeing a major drop in the impression reports displayed for their search ads. A Microsoft Advertising Forum thread and a WebmasterWorld thread have reports from two advertisers.

Here is one report:

In the last few days several of our adcenter accounts have suddenly stopped generating spend. These are accounts with hundreds of adgroups and thousands of keywords. It's a sudden issue, but I suspect its somehow related to the migration. My reps have said they have other clients facing similar issues, but I can't find anything on the forums about it.
My server logs show short bursts of traffic for maybe an hour in the early morning and then not a single impression the rest of the day. Bids are not the issue, as I've tested raising some bids to 400% of their current levels and the ads still aren't showing.

In the Microsoft Advertising Forum thread, a Microsoft representative did reply telling the person to call in. The person did and was given information stating this is a bug, but the forum rep said it likely isn't a bug. Let me quote them.

Just got off the phone with a support engineer - this is a known system-side bug impacting a subset of advertisers. Starting this week, and occurring "randomly and intermittently", some accounts had their Ad Distribution setting set to "Not set", basically pausing all ad groups and campaigns in the account. This can be seen in the Medium column on the Ads tab. Unfortunately manually setting ad distribution to Search Network or other does not fix the problem. No known estimate to fix this...sigh...

Microsoft's forum representative replies:

There may be another reason as to why you are not receiving impressions or clicks in your account. When the Ad Distribution dispalys "Not Set" it means the distribution has not been determined as search or content yet because you have not received impressons in the adgroup. The Ad distribution in no way causes your adsto not show, there will be an underlying reason as to why this is occuring.
I understand our support team may have provided misguided information previously but I will have to recommend that you contact them again to have them look more in depth as to why your account is not performing.

So who is right? Microsoft or Microsoft? Oh wait?!

Of course this is a bigger issue now, cause Microsoft gobbled up Yahoo and now powers about 30% of the search ads in the US.

Forum discussion at Microsoft Advertising Forum thread and a WebmasterWorld .

Google Maps Reviews Gone Missing Again!

Posted: October 29th, 2010, 3:49pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

There are dozens of reports from business owners complaining their reviews listing on their Google Place pages are missing, or many are. There are many threads with complaints, but I'll link you to one at Google Places Help.

In that thread, Googler Stephan S. said:

Thanks for bringing this issue to our attention and sorry for the slow response.
We suffered a temporary indexing outage beginning of October that prevented us from correctly serving reviews for some listings. The reviews should now be restored. Very sorry for the trouble this has caused for some of you!

Please let me know if you are experiencing further problems. If you are, please provide me with the following information to help us get to the bottom of the issue:
* URL of the affected listing (you can find it by clicking on "Link" in the top right bar of your listing's Place Page)
* are reviews missing from the "Reviews by Google users" or "Reviews from around the web" section
* date reviews went missing
* number of reviews missing

The thing is, many are still missing reviews. Typically, if a review goes missing they'll come back, eventually. But maybe when Google divided the reviews it caused some additional issues?

Forum discussion at Google Places Help.

Google To Change AdWords Policies In France Only

Posted: October 29th, 2010, 3:42pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Google AdWords

Yesterday, the NY Times reported Google settled a case in France where Google would have to change some of their AdWords policies in France.

In short, NavX sued Google for suspending their AdWords ads. It turned out that Google thought the product they sold was illegal, but it wasn't. So Google updated their policies for advertising for that product in France, plus agreed to give 3-month notice to some advertisers on some ads, in France-only, before canceling or suspending an ad or advertiser.

When I covered the story yesterday, the article was a bit misleading. It made it sound like Google will be changing their policies globally, but I was unsure. The NavX lawyer said "this is a monumental event, because the French competition authority got Google to modify its contractual rules on a worldwide basis." But no, Google told me they are absolutely not changing their policies anywhere else but in France.

Google told me:

The FCA has said that software showing the location of speed cameras and radar detectors is legal in France, clarifying what was previously a gray area. We have revised our ads policy for these products, which has helped resolve the NavX complaint. At the same time, the FCA has recognized Google’s right to set clear content policies that guarantee ads are appropriate. In its decision to close this case, the FCA made no finding of dominance or monopoly abuse.
This agreement and the commitments we have made are very narrow. They deal only with ads for traffic devices in France. Nothing else. That said, we are always looking for ways to improve our AdWords services for the benefit of users and advertisers.

Sorry guys!

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Google Shows Wrong Flag For Turkey Republic Day

Posted: October 29th, 2010, 3:30pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

If you visit Google Turkey today at google.com.tr you will see a special doodle / logo for their Republic Day. The only issue is it appears to be the wrong flag!

Here is a picture of the special Turkey Republic Day logo from Google:

Now here is the Turkey Flag:

Notice the red background with white inside, versus what Google has as a white background with red inside.

It appears that the reverse is the flag for Northern Cyprus. Here is their flag:

There was one complaint, that I've seen, at the Google Web Search Help forum where the poster said:

Doodle for Turkey today (29.10.2010) is at wrong colors. The flag you put on doodle is Northern Cyprus's flag.

This isn't the first time Google mixed up flags for special country specific doodles. They mixed up the Hungary Doodle this past year. They also had typos in India and posted logos a month early.

Don't you love it when Google messes up? I am just kidding - they are allowed.

Forum discussion at Google Web Search Help and Google Blogoscoped Forums.

Facebook Drop Down On Bing Search? Yep, It's Rolling Out

Posted: October 29th, 2010, 3:10pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Microsoft MSN Search

A couple weeks ago, Bing partnered with Facebook to add a more social experience to the Bing search results. I covered the details of what is coming over here. Now, it seems to be rolling out slowly to Bing users.

If you are logged into Facebook and go to Bing.com and search for something, you may see a drop down on the right top corner stating:

Hi NAME, Bing just got better with your Facebook friends.

Here is a picture:

Yes, Facebook knows you are searching on Bing and Bing allows them to know. Again, you need to be logged into Facebook for this to work. And you can always disable it. Just click on disable or use this link to block the Bing App.

There are some people now seeing this live on Bing.com. I personally do not, but Jerry at the Search Engine Watch Forums said he now sees it. But he was a beat freaked out, I guess he didn't hear the announcement.

Jerry said, "How in the world did Bing get the right to snap up my profile and use it on their website?"

Anyway, it is here, do you see it?

For more on what it does to have Facebook with Bing, see DiscoverBing.com.

Forum discussion Search Engine Watch Forums.

Daily Search Forum Recap: October 28, 2010

Posted: October 28th, 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.

Google Pleases Local Optimizers & Upsets AdWords Optimizers With Place Search

Posted: October 28th, 2010, 3:23pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Google Search Engine

Yesterday, Google officially announced Place Search. We have seen signs of this coming with some tests in the past.

In short, if your search contains anything that might signal local intent, Google may show a map above the AdWords ads on the right, and then automatically include some local results within the organic results. Plus, they added a "Places" link on the left hand navigation bar in Google's search results.

If you don't see it yet, then you can try it out by clicking here or looking at this screen shot:

Greg Sterling has a nice review at Search Engine Land. Greg said "the changes reflect Google’s commitment to local." It does and many local optimizers are really happy with this and can't wait to start messing around and seeing how they can get their local results top.

But AdWords advertisers are not too happy. The map in the top right position moves down their ads that would have shown up otherwise. They are not happy. Plus, they feel it is merging the organic results with the paid results by having an organic map above on the right, of the ads.

Forum discussion at Google Places Help, DigitalPoint Forums, WebmasterWorld, HighRankings Forum, Search Engine Watch Forums and Google Web Search Help.

Google Confirms Major AdWords Quality Score Reporting Bug

Posted: October 28th, 2010, 3:15pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Google AdWords

If you visited any Google AdWords help forum in the past day or so, you would have seen dozens of complaints in the form of threads and posts from advertisers worried about their quality score. As you know, quality score is a major factor in determining the AdWords ad rank and price.

Google confirmed the bug in a couple threads, including one at the Google AdWords Help forum and one at WebmasterWorld. Google said it is just a reporting glitch and ad serving, I assume pricing and placement, have not been impacting by the reporting glitch.

The confirmation comes in two parts.

AdWordsPro said:

Many accounts are experiencing an unexpected drop in quality score for high performing keywords, starting around the 24th/25th of October 2010. This appears to be a reporting only issue, meaning that we display the quality score as incorrectly low in the account interface, while ad serving itself is not affected.
Please know that our engineers are looking into this as a top priority.

I will update this thread when I have further information.

The key word above was "appears," where program manager of AdWords, Adam, confirmed later on saying:

As earlier reported by AdsWordsPro, I can confirm that this issue did not impact serving (i.e., the system has been correctly computing auction-time Quality Score this entire time for ranking and pricing purposes).
This issue was limited to the reporting of Quality Score, and the fix should be live for all within the next 24 hours. For those keywords with a status of Low search volume, the fix should be live within the next few days.

Thank you all for your patience as we resolve this.

Things should be getting back to normal and you should not have been impacted, unless you made changes to your campaigns based on the reporting glitch. If so, put things back.

Forum discussion at he Google AdWords Help and WebmasterWorld.

Gobble Gobble: Microsoft Bing/adCenter Swallows Yahoo Completely In US & Canada

Posted: October 28th, 2010, 3:00pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: MSN Microsoft adCenter

As you know, Yahoo was planning on migrating everyone in the US and Canada over from their search ad platform to Microsoft adCenter by the end of this month. As Yahoo said, mission accomplished, Yahoo has successful handed themselves over to Microsoft on a platter. Ironically, well before the Thanksgiving holiday, which was their goal. Gobble Gobble!

I summed up the news and what this means at Search Engine Land but I'll bullet point it here.

US/Canada organic and paid search on Yahoo now fully powered by Bing.
CPC prices will increase, as we have seen, on Microsoft adCenter due to increased competition
You will be able to access your Yahoo reports in read only mode for 5 months at Yahoo
Historical data will remain for 13-months
Those spending a nice amount still will have their Yahoo reps, everyone else gets managed by Microsoft
Mobile ads will be migrated by the end of this month, which is now

Those are the key points.

I do have to commend Yahoo and Microsoft for completing this transition smoothly and well before the major holiday shopping season. But as you all know, I am still bitter about the whole deal.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Google Creates Chrome Extension To Report Search Spam

Posted: October 28th, 2010, 2:53pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Google Optimization

Google loves when webmasters and SEOs report search/web spam to them. Although 70% of SEOs won't report spam to Google, there is still a huge number of people who would. To make it easier for those spam reporters, Google has created a Chrome Extension named the Google Webspam Report.

I don't know for sure who made the extension at Google, but maybe it was Matt? Maybe?

There is a Google presentation on how it works, which I will embed below. The extension has:

Adds links to search result and web history pages to report spam quickly.
Prepopulates the spam report form where possible.
Select a spam url from your Chrome history.
Cycle through your recent Google searches to fill fields of the spam report page.
Options page to enable/disable features individually.

Daily Search Forum Recap: October 27, 2010

Posted: October 27th, 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.

Daily Search Forum Recap: October 26, 2010

Posted: October 26th, 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.

Google: Different Algorithms Can Apply To Different Sites At Different Times

Posted: October 26th, 2010, 4:03pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Google Optimization

A Google Webmaster Help thread has a very revealing, at least to me, post from a Googler about how the Google Algorithm works.

Many people feel the Google Algorithm is a single, but large algorithm. But those who have been doing this for a while know that Google has many algorithms. When I covered the SEO 101 session, which is kinda funny, but I wanted to listen to Bruce Clay, it can be refreshing. I fed Bruce a question, that I knew he'd love to answer, about the Google algorithm. In short, I said Bing said they have over 1000 ranking factors, but Google said about 200 - what's up with that. Bruce answered it like the pro he is and explained that "for a specific query, Google may use 200 or so factors, but they likely have thousands. but they use different algorithms for different search intent." (paraphrasing)

That is spot on. For the first time that I've seen Google comment specifically about this.

JohnMu said in the Google Webmaster Help thread:

Various parts of our algorithms can apply to sites at different times, depending on what our algorithms find. While we initially rolled out this change earlier this year, the web changes, sites change, and with that, our algorithms will continually adapt to the current state on the web, on those sites. While it might be confusing to see these changes at the same time as this issue, they really aren't related, nor is this a general algorithm change (so if other sites have seen changes recently, it probably doesn't apply to them as well).

This was in response to why one webmaster was complaining he was hit by the May Day search quality algorithm change. John explained that when it first launched, the algorithm likely didn't apply to his site, but as sites change, the algorithm will go out looking for matches and when it does, you might get a special look by that algorithm.

Again, this is likely not new to many seniored SEOs but it is always gravy to find this in the forums by a Googler.

Forum discussion at Google Webmaster Help.

New Beta FeedBurner Dashboard

Posted: October 26th, 2010, 3:56pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Tracking Conversion Measurements

Ever since Google bought FeedBurner I, and many others, have felt FeedBurner, as a service, has been slowly dying. Google proved us wrong yesterday when they announced a new beta version of the FeedBurner dashboard.

The new dashboard is hot, kinda looks like Google Analytics and so on.

Google said "the new interface provides real time stats for clicks, views, and podcast downloads, which means you can start seeing what content is drawing traffic from feed readers, Twitter, and other syndicated sources as it happens."

The new interface can be accessed at feedburner.google.com/gfb.

Here are some pictures:

Forum discussion at DigitalPoint Forums and Google Blogoscoped Forums.

Google Search Quality Improving Or Not?

Posted: October 26th, 2010, 3:48pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Google Search Engine

A WebmasterWorld thread has several complaints about Google's search quality. Tedster sets the tone with his post:

In our Google Updates and SERP Changes thread, scottsonline made this observation: "Day to day I won't find the same results in google and am actually bookmarking things again"
Me too - and rather than take the original thread into a side topic, I thought I'd start a dedicated thread.

This is one of the most troubling sign for me about Google in the present moment. For a long time I noticed that Google was so good I barely needed to use browser bookmarks at all. But now I definitely do, or else I lose track of information that I value. And no, I don't find that Bing is any better for this. I wish it were.

I don't know if it's the result of any one change or if it's a combination effect. But I do know that I feel like a valuable tool has been trashed.

Is anyone else in the same boat?

Then you see complaint after complaint. So I figured I'd run a poll below and ask you to take it and then bug everyone you know to take it.

Google Search Quality Is...online survey

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Google Pushing Business Owners in Places To Use AdWords Via "Boost"

Posted: October 26th, 2010, 3:31pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Google AdWords

It is no wonder Google pulled the website URL tag option from Google Places. The same day Google announced the launch of a new ad promotion named Google Boost.

Google Boost is basically just a quick way for Google to get Google Places business owners to create AdWords ads and link those ads to their web site or Google Place page. Google explained:

Today, we’re announcing the availability of a new online advertising solution to help local businesses connect with potential customers in their area. Boost enables business owners to easily create online search ads from directly within their Google Places account. No ongoing management is needed after the initial set up, and this beta is currently available to select local businesses in San Francisco, Houston and Chicago. Boost ads are eligible to appear in the “Sponsored Links” section of Google.com and Google Maps search result pages.

Set it and forget it! :)

Here is a picture of the ad set up page:

Here is a picture of a boost ad with a Place tag:

Greg Sterling has some more information at Search Engine Land but keep in mind, it is only currently available for businesses in San Francisco, Houston and Chicago. To be notified when Boost comes to a city near you, fill out this form.

Forum discussion at DigitalPoint Forums.

Google Places Removes Website URL Tag Option

Posted: October 26th, 2010, 3:16pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

Google has been promoting tags for Google Places to businesses for the past few months or so. Google said, "adding a tag to your Google Places listing allows you to highlight info that you want your customers to see." But Google is no longer allowing you to highlight your website URL, I guess because your customers don't want to see it (mocking Google here).

A Google Places Help thread has one complaint where Googler Brianna replied:

We're constantly refining our tag types any website was a previously offered tag type. We no longer offer this option as of today, 10/25/2010.
As we think about building new tag types, we're interested in what appeals to you about the website option, so please feel free to reply to this post. We will consider all of this feedback in our thinking.

We still hope you'll find another tag type from the ones currently offered that works for you!

Local search expert, Mike Blumenthal said the website URL tag option was "the most effective" tag available and he is sad to see it go.

Those who have the URL option already in place are able to continue to use it, but you can't change it, if you do, it will be lost. So those who are grandfathered in, stick with it - until Google snatches it away.

On a side note, it seems like some people are having issues with duplicate tags since yesterday.

Forum discussion at Google Places Help.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Daily Search Forum Recap: October 22, 2010

Posted: October 22nd, 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.

Video Recap of Weekly Search Buzz :: October 22, 2010

Posted: October 22nd, 2010, 9:00pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Search Buzz RoundUp

This week at the Search Engine Roundtable I cover a nice amount of topics, I wanted to highlight the most important items. First, Yahoo Site Explorer has dropped out a ton of the links, Yahoo is saying it is Microsoft's fault. Google did a PageRank update for some. Google is testing a new AdWords Preview Tool, check it out. Advertisers are seeing huge spikes in cost per click costs since the Yahoo and adCenter migration. Google may have stopped indexing Blogspot domains. Google might not wipe out your old links after a reconsideration request, but you should submit one when you buy a new domain and there is no way to cancel it. We have some more May Day theories for you. Google talked a bit about HTML5 and how they index it, on an SEO basis. Google brought back the report offensive images in Google Image Search. Google is testing a new auto detect location feature. Google Maps now divides reviews from third part sources. We covered SES Chicago this week. Google had a logo for Dizzy Gillespie, famous Jazz trumpeter and they now have logos for your very own birthday. That was this week at the Search Engine Roundtable.

Make sure to subscribe to our video feed or subscribe directly on iTunes to be notified of these updates and download the video in the background. You can also watch this live and ask questions during the show, typically Friday mornings around 9:30 (EST) at seroundtable.com/live, follow @rustybrick to be notified when we air. Here is the YouTube version of the feed:

For the original iTunes version, click here.

Search Topics of Discussion:

Please do subscribe via iTunes or on your favorite RSS reader. Don't forget to comment below with the right answer and good luck!

Google Stop Indexing Blogger (Blogspot) Posts

Posted: October 22nd, 2010, 3:17pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Google Optimization

For a couple days now, I have been spotting random threads with complaints from Blogger aka blogspot.com bloggers that Google has stopped indexing and ranking their new blog posts in Google web search.

It turns out to be a large problem. A Google Webmaster Help thread has tons of bloggers upset with a recent change. It appears to be a bug either on the Blogger side or on the GoogleBot side.

JohnMu from Google said:

Thanks for posting about this issue. We've been tracking and reviewing these reports and have passed your feedback on to the teams to review. I'll check through these specific sites mentioned here and post back as I know more. Feel free to post more examples if you feel they aren't similar to previously mentioned ones.

Google is looking into this, we are still not sure where the bug resides or how large the bug is, but it is an issue.

Forum discussion at Google Webmaster Help.

Update: The issue should now be resolved, please see our update for more information.

Google Maps Not Loading In Some IE Versions

Posted: October 22nd, 2010, 3:12pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

A Google Maps Help thread has a confirmed bug with Google Maps not working on a certain version of Internet Explorer. The thing is, there are many complaints about it, so it means a lot of people are using that version.

The bug is actually on Internet Explorer's side, in versin IE7(KB927917). When those who are running IE7(KB927917) try to access Google Maps, it simply won't load. The browser will open up an alert that reads:

Internet Explorer can't open this internet site http://maps.google.com
Operation Aborted

Amanda L. from Google said they are working on a work around for this issue but they do not have an ETA for when it will be fixed. Amanda said:

Thanks for your patience while we sort this out, and thanks for all of the very detailed reports. We've found the issue and are currently working on a fix. Unfortunately I do not have an exact ETA, but it should be soon.
We did identify that this issue only affects unpatched versions of IE7. While we work on releasing a fix, if you are able to update your browser (which is good practice anyway!), you should no longer get this error. Thanks @JThomas13 for posting those helpful articles on how to update.

I'll let you know when I have another update.

Forum discussion at Google Maps Help.

Google Testing New AdWords Preview Tool

Posted: October 22nd, 2010, 3:02pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Google AdWords

Google has offered a way for advertisers to preview their ads on Google without impacting their costs and quality score through an AdWords Preview Tool. It also allows users to test their ads and see them in various geo-graphic locations without actually being in those areas.

The tool is named AdWords Preview Tool. But now, I and everyone else is seeing a "New" version being tested. At the top of the existing preview tool it says "New version," when you click on it it takes you to the new version.

Here is a picture of the old version:

Here is a picture of the new version:

A WebmasterWorld thread has some feedback on the new tool.

What I noticed as new was that instead of typing in the Google domain, you get the list of all of them which I found bit annoying as it took me some time to find the domain for UK for example.
Also the interface prompts you to sign in, in order to give you information about your ads. After logging with MCC email ads were still not recognized so I'm guessing one has to use the email that is directly associated with the account from which an ad is running.

The location (country) list is now all in alphabetical order.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Google's Blank Images On Page Two Bug

Posted: October 22nd, 2010, 2:54pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Google Search Engine

A Google Web Search Help thread has several reports amongst other threads and other complaints that Google Image Search is not showing the second page and beyond of images.

When you search for anything at Google Image search and scroll to the second page of results, the images are grayed out. Google has actually confirmed this bug with a specific version of Firefox, running in normal mode. When you turn Firefox to run in Safe-Mode then it works fine.

Here is a picture of what the page looks like:

We had a similar issue a year ago with Google News images.

Jay David from Google said:

Could you test one thing out for me? Could you try putting Firefox into Safe Mode and let me know if the problem is still present? Check the following link for info on how to Firefox into Safe Mode:
http://support.mozilla.com/en-US/kb/Safe+Mode

Forum discussion Google Web Search Help.

France Gets Google Shopping, Not Sure Why

Posted: October 22nd, 2010, 2:49pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Google Search Engine

Google announced they have brought Google Shopping to France at www.google.fr/products.

I ask why? Yea, money. But at some point, if I keep getting beaten up by someone even after giving them goodie after goodie, I will stop giving them goodies. France is known to beat up Google over many many products, but yet Google keeps on giving the French users more and more.

Okay, I am being childish. It is nice that Google has brought Google Shopping to the French users that love them. The others, well, they can sue Google.

How do you know it is Google Shopping in French? The e in the beta of the logo:

Forum discussion at Google Merchant Center Help.

SES Chicago 2010 Live Blog Recap

Posted: October 22nd, 2010, 2:43pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Search Engine Strategies 2010 Chicago

Here is a brief recap of our SES Chicago 2010 live blog coverage. I wanted to thank our live bloggers, Avi Wilensky (@aviw)& Sheara Goldenthal (@sheara) of Promediacorp, Chris Boggs of (@boggles) ROSETTA and myself (@rustybrick).

Thanks to our readers and SES for encouraging this:

Day One:

Day Two:

Day Three:

I've also posted a larger recap with other live bloggers at Search Engine Land.

Forum discussion at Sphinn.

Daily Search Forum Recap: October 21, 2010

Posted: October 21st, 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.

SES Chicago: Social Goes Local

Posted: October 21st, 2010, 9:40pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Search Engine Strategies 2010 Chicago

Below is live coverage of the Social Goes Local from the SES Chicago conference.

This coverage is provided by Sheara Goldenthal of Promediacorp.

We are using a live blogging tool to provide the real time coverage, please excuse any typos. You can also interact with us and while we are live blogging, so feel free to ask us questions as we blog. We will publish the archive below after the session is completed.

Social Goes Local

SES Chicago: Digital Asset Optimization

Posted: October 21st, 2010, 8:25pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Search Engine Strategies 2010 Chicago

Below is live coverage of the Digital Asset Optimization from the SES Chicago conference.

This coverage is provided by Sheara Goldenthal of Promediacorp & Avi Wilensky of Promediacorp.

We are using a live blogging tool to provide the real time coverage, please excuse any typos. You can also interact with us and while we are live blogging, so feel free to ask us questions as we blog. We will publish the archive below after the session is completed.

Digital Asset Optimization

SES Chicago: Maile Ohye, Senior Developer Programs Engineer, Google

Posted: October 21st, 2010, 5:10pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Search Engine Strategies 2010 Chicago

Below is live coverage of the Maile Ohye, Senior Developer Programs Engineer, Google from the SES Chicago conference.

This coverage is provided by Barry Schwartz of RustyBrick .

We are using a live blogging tool to provide the real time coverage, please excuse any typos. You can also interact with us and while we are live blogging, so feel free to ask us questions as we blog. We will publish the archive below after the session is completed.

Maile Ohye, Senior Developer Programs Engineer, Google

More Google May Day Theories, Five Months Later

Posted: October 21st, 2010, 3:34pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Google Optimization

It is over five months since the Google May Day update docked and we still have many SEOs and webmasters talking about it. The last time we covered it was at the end of September, under the May Day Monster.

I wanted to point you back to that thread, where we have a long time contributor to this site (in the form of many many comments). Michael Martinez added what he has seen over the past several months.

Sites complaining about the May Day update all share similar characteristics, Michael said:

Sites are long-established (2-10 years).
Sites had well-established referral traffic from popular queries up until August.
Sites were pushed down to page 2 or further for multiple queries.
Sites continue to rank well for low-traffic queries.
The high traffic queries now feature many "well-known" sites that may not necessarily equivalent or better value in terms of content.
The standard SEO help coming from various forums (including this one) has failed to resolve the issues and left a lot of Webmasters wringing their hands infrustration.

He believes it may be due to:

1) That Google may be paying more attention to on-page (quality) signals

2) That Google may simply have devalued another horde of links

Or none of the above.

Anyway, the discussion is a bit heated in the Google Webmaster Help thread, so have fun.

Forum discussion at Google Webmaster Help.

Why Don't Google Webmaster Tools & Google Analytics Match Up?

Posted: October 21st, 2010, 3:34pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Tracking Conversion Measurements

A common question I see asked in the SEO/SEM forums is why don't the analytics in Google Webmaster Tools, where it says click throughs and the metrics in terms of traffic to your site in Google Analytics match up with each other?

It is so common that Google's Matt Cutts offered a few reasons in a recent video:

In short:

(1) Google Webmaster Tools and Google Analytics are independent tools and all independent tools are not always exact.

(2) Google Webmaster Tools tracks actual clicks on your listings, whereas Google Analytics only tracks you if the page loads and the JavaScript code is activated. So if people don't let the code to load, either closes quickly or turns off JavaScript, then it won't count.

There are some other reasons...

Forum discussion at DigitalPoint Forums.

Canceling A Google Reconsideration Request

Posted: October 21st, 2010, 2:55pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Google Optimization

A Google Webmaster Help thread asks a question I honestly never thought of before. Why isn't there a way to cancel a reconsideration request in Google Webmaster Tools?

The webmaster said he submitted a reconsideration request but did it for the wrong reason. He said, "I'd like to cancel that reconsideration. Searching the forums I found "Don't worry about it". That's not quite what i wanted to hear about this."

Why would you want to cancel such a request?

(1) The issue is no longer an issue.

(2) You rather not waste Google's time reviewing your site.

(3) In hindsight, you prefer Google not manually review your site.

(4) Some suspect a reconsideration requests starts you back at zero.

Unfortunately, there is no way to cancel a reconsideration request at this time.

Forum discussion at Google Webmaster Help.

Google PageRank Updating This Morning? October 2010

Posted: October 18th, 2010, 3:15pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Google PageRankSERP Updates

I am seeing some early reports of a Google Toolbar PageRank update this morning. There are threads with discussion on the topic at DigitalPoint Forums and Google Webmaster Help. Plus if you search for [pagerank] on Twitter, you will see lots of people saying their site's PageRank has been updated.

There is currently no thread at WebmasterWorld, but I suspect one to pop up some time this morning.

The last reported PageRank update was in September, but it was reportedly minor. Last year, Google did a toolbar PageRank update in October 2009, and typically Google stays on schedule with these.

Again, toolbar PageRank has no direct influence on your search rankings. This is all about egos and making one feel happy or sad. So don't take the update too personally.

Forum discussion at DigitalPoint Forums and Google Webmaster Help.

My Very Own Google Birthday Logo

Posted: October 18th, 2010, 3:03pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Google Search Engine

Google is now showing personalized birthday Google logos for you, me and everyone else out there. Well, not everyone. It depends on a few conditions:

(1) You have a Google Profile and;
(2) You enter your birthday in your Google Profile and;
(3) You visit Google.com on your birthday and;
(4) You are logged into Google.

If you follow all 4 conditions, then you will see this logo on the Google home page on your birthday:

In fact, Matt Cutts tweeted a link to one of the first people to spot this for their birthday and screen cast it. Check out Danny Brown's video and comments (by the way, happy birthday):

You should also know that when you mouse over the logo, an alternative text box comes up saying "Happy Birthday [FirstName]".

Pretty cool!

Forum discussion at Google Blogoscoped Forums.

There were some Google logos for localized Google properties this weekend, they include:

Oscar Wilde logo on Google UK:

Forum discussion at Google Blogoscoped Forums.

Google Hong Kong Double Ninth Festival:

Forum discussion at Google Blogoscoped Forums.

Google's View of HTML5 In Terms Of SEO & Crawling

Posted: October 18th, 2010, 2:54pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Google Optimization

HTML5 is a brand new (well, not so new) form of HTML that is growing in popularity every day. All the modern browsers tend to support rendering HTML5 with no problems. It is widely the optimal choice for smart phone browsers and more and more sites are adopting it.

But what about GoogleBot? Can Google crawl HTML5? Does Google pick up any additional factors from HTML5 to give your site a boost in the search results? Can it hurt your SEO efforts?

Googler, JohnMu, answered some of these questions in two different Google Webmaster Help threads.

My take aways are (1) Google currently won't give special consideration to those that use HTML5 and (2) it might not be worth even going there, if you are doing it for SEO reasons. To me, it seems John is implying to shy away from it, but he knows how awesome HTML5 can be for users, but how awesome for crawlers?

Let me quote John's two posts, they are similar:

In general, our crawlers are used to not being able to parse all HTML markup - be it from broken HTML, embedded XML content or from the new HTML5 tags. Our general strategy is to wait to see how content is marked up on the web in practice and to adapt to that. If we find that more and more content uses HTML5 markup, that this markup can give us additional information, and that it doesn't cause problems if webmasters incorrectly use it (which is always a problem in the beginning), then over time we'll attempt to work that into our algorithms. With that in mind, I definitely wouldn't want to stand in the way of your implementing parts of your site with HTML5, but I also wouldn't expect to see special treatment of your content due to the HTML5 markup at the moment. HTML5 is still very much a work in progress, so it's great to see bleeding-edge sites making use of the new possibilities :)

In general, we work hard to understand as much of the web as possible, but I have a feeling that HTML5 markup is not yet as widely in use (and in use correctly) that it would make sense for us to use it as a means of understanding content better. As HTML5 gains in popularity and as we recognize specific markup elements that provide value to our indexing system, this is likely to change, but at the moment I would not assume that you would have an advantage by using HTML5 instead of older variants.
Returning different content to search engine crawlers as you would to similar users would be considered cloaking and against our Webmaster Guidelines. I would not recommend treating search engine crawlers different than you would similar users.

Personally, I would recommend using HTML5 where you think that it already makes sense, perhaps reverting to HTML4 if you can determine that the browser won't support the elements of HTML5 that you use properly. While this will not result in an advantage for your content in our search results, it generally wouldn't be disadvantageous either.

Forum discussion at Google Webmaster Help.

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Posted: November 17th, 2010, 10:00pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Search Forum Recap

Posted: November 17th, 2010, 2:47pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Yahoo Search Engine

Posted: November 17th, 2010, 2:40pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

Posted: November 17th, 2010, 2:35pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

Posted: November 17th, 2010, 2:30pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Google Search Engine

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Tags: Google AdWords

Posted: November 16th, 2010, 10:00pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Search Forum Recap

Posted: November 16th, 2010, 2:44pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Google Search Engine

Posted: November 16th, 2010, 2:36pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

Posted: November 16th, 2010, 2:25pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Google Search Engine

Posted: November 16th, 2010, 2:13pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Google Search Engine

Posted: November 16th, 2010, 2:02pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Social Search

Posted: November 15th, 2010, 10:00pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Search Forum Recap

Posted: November 15th, 2010, 2:32pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

Posted: November 15th, 2010, 2:27pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Google Optimization

Posted: November 12th, 2010, 10:10pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Search Buzz RoundUp

Posted: November 12th, 2010, 10:00pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Search Buzz RoundUp

Posted: November 12th, 2010, 2:48pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Google Optimization

Posted: November 12th, 2010, 2:42pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Google Search Engine

Posted: November 12th, 2010, 2:33pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

Posted: November 12th, 2010, 2:22pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Other Yahoo Topics

Posted: November 12th, 2010, 2:15pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Google Search Engine

Posted: November 12th, 2010, 2:05pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Link Building

Posted: November 12th, 2010, 2:04pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: PubCon 2010 Las Vegas

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Tags: PubCon 2010 Las Vegas

Posted: November 11th, 2010, 10:00pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Search Forum Recap

Posted: November 11th, 2010, 8:15pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: PubCon 2010 Las Vegas

Posted: November 11th, 2010, 7:00pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: PubCon 2010 Las Vegas

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Tags: PubCon 2010 Las Vegas

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Tags: PubCon 2010 Las Vegas

Posted: November 11th, 2010, 2:42pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Search Engine Industry News

Posted: November 11th, 2010, 2:31pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

Posted: November 5th, 2010, 2:51pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Google Optimization

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Tags: Other Google Topics

Posted: November 5th, 2010, 2:35pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Search Engine Industry News

Posted: November 5th, 2010, 2:25pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Google Optimization

Posted: November 5th, 2010, 2:14pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Google AdSense

Posted: November 5th, 2010, 2:05pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Google Search Engine

Posted: November 4th, 2010, 10:00pm CET by rustybrick