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Search Engine Roundtable

Official Google Webmaster Central Blog

Search Engine Roundtable

Official Google Webmaster Central Blog

Search Engine Roundtable

Official Google Webmaster Central Blog

  • Permalink for 'Official_Google_Webmaster_Central_Blog/2010/04/26/Rich_snippets_go_international'

    Rich snippets go international

    Posted: April 26th, 2010, 6:51pm CEST by Maile Ohye
    Tags:  Search results  
    Webmaster Level: All

    As part of our efforts to make search results more useful to our users around the world, we’re announcing the international availability of rich snippets. If you’ve been following our blog posts, you already know that rich snippets let users see additional facts and data from your site in search results.

    For example, we recently launched rich snippets for recipes which, for certain sites, lets users see quick recipe facts as part of the snippet and makes it easier to determine if the page has what they are looking for:


    We’ve had a lot of questions on our blogs and forums about international support for rich snippets - and we know that many of you have already started marking up your content - so today’s announcement is very exciting for us.

    In addition to adding support for rich snippets in any language, we have published documentation on how to mark up your sites for rich snippets in the following languages: simplified Chinese, traditional Chinese, Czech, Dutch, English, French, German, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, and Turkish. (You can change the Help language by scrolling to the bottom of the help page and selecting the language you want from the drop-down menu.)

    We encourage you to read the documentation to take advantage of the different types of rich snippets currently supported: people profiles, reviews, videos, events and recipes. You can also use our testing tool (in English only, but useful to test markup in any language) and start validating your markup to make sure results show as you would expect.

    Finally and as you’ve probably heard by now (several times), we’re taking a gradual approach to surface rich snippets. This means that marking up your site doesn’t guarantee that we’ll show rich snippets for your pages. We’re doing this to ensure a good experience for our users; but rest assured we’re working hard to expand coverage and include more web pages.

    Written by Kavi Goel, Pravir Gupta, and Yu Watanabe

Search Engine Roundtable

Official Google Webmaster Central Blog

  • Permalink for 'Official_Google_Webmaster_Central_Blog/2010/04/20/URL_removal_explained__Part_III__Removing_content_that_you_don_t_own'

    URL removal explained, Part III: Removing content that you don't own

    Posted: April 20th, 2010, 3:26pm CEST by Jonathan Simon
    Tags:  Search results  
    Webmaster Level: All

    Welcome to the third episode of our URL removals series! In episodes one and two, we talked about expediting the removal of content that's under your control and requesting expedited cache removals. Today, we're covering how to use Google's public URL removal tool to request removal of content from Google’s search results when the content originates on a website not under your control.

    Google offers two tools that provide a way to request expedited removal of content:

    1. Verified URL removal tool: for requesting to remove content from Google’s search results when it’s published on a site of which you’re a verified owner in Webmaster Tools (like your blog or your company’s site)

    2. Public URL removal tool: for requesting to remove content from Google’s search results when it’s published on a site which you can’t verify ownership (like your friend’s blog)

    Sometimes a situation arises where the information you want to remove originates from a site that you don't own or can't control. Since each individual webmaster controls their site and their site’s content, the best way to update or remove results from Google is for the site owner (where the content is published) to either block crawling of the URL, modify the content source, or remove the page altogether. If the content isn't changed, it would just reappear in our search results the next time we crawled it. So the first step to remove content that's hosted on a site you don't own is to contact the owner of the website and request that they remove or block the content in question.
    • Removed or blocked content

      If the website owner removes a page, requests for the removed page should return a "404 Not Found" response or a "410 Gone" response. If they choose to block the page from search engines, then the page should either be disallowed in the site's robots.txt file or contain a noindex meta tag. Once one of these requirements is met, you can submit a removal request using the "Webmaster has already blocked the page" option.



      Sometimes a website owner will claim that they’ve blocked or removed a page but they haven’t technically done so. If they claim a page has been blocked you can double check by looking at the site’s robots.txt file to see if the page is listed there as disallowed.

      User-agent: *
      Disallow: /blocked-page/

      Another place to check if a page has been blocked is within the page’s HTML source code itself. You can visit the page and choose “View Page Source” from your browser. Is there a meta noindex tag in the HTML “head” section?

      <html>
      <head>
      <title>blocked page</title>
      <meta name="robots" content="noindex">
      </head>
      ...

      If they inform you that the page has been removed, you can confirm this by using an HTTP response testing tool like the Live HTTP Headers add-on for the Firefox browser. With this add-on enabled, you can request any URL in Firefox to test that the HTTP response is actually 404 Not Found or 410 Gone.

    • Content removed from the page

      Once you've confirmed that the content you're seeking to remove is no longer present on the page, you can request a cache removal using the 'Content has been removed from the page' option. This type of removal--usually called a "cache" removal--ensures that Google's search results will not include the cached copy or version of the old page, or any snippets of text from the old version of the page. Only the current updated page (without the content that's been removed) will be accessible from Google's search results. However, the current updated page can potentially still rank for terms related to the old content as a result of inbound links that still exist from external sites. For cache removal requests you’ll be asked to enter a "term that has been removed from the page." Be sure to enter a word that is not found on the current live page, so that our automated process can confirm the page has changed -- otherwise the request will be denied. Cache removals are covered in more detail in part two of the "URL removal explained" series.



    • Removing inappropriate webpages or images that appear in our SafeSearch filtered results

      Google introduced the SafeSearch filter with the goal of providing search results that exclude potentially offensive content. For situations where you find content that you feel should have been filtered out by SafeSearch, you can request that this content be excluded from SafeSearch filtered results in the future. Submit a removal request using the 'Inappropriate content appears in our SafeSearch filtered results' option.


    If you encounter any issues with the public URL removal tool or have questions not addressed here, please post them to the Webmaster Help Forum or consult the more detailed removal instructions in our Help Center. If you do post to the forum, remember to use a URL shortening service to share any links to content you want removed.

    Written by Jonathan Simon, Webmaster Trends Analyst

Search Engine Roundtable

Official Google Webmaster Central Blog

  • Permalink for 'Official_Google_Webmaster_Central_Blog/2010/04/13/Better_recipes_on_the_web__Introducing_recipe_rich_snippets'

    Better recipes on the web: Introducing recipe rich snippets

    Posted: April 13th, 2010, 7:50pm CEST by Maile Ohye
    Tags:  Search results  
    Webmaster Level: All

    Anticipating the start of the season of barbecues and potlucks, we’ve added recipes as our newest rich snippets format. This means that for certain sites with recipe content, Google users will see quick facts when these recipe pages show up as part of the search results.

    For example, if you were searching for an easy to make thai mango salad, you can now see user ratings, preparation time, and a picture of the dish directly in search result snippets.


    Recipes is the fifth format we support, following the introduction of reviews, people, video and, most recently, events.

    If you have recipe content on your site, you can get started now by marking up your recipes with microdata, RDFa, or the hRecipe microformat. To learn more, read our documentation on how to mark up recipe information or our general help articles on rich snippets for a more complete overview.

    Please remember that to ensure a great user experience we’re taking a gradual approach to surface rich snippets. This means that we can’t guarantee that marking up your site will result in a rich snippet when your page shows up on our search results. However, we encourage you to get started, and once you’re done you can test your pages with our rich snippets testing tool.

    Written by Jun Gong, Kosuke Suzuki, and Yu Watanabe

Search Engine Roundtable

  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2010/04/12/Daily_Search_Forum_Recap__April_12__2010'

    Daily Search Forum Recap: April 12, 2010

    Posted: April 12th, 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.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2010/04/12/Search_Market_Share_Reports_Show_Google_Losing___Bing_Gaining_'

    Search Market Share Reports Show Google Losing & Bing Gaining?

    Posted: April 12th, 2010, 2:47pm CEST by rustybrick
    Tags:  Search Engine Industry News  

    Both Hitwise and comScore released their search marketing share reports this past week. Both showed Bing growing and Google not from the previous month, in fact, Google has lost share for the "fourth straight month" according to Hitwise.

    Here is the Hitwise breakdown:

    Here is the comScore:

    Yea, Google still has a dominate lead, but it does look like Bing is chipping away slowly and slowly.

    Forum discussion at (the very pro Bing forum) WebmasterWorld.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2010/04/09/Daily_Search_Forum_Recap__April_9__2010'

    Daily Search Forum Recap: April 9, 2010

    Posted: April 9th, 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.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2010/04/09/Video_Recap_of_Weekly_Search_Buzz____April_9__2010'

    Video Recap of Weekly Search Buzz :: April 9, 2010

    Posted: April 9th, 2010, 9:20pm CEST by rustybrick
    Tags:  Search Buzz RoundUp  

    We are back to our video recaps, despite barely being able to talk. This week I covered that more people are seeing the Google Jazzy blue interface. Also, there was a Google PageRank update and we covered the main changes at Google over the past month. Google Sitemaps is now accepting images. Google graduated malware from Webmaster Tools Labs and made is faster and better. Google AdWords is unbanning some banned AdWords advertisers. Apple is set to compete against Google AdSense for Mobile Apps with Apple iAd. Google Maps dropped the 3D street views, was it a bug or a joke? Yelp is changing their reviews policies in light of all the lawsuits. Finally, Google didn't show an Easter logo this year again, and people were upset. 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. Here is the YouTube version of the feed:


    For the original iTunes version, click here or to see the YouTube version in higher quality, click play & hit "HD."

    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!


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2010/04/08/Daily_Search_Forum_Recap__April_8__2010'

    Daily Search Forum Recap: April 8, 2010

    Posted: April 8th, 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.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2010/04/08/Yelp_To_Change_Review_Policies'

    Yelp To Change Review Policies

    Posted: April 8th, 2010, 3:17pm CEST by rustybrick
    Tags:  Search Local  

    For years Yelp has had controversy over reviews displayed and added to the system. In fact, recently they were sued over them.

    In response to all the questions and legal issues, Yelp decided to make two changes.

    (1) You can now see filtered out reviews
    (2) Yelp is discontinuing the "Favorite Review" feature

    Here is one comment from a WebmasterWorld thread on this change of heart:

    Ahh this is great. Watching them back peddle and clean up yet claim they are doing nothing wrong... ;-)

    Never understood how such a large brand got away with what they were doing. It just didn't seem right (how they let companies control the reviews if they bought in to advertising).

    Wonder how many companies are going to want a refund for retracking a service they are no longer offering... Get out the checkbook.

    Yes, this is a good first step for Yelp.

    Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2010/04/07/Daily_Search_Forum_Recap__April_7__2010'

    Daily Search Forum Recap: April 7, 2010

    Posted: April 7th, 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.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2010/04/06/Reverse_Pagination_For_SEO_'

    Reverse Pagination For SEO?

    Posted: April 6th, 2010, 2:04pm CEST by rustybrick
    Tags:  Search Engine Optimization  

    Many sites with pagination have an SEO problem. As you add new content to the site, more pages are created and the older content moves from page 1 to page 2 and so on. This produces an issue where (1) Google's page one content is out of date to what users see, (2) page one content can sometimes be duplicate to page two, based on a crawl lag and (3) even with different content, many paginated pages are seen as duplicate by search engines for one reason or another.

    A supporters only WebmasterWorld thread (paid access required for link) describes this problem. Senior member, g1smd, has tried a reverse pagination method to try to solve the issues.

    By reverse pagination, I mean, that instead of putting new content on page one, you keep the page number you assigned for the new content as it ages. So for example, content piece A was assigned page number X, as that content A gets older and newer content comes, the page number for X remains page number X. Maybe you use time based URLs to achieve this or maybe just some unique string of some sorts.

    g1smd said "I've done that with a site, and the URL stability seems to result in much better site indexing."

    What do you think of this and have you tried any alternatives?

    Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2010/04/05/More___More_Seeing_Google_s_Blue_Jazz_Interface'

    More & More Seeing Google's Blue Jazz Interface

    Posted: April 5th, 2010, 2:47pm CEST by rustybrick
    Tags:  Google Search Engine  

    I reported this on Friday at Search Engine Land but I am seeing tons of threads popping up in the forums about this. Yes, if you are seeing a new and weird looking Google, you are not crazy, you are seeing the new Google "Jazz" interface that we all likely will see one day.

    Here is a new screen capture:

    For our past coverage of this interface see here, here and here.

    Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld, DigitalPoint Forums and Google Web Search Help.

    Note: This was written Sunday, April 4th and scheduled to be posted today.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2010/04/04/No_Easter_Logo_At_Google_Again'

    No Easter Logo At Google Again

    Posted: April 4th, 2010, 7:27pm CEST by rustybrick
    Tags:  Search Engine Industry News  

    It has been at least five years since Google placed a Google Easter logo around Easter time on their pages. This year is no exception, if you visit Google.com, you won't see a special Google logo or Doodle for Easter. As you can imagine, there are many people upset with Google over this lack of a logo. I have linked to threads and threads of people complaining below.

    Bing, Ask.com and Dogpile have special logos and themes up for the day - Yahoo does not. Here they are:

    Here are the past year logos from Easter 2009 and Easter 2008.

    Happy Easter and here are the complaint threads.

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


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2010/04/02/Daily_Search_Forum_Recap__April_2__2010'

    Daily Search Forum Recap: April 2, 2010

    Posted: April 2nd, 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.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2010/04/02/_Text__Recap_of_Weekly_Search_Buzz____April_2__2010'

    (Text) Recap of Weekly Search Buzz :: April 2, 2010

    Posted: April 2nd, 2010, 3:04pm CEST by rustybrick
    Tags:  Search Buzz RoundUp  

    I am skipping the video portion of the weekly recap and just offering you a text version due to being extremely tired. This week WebProNews posted a nice interview with Google's Matt Cutts. Bing told us they use hyphens as word separators in URLs. Google had issues paying Canadian publishers. Yahoo shut down their contextual ad program, Yahoo Publisher Network. We released four polls, one on real time spam, another on the canonical tag, also a poll on why SEOs got into SEO and how SEOs perceive PageRank today. Google and the industry went all out with their April Fools pranks. Finally, Google showed five doodles for Hans Christian Andersen. That was this week at the Search Engine Roundtable.

    Select Topics For This Past Week:

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


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2010/04/02/Hans_Christian_Andersen_Gets_5_Google_Logos___Doodles'

    Hans Christian Andersen Gets 5 Google Logos / Doodles

    Posted: April 2nd, 2010, 2:42pm CEST by rustybrick
    Tags:  Google Search Engine  

    Hans Christian Andersen, a famous children's author and poet from Copenhagen, Denmark would be 205 years old today - if people lived that long. He was born on April 2, 1805 and died on August 4, 1875 at the age of 70. Since it is 205 years later, Google decided to not just show one Google Doodle (or logo), but instead, they showed five of them. To see them, go to Google and just click on the logo. Eventually, Google will take you to a search result for [Hans Christian Andersen].

    Here are the five Google logos for Hans Christian Andersen:

    Now, if you can name which doodle represents which of his stories, then you get a gold star!

    Today is also Good Friday and there are some Christians who are upset that Google is not showing a logo for this day, as opposed to a logo for Hans Christian Andersen.

    Forum discussion at Google Web Search Help.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2010/04/02/Small_Google_Navigation_Bug'

    Small Google Navigation Bug

    Posted: April 2nd, 2010, 2:38pm CEST by rustybrick
    Tags:  Google Search Engine  

    Try this out:

    (1) Go to Google News
    (2) Search for something
    (3) Then click on the "Web" link at the top of the page
    (4) Then click back to the "News" section
    (5) Clear the search box and hit "search news"

    You will be taken to the Google home page, but it will show "News" highlighted in the top bar. A weird, small, but nevertheless, a navigation and usability bug.

    Forum discussion at Google Web Search Help.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2010/04/01/Daily_Search_Forum_Recap__April_1__2010'

    Daily Search Forum Recap: April 1, 2010

    Posted: April 1st, 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.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2010/04/01/Google___Other_s_April_Fools_2010_Jokes'

    Google & Other's April Fools 2010 Jokes

    Posted: April 1st, 2010, 3:14pm CEST by rustybrick
    Tags:  Search Engine Industry News  

    I am keeping a running list of Google and other search related sites April Fools jokes at Search Engine Land. So please check out that post for more on the various jokes.

    My favorite are the 3D ones, especially since YouTube is really 3D and they went text only. Of course, Google changed their name.

    Plus a lot more.

    Forum discussion at Google Blogoscoped, Google Maps Help, WebmasterWorld, DigitalPoint Forums, Google Web Search Help and Google Webmaster Help.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2010/04/01/Bing_Uses_Hyphens_As_Word_Separators_in_URLs'

    Bing Uses Hyphens As Word Separators in URLs

    Posted: April 1st, 2010, 3:09pm CEST by rustybrick
    Tags:  Search MSN Microsoft  

    A Bing Community thread has Bing's program manager, Brett Yount confirming that Bing prefers hyphens in the URLs as a word separator.

    He said:

    Hyphens are the preferred character for separating two words in URLs.

    Google also uses hyphens as word separators so it is a good thing to know both engines handle them pretty much the same way.

    Nothing ground breaking here, but a solid SEO point to have in your toolkit.

    Forum discussion at Bing Community.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2010/04/01/Microsoft_Behind_Google_Because_Of_Long_Tail_Keyword_Relevancy_'

    Microsoft Behind Google Because Of Long-Tail Keyword Relevancy?

    Posted: April 1st, 2010, 2:58pm CEST by rustybrick
    Tags:  Search MSN Microsoft  

    During Yusuf Mehdi's keynote last week at SES, Yusuf said Microsoft is behind Google due mostly on how they handle the long-tail keyword. eWeek explores this in more detail saying:

    Microsoft fell so far behind Google in the search engine market because it failed to retrieve relevant results for a long line of less popular queries, a senior Microsoft executive told the crowd at the Search Engine Strategies show here March 25.

    Such was the key reason Yusuf Mehdi, senior vice president of the Online Audience Group for Microsoft Bing, offered for why Google is light-years ahead of Microsoft in the search market. Google commands 65 percent of the U.S. share search market, compared with 11.5 percent for Microsoft Bing.

    Mehdi, responding to a keynote host's observation that Microsoft was late to the Internet and search, said, "We missed the boat early on that the focus was about the long tail. We actually focused a lot on the head of the queries. ... It turned out the long tail was much more important."

    It seems that webmasters and SEOs agree that although Bing is pretty good at the short types of keywords but when it comes to longer, more specific keyword searches, they don't do a great job.

    Do you agree?

    Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2010/03/31/Why_SEOs_Got_Into_SEO__Poll_Results'

    Why SEOs Got Into SEO? Poll Results

    Posted: March 31st, 2010, 2:44pm CEST by rustybrick
    Tags:  Search Engine Industry News  

    A couple weeks ago, I asked why did you get into SEO and since I am posting poll results this week, I figured I'd share the results the day I am offline. Now, we had over 400 responses, exactly 444 responses at the time I am posting this, so it is a nice number.

    Here is the break down:

    • 20% said Love The Dynamic Nature of the Industry
    • 18% said Wanted My Site Higher in Search Engines
    • 13% said For The Money
    • 12% said they Migrated From the Web Design Field
    • 11% said they Love The Competition
    • 10% said an Other answer.. which I will share below
    • 9% said they had a Client Wanted Their Site Higher in Search Engines
    • 8% said they Love The Community

    Here is another view of the results:

    Here are some of the "other answers":

    Other Text

    Just happened

    Alternative to PPC

    Needed more challenge

    by accident, love it now

    was toled by my boss to learn it- and fell in love

    Love being @ the intersection of marketing, language, IA, UX, social media, etc.

    lifelong learner - and SEO is going to satisfy that for the rest of my life!

    i like to conquer things...and it was something that i wanted to tackle.

    unique mix, marketing and analytics

    Internet Marketing

    I was a copywriter

    Unwillingly

    To help my customers earn more from their sites

    Pure Web Dev is boring

    Stumbled into it

    Got offered a job from a friend and fell into it.

    Was a librarian and am interested in good old fashioned 'information retrie

    Migrated from Marketing field.

    It's a must for small biz owner

    Job opportunity

    Because the work results can be measured

    Migrated from Sales

    Because I did not know any better

    Migrated from the web DEVELOPMENT field

    It was an accident.

    It feeds into most other facets of online marketing

    Accidentally fell into it

    Because I'm a huge geek and enjoy the evolution of technology in search.

    Technology

    I didnt chose the game, the game chose me

    tired of seeing my copywriting clients getting screwed.

    just fell into it

    Used to be a translator, wanted to try something new!

    get out of customer service

    None of your business

    offered a job in it

    was bored

    First job I got offered when I moved, now love it!

    Company I joined needed a SEO so I learnt how :)

    Worked as a developer and got offered the opportunity of a move - now love it!

    Natural final step in web development

    help small businesses / sites reach a larger audience

    Migrated from Web editor (content field)

    Had no other choice

    The Non-Profit I worked for needed a cheap way to market online - hooked forever

    The chicks, man, the chicks

    Forum discussion continued at HighRankings Forums.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2010/03/31/SEO_s_Now_Critique_TopSEOs.com'

    SEO's Now Critique TopSEOs.com

    Posted: March 31st, 2010, 2:21pm CEST by rustybrick
    Tags:  Search Engine Industry News  

    The other day, SEOs went after VerifiedSEO.com and over took it. Now, Edward Lewis is asking "when did TOPSEOs become an Independent Authority on Search Vendors?"

    Most SEO companies have received an email from TopSEOs in the past. I know I personally received a bunch, basically rewarding my company for being a top SEO company. The thing is, I always deleted them because they seemed spammy. It turns out, this is a real company doing real work. The question is, how good are they are what they do?

    We have some feedback on them at the Sphinn thread and most of those that chimed in, didn't think they were very much of a creditable SEO evaluation company.

    Jill Whalen said:

    My experience with them was that when they were brand new, they listed my company, High Rankings, in their top 10. There was no payment involved as I believe they were brand new, or fairly new.

    Then they send me emails to let me know, which also told me I should promote the fact that I was listed.

    They even sent snail mail that provided ways to promote the fact that my company was listed. I believe the materials may have also provided ways in which I could advertise my company with them.

    I threw it all in the trash.

    So I decided to find my company, which does NOT offer SEO services. I found my company listed not once, but under two different profiles. The first shows my company, again, which does not offer SEO services, as ranking in the top 6 for the past few months.

    Now, these aren't "SEO" rankings but rather "Web development" rankings, which my company does offer.

    • #6 - Best Web Development Company, March 2010.
    • #6 - Best Web Development Company, February 2010.
    • #6 - Best Web Development Company, January 2010.

    Do you think this is legit? Someone did interview the owner just recently at a search event:

    So what do you think?

    Forum discussion at Sphinn.

    This was written on March 29th and scheduled to go live March 31st.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2010/03/26/Daily_Search_Forum_Recap__March_26__2010'

    Daily Search Forum Recap: March 26, 2010

    Posted: March 26th, 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.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2010/03/26/Video_Recap_of_Weekly_Search_Buzz____March_26__2010'

    Video Recap of Weekly Search Buzz :: March 26, 2010

    Posted: March 26th, 2010, 9:30pm CET by rustybrick
    Tags:  Search Buzz RoundUp  

    This week the big news was that Bing updated their user interface a bit and also added Foursquare checkins to Bing Maps. Google is testing a domain instead of IP address for cache access. Google's English or /NCR interface is not working for Chinese users, it is a bug. Another Google Bug was thought to be a Chinese hack. AdWords launched "Search Funnels" that helps tracks keywords that assisted in conversions. Google may stop partners from changing user settings. Google won big in the EU courts over trademark search ad law. Google Maps allows business owners to specify service areas. Google Maps tests special ads with hotel pricing. Some SEOs use search operators for link building and some don't. We covered about 40 sessions at SES NY this week. Google had a Doodle for Akira Kurosawa and Israeli Educational TV. Finally, should I test setting these videos as rentals? Just kidding. 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. Here is the YouTube version of the feed:


    For the original iTunes version, click here or to see the YouTube version in higher quality, click play & hit "HD."

    Search Topics of Discussion:

    Bing:

    Google Search:

    Google AdWords:

    Google Maps:

    Link Building & SEO:

    SEM Industry:

    Logos:

    YouTube:

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


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2010/03/26/Google_To_Fix_Google_China_Bug_With__NCR_URL'

    Google To Fix Google China Bug With /NCR URL

    Posted: March 26th, 2010, 2:24pm CET by rustybrick
    Tags:  Google Search Engine  

    We all know what is going on with Google and China. But a few days ago we reported a weird occurrence where Chinese Google users cannot access Google.com not even through the google.com/ncr URL which should give international users access to Google.com.

    Rubie from the Google web search team posted a thread at Google Web Search Help explaining that this issue is indeed a bug. He said:

    There is currently a bug on the google.com.hk homepage. When users based in China click the “Google.com in English” link at the bottom of the page they are redirected back to the google.com.hk domain. This bug is accidental, and it should be fixed within a few days.

    The issue is, when users either click on "Google.com in English" or go to google.com/ncr they are being redirected to Google Hong Kong, which is not the expected behavior. So this should be resolved soon.

    Forum discussion at Google Web Search Help.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2010/03/26/Bing_Updates_UI__Improves_Search_Results___Adds_Foursquare_to_Maps'

    Bing Updates UI, Improves Search Results & Adds Foursquare to Maps

    Posted: March 26th, 2010, 2:02pm CET by rustybrick
    Tags:  Search MSN Microsoft  

    Bing announced feature upgrades to Bing at SES New York yesterday, if you missed it, you can read our live blog coverage of the announcement. The announcement included the following updates to Bing:

    • Updated user interface designed to get the answer faster
    • More celebrity and sport answers
    • Way to filter auto results
    • Mobile improvements with Windows 7
    • Foursquare added to Bing Maps
    • and more

    Here are some screen captures:

    Overall, the new features are welcomed to Bing.

    Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2010/03/25/Daily_Search_Forum_Recap__March_25__2010'

    Daily Search Forum Recap: March 25, 2010

    Posted: March 25th, 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.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2010/03/25/Search__PR_and_the_Social_Butterfly_from_SES_NY_2010'

    Search, PR and the Social Butterfly from SES NY 2010

    Posted: March 25th, 2010, 9:45pm CET by rustybrick
    Tags:  Search Engine Strategies 2010 New  

    Below is live coverage of the Search, PR and the Social Butterfly from the SES New York conference.

    This coverage is provided by 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.

    Search, PR and the Social Butterfly


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2010/03/25/Ads_in_a_Quality_Score_World_from_SES_NY_2010'

    Ads in a Quality Score World from SES NY 2010

    Posted: March 25th, 2010, 8:00pm CET by rustybrick
    Tags:  Search Engine Strategies 2010 New  

    Below is live coverage of the Ads in a Quality Score World from the SES New York conference.

    This coverage is provided by Annie Cushing of Pied Piper Interactive.

    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.

    Ads in a Quality Score World


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2010/03/25/Spotlight_on_Fashion__Blogging_for_Style_from_SES_NY_2010'

    Spotlight on Fashion: Blogging for Style from SES NY 2010

    Posted: March 25th, 2010, 8:00pm CET by rustybrick
    Tags:  Search Engine Strategies 2010 New  

    Below is live coverage of the Spotlight on Fashion: Blogging for Style from the SES New York 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.

    Spotlight on Fashion: Blogging for Style


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2010/03/25/Enterprise_Level_SEO_from_SES_NY_2010'

    Enterprise Level SEO from SES NY 2010

    Posted: March 25th, 2010, 6:30pm CET by rustybrick
    Tags:  Search Engine Strategies 2010 New  

    Below is live coverage of the Enterprise Level SEO from the SES New York 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.

    Enterprise Level SEO


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2010/03/25/Advanced_Paid_Search_Tactics_from_SES_NY_2010'

    Advanced Paid Search Tactics from SES NY 2010

    Posted: March 25th, 2010, 6:30pm CET by rustybrick
    Tags:  Search Engine Strategies 2010 New  

    Below is live coverage of the Advanced Paid Search Tactics from the SES New York conference.

    This coverage is provided by Annie Cushing of Pied Piper Interactive.

    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.

    Advanced Paid Search Tactics


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2010/03/25/The_Business_Value_of_Social_Media_from_SES_NY_2010'

    The Business Value of Social Media from SES NY 2010

    Posted: March 25th, 2010, 6:30pm CET by rustybrick
    Tags:  Search Engine Strategies 2010 New  

    Below is live coverage of the The Business Value of Social Media from the SES New York 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.

    The Business Value of Social Media


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2010/03/25/Ad_Networks___Exchanges__How_the_Search_O_S_is_Changing_the_Display_Game_from_SES_NY_2010'

    Ad Networks & Exchanges: How the Search O/S is Changing the Display Game from SES NY 2010

    Posted: March 25th, 2010, 4:15pm CET by rustybrick
    Tags:  Search Engine Strategies 2010 New  

    Below is live coverage of the Ad Networks & Exchanges: How the Search O/S is Changing the Display Game from the SES New York conference.

    This coverage is provided by Annie Cushing of Pied Piper Interactive.

    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.

    Ad Networks & Exchanges: How the Search O/S is Changing the Display Game


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2010/03/22/Daily_Search_Forum_Recap__March_22__2010'

    Daily Search Forum Recap: March 22, 2010

    Posted: March 22nd, 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.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2010/03/20/Video_Recap_of_Weekly_Search_Buzz____March_19__2010'

    Video Recap of Weekly Search Buzz :: March 19, 2010

    Posted: March 20th, 2010, 12:10am CET by rustybrick
    Tags:  Search Buzz RoundUp  

    In this week's recap I thank Rhea and the others who helped save the term "SEO" from being trademarked. Matt Cutts was interviewed by Eric Enge and he uncovered a nice amount of information, including PageRank information. A poll we published show only 13% felt Google PageRank was "very important." Some are speculating that the Caffeine index is now live. Google has more pornography issues that they had to deal with. Google opened up the "Google certified ad network" to all AdSense publishers. Google asks publishers if they would show pharmacy and alcohol ads. Ask Sponsored Listings is now hiding referrers. Google and Viacom go it in court over YouTube. SES NY is next week, we will be covering 41 sessions. In our logo roundups, Google showed the wrong colors on Hungary National Day. I also showed you the logos from St. Patrick's Day and Google's Pi Day 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. Here is the YouTube version of the feed:


    For the original iTunes version, click here or to see the YouTube version in higher quality, click play & hit "HD."

    Search Topics of Discussion:

    Industry:

    SEO:

    Searching:

    Google AdSense:

    Ask Sponsored Listings:

    Legal:

    Conference:

    Search Logos:

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


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2010/03/19/Daily_Search_Forum_Recap__March_19__2010'

    Daily Search Forum Recap: March 19, 2010

    Posted: March 19th, 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.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2010/03/18/Daily_Search_Forum_Recap__March_18__2010'

    Daily Search Forum Recap: March 18, 2010

    Posted: March 18th, 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.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2010/03/18/Google_s_Porn_Issue_With_Children_Related_Keywords'

    Google's Porn Issue With Children Related Keywords

    Posted: March 18th, 2010, 2:29pm CET by rustybrick
    Tags:  Google Search Engine  

    I have covered way too many issues with porn on Google. But let me show you two recent examples that impacts children.

    (1) A Google Web Search Help thread has a report from a searcher who is disgusted that Google will not remove a pornographic image of two girls for a search on [babysitter]. What upsets me most is that this person said he/she reported the image three or four times. Of course, I have no way of verifying that, so I am going by this person's word but nevertheless, the image should not be there.

    If a kid goes to Google to find a picture of their babysitter, the last thing you want coming up is a picture of two naked women on a bed together. Here is a censored image to prove this comes up with normal moderate SafeSearch on:

    (2) A second thread at the Google Web Search Help forums reports that when you type in "little girl" into Google Images search, Google auto-suggests "little girl no cloths." Here is a picture:

    Yes, these suggestions are pulled from what people search for but Google does censor certain types of suggestions. We had issues like this before, such as with little kids having sex and other porn examples. Google does censor adult oriented suggestions and most people agree that is what Google should do.

    For Google, this is a constant battle between those trying to inject porn in their search results and Google trying to keep their search results clean. It is not a fun battle.

    Forum discussion at Google Web Search Help.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2010/03/18/Bing_Maps_Adds_WorldWide_Telescope___Google_Maps_Updates_Android_App'

    Bing Maps Adds WorldWide Telescope & Google Maps Updates Android App

    Posted: March 18th, 2010, 2:04pm CET by rustybrick
    Tags:  Search Local  

    We have two different mapping announcements, one from Bing and one from Google. Bing's is the most interesting, in that they launched WorldWide Telescope data in their mapping software. Google updated their Google Maps for Android app to enable search 'n swipe, a latitude widget, and other changes.

    Bing's telescope feature works by going to Bing Maps, and simply panning the maps up to the sky. Here is a screen capture:

    Bing has partnered to get a ton of data about the sky maps, to learn more about it click here.

    Google released version 4.1 of their maps app for Android. This version updated search results page, added a swipe feature, added a Latitude widget, plus a Maps live wallpaper, and lets you switch easily between Google Accounts. For more information about this update click here.

    Forum discussion on Bing at WebmasterWorld and Google at Google Mobile Help.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2010/03/17/Daily_Search_Forum_Recap__March_17__2010'

    Daily Search Forum Recap: March 17, 2010

    Posted: March 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.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2010/03/17/St._Patrick_s_Day_Logos_from_Google__Yahoo__Bing___Others'

    St. Patrick's Day Logos from Google, Yahoo, Bing & Others

    Posted: March 17th, 2010, 2:46pm CET by rustybrick
    Tags:  Search Engine Industry News  

    Happy St. Patrick's Day everyone! We typically post a collection of the various logos from the search industry, including Google, Yahoo, Bing, Ask and others for the special day. To see the past years logo see our 2009, 2008, 2007, 2006, 2005 and 2004 archives.

    Now, for the 2010 logos for St. Patrick's Day:

    Google:

    Yahoo:

    Bing:

    Ask.com:

    Orkut:

    PPC Hero:

    Search Engine Roundtable:

    This year, DogPile and AOL do not seem to have special logos up. DogPile is sporting a March Madness suited up dog.

    Forum discussion at Search Engine Roundtable Forums.

    Update: DogPile added a logo for the day a bit later:


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2010/03/17/Why_Did_You_Get_into_the_SEO_Field_'

    Why Did You Get into the SEO Field?

    Posted: March 17th, 2010, 2:35pm CET by rustybrick
    Tags:  Search Engine Industry News  

    A HighRankings Forums thread asks a fun question, why did you get into the SEO field? I decided to tweet the question via @rustybrick and I received some quick responses. The purpose of the tweet was to try to create a generic poll, which I could use to post here and get a larger set of responses.

    Here is the poll, I hope I am not missing any answers.


    Why Did You Get Into SEO?poll

    You can select more than one answer. Please have your friends and colleagues take the poll as well. I will publish the results in a week or two.

    Forum discussion at HighRankings Forums.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2010/03/16/Daily_Search_Forum_Recap__March_16__2010'

    Daily Search Forum Recap: March 16, 2010

    Posted: March 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.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2010/03/16/SES_NY_2010_Live_Blogging_Schedule'

    SES NY 2010 Live Blogging Schedule

    Posted: March 16th, 2010, 4:03pm CET by rustybrick
    Tags:  Search Engine Strategies 2010 New  

    SES New York is a week from today and we will be providing live blogging coverage of the event - yet again. Every year I say I will retire from doing it, but then I continue to do it. Heh.

    In any event, I always enlist a great team of volunteer bloggers to help me with the coverage. The volunteers include:

    Here is our coverage schedule, which will be done in real time, as we type. Note, there can be multiple bloggers in the same session and the schedule is subject to change last minute.

    Tuesday, March 23 - Day 1
    10:45-11:45am
    Digital Asset Optimization covered by Sheara Goldenthal
    Search: Where to Next? covered by Barry Schwartz & Brian Ussery
    How to Become a Link Magnet covered by Annie Cushing
    12:45-1:45pm
    Post Mortem: Banned Site Forensics covered by Sheara Goldenthal & Barry Schwartz
    Achieving Success with Improved Ads Quality covered by Annie Cushing
    SEO Performance Marketing: Paid Search is Accountable So Why Not SEO? covered by Brian Ussery
    Managing a Global SEO Campaign covered by Avi Wilensky
    3:30-4:30pm
    Pushing Content via XML, RSS & Site Maps covered by Sheara Goldenthal
    Meaningful SEO Metrics: Going Beyond the Numbers covered by Avi Wilensky
    10 Things To Supercharge Your SEM Campaigns in 2010 covered by Annie Cushing
    From Real- Time Search to Dynamic Discovery covered by Barry Schwartz & Marty Weintraub
    4:45-5:45pm
    Getting the Most out of AdWords Features & Tools covered by Annie Cushing
    Search & the Integrated Marketing Mix covered by Chris Boggs
    Augmented Reality: It's a Brave New World covered by Barry Schwartz

    Wednesday, March 24 - Day 2
    9:00-10:00am
    Keynote - Avinash Kaushik, Author, Blogger, Analytics Evangelist, Google covered by Annie Cushing & Brian Ussery
    10:30-11:45am
    Introduction to Information Retrieval on the Web covered by Barry Schwartz & Brian Ussery
    Social and Search: Integrating Social Media and Search to Drive the Brand covered by Annie Cushing
    12:45-1:45pm
    Keynote Panel - Video: The Next Digital Marketing Frontier covered by Barry Schwartz
    2:15-3:30pm
    Paid Search Super Tools covered by Marty Weintraub
    News Search Optimization covered by Sheara Goldenthal
    Stretching Your Marketing Dollars: The Upside of Search covered by Brian Ussery
    Automating Twitter covered by Barry Schwartz & Avi Wilensky
    3:45-4:45pm
    SEO 101 covered by Brian Ussery
    Selling Search to the C-Suite covered by Chris Boggs
    Link Building - Methods and Risks covered by Barry Schwartz
    Behavioral Analytics and Search Data-Driven Marketing covered by Sheara Goldenthal & Annie Cushing
    5:00-6:00pm
    SEO Super Tools covered by Avi Wilensky & Marty Weintraub
    Advanced B2B Search Marketing covered by Annie Cushing
    Where Search and Social Media Collide: Real-Time Search and Twitter covered by Chris Boggs

    Thursday, March 25 - Day 3
    9:00-10:00am
    Keynote - Yusuf Mehdi, Senior VP of the Online Audience Business, Bing covered by Barry Schwartz
    10:30-11:45am
    Social Media 101 covered by Brian Ussery
    PPC or SEO? The Ultimate Search Marketing Battle covered by Barry Schwartz
    Ad Networks & Exchanges: How the Search O/S is Changing the Display Game covered by Annie Cushing
    12:45-2:00pm
    The Business Value of Social Media covered by Barry Schwartz
    Advanced Paid Search Tactics covered by Annie Cushing
    Enterprise Level SEO covered by Sheara Goldenthal & Avi Wilensky
    2:15-3:30pm
    Spotlight on Fashion: Blogging for Style covered by Sheara Goldenthal
    Ads in a Quality Score World covered by Annie Cushing
    Working Collaboratively With Your IT Department to Achieve Business Goals covered by Chris Boggs
    4:00-5:15pm
    Search, PR and the Social Butterfly covered by Avi Wilensky
    Conversion Ninja Toolbox covered by Annie Cushing

    Lisa and Susan are also live blogging and they do an excellent job. See you next week!


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2010/03/16/Why_The_SEO_Industry_Is_Special'

    Why The SEO Industry Is Special

    Posted: March 16th, 2010, 3:04pm CET by rustybrick
    Tags:  Search Engine Industry News  

    I have been part of the SEO industry for a pretty long time now. The thing is, I really don't offer SEO services, but yet, I still write about the industry, cover the news and go to the industry gatherings. The question I am asked about this is why? Why bother if you don't sell SEO?

    I always come back to the industry and how special it is. There is something about the people in the industry. The giving nature of the industry. The excitement of the technical aspects of the industry. I personally get a great deal of satisfaction covering the industry that I don't think I would get in other industries.

    I want to point to one example of why the industry is so special. Yesterday I covered this at Search Engine Land under the title Meet The 25-Year-Old Who Saved “SEO” From Being Trademarked.

    In summary, some guy wanted to trademark the term SEO about two years ago. I blogged about it, made a big fuss but then forgot about it. I assumed, wrongly, that it would never go through. But there are several people in the industry that did more than assume, they fought against it legally.
    SEOmoz, Jonathan Hochman, ArteWorks.biz and Rhea Drysdale all spent time and money fighting the guy. Ultimately, some failed and some dropped out, but Rhea and Jonathan stuck with the case. Jonathan's case failed but Rhea's actually won and the trademark application was refused - this time.

    Rhea and the others did this to protect the industry. They did not ask for money or for compassion, they just did what they felt was right. SEMPO and other organizations that are here to protect the industry didn't do it - it was Rhea and a few others.

    Jonathan spent $10,000 of his own money and Rhea spent over $17,000 of her own money. She didn't even want me to get people to donate to her for her expenses. We (the Search Engine Land team) conned her into it and she gave us her PayPal address, which is rhea_drysdale@yahoo.com (please donate something).

    How the industry responded was amazing. In less than 12 hours, Rhea told me she collected $14,000. She will split much of it with Jonathan. It still doesn't reach the total of $27,000 in legal costs, but I think it will get there. Only 80 people donated at my last count, so there are many of you holding out. Give $5, $100, $1,000 - whatever you can.

    Why is the SEO industry so special?

    (1) We protect ourselves without asking for anything in return.
    (2) We come together when it is the right thing to do.

    I am proud to be part of such an industry, and industry with people like Rhea and Jonathan and those that support them.

    Forum discussion at Sphinn.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2010/03/12/Daily_Search_Forum_Recap__March_12__2010'

    Daily Search Forum Recap: March 12, 2010

    Posted: March 12th, 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.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2010/03/12/Video_Recap_of_Weekly_Search_Buzz____March_12__2010'

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

    Posted: March 12th, 2010, 8:30pm CET by rustybrick
    Tags:  Search Buzz RoundUp  

    It has been two weeks since my last video recap, but I have been doing text recaps - so check those out. Why did I miss the video recaps, I was in Israel for both pleasure and business. I ran SphinnCon Israel this past sunday, it was a blast.

    Yahoo Search updated their index this week. Google's AJAX crawling proposal is now live. Google is upgrading the Site Performance report in Webmaster Tools. Yahoo upgraded their search marketing desktop tool out of beta. People ignore real time search results, according to a study. Google Shopping added stock levels. Google Maps added bike directions. Google is testing TV search. Microsoft starts a major ad campaign in the UK. MSN.com updated their look. Google News Archive added a "browse" feature. Google Doodle controversies over International Women's Day and Chuck Norris's 70th birthday. 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. Here is the YouTube version of the feed:


    For the original iTunes version, click here or to see the YouTube version in higher quality, click play & hit "HD."

    Search Topics of Discussion:

    Industry News:

    Yahoo SEO:

    Google SEO:

    Yahoo PPC:

    Real Time Search:

    Google Updates:

    Microsoft News:

    Google Doodles:

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


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2010/03/12/Google_News_Archives_Adds__Browse_This_Newspaper_'

    Google News Archives Adds "Browse This Newspaper"

    Posted: March 12th, 2010, 3:10pm CET by rustybrick
    Tags:  Google Search Engine  

    If you go to the Google News Archives and find a digitized back issue from the Google archives, you should be able to now browse that newspaper directly on Google.

    For example, let's take a look at the The News and Eastern Townships Advocate. I can then browse the newspaper by panning through the pages.

    Here are some screen captures:

    I spotted this addition via the Google News Help forum where Googler, Inbal replied to an old thread with this feature request. She said:

    We're excited to announce the launch of browse mode for newspapers in Archives! To do so, click "Browse this newspaper" to view other editions from that newspaper!

    Indeed, very neat feature!

    Forum discussion at Google News Help.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2010/03/12/Google_Shopping_Adds_Inventory_Levels'

    Google Shopping Adds Inventory Levels

    Posted: March 12th, 2010, 3:02pm CET by rustybrick
    Tags:  Google Search Engine  

    Ever want to pick up a product from a store now and want to know if it is in stock in nearby stores? Yea, you have, I have. I end up calling stores to find a store that has it. But you may no longer have to do that. Just open your smart phone, go to Google, click on shopping and type in your product. Then look for a blue indicator to see which stores have them in stock.

    Here is an example I ran in my iPhone for a search in Wii Fit:

    Click on the link near the blue icon:

    Great feature for the typical searcher. If you are a merchant and you want your product inventory data in Google Shopping, you will need to be part of the Google Merchant Center and Local Business Center and then fill out this form.

    Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2010/03/11/Daily_Search_Forum_Recap__March_11__2010'

    Daily Search Forum Recap: March 11, 2010

    Posted: March 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.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2010/03/11/Yahoo_Search_Update__March_2010'

    Yahoo Search Update: March 2010

    Posted: March 11th, 2010, 3:27pm CET by rustybrick
    Tags:  Search Optimization Yahoo  

    Yahoo announced a new search update, or what they call a "weather report" for their index. Yahoo said you may notice ranking changes in the Yahoo Search results. They said:

    The Yahoo! Search engineering teams are rolling out updates to crawling, indexing, and ranking algorithms. Similar to previous updates, you may notice some ranking changes and page shuffling during the process, which we expect to complete over the next few days.

    I have not seen any discussion around this but there may be an issue with the Yahoo Search WebmasterWorld forum, so I am not sure.

    I did spot two threads discussing an update with Yahoo Site Explorer. One thread was at the Site Explorer Suggestion Board and the other at DigitalPoint Forums.

    Update: I was able to post a thread at WebmasterWorld (maybe there was a bug on my side) and now we have a nice amount of feedback on how significant this update is. Here are some posts from the thread:

    I'm seeing a small but statistically insignificant increase from Yahoo!

    We had been showing a steady increase in traffic until yesterday (March 10th). Today, we've lost about 20% of our traffic from Y!.

    This is a pattern that seems to repeat with each update. After the update we drop in ranking but slowly climb back before the next update.

    They are showing lots of love for Wikipedia.

    I'm seeing huge differences not in the results but the output...5 natural results for some queries instead of the usual 10 and quite frankly I like it shortened like this. Top 5 or go home.......


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2010/03/10/Daily_Search_Forum_Recap__March_10__2010'

    Daily Search Forum Recap: March 10, 2010

    Posted: March 10th, 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.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2010/03/10/The_UK_Bing_Ads___Here_Is_a_Video'

    The UK Bing Ads : Here Is a Video

    Posted: March 10th, 2010, 3:02pm CET by rustybrick
    Tags:  Search MSN Microsoft  

    As many of you know, Microsoft is conducting a major ad blitz in the UK in order to capture market share for Bing, their search engine.

    Bing's product manager sent me a link to one of the new commercials, which is now on YouTube. Here is a video of the new commercial:

    What do you think? It looks similar to the US commercials, just with UK accents.

    Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2010/03/10/MSN_s_New_Portal_Now_Live'

    MSN's New Portal Now Live

    Posted: March 10th, 2010, 2:57pm CET by rustybrick
    Tags:  Search MSN Microsoft  

    If you visit MSN.com today, you may notice a new look and feel for the site. The beta design is now the new official look for MSN. Like it or not, this is the new look for now.

    Greg Sterling reports that about 50% of the Bing search queries are driven from the MSN portal. So this new design may or may not have an impact on that. 50% is major and clearly Microsoft is aware of that.

    Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2010/03/10/Google_Directing_You_To_Wrong_Country__Report_The_Issue'

    Google Directing You To Wrong Country? Report The Issue

    Posted: March 10th, 2010, 2:47pm CET by rustybrick
    Tags:  Google Search Engine  

    I am finally back from my trip to Israel and one thing that kind of bothered me while I was there was that whenever I went to Google.com, it redirected me to Google.co.il. I know, that is how it should work, but imagine being in a country, like the U.S. and being directed to a localized or regional version of Google. It happens every now and then, to both Google and even Bing.

    But there is something you can do about it at Google. A Google Web Search Help thread has a Googler named Rubie saying there is a specific form to fill out at Google to report the issue. Rubie said:

    We have a nifty tool you can use if you think your IP address is not being detected correctly. Click on the link below to report your issue.

    The link below takes you to this page that can be used for this specific issue. So if you run into this issue, you can report it to Google and hopefully they will fix it.

    Forum discussion at Google Web Search Help.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2010/03/10/Daily_Search_Forum_Recap__March_9__2010'

    Daily Search Forum Recap: March 9, 2010

    Posted: March 10th, 2010, 2:29am 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.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2010/03/09/Microsoft_Aims_To_Capture_UK_Search_Market_Share_with_Ads'

    Microsoft Aims To Capture UK Search Market Share with Ads

    Posted: March 9th, 2010, 1:55pm CET by rustybrick
    Tags:  Search MSN Microsoft  

    There are reports that Microsoft is going to do a huge ad push in the UK in an effort to capture market share there. Currently, Microsoft's Bing has a 3% share of search, whereas Google holds about a 90% share.

    Here is the news:

    Microsoft is to launch a multimillion-pound TV ad campaign for its search engine Bing, as part of a major marketing push designed to challenge Google's dominance of the UK search market, MediaGuardian.co.uk can reveal.

    Microsoft will certainly have its work cut out winning over consumers – it currently holds about a 3% share of the search market while Google controls about 90%.

    "This is a big moment – we are taking out our slingshots and taking on Goliath," said the managing director and vice-president of consumer and online at Microsoft UK, Ashley Highfield, adding that he believed Bing met a real desire from both consumers and advertisers.

    A WebmasterWorld thread has some comments, here is one:

    In the UK I believe there is a large number of people who do not like Microsoft and unless they can hide their identity as far as Bing is concerned, I doubt they will make any great inroads however much money they pour into Bing. And that mention of taking out their slingshots and taking on Goliath is a joke! Who is the real Goliath between the two companies?

    Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2010/03/09/Google_s_International_Women_s_Day_Logo_at_Google_Russia_Only_'

    Google's International Women's Day Logo at Google Russia Only?

    Posted: March 9th, 2010, 6:34am CET by rustybrick
    Tags:  Google Search Engine  

    I was browsing the various Google forums and spotted several complaints in the Google Web Search Help forums and Google Webmaster Help about there being no International Women's Day Doodle on March 8th, yesterday.

    There are literally dozens of complaints, some calling Google anti-women. Google is a very women friendly company, I know that. So what is going on, why no Doodle for International Women's Day?

    I initially thought Google just doesn't always celebrate every event every day. They are human, they can forget. But then I saw someone mention that a logo was live on Google Russia. It linked to 8 марта, which is March 8 but in the URL parameter it had "&ct=womensday10-hp&oi=ddle", i.e. a doodle for women's day. Here is a picture of the doodle:

    What is weird is that I don't see it live on Google.com. But I do see it linked to at google.com/logos/womensday10-hp.gif - so why not on the main Google.com?

    In any event, I wrote this post on March 8th and scheduled it for tomorrow. I hope by then, the logo would have been posted. But I won't be able to check until later, because I will be on a plane.

    Forum discussion at Google Web Search Help and Google Webmaster Help.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2010/03/08/Daily_Search_Forum_Recap__March_8__2010'

    Daily Search Forum Recap: March 8, 2010

    Posted: March 8th, 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.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2010/03/08/Bing__We_Know_About_Your_Images___Choose_Not_To_Show_Them'

    Bing: We Know About Your Images & Choose Not To Show Them

    Posted: March 8th, 2010, 1:46pm CET by rustybrick
    Tags:  Search MSN Microsoft  

    We rarely ever talk about Bing's outstanding image search, but I spotted a thread today in the Bing Community forums on that topic.

    In short, one webmaster complained that Bing had about 50% of the images from his site, when compared to Google. So Google had about 50 pictures from this guys site in their index, coming up for a site command. Bing had about half that.

    Brett Yount forwarded the complaint the the image search team at Bing and when he received a response, he copy and pasted it in the forums. This is what they said:

    All in all I would say we have ok coverage for this site. We do not include all images that we know about in our index -- it is quite plausible that we decided to not include certain images from this site due to better relative ranking of other sites during crawl time. We should see its image search rank go up (and our coverage of it improve) as the site gets more popular and the images get reused and referred to by more sites.

    This is really no different than web search - Google, Bing and other search engines may not consider a page worthy of crawling or indexing due to it's popularity or lack there of. This works the same way with images, according to Bing.

    Forum discussion at Bing Community.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2010/03/08/Yahoo_Releases_Search_Marketing_Desktop_Just_In_Time_To_Kill_It'

    Yahoo Releases Search Marketing Desktop Just In Time To Kill It

    Posted: March 8th, 2010, 12:34pm CET by rustybrick
    Tags:  Search Yahoo Marketing  

    Yahoo announced they have removed the BETA from the Yahoo Search Marketing Desktop client.

    Yahoo Pete, Yahoo's search ad representative, said in both a WebmasterWorld & Search Engine Watch Forums thread:

    Just wanted to make you aware that our desktop editing tool, Search Marketing Desktop, is now available to most of our advertisers (eligibility is based on minimum monthly spend and a few other factors). Using SMD, it takes just a few clicks to modify multiple campaigns, ad groups, keywords and ads at the same time.

    For more details, please visit our blog [ysmblog.com] or the SMD sign-up page [advertising.yahoo.com]. We're also hosting a free webinar about SMD this coming Thursday--you can sign up through the link in the blog post.

    Obviously, towards the end of this year or early next year, this tool will be terminated due to the Microsoft Yahoo deal - but hey, remove the beta label, why not.

    For more information about the tool, please see here and for Thursday's webminar click here.

    Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld & Search Engine Watch Forums.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2010/03/08/SMX_s_SphinnCon_Israel_2010_Recap'

    SMX's SphinnCon Israel 2010 Recap

    Posted: March 8th, 2010, 11:49am CET by rustybrick
    Tags:  Search Engine Conferences  

    Yesterday was the second ever SphinnCon event, a small Search Marketing Expo, ever. The first one took place about two years ago in Israel and the second took place yesterday in Israel. The second event was a bit larger than the first in terms of the number of sessions, speakers and attendees. Overall, the networking and educational event was a huge success and we look forward to hosting one again next year.

    The even took place in the Jerusalem College of Technology's new lecture rooms. The rooms hard larger capacity than the first time we held the event there but we were still limited to only about 200 or so attendees. In any event, the university was incredibly welcoming to us, they not only partnered with us for this event by giving us a place at their home, but also had their own speakers at the event.

    We had sold out the event a couple months prior to yesterday and had a waiting list of about a hundred people, hoping to get a spot. We also had people show up at the door, waiting to see if they can get in. Ultimately, I believe we began letting people in an hour or so after the show began. I honestly believe we could have had 400 or more people at this event. So for next year, I hope to work that out the accommodations with JCT to make this possible.

    We started off the event with Avi Kay from the university, who introduced me to give the welcome address. In my five minute welcome, I thanks the sponsors, which included Compucall Web Marketing, Answers.com and Whired Rhino. We had additional requests for sponsors, but we had to turn additional sponsors away at a certain point.

    I also thanked all the volunteers who put tons of hours into the event. They either ran around getting the caterer scheduled or printing the conference banners and handouts. Or they dealt with helping formulate the conference agenda and organizing the 30+ speakers. Acted as the front door bouncer and speaker organizers during the event. Or they helped organize the after hours party or provided Israeli hospitality to our out of town speakers. They include, but are not limited to Olivier Amar (@olivier_amar) of WhiteWeb, Ophir Cohen (@ophirco) of Compucall, Eli Feldblum (@Feldbum) of RankAbove, Roi Hildesheimer of Tens Technology, Charlie Kalech (@charliekalech)of J Town, Itay Paz (ItayPaz)of Affilicon, Mayer Reich (@mayerreich) of RankAbove, Branko Rihtman (@neyne) of WhiteWeb, and Gilad Sasson (@algoholic) of Nekuda. So thank you again, from the bottom of my heart.

    There were four speakers, at least that I am aware of, that came from outside of Israel, excluding myself, to make it to this event. Vanessa Fox of Nine By Blue came all the way from SMX West (but native to Seattle), with what appeared to be bronchitis. Dixon Jones from Receptional and Magestic SEO flew from the UK to speak about one of his favorite topics, links. Ariel Sumeruk from Click2Customers came from SMX West (but native to South Africa) to speak on paid search. Finally, Tomer Honen from Google, came from the Ireland Google office to represent the Google Webmaster team in Israel. Thank you all for coming from so far to make it to this special event - the Israeli SEM industry deeply appreciated it and you all made a huge impact yesterday.

    I would also like to thank all the speakers. I heard some great, unique and fun presentations yesterday. This was event definitely lived up to the quality of the SMX name. Here is a list of our speakers for SphinnCon Israel 2010:

    After the presentations, some of the attendees travelled up to Tel Aviv to hit the party at the Dancing Camel. The party was sponsored by 888.com and Gammon Empire. Here is one of my favorite pictures from that event:

    Thank you all so much for making this such a successful event! If some of you were unable to make it, there were tons of tweets and pictures of the event. We have some greatest hit recaps and live blogging of the event. Here are some of the pictures from people mentioned above, including a Flash embed from TENS Web Marketing.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2010/03/05/Daily_Search_Forum_Recap__March_5__2010'

    Daily Search Forum Recap: March 5, 2010

    Posted: March 5th, 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.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2010/03/05/_Text__Recap_of_Weekly_Search_Buzz____March_5__2010'

    (Text) Recap of Weekly Search Buzz :: March 5, 2010

    Posted: March 5th, 2010, 1:40pm CET by rustybrick
    Tags:  Search Buzz RoundUp  

    I am still in Israel, so no video recap this week again, I apologize but here is the text alternative.

    Google dropped SearchWiki for Starring search results, which makes me very happy. Yahoo celebrated it's 15th birthday. We posted the March Google webmaster report. Is there such a thing as a seven day indexing delay with Google? Google Webmaster Tools added better notifications, sharing capabilities, Sidewiki control, but had bugs with setting the crawl rate and verification through AdSense. Bing recommends validated HTML for better indexing and dislikes chain redirects. Google is showing "related commercial searches" in the AdWords spot. AdSense publishers from Brazil may not get paid this month. Google Maps has an avoid tolls feature that doesn't fully work every where. Google posted a Doodle for St Davids Day & Vivaldi. Finally, SMX West was this week and Keri and Brian did a great job with the excellent coverage. That was this past week at the Search Engine Roundtable.

    Select Topics For This Past Week:

    Google Search:

    Yahoo News:

    Google SEO:

    Bing SEO:

    Google AdWords:

    Google AdSense:

    Google Maps:

    Google Doodles:


    SEM Industry:

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


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2010/03/05/SMX_West_2010_Live_Blogging_Recap'

    SMX West 2010 Live Blogging Recap

    Posted: March 5th, 2010, 12:14pm CET by rustybrick
    Tags:  Search Marketing Expo West 2010  

    The past three days was three days filled with great SEO and SEM related content from the SMX West show. I am happy to say we had two outstanding and giving volunteer bloggers to help bring a piece of the show to you via this site.

    Keri Morgret of Strike Models and Brian Ussery of Beu Blog spent a tremendous amount of time and energy live blogging the event. Please give them a huge thank you - and please also thank the SMX conference for allowing us to provide this coverage.

    Here is a recap of the sessions we covered. I believe one of the sessions had a technical quirk where all the notes were some how lost, so I apologize.

    Thanks Keri and Brain! See you at the next one!


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2010/03/05/Daily_Search_Forum_Recap__March_4__2010'

    Daily Search Forum Recap: March 4, 2010

    Posted: March 5th, 2010, 12:24am 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.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2010/03/04/SMX_West__Conversion_Ninja_Toolbox'

    SMX West: Conversion Ninja Toolbox

    Posted: March 4th, 2010, 11:30pm CET by rustybrick
    Tags:  Search Marketing Expo West 2010  

    Below is live coverage of the Conversion Ninja Toolbox from the SMX West conference.

    This coverage is provided by Keri Morgret of Strike Models.

    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.

    Conversion Ninja Toolbox


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2010/03/04/SMX_West__Ask_The_SEOs'

    SMX West: Ask The SEOs

    Posted: March 4th, 2010, 10:15pm CET by rustybrick
    Tags:  Search Marketing Expo West 2010  

    Below is live coverage of the Ask The SEOs from the SMX West conference.

    This coverage is provided by Brian Ussery of Beu Blog.

    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.

    Ask The SEOs


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2010/03/04/SMX_West__Analytics_Action_Plans'

    SMX West: Analytics Action Plans

    Posted: March 4th, 2010, 10:15pm CET by rustybrick
    Tags:  Search Marketing Expo West 2010  

    Below is live coverage of the Analytics Action Plans from the SMX West conference.

    This coverage is provided by Keri Morgret of Strike Models.

    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.

    Analytics Action Plans


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2010/03/04/SMX_West__Ask_The_Search_Engines'

    SMX West: Ask The Search Engines

    Posted: March 4th, 2010, 8:15pm CET by rustybrick
    Tags:  Search Marketing Expo West 2010  

    Below is live coverage of the Ask The Search Engines from the SMX West conference.

    This coverage is provided by Brian Ussery of Beu Blog.

    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.

    Ask The Search Engines


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2010/03/04/SMX_West__PPC_Tune_Up_Clinic'

    SMX West: PPC Tune Up Clinic

    Posted: March 4th, 2010, 8:15pm CET by rustybrick
    Tags:  Search Marketing Expo West 2010  

    Below is live coverage of the PPC Tune Up Clinic from the SMX West conference.

    This coverage is provided by Keri Morgret of Strike Models.

    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.

    PPC Tune Up Clinic


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2010/03/04/SMX_West__Bringing_SEO_In_House'

    SMX West: Bringing SEO In House

    Posted: March 4th, 2010, 6:45pm CET by rustybrick
    Tags:  Search Marketing Expo West 2010  

    Below is live coverage of the Bringing SEO In House from the SMX West conference.

    This coverage is provided by Keri Morgret of Strike Models.

    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.

    Bringing SEO In House


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2010/03/04/Bing_Doesn_t_Like_Redirect_Chains__No_One_Does_Really'

    Bing Doesn't Like Redirect Chains, No One Does Really

    Posted: March 4th, 2010, 1:15pm CET by rustybrick
    Tags:  Search MSN Microsoft  

    A Bing Community thread talks about Bing's crawlers and indexers ability in following chains of redirects. A redirect chain is when you have two or more URLs that are being redirects to another URL. For example, if I have domain.com/pageA redirect to domain.com/pageB and then from domain.com/pageB to domain.com/pageC - that is a redirect chain.

    Search engines typically crawl them fine, if they are done using 301 redirects. But it takes them a longer time to figure multiple redirects in a chain of redirects. I believe most search engines can handle them, but your job as an SEO is to make sure to limit the number of redirects to one or so, so there is not a long chain.

    Brett Yount from Bing even said they do not like redirect chains. In the Bing Community, he said:

    While we do not like redirect chains, we are able to follow them. But if you have a 302 redirect in the chain--even if there is a 301 after it--expect that the page may not get all of the potential rank or may not get indexed at all.

    Forum discussion at Bing Community.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2010/03/04/Good__Google_Killed_SearchWiki__Adds_Stars'

    Good, Google Killed SearchWiki, Adds Stars

    Posted: March 4th, 2010, 1:09pm CET by rustybrick
    Tags:  Google Search Engine  

    Google announced they have added stars to the search results for sites you have starred in the past. Google said:

    With stars, you can simply click the star marker on any search result or map and the next time you perform a search, that item will appear in a special list right at the top of your results when relevant. That means if you star the official websites for your favorite football teams, you might see those results right at the top of your next search for [nfl]. Here's what the new "Starred results" feature looks like:

    Here is my picture:

    I don't always say, "I told you so" but here, I got to say it. When Google made SearchWiki the default, I thought they were crazy. As part of this announcement, Google said:

    Stars in search replace SearchWiki. In our testing, we learned that people really liked the idea of marking a website for future reference, but they didn't like changing the order of Google's organic search results. With stars, we've created a lightweight and flexible way for people to mark and rediscover web content.

    I really knew it and I am glad Google made the decision to remove this feature. Kudos.

    Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2010/03/04/Vivaldi_Gets_A_Google_Doodle'

    Vivaldi Gets A Google Doodle

    Posted: March 4th, 2010, 10:20am CET by rustybrick
    Tags:  Google Search Engine  

    If you visit Google today, you will see a special logo for Antonio Lucio Vivaldi. Vivaldi was born today, 332 years ago, on March 4, 1678. He was a Venetian baroque composer and priest, as well as a famous virtuoso violinist and nicknamed il Prete Rosso ("The Red Priest").

    Here is the Google Doodle for Vivaldi:

    So far there are no complaints about the Google Doodle in the Google Web Search Help forums, but I suspect there will be. Yes, we often have lots of controversy around Google Logos or Doodles as Google refers to them.

    It is a very nice and artistic Doodle, don't you think?

    Forum discussion at Google Web Search Help.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2010/03/04/SMX_West__Optimizing_Your_Content_on_YouTube'

    SMX West: Optimizing Your Content on YouTube

    Posted: March 4th, 2010, 1:30am CET by rustybrick
    Tags:  Search Marketing Expo West 2010  

    Below is live coverage of the Optimizing Your Content on YouTube from the SMX West conference.

    This coverage is provided by Keri Morgret of Strike Models.

    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.

    Optimizing Your Content on YouTube


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2010/03/03/SMX_West__Free_Ways_to_Market_on_Facebook'

    SMX West: Free Ways to Market on Facebook

    Posted: March 3rd, 2010, 10:15pm CET by rustybrick
    Tags:  Search Marketing Expo West 2010  

    Below is live coverage of the Free Ways to Market on Facebook from the SMX West conference.

    This coverage is provided by Keri Morgret of Strike Models.

    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.

    Free Ways to Market on Facebook


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2010/03/03/Daily_Search_Forum_Recap__March_3__2010'

    Daily Search Forum Recap: March 3, 2010

    Posted: March 3rd, 2010, 9:02pm 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.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2010/03/03/SMX_West__Paid_Search_Bullseye'

    SMX West: Paid Search Bullseye

    Posted: March 3rd, 2010, 7:30pm CET by rustybrick
    Tags:  Search Marketing Expo West 2010  

    Below is live coverage of the Paid Search Bullseye from the SMX West conference.

    This coverage is provided by Keri Morgret of Strike Models.

    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.

    Paid Search Bullseye


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2010/03/03/Bing_Recommends_W3C_Compliant_Code_For_Better_Indexing'

    Bing Recommends W3C Compliant Code For Better Indexing

    Posted: March 3rd, 2010, 12:46pm CET by rustybrick
    Tags:  Search MSN Microsoft  

    A Bing Community thread has a Microsoft Bing representative telling SEOs that W3C complaint code can help with indexing content.

    Brett Yount, the program manager at Bing Webmaster Center, said:

    Clean code can help quite a bit in indexing on all the SEs. If you are just starting out, I suggest finding a W3C compliant template.

    We all know that Google said time and time again that validated code does not get a ranking boost, but they never said it wouldn't help with indexing and crawling. Clean code, which can be validated through the W3C's tools, can make for more efficient crawling and possibly faster indexing.

    This is at least according to Bing.

    Forum discussion at Bing Community.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2010/03/03/SMX_West__The_Current_State_Of_Social_Search'

    SMX West: The Current State Of Social Search

    Posted: March 3rd, 2010, 1:15am CET by rustybrick
    Tags:  Search Marketing Expo West 2010  

    Below is live coverage of the The Current State Of Social Search from the SMX West conference.

    This coverage is provided by Brian Ussery of Beu Blog.

    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.

    The Current State Of Social Search


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2010/03/03/SMX_West__Supercharging_your_Descriptions_with_Sitelinks'

    SMX West: Supercharging your Descriptions with Sitelinks

    Posted: March 3rd, 2010, 1:15am CET by rustybrick
    Tags:  Search Marketing Expo West 2010  

    Below is live coverage of the Supercharging your Descriptions with Sitelinks from the SMX West conference.

    This coverage is provided by Keri Morgret of Strike Models.

    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.

    Supercharging your Descriptions with Sitelinks


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2010/03/02/SMX_West__Google_s_Personalized_Search_Revolution'

    SMX West: Google's Personalized Search Revolution

    Posted: March 2nd, 2010, 11:45pm CET by rustybrick
    Tags:  Search Marketing Expo West 2010  

    Below is live coverage of the Google's Personalized Search Revolution from the SMX West conference.

    This coverage is provided by Brian Ussery of Beu Blog.

    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.

    Google's Personalized Search Revolution


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2010/03/02/SMX_West__Keyword_Research__Beyond_the_Ordinary'

    SMX West: Keyword Research: Beyond the Ordinary

    Posted: March 2nd, 2010, 11:45pm CET by rustybrick
    Tags:  Search Marketing Expo West 2010  

    Below is live coverage of the Keyword Research: Beyond the Ordinary from the SMX West conference.

    This coverage is provided by Keri Morgret of Strike Models.

    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.

    Keyword Research: Beyond the Ordinary


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2010/03/02/SMX_West__Not_Your_Father_s_AdWords'

    SMX West: Not Your Father's AdWords

    Posted: March 2nd, 2010, 10:00pm CET by rustybrick
    Tags:  Search Marketing Expo West 2010  

    Below is live coverage of the Not Your Father's AdWords from the SMX West conference.

    This coverage is provided by Keri Morgret of Strike Models.

    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.

    Not Your Father's AdWords


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2010/03/02/Daily_Search_Forum_Recap__March_2__2010'

    Daily Search Forum Recap: March 2, 2010

    Posted: March 2nd, 2010, 9:30pm 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.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2010/03/02/SMX_West__Mobile_Paid_Search_Ads'

    SMX West: Mobile Paid Search Ads

    Posted: March 2nd, 2010, 7:30pm CET by rustybrick
    Tags:  Search Marketing Expo West 2010  

    Below is live coverage of the Mobile Paid Search Ads from the SMX West conference.

    This coverage is provided by Keri Morgret of Strike Models.

    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.

    Mobile Paid Search Ads


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2010/03/02/SMX_West__Keynote_Conversation__Microsoft_CEO_Steve_Ballmer'

    SMX West: Keynote Conversation: Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer

    Posted: March 2nd, 2010, 5:50pm CET by rustybrick
    Tags:  Search Marketing Expo West 2010  

    Below is live coverage of the Keynote Conversation: Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer from the SMX West conference.

    This coverage is provided by Brian Ussery of Beu Blog.

    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.

    Keynote Conversation: Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2010/03/02/Google_s_St_Davids_Day_Logo_Insults_Welsh'

    Google's St Davids Day Logo Insults Welsh

    Posted: March 2nd, 2010, 10:13am CET by rustybrick
    Tags:  Google Search Engine  

    Yesterday, Google has a special logo up on one of their local portals to celebrate St Davids Day. Here is a picture of the cute and fun looking doodle (logo).

    But one person found the doodle insulting and distasteful. He said, "its like celebrating the Hanukkah with a picture of Auschwitz."

    He goes on to explain:

    While it is very nice that Google celebrates St David's Day by adapting its front page, its very insulting that it uses a castle built by the English king who wanted to prove his power over the Welsh!

    The castle looks very similar to Caernarfon castle, which was one of a series built by Edward 1. While most people know that Wales is full of castles, it is not the Welsh that built them - it was the English!

    Forum discussion at Google Web Search Help forums.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2010/03/02/Yahoo_s_15th_Birthday_Logo___March_1__2010'

    Yahoo's 15th Birthday Logo : March 1, 2010

    Posted: March 2nd, 2010, 9:27am CET by rustybrick
    Tags:  Search Engine Yahoo  

    March 1, 2010 was Yahoo's 15th birthday. 15 years - wow! Yahoo has a special doodle up for the day, a birthday cake. Here it is:

    Yahoo has several blog posts about the birthday. One from Jerry & David, the founders, plus they posted a Twitter challenge for the birthday.

    Happy Birthday Yahoo!

    Forum discussion at Search Engine Roundtable Forums.

    Hat tip to Michel.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2010/03/01/Daily_Search_Forum_Recap__March_1__2010'

    Daily Search Forum Recap: March 1, 2010

    Posted: March 1st, 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.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2010/03/01/Google_Adds__Nearby__Search_Option'

    Google Adds "Nearby" Search Option

    Posted: March 1st, 2010, 11:01am CET by rustybrick
    Tags:  Google Search Engine  

    Google announced they added a new search refinement to "show options" section. The refinement allows you to filter results by results relevant to being nearby your location. Google explained:

    Location has become an important part of the way we search. If you're a foodie looking for restaurant details, food blogs or the closest farmer's market, location can be vital to helping you find the right information. Starting today, we've added the ability to refine your searches with the "Nearby" tool in the Search Options panel. One of the really helpful things about this tool is that it works geographically — not just with keywords — so you don't have to worry about adding "Minneapolis" to your query and missing webpages that only say "St. Paul" or "Twin Cities." Check it out by doing a search, clicking on "show options" and selecting "Nearby."

    I personally do not see it, maybe because I am in Israel right now. But here is a picture from the Google blog:

    Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2010/02/26/Daily_Search_Forum_Recap__February_26__2010'

    Daily Search Forum Recap: February 26, 2010

    Posted: February 26th, 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.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2010/02/26/_Text__Recap_of_Weekly_Search_Buzz____February_26__2010'

    (Text) Recap of Weekly Search Buzz :: February 26, 2010

    Posted: February 26th, 2010, 10:04am CET by rustybrick
    Tags:  Search Buzz RoundUp  

    This week, I am currently in Jerusalem, Israel, so I won't be producing a video. Here is a text recap instead of the video recap.

    The European Union has opened an investigation to make sure Google isn't stepping over their boundaries by penalizing potential competitors in the web results. Google said they will launch the Caffeine index in the upcoming months. Google had a Webmaster Tools bug in the index URL report. Google may verify your web site in Webmaster Tools without you specifically requesting it. Google has updated the Jazz interface slightly and more people are seeing it. MySpace (and also Facebook) is now in Google's real-time search results. Bing is having trouble with their spiders again. Twitter users don't click on AdSense. Google AdWords has a new "target" CPA feature. AdWords is closing their old API in less than 60 days. Yelp was sued for allegedly removing negative reviews. SMX West is next week, I won't be there, but we got the coverage for you. That was this past week at the Search Engine Roundtable.

    Select Topics For This Past Week:

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


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2010/02/26/Yelp_Sued_Over_Accepting_Money_For_Removing_Negative_Reviews'

    Yelp Sued Over Accepting Money For Removing Negative Reviews

    Posted: February 26th, 2010, 9:21am CET by rustybrick
    Tags:  Search Local  

    A WebmasterWorld thread has discussion around the allegations that Yelp has been burying negative reviews in exchange for advertising dollars.

    MediaPost writes:

    A California veterinary center has sued review site Yelp for allegedly promising to bury bad reviews in exchange for purchasing $3,600 worth of advertising on the site.

    "Yelp frequently exercises its control over the Yelp.com listing application to modify business listing pages to the advantage of businesses that purchase Yelp advertising subscriptions, and the disadvantage of those that decline," Cats and Dogs Animal Hospital owner Gregory Perrault alleges in a complaint filed in federal district court in the central district of California.

    Greg at Search Engine Land writes:

    Two class action law firms have filed suit in Los Angeles federal court claiming that Yelp has attempted to “extort” money from small businesses by offering to remove negative reviews in exchange for payment.

    The truth will out of course but I would be stunned if these claims were based in truth rather than the frustrations and misunderstandings of the plaintiff in this case.

    I hope Greg is right - we covered reports of this via the forums back in November 2008. Back then, I was told it:

    Reviews are purely algorithmic and that only one positive review can be emphasized. Reviews can come down if the person writing the review closed his/her account or the account was terminated due to violations. A third reason why reviews would be hidden is due to suspect behavior; the review is removed from the actual business but not from the reviewer's profile page.

    I guess time will tell us if this is true - unless this is settled out of court and no one really finds out the truth.

    Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2010/02/25/Daily_Search_Forum_Recap__February_25__2010'

    Daily Search Forum Recap: February 25, 2010

    Posted: February 25th, 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.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2010/02/25/Google_Jazz_Slightly_Updates_It_s_Look'

    Google Jazz Slightly Updates It's Look

    Posted: February 25th, 2010, 1:55pm CET by rustybrick
    Tags:  Google Search Engine  

    Google has been experimenting with the Google Jazz Interface (I know Google doesn't call it Jazz internally) since November of last year. It appears that Google has slightly updated that look from what we originally saw.

    A Google Blogoscoped Forums thread has a picture from one user of the new Jazz look.

    Here is the new look:

    Here is the old Jazz look:

    They are very similar but there are slight differences.

    In the thread, they also share how you can get this user interface on your Google. Here is how:

    Go to Google.com (Press Go to Google.com if you are brought to a localized version of Google, this won't work for localized versions evem if you change the code to .google.ie or whatever instead of .google.com)

    Put
    javascript:alert(document.cookie="PREF=ID=496cfd992ab9f273:
    U=a77c3a4da3815c1d:LD=en:CR=2:TM=1260896352:
    LM=1267013388:DV=8atQZBunt08B:GM=1:IG=1
    :S=1ebLUyXkRkBnJMYi;path=/;domain=.google.com")

    into your addressbar (NOT the Google Search Box) and press return.

    Searches on Google.com should now use the new layout.

    Forum discussion at Google Blogoscoped Forums.

    Hat tip to Michel.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2010/02/24/Daily_Search_Forum_Recap__February_24__2010'

    Daily Search Forum Recap: February 24, 2010

    Posted: February 24th, 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.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2010/02/23/Daily_Search_Forum_Recap__February_23__2010'

    Daily Search Forum Recap: February 23, 2010

    Posted: February 23rd, 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.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2010/02/23/SMX_West_2010_Live_Blog_Coverage_Schedule'

    SMX West 2010 Live Blog Coverage Schedule

    Posted: February 23rd, 2010, 1:55pm CET by rustybrick
    Tags:  Search Marketing Expo West 2010  

    SMX West 2010 is next week, March 2nd, 3rd, and 4th to be exact. We are thrilled to be able to bring the event to you, even if you cannot make it, through our live blogging coverage.

    I personally will be in Israel during SMX West, so this live blogging coverage will help me stay on top of what I will be missing. I am sad I won't be there, but I am hosting a small SMX event, SphinnCon, in Israel the week after. So that should be fun and yes - we (Israel) have been sold out for a month now.

    Live blogging SMX West are Keri Morgret of Strike Models and Brian Ussery of Beu Blog. These are both seasoned and experienced live bloggers - so I am very confident you will love the coverage! Thank you both for volunteering to cover the conference for the industry!

    Here is out SMX West 2010 Live Coverage Schedule:

    March 2, 2010

    9:00am-9:45am
    Keynote Conversation: Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer by Brian Ussery
    10:45am-Noon
    Mobile Paid Search Ads: Real Opportunities by Keri Morgret
    1:15pm-2:30pm
    Not Your Father’s AdWords: The New Google Ad Formats by Keri Morgret
    3:00pm-4:15pm
    Keyword Research: Beyond The Ordinary by Keri Morgret
    Google’s Personalized Search Revolution by Brian Ussery
    4:30pm-5:45pm
    The Current State Of Social Search by Brian Ussery
    Supercharging Your Descriptions With Sitelinks by Keri Morgret

    March 3, 2010

    10:45am-Noon
    Paid Search Bullseye! Reaching and Closing Your Ultimate Customer by Keri Morgret
    1:30pm-2:45pm
    Free Ways To Market On Facebook by Keri Morgret
    4:45pm-6:00pm
    Optimizing Your Content On YouTube by Keri Morgret

    March 4, 2010

    10:00am-11:15am
    Bringing SEO In House: How To Be Successful! by Keri Morgret
    11:30am-12:30pm
    PPC Tune-up Clinic with the SMX Mechanics by Keri Morgret
    Ask The Search Engines by Brian Ussery
    1:30pm-2:30pm
    Analytics Action Plans For PPC & SEO by Keri Morgret
    Ask The SEOs by Brian Ussery
    2:45pm-3:45pm
    Conversion Ninja Toolbox – A Review of Tools & Technologies by Keri Morgret

    That is our live blogging schedule - it is subject to change last minute.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2010/02/22/Daily_Search_Forum_Recap__February_22__2010'

    Daily Search Forum Recap: February 22, 2010

    Posted: February 22nd, 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.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2010/02/22/MySpace_Results_Now_in_Google_Real_Time_Search'

    MySpace Results Now in Google Real Time Search

    Posted: February 22nd, 2010, 2:53pm CET by rustybrick
    Tags:  Google Search Engine  

    Yesterday, Google updated us on what is new at Google. One of those updates confirmed the images site command change we reported last week. Another update confirmed that Google is now showing MySpace results in their real time search results.

    Google wrote:

    Also in real-time news, starting this week we officially added MySpace content to real-time search. Now you can tap into the pool of news, photos and blog posts that MySpace users have chosen to publish to the world. These updates are all ranked to reflect the most relevant, freshest results, many of which are just seconds old. In all, real-time search includes more than a billion documents and processes hundreds of millions of changes daily. We're quite excited to offer this enhancement so that real-time search becomes even more useful. You can find the MySpace updates in our real-time mode by clicking on "Show Options" and then "Updates."

    Want to see those results yourself? Click over here to see them or here is a quick screen capture:

    Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2010/02/22/Bing_Masking_MSNBot_As_Internet_Explorer_or_a_Rogue_Bot_'

    Bing Masking MSNBot As Internet Explorer or a Rogue Bot?

    Posted: February 22nd, 2010, 2:46pm CET by rustybrick
    Tags:  Search MSN Microsoft  

    A Bing Community thread reports from one webmaster that someone is masking MSNBot around as a browser, either Internet Explorer or Mozilla Firefox. Here are the reported IPs and UserAgent's being reporting by this webmaster:

    The following IP addresses are from MSN's search bots, but use what appears to be just normal user agents.

    65.55.109.22
    65.55.109.106
    65.55.109.118
    65.55.109.119
    65.55.109.120
    65.55.109.162
    65.55.109.209
    65.55.109.212
    65.55.110.16
    65.55.110.21
    65.55.110.41
    65.55.110.88
    65.55.110.107
    65.55.110.121
    65.55.110.132
    65.55.110.164

    The user agent looks like this "Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.1; SLCC1; .NET CLR 1.1.4322; .NET CLR 2.0.50727; .NET CLR 3.0.30729; .NET CLR 3.5.30729; InfoPath.2)"

    This is not the first time Microsoft Bing has been accused of masking their bots as browser useragents. We had a similar report back in September where MSNBot was using Mozilla by way of UserAgent.

    Brett Yount, Bing's representative, said, "Could you send this information to bwmc@microsoft.com and I will have the crawling team investigate?"

    So currently, this is not confirmed, but it is weird.

    Forum discussion at Bing Community.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2010/02/22/Google_Ranks__Piss_Christ___1_For_Chris_Image_Search'

    Google Ranks "Piss Christ" #1 For Chris Image Search

    Posted: February 22nd, 2010, 2:35pm CET by rustybrick
    Tags:  Google Search Engine  

    Google does not stop with the insults, they insulted Michelle Obama, then Jesus and now also the name "Christ."

    A Google Web Search Help thread has one person complaining that a search in Google Images for [Christ] leads to an image done named Piss Christ, the image is both number one and two on Google Images for that search. The story behind this image, as the poster says it "is the so-called artwork of a man who peed in a bottle, put a crucifix in, and called it the "pisschrist"."

    Here is a picture:

    Now, I am not Christian, but I even find this insulting and totally inappropriate. It is not nudity or illegal, but should this be there? I guess Google won't remove it, since they didn't remove the above insults, but does Google need to rethink their policy on this type of stuff - especially since this is coming up more and more often?

    Forum discussion at Google Web Search Help.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2010/02/19/Daily_Search_Forum_Recap__February_19__2010'

    Daily Search Forum Recap: February 19, 2010

    Posted: February 19th, 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.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2010/02/19/Video_Recap_of_Weekly_Search_Buzz____February_19__2010'

    Video Recap of Weekly Search Buzz :: February 19, 2010

    Posted: February 19th, 2010, 9:20pm CET by rustybrick
    Tags:  Search Buzz RoundUp  

    In this week's recap, we cover the big news that Microsoft and Yahoo received approval to move forward with their search deal - which means the end of Yahoo Search to me. Bing is crawling and indexing faster. Bing is going to fix their search filter in March. 60% of publishers say their earnings are down with Google AdSense. AdSense seems to be testing in-line video ads. Is Google mixing paid with free listings? Yahoo Search ads are not sending enough traffic to advertisers. Google Image Search is faster with their filter. Google changed how they show image sources. Are you Google PageRank Certified? YouTube will no longer support IE6 users on March 13th. We got your logos from President's Day, Valentine's Day and the Winter Olympics. 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. Here is the YouTube version of the feed:


    For the original iTunes version, click here or to see the YouTube version in higher quality, click play & hit "HD."

    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!


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2010/02/19/Facts_For_Webmasters___Advertisers__Yahoo_Out_Of_Search__Bing_Takes_Over'

    Facts For Webmasters & Advertisers: Yahoo Out Of Search, Bing Takes Over

    Posted: February 19th, 2010, 2:25pm CET by rustybrick
    Tags:  Search Engine Industry News  

    It is official, Yahoo and Microsoft have approval to move forward with their search deal and they are not wasting any time with that. You can read many of the stories on Techmeme to catch up, but let me quote the official press release, at least a snippet:

    SUNNYVALE, Calif. & REDMOND, Wash.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Microsoft (Nasdaq:MSFT - News) and Yahoo! (Nasdaq:YHOO - News) announced today that they have received clearance for their search agreement, without restrictions, from both the U.S. Department of Justice and the European Commission, and will now turn their attention to beginning the process of implementing the deal.

    Implementation of the deal is expected to begin in the coming days and will involve transitioning Yahoo!’s algorithmic and paid search platforms to Microsoft, with Yahoo! becoming the exclusive relationship sales force for both companies’ premium search advertisers globally. Once the transition is completed, the companies’ unified search marketplace will deliver improved innovation for consumers, better volume and efficiency for advertisers and better monetization opportunities for web publishers through a platform that contains a larger pool of search queries.

    Important Facts for Webmasters & Advertisers:

    • Algorithmic search on Yahoo will be powered by Bing in the United States by the end of 2010.
    • Search advertisers will be migrated from YSM to adCenter prior to the 2010 holiday season, but may wait until 2011.
    • All global customers and partners are expected to be transitioned by early 2012.
    • Yahoo BOSS, Search Monkey & SiteExplorer are all still up in the air but if Yahoo is not crawling the web, Bing would have to build out their own tools going forward.
    • Also, check out the Yahoo Transition Center for additional details

    Of course, most of you know my thoughts about where this puts Yahoo. Yahoo, in my opinion, is out of search now. And most of you agree, the poll we ran a week or so ago, has over a hundred responses (see poll pie chart above) and 60% said Yahoo is not in search, 20% are hoping they are but are unsure. Just sad.

    Forum discussion at many places:


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2010/02/19/Yahoo_Search_Ads_Not_Driving_Necessary_Traffic_Volume'

    Yahoo Search Ads Not Driving Necessary Traffic Volume

    Posted: February 19th, 2010, 2:17pm CET by rustybrick
    Tags:  Search Yahoo Marketing  

    Yes, I know Yahoo and Microsoft got approval to move forward with their search deal (I'll link to my post on that, when I write it, in about 10 minutes from this post), but Yahoo Search Marketing has been a failure for many in the past few months. And since Yahoo Search Ads will likely continue to be powered by Yahoo until December of this year, this is still important.

    A WebmasterWorld thread has posts from several disgruntled Yahoo Search advertisers. They are all pretty much complaining about the same thing - search volume. Yes, the number of people seeing and clicking on their search ads, compared to the previous years, has dropped significantly. Let me pull out some quotes:

    This year we notice Yahoo PPC struggling to generate decent volume for us. Its getting worse and worse, and all the new measures they are taking to ensure good quality traffic are infact killing our traffic.

    I think part of your PPC woes are exemplified in that YPN payouts completely died for me, removed it, which I'm sure many others have done, thus eliminating millions of page impressions previously available.

    For the last two months we underspent our budget, so I have noticed this too.

    Yahoo has been fully aware of the Microsoft deal - so why invest? Yes, Yahoo has added features recently, but those features should have been added over a year ago. In any event, by years end - this likely won't matter anyway. More on that shortly.

    Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2010/02/19/Google_Images_Change_How_They_Display_Sources_'

    Google Images Change How They Display Sources?

    Posted: February 19th, 2010, 2:02pm CET by rustybrick
    Tags:  Google Search Engine  

    I do not watch Google Images all that closely, but there is a guy in the WebmasterWorld forums who said Google images changed how they display the source of the image. I believe what he is saying is that if you use site:domain.com in Google Images, in the past, it would display not just the images hosted on that domain, but all images used on that domain and also show the source of it under it, i.e. like flickr.com and so on.

    This is probably best explained using pictures. Let me first show you that a search for site:seroundtable on Google Images only shows images on the web site, but those images can be hotlinked (i.e. sourced) from off the web site:

    Let's take the first picture as an example, that image is actually from searchmarketinggurus.com:

    Google knows it, a similar images command returns the proper source:

    Same with Flickr Images for standard searches. It will show the site the image is on but not where it is sourced until you click through:

    By the way, that is a picture of me, not Lee Odden.

    The original poster described it as follows:

    Tonight I noticed a change in the image-search. Until yesterday google shows with the question "site:www.site.com" all pictures that are sourced in that domain.

    But now it shows only pictures that link to the domain.

    Again, I am not sure if this is new behavior of if am seeing the new behavior or not.

    Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2010/02/19/Bing_Webmaster_Tools_Mysterious_Missing_Domains_'

    Bing Webmaster Tools Mysterious Missing Domains?

    Posted: February 19th, 2010, 1:54pm CET by rustybrick
    Tags:  Search MSN Microsoft  

    A Bing Community thread has reports that when webmasters authenticate domains within Bing Webmaster Tools, the next day, the domains are no longer listed. Supposedly there are several reports about this in the past week or so.

    Here is one report:

    I (for the very first time) submitted several URL's, and I also authenticated my website by adding a LiveSearchSiteAuth.xml to my website sites, and I also submitted a sitemap.xml. They all showed yesterday.

    But when I login today, I don't see any of my URL's from yesterday.

    Brett Yount from Bing said that he is really not sure what is going on but he doesn't seem to be the only one reporting the issue. Brett said:

    This is the third or fourth post I've seen today regarding this problem. I'm contacting our devs to find out more information.

    This is not a confirmed report yet, but there seems to be something fishy going on here.

    Forum discussion at Bing Community.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2010/02/18/Daily_Search_Forum_Recap__February_18__2010'

    Daily Search Forum Recap: February 18, 2010

    Posted: February 18th, 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.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2010/02/18/Bing_Advertising_On_Intellitxt'

    Bing Advertising On Intellitxt

    Posted: February 18th, 2010, 2:29pm CET by rustybrick
    Tags:  Search MSN Microsoft  

    A WebmasterWorld thread is reporting that Bing is advertising their search engine on Intellitxt. Intellitxt are those ads you see inline articles, where you mouse over a word and an annoying ad pops up. I personally find those ads to be incredibly annoying, intrusive and invasive. But many publishers use them and according to the WebmasterWorld post, Bing is using it to advertise their search engine.

    The thread said:

    At a very popular UK website I noticed an Intellitxt ad featuring a Bing Search of the phrase in the ad. Good idea by Bing.

    I do not have a screen shot, but if you see one, please send it my way.

    Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2010/02/17/Daily_Search_Forum_Recap__February_17__2010'

    Daily Search Forum Recap: February 17, 2010

    Posted: February 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.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2010/02/17/Bing_Indexing_New_Content___Sites_Faster_'

    Bing Indexing New Content & Sites Faster?

    Posted: February 17th, 2010, 2:27pm CET by rustybrick
    Tags:  Search MSN Microsoft  

    A WebmasterWorld thread has some positive news for the Microsoft Bing team! The thread is praising Bing for speeding up their indexing and ranking of new pages, updated content and new web sites.

    This comes several weeks after Bing declared they were slow at indexing new sites. So I am happy that webmasters, at least some, are happy with the speed of Bing's crawler and indexer.

    Mack, the forum moderator summed it up, saying:

    Bing is getting quick! Even when it comes to new sites/domains.

    Two additional webmasters agreed. To be fair, I have seen a slow down of complaints in the Bing forums about complaints of their sites not being indexed. But that can be for many reasons.

    Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld .


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2010/02/17/Google_Book_Search_Dropped_Search_My_Library'

    Google Book Search Dropped Search My Library

    Posted: February 17th, 2010, 2:23pm CET by rustybrick
    Tags:  Google Search Engine  

    A Google Book Search user is upset that Google has dropped the search within your Google Book Search library feature. He expressed his complaints in a WebmasterWorld thread. He said:

    Then a couple of weeks ago, I logged in and I can no longer restrict my search results to items in My Library.

    For me, this is the primary way I use Google Books. First search my library. If I don't find it, search more broadly. If I find something good in general search, add that book to my library. If you will, it's like manually controlled personalized search.

    It's true, I do not see a way to search only my library, even within the advanced search feature.

    This must have changed when Google updated the My Library feature in late January.

    Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2010/02/17/Google_Calculates_Kelvin_to_Celsius_Wrong__Thanks_WolframAlpha'

    Google Calculates Kelvin to Celsius Wrong: Thanks WolframAlpha

    Posted: February 17th, 2010, 2:15pm CET by rustybrick
    Tags:  Google Search Engine  

    If you want to find out the conversion of kelvin to celsius, do not use Google. A Google search for [kelvin to celsius] returns the wrong calculation. Google returns 1 kelvin = -272.15 degrees Celsius.

    This issue was brought up in a Google Web Search Help thread. Since I do not know the first thing about these types of conversions, I decided to see what Wolfram Alpha had to say about the calculation. The same search on Wolfram returns the correct calculation:

    272.15 is wrong, but 273.15 is correct.

    Forum discussion at Google Web Search Help.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2010/02/16/Daily_Search_Forum_Recap__February_16__2010'

    Daily Search Forum Recap: February 16, 2010

    Posted: February 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.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2010/02/16/Is_Google_Mixing_Paid_Results_With_Free_Results_'

    Is Google Mixing Paid Results With Free Results?

    Posted: February 16th, 2010, 3:06pm CET by rustybrick
    Tags:  Google Search Engine  

    A few weeks back, Google started testing enhanced Google Maps results. Now, Silicon Valley Watcher noticed it and said that Google was doing something new, by not separating out paid results from free results. Truth be told, and as Danny explains very well at Search Engine Land, Google has been mixing those results, but labeling them.

    Here is the search result in question:

    * skateboards in houston

    The thing is, this is not guaranteeing the top position. Just change the query slightly and you will get that same result, pushed down, because Google's ranking algorithm still determines the spot.

    There is a lot of debate at WebmasterWorld that this is either a form of paid inclusion or not at all. I see both sides and I am not sure what to think, which is why we have forums.

    Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2010/02/16/Bing_Leads_Customers_To_Competitors_With_Their_Best_Match_Information'

    Bing Leads Customers To Competitors With Their Best Match Information

    Posted: February 16th, 2010, 2:32pm CET by rustybrick
    Tags:  Search MSN Microsoft  

    A complaint from a Carpet store owner in the Bing Community shows how Bing is sending his customers to his competitors. If you search for [carpetswarehouse.com] on Bing, and mouse over the "Best Match Information" arrow on the right of the result, Bing will show the wrong information.

    In fact, Bing is showing the phone number to his competitor. Here is a picture:

    The Carpet guy said:

    Bing is showing. "Customer service 800-686-2442." That is my competitor's phone number. How do I change to my number 1-800-565-5021.

    Now, Google has had this problem in the past with Google Maps. In fact, this comes up on occasion with Google.

    Bing's community manager, Brett Yount, explained how this can be fixed at Bing. He said:

    Please contact support using the form located at:

    [https:]

    In the drop down box, please select, "Change Best Match Information"

    I wonder how long this change will take? I also wonder how Bing got his competitor's phone number.

    Forum discussion at Bing Community.

    Update: Nice, Bing fixed it the same day.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2010/02/16/Facebook_Sent_More_Traffic_to_Yahoo___MSN_Than_Google__Is_It_Bad_SEO_'

    Facebook Sent More Traffic to Yahoo & MSN Than Google: Is It Bad SEO?

    Posted: February 16th, 2010, 2:17pm CET by rustybrick
    Tags:  Search Engine Industry News  

    Compete released statistics, which I do not see published on their site yet, saying that Facebook is now sending more traffic to major portals such as Yahoo and MSN, than Google sends to those portals. You can read about this at SFGate.com but here is a quote:

    According to Web measurement firm Compete Inc., Facebook has passed search-engine giant Google to become the top source for traffic to major portals like Yahoo and MSN, and is among the leaders for other types of sites.

    This trend is shifting the way Web site operators approach online marketing, even as Google takes steps to move into the social-media world.

    There is a lot of discussion around this report at WebmasterWorld. Some find this really hard to believe and some do not. Some fault MSN's and Yahoo's SEO efforts (no offense to the SEOs there). Here are some quotes from the thread:

    How many links have you clicked on that a friend has added into their Facebook status? Not that many I guess. Maybe Yahoo and MSN need to focus more strongly on their own SEO?

    Not all traffic is created equal.

    In fact I don't even want the looky-loo type of visitor costing me money by clicking just to have a look. An interested buyer who's taking the time to search for something on the other hand, yes please.

    Compete let's you compare traffic of sites, here is an embedded chart comparing visitors to Google and Facebook. Look at the growth:

    Personally, I still think Google will dominate the traffic to most sites. The major portals have more "real time" content that is privy to Facebook clicks. But most web sites depend more on Google for less real time content - not that Google does not handle real time content - but you get my point.

    Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2010/02/15/Daily_Search_Forum_Recap__February_15__2010'

    Daily Search Forum Recap: February 15, 2010

    Posted: February 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.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2010/02/12/Vancouver_2010_Olympic_Logos_from_Google__Yahoo__Bing___Others'

    Vancouver 2010 Olympic Logos from Google, Yahoo, Bing & Others

    Posted: February 12th, 2010, 3:03pm CET by rustybrick
    Tags:  Search Engine Industry News  

    The 2010 Winter Olympics kick off tonight in Vancouver and some of the search engines are already sporting their special logos for the event. Google, Yahoo, Bing and others have their logos up. We will post what is live now below and continue to add to them as other search engines create their logos.

    Google:

    It may be the widest Google logo in their history at 760 pixels wide.

    Yahoo:

    Bing:

    I am sure more search engines, like Ask.com and others will begin to post their logos. I hope to post our theme later today as well.

    Search Engine Roundtable:

    Forum discussion at Google Web Search Help & WebmasterWorld.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2010/02/12/Condolences_To_Bing_s_Brett_Yount'

    Condolences To Bing's Brett Yount

    Posted: February 12th, 2010, 2:31pm CET by rustybrick
    Tags:  Search Engine Industry News  

    This site has always been about the community. I try to share educational insights, news details, plus have fun when appropriate. I also have shared sad events that impact significant people in our industry, because - we are one large community that is impacted by the people around us.

    Recently, I asked where did the Bing webmaster representative, Brett Yount, go? He basically went off the forums and we didn't hear from him for a few weeks. It turned out that Brett lost his father in January and he took some bereavement time off.

    In a Bing Community thread, Brett shared this very personal event with the community. He wrote:

    Hi all,

    I was given some bereavement leave after my Father passed at the beginning of January.

    Thank you for your concern.

    Firstly, I would like to wish you and your family condolences on behalf of the search industry.

    There are times that I have personally said some negative things about what you say in the forums. So I would like to apologize, if any of that was taken personally. You were sorely missed during the leave and it shows how important your work is to the community at large.

    Thanks for everything and may you only have happy occasions in the future.

    Forum discussion at Bing Community.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2010/02/12/Picture_of_Google_News_New_Home_Page_Test'

    Picture of Google News New Home Page Test

    Posted: February 12th, 2010, 2:14pm CET by rustybrick
    Tags:  Google Search Engine  

    A week ago today, we reported Google News was testing a new home page design. Since then, I have been begging those who have seen the test to post a picture so the rest of us can see what they see. Finally, yesterday, someone posted an image in the Google News Help forum.

    Here is that picture:

    Extremely different from the current Google News home page. You can click on the image to get a larger size or just click here for it.

    What do you think? Most people writing about it in the forums are not happy.

    Forum discussion at Google News Help.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2010/02/11/Daily_Search_Forum_Recap__February_11__2010'

    Daily Search Forum Recap: February 11, 2010

    Posted: February 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.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2010/02/11/Bing___We_Do_Not_Index_302_Redirected_Pages_'

    Bing: "We Do Not Index 302 Redirected Pages"

    Posted: February 11th, 2010, 3:15pm CET by rustybrick
    Tags:  Search MSN Microsoft  

    A Bing Community thread has Bing's program manager, Brett Yount, saying that they do not index the destination pages of a 302 redirect. Let me quote you what he said:

    We do not index 302 redirected pages, so this is probably the main issue for not indexing your home page.

    The site in question here is www.kerala.travel. As you can see, as I write this post, the site is not indexed by Bing.

    Now, I assume Brett meant to say that a 302 redirect to a page will not block the page from being indexed. But rather, if the only way for Bing to crawl to the page is via a 302 redirect, Bing will not index it. If there are other links to the destination page, then Bing will likely index it.

    Or maybe I am wrong and Bing will not index 302 redirected pages.

    Forum discussion at Bing Community.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2010/02/11/Yahoo_Says_They_Are_Still_In_Search__Sure_Thing_'

    Yahoo Says They Are Still In Search, Sure Thing!

    Posted: February 11th, 2010, 3:01pm CET by rustybrick
    Tags:  Search Engine Yahoo  

    Yahoo is trying to convince everyone that they are still a search company. Honestly, if you do not power your own search results, if you do not crawl the web and own the ranking algorithms, you are not in search. Ask.com is more in search than Yahoo, in my opinion. Well, let me step back just a second.

    When the Microsoft & Yahoo deal goes through, Yahoo will not power the search results on Yahoo Search anymore. They will power the look and display of those results, as far as I know. But in my opinion, if you do not crawl the web and index content and then power those ranking algorithms - you are not in search - you are a aggregator of some sorts.

    If I said Ask.com isn't in search because they use structured data, for the most part, then the same applies to Yahoo.

    Do you agree? Here is a poll:


    Will Yahoo Really Continue in Search?(online surveys)

    Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2010/02/11/Bing_Updates_Webmaster_FAQs_Into_82_Questions'

    Bing Updates Webmaster FAQs Into 82 Questions

    Posted: February 11th, 2010, 2:39pm CET by rustybrick
    Tags:  Search MSN Microsoft  

    Microsoft's search engine, Bing, announced they have revised the Webmaster FAQs into a single 28 page PDF document. The document can be downloaded over here.

    It has 82 detailed questions and answers, organized into 12 categories. The questions and answers are ironically hyperlinked in the PDF document, but not available as a web page. I guess those Q&As won't be indexed too well by their own search engine (yes, search engines do crawl PDFs, but you know).

    Brett Yount, Bing's forum rep, posted a thread in the Bing Community announcing this as well. He said, "our Technical Writer, Rick Dejarnette, combined our FAQs into one PDF for easy reference."

    Forum discussion at Bing Community.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2010/02/10/Daily_Search_Forum_Recap__February_10__2010'

    Daily Search Forum Recap: February 10, 2010

    Posted: February 10th, 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.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2010/02/10/Now_Google_Is_Matriarchal_Biased'

    Now Google Is Matriarchal Biased

    Posted: February 10th, 2010, 2:59pm CET by rustybrick
    Tags:  Google Search Engine  

    I just love it when people make assumptions about political, race and other forms of bias and negativity based on the Google search results. We had political bias examples, race examples, a bit of both and so many examples of either Google search results or search suggestions implying a bias on Google's part.

    Next up, Google is now being matriarchal biased. How so? A Google Web Search Help thread has one person who is feeling hurt by a search result. One guy said:

    I just typed in "slavery and fatherhood" in Google, looking for a book of that name. On the page it says, "did you mean slavery and motherhood?" When I put in "slavery and motherhood" it doesn't ask "did you mean slavery and fatherhood.". Why is that?

    It is true, give it a try with [slavery and fatherhood]:

    I personally find this funny - which is why I bring it to your attention.

    Forum discussion at Google Web Search Help.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2010/02/09/Daily_Search_Forum_Recap__February_9__2010'

    Daily Search Forum Recap: February 9, 2010

    Posted: February 9th, 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.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2010/02/09/Google__Save_Us_From_Berlusconi__Spam_'

    Google "Save Us From Berlusconi" Spam?

    Posted: February 9th, 2010, 3:22pm CET by rustybrick
    Tags:  Google Search Engine  

    I spotted a very weird Google Webmaster Help thread that I honestly do not fully understand. If you search for URLs containing the words "Save Us From Berlusconi" in that order, in Google, you will find almost 4 million matches.

    The webmaster who reported the issue, didn't first realize that this was beyond his web site. He wanted to know why GoogleBot was crawling all his URLs with adding on /?q=Save+Us+From+Berlusconi to the end of the URL. Some sites do not 404 or 301 redirect URLs that add on variables to the end of the URL, so he was suggested to do so in this case.

    But the question goes beyond just a single web site. Is this some form of political message being sent around by those who do not like the curent Prime Minister of Italy? Anyone want to venture a guess?

    Forum discussion at Google Webmaster Help.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2010/02/09/When_Not_To_Use_Canonical_Tags_With_Pagination'

    When Not To Use Canonical Tags With Pagination

    Posted: February 9th, 2010, 3:09pm CET by rustybrick
    Tags:  Search Engine Optimization  

    When Google announced support for the canonical tag just about a year ago, webmasters were excited for the possibilities of a serving a 301 redirect to spiders but not users. But when should you not use it?

    A Google Webmaster Help thread has Google's JohnMu explaining some situations as to when you should or should not use it.

    In summary, think of the canonical tag as a real 301 redirect for spiders. If a spider is redirected away from new content, then that is an issue. When it comes to paginating content, such as product category pages or article archives, you really need to give a way for search engines to find that content. If you set the canonical tag to redirect spiders from page 2, 3, 4, etc of your product category pages to page one, then the spiders might never be able to index the products on page 2, 3, and 4.

    John explained this well, saying:

    Pagination: this is complicated, I personally would be careful when using with rel=canonical with paginated lists. The important part is that we should be able to find all products listed, so at the very least those lists should provide a default sort order where we can access (and index) all pages. Since this is somewhat difficult unless you really, really know what you are doing, I would personally avoid adding rel=canonical for these pages. One possible solution could be to use JavaScript for paginated lists with different sort orders, for example, that way you would have a single URL which lists all products.

    This is something to keep in mind when building out the canonical tag within your content management system.

    Forum discussion at Google Webmaster Help.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2010/02/03/Daily_Search_Forum_Recap__February_3__2010'

    Daily Search Forum Recap: February 3, 2010

    Posted: February 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.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2010/02/03/Google_Straw_In_Czech___Find_Dead_People'

    Google Straw In Czech & Find Dead People

    Posted: February 3rd, 2010, 2:52pm CET by rustybrick
    Tags:  Google Search Engine  

    If you do not like images of dead people, then maybe you should shy away from this post. A Google Web Search Help thread reports that if you search for [sláma], which means straw in Czech, up comes an image of a dead old lady in the web results.

    Here is a picture:

    (FYI, I did crop the picture a bit)

    I personally reported the image as offensive. Often we have issues with porn in Google but this is yet another issue that hopefully can be addressed soon.

    Forum discussion at Google Web Search Help.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2010/02/02/Daily_Search_Forum_Recap__February_2__2010'

    Daily Search Forum Recap: February 2, 2010

    Posted: February 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.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2010/01/29/Daily_Search_Forum_Recap__January_29__2010'

    Daily Search Forum Recap: January 29, 2010

    Posted: January 29th, 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.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2010/01/29/Video_Recap_of_Weekly_Search_Buzz____January_29__2010'

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

    Posted: January 29th, 2010, 7:25pm CET by rustybrick
    Tags:  Search Buzz RoundUp  

    This week, the bulk of the discussion in this recap is Google related. I talked about more Google Caffeine discussions, is it going live? Use a 410 status code for really strong 404s. Google launched answer highlighting in snippets. Google also released social search. Kaspersky blocked Google AdSense ads, again. Google is paying publishers less and less - and we try to figure out why. Search grows at 46% worldwide, Google grew even faster. Google Maps search added personalization, but does it slow you down. Google Reader tracks even non-RSS pages. Google messed up the Kuwait doodle and had controversy over Australia's Doodle 4 Google competition. 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. Here is the YouTube version of the feed:


    For the original iTunes version, click here or to see the YouTube version in higher quality, click play & hit "HD."

    Search Topics of Discussion:
    Google SEO:


    Google Features:

    Google AdSense:

    Search Business:

    Google Maps:

    Google Reader:

    Google Doodles:

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


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2010/01/29/Bing_Too_Easy_To_Rank_Well_In_'

    Bing Too Easy To Rank Well In?

    Posted: January 29th, 2010, 2:00pm CET by rustybrick
    Tags:  Search MSN Microsoft  

    A funny WebmasterWorld thread has an SEO scratching his head in wonderment as to how he ranks so well in Bing, without really having any SEO reason to be. Let me quote what he said:

    Right now my two-month-old site, with NO backlinks established but good internal content and linking (not SEO'd, just logically laid out), is #1 in Bing for a term that surprised the heck out of me... related, yes, but seriously American Express or Mastercard or any number of established entities should be #1 on these terms. They are #2 and #3.

    At first I thought it was maybe some kind of local thing... that those companies are nowhere near me, but my site IS near me and therefore it's showing local relevant results first? But nope, if I remote into a server in a datacenter on the other side of the country and run a search from there it's #1 there too. Crazy...

    In Google, the site is half way down page 3 for the same term, about where I expected it would be given its age and competition.

    I'm certainly not going to call up Bing and complain about it, but it's freakin weird.

    I was hoping, like for me, the thread would make you smile after a long week.

    Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2010/01/28/Daily_Search_Forum_Recap__January_28__2010'

    Daily Search Forum Recap: January 28, 2010

    Posted: January 28th, 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.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2010/01/28/Google_Maps_Can_t_Find_Home_After_Adding_Personalization'

    Google Maps Can't Find Home After Adding Personalization

    Posted: January 28th, 2010, 3:06pm CET by rustybrick
    Tags:  Google Search Engine  

    This week, Google added personalization to help you find your "favorite locations faster." The issue is, it slows you down in finding your most favorite location - your home!

    A Google Maps Help thread has complaints from people who have saved locations labeled as "home." Whenever they wanted directions, they typed in "home" or "my home" and bingo, it came up. Now it does not and it requires them to enter in their address, which in turn, slows them down.

    The searcher said:

    It appears the Google Maps team has replaced the "saved locations" feature with the "personalized search results". The problem is, when I created my "saved locations" I included some additional information in the names of those entries so they could be easily found by personal names. For instance, if my friend Steve lived at a particular address, I'd save his address into "saved locations" and include the name "Steve" or "Steve's home". Then, I was able to start typing "Steve" and it would automatically bring up this saved location.

    This is no longer the case. His address is still flagged in my web history and it autocompletes if I start typing in his address... but I can no longer start typing "Steve" to bring up his location.

    Any chance we can still get to our "saved locations" data to at least backup the data before you nuke it all for good?

    The thread seems to be heating up with angry Google Maps users. The thing is, Google is listening, so it will be interesting to see what changes, if any, they make based on this feedback. Google Maps Linda said:

    This is great feedback guys. I'll be sure to share this with the team. I don't have an answer right now, but hopefully I will be able to share more later.

    Forum discussion at Google Maps Help.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2010/01/28/Trusted_Sources_vs_Less_Trusted_Sources_on_Google_News'

    Trusted Sources vs Less Trusted Sources on Google News

    Posted: January 28th, 2010, 2:54pm CET by rustybrick
    Tags:  Google Search Engine  

    Clearly, Google News has it's own algorithms and techniques in ranking stories and articles. Danny has one of the most comprehensive articles on ranking stories in Google News that I know of. But I spotted an interesting thread at the Google News Help forums about how possibly some stories can, over time, hurt your trustworthiness in Google News.

    The person is trying to somehow communicate to Google that some of his stories are press releases and wants to tell Google not to index or add them to Google News. Why? Simply because he doesn't want to impact his "trusted source status" with Google News.

    Inbal, the official Google News rep in that forum replied:

    Thanks for your honest feedback. I encourage you to submit your press release hubs to our team; this should not have any implications on your current news site's ranking.

    I believe you can even do this type of labeling in the new sitemap format for Google News, which is going to be required soon. Not sure why she didn't mention that as a solution.

    But what takeaways do you get from this? Don't abuse your Google News access, because Google can drop your rankings in it easily.

    Forum discussion at Google News Help.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2010/01/28/Google_Launches_Social_Search'

    Google Launches Social Search

    Posted: January 28th, 2010, 2:46pm CET by rustybrick
    Tags:  Google Search Engine  

    Google has launched the very neat social search feature yesterday. I am honestly surprised there is not more discussion around it in the forums. We covered it three times, first for the demo, then when it went experimental and then with some technical issues.

    Well, it is now live. On by default. Honestly, I don't believe it impacts normal searches unless you specific choose, "show options" and click on the social feature.

    But when you do, it opens up a world of new searches based on your online social profile (which you may or may not have).

    Here is my social circle as found by Google:

    Here is my social content:

    Here is a detailed look at the "paths" on how I am associated to one of my contacts, JohnMu at Google:

    Video Demo:

    Pretty neat!

    Forum discussion at Search Engine Watch Forums.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2010/01/27/Daily_Search_Forum_Recap__January_27__2010'

    Daily Search Forum Recap: January 27, 2010

    Posted: January 27th, 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.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2010/01/26/Daily_Search_Forum_Recap__January_26__2010'

    Daily Search Forum Recap: January 26, 2010

    Posted: January 26th, 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.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2010/01/26/Some_Google_News_RSS_Subscriptions_Not_Validating_'

    Some Google News RSS Subscriptions Not Validating?

    Posted: January 26th, 2010, 2:10pm CET by rustybrick
    Tags:  Google Search Engine  

    The Google News Help forums has a couple of reports that Google News RSS feed is not working properly. Some are complaining they cannot subscribe to Google News searches and some are complaining they are not validating properly.

    I know that my tests seem to work just fine and I am able to subscribe to Google News searches via Google Reader. However, when I plug in those RSS URLs into FeedValidator.org, the feeds are not valid, according to them. Here is a sample showing the errors of the Google News rss searches.

    There is no word from Google on this as of yet. We know Google News had issues with RSS feeds in the past.

    Forum discussion at Google News Help.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2010/01/25/Daily_Search_Forum_Recap__January_25__2010'

    Daily Search Forum Recap: January 25, 2010

    Posted: January 25th, 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.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2010/01/25/Search_Continues_to_Grow__Showing_46%_Growth_YoY__comScore'

    Search Continues to Grow: Showing 46% Growth YoY, comScore

    Posted: January 25th, 2010, 2:19pm CET by rustybrick
    Tags:  Search Engine Industry News  

    comScore released their search growth report and it showed searches have grown 46% worldwide. The U.S. grew 22% from December 2008 to December 2009, with 22.7 billion searches. China followed with 13.3 billion searches, but only grew 13% year over year.

    Google took account of 66.8% of those searches, with 87.8 billion searches worldwide, and a growth rate overall of 58%. That is not too bad, although little Microsoft saw a spike of 70% in search share from last year to this year. Here are the charts and also make sure to read Search Engine Land for more analysis:

    Forum discussion at two WebmasterWorld threads.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2010/01/22/Daily_Search_Forum_Recap__January_22__2010'

    Daily Search Forum Recap: January 22, 2010

    Posted: January 22nd, 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.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2010/01/22/Video_Recap_of_Weekly_Search_Buzz____January_22__2010'

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

    Posted: January 22nd, 2010, 9:15pm CET by rustybrick
    Tags:  Search Buzz RoundUp  

    In this weeks recap, we go a bit all over the place to get through the most important topics we covered in the past 7 days. We talked about a study that showed the minor impact Google personalized search has on SEO. There may have been a Yahoo Search update this week. Microsoft says they will purge their search data within 6 months. Bing's auto-search suggestions get more current. Bing also shows search results for related queries. Google increased the Sitemaps limit. Google AdWords now has four professional exams. Yahoo released the network distribution feature, finally. SEOmoz built Open Site Explorer, a neat new useful tool. Google Maps lets you add real time content to your business listing. Don't use the same phone number as your competitor, if you don't want issues on your Google local listing. Search for Jesus on Google Images and you'll catch him smoking and drinking. Google continues to cash in, they announced awesome 4th quarter earnings. SEO is being trademarked again, but the story is different. Martin Luther King day was this week, we have the logos for you. 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. Here is the YouTube version of the feed:


    For the original iTunes version, click here or to see the YouTube version in higher quality, click play & hit "HD."

    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!


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2010/01/22/SEO__ne__Search_Engine_Optimization__Rather_Strategically_Elevating_Optimization'

    SEO ≠ Search Engine Optimization, Rather Strategically Elevating Optimization

    Posted: January 22nd, 2010, 2:24pm CET by rustybrick
    Tags:  Search Engine Industry News  

    Yesterday, the HuoMah blog uncovered a new person trying to trademark the term SEO. Yes, this was not the first person, see here for the other. I then wrote about it, with Danny Sullivan, at Search Engine Land.

    It turns out that this guy is not looking to trademark the term SEO as Search Engine Optimization. Even though this guy's company is under the DBA of "Search Engine Partner." Instead, he is claiming that he coined the acronym SEO for the term Strategically Elevating Optimization back in September 23, 1996 with first commercial use on September 24, 1999.

    So there you have it, from now on, when you say SEO you cannot think Search Engine Optimization. Instead, he wants you to think SEO means Strategically Elevating Optimization.

    Either case, I doubt this guy will win a trademark on that term, but what do I know.

    Forum discussion at Sphinn.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2010/01/22/Google_s_Matt_Cutt_s_State_of_the_Index_2009'

    Google's Matt Cutt's State of the Index 2009

    Posted: January 22nd, 2010, 2:11pm CET by rustybrick
    Tags:  Google Search Engine  

    If you missed Matt Cutts at PubCon this year and you didn't catch our coverage you are in luck. He "re-created" his presentation given at PubCon in November 2009, on the State of the Index 2009.

    Here is the 25 minute video:

    Here are the slides:

    As a bonus, here are Matt's predictions for 2010 (3 minute video):

    Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2010/01/21/Daily_Search_Forum_Recap__January_21__2010'

    Daily Search Forum Recap: January 21, 2010

    Posted: January 21st, 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.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2010/01/21/A_Real_Yahoo_Search_Update_for_January_2010_'

    A Real Yahoo Search Update for January 2010?

    Posted: January 21st, 2010, 3:13pm CET by rustybrick
    Tags:  Search Optimization Yahoo  

    Earlier this month, we reported on a rumored Yahoo Search update. Although it appeared to be an update, the consensus was that what people were seeing was the paid inclusion being weeded out of the organic search results.

    But the thread at WebmasterWorld has been updated by BillyS, who often tracks Yahoo. Billy thinks that Yahoo is now updating, for real, this time. He said:

    Yahoo tweaked something today around 1:30 until 3:00 Eastern time. We had a huge spike in traffic. Anyone else see this?

    Yahoo updates typically don't get as much reaction as a Google update. And over the past year or so, Yahoo updates have received a lot less attention then they have in the past. This is likely due to them losing search market share and giving up to Bing.

    Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2010/01/21/Yahoo_Search_Advertisers_Rejoice_Over_New_Network_Distribution_Feature'

    Yahoo Search Advertisers Rejoice Over New Network Distribution Feature

    Posted: January 21st, 2010, 3:06pm CET by rustybrick
    Tags:  Search Yahoo Marketing  

    Ever since Yahoo launched their new search marketing platform in 2006, advertisers wanted more control of where their ads were showing.

    Yesterday, Yahoo launched a feature named Network Distribution that gives advertisers that control. I wrote up a detailed analysis of the new feature about a week ago at Search Engine Land. Here is a copy of that:

    The network distribution settings can be found in a couple places, such as under campaign settings. When you go to those settings, you will see the “Network Distribution” settings above the targeting settings. When you click on that it breaks out the options by content and search networks, in addition to breaking it out by the entire network versus Yahoo Search or Yahoo Partners only. It will also show you the past 30 days of campaign activity based on those sections, to see how many clicks, impressions and costs were associated to those areas. From that screen you can adjust your bid, plus or minus, a specific percentage for each area.

    Here is a video from the YSM Blog explaining it a bit more visually:


    New Year, New Search Enhancements @ Yahoo! Video

    Threads at DigitalPoint Forums & WebmasterWorld seem to be very happy with this addition. One person said:

    This really makes my day.

    Forum discussion at DigitalPoint Forums & WebmasterWorld.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2010/01/21/SEOmoz_Builds_Open_Site_Explorer__Community_Likes'

    SEOmoz Builds Open Site Explorer, Community Likes

    Posted: January 21st, 2010, 2:49pm CET by rustybrick
    Tags:  tools Search Engine  

    SEOmoz announced the launch of a new valuable tool named Open Site Explorer. I will not go over the features, every other blog did that.

    The tool is extremely powerful, but it is not completely "open" or "free" as the name implies. Either way - the tool is impressive and for the most part, the SEO industry is very pleased with it. That includes Aaron Wall who called it slick, despite being Rand Fishkin's biggest critic.

    Read more about the tool at the SEOmox blog and test it out at opensiteexplorer.org.

    Forum discussion at Sphinn.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2010/01/21/Disabling_Right_Clicking_Should_Not_Hurt_Your_Google_Ranking___SEO'

    Disabling Right Clicking Should Not Hurt Your Google Ranking & SEO

    Posted: January 21st, 2010, 2:41pm CET by rustybrick
    Tags:  Search Engine Optimization  

    A new HighRankings Forum thread asks if there is any downside in terms of SEO for using JavaScript that disables the ability to right-click on the page. The thread asks:

    One of my company's sites has right-click functions disabled (yes, I realize this doesn't really stop people from stealing content - it wasn't my choice). I've noticed when I use a spider emulator (seo-browser.com) that our image alt tags appear to be invisible to the spiders. I can see the alt tags on the actual site, and I've verified that they are in the code, but they don't seem to show up for spiders. Could this be caused by our right-click disabling?

    Most people in the thread say that it should have no impact on spiders crawling the site.

    I then saw an older thread from Google Webmaster Help where Googler, JohnMu, said the same thing. He said and I bolded the key point:

    Personally, I find the use of right-click-blocking JavaScript slightly annoying because there are many legitimate reasons why you might want to use the context menu (eg to bookmark the page) and it doesn't really stop people from viewing the source (Ctrl-U brings it up if you don't want to use the main menu). That said, this is not something that would bother Googlebot :-).

    Forum discussion at HighRankings Forum & Google Webmaster Help.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2010/01/21/Bing_s_Auto_Search_Suggestions_Gets_More_Current'

    Bing's Auto Search Suggestions Gets More Current

    Posted: January 21st, 2010, 2:32pm CET by rustybrick
    Tags:  Search MSN Microsoft  

    The Bing Search Blog announced that they have now made their search suggestions more current. Now, Bing will update the search suggestions every 15 minutes or so, to take into account breaking news and current trends.

    For example, the Australian Open is going on right now and here is me typing [aus] into Bing:

    Google already does this with their search suggestions, so it is nice to see Bing go this route as well. Now, Bing will have to deal with questions about censorship of trending topics.

    Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2010/01/20/Daily_Search_Forum_Recap__January_20__2010'

    Daily Search Forum Recap: January 20, 2010

    Posted: January 20th, 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.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2010/01/20/First_Image_for_Jesus_in_Google_Images_is_Offensive'

    First Image for Jesus in Google Images is Offensive

    Posted: January 20th, 2010, 3:13pm CET by rustybrick
    Tags:  Google Search Engine  

    If you search for [Jesus] in Google Images you may notice that the first image has a picture of Jesus smoking a cigaret, with a can of beer in his hand. Here is a picture of the search result:

    A searcher complained about this at the Google Web Search Help forums yesterday. So far, there has been no reply by anyone, including a Googler.

    I doubt Google will remove the image result. These types of issues come up fairly frequently. The latest one was when Michelle Obama's image was racist and Google did not remove it, but rather bought an ad explaining why the result was not removed. So I doubt Google will make changes to this image result.

    Forum discussion at Google Web Search Help.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2010/01/18/Daily_Search_Forum_Recap__January_18__2010'

    Daily Search Forum Recap: January 18, 2010

    Posted: January 18th, 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.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2010/01/18/Martin_Luther_King__Jr_Logo_from_Google__Yahoo__Bing__Ask__Dogpile___Othersin_2010'

    Martin Luther King, Jr Logo from Google, Yahoo, Bing, Ask, Dogpile & Othersin 2010

    Posted: January 18th, 2010, 3:15pm CET by rustybrick
    Tags:  Search Engine Industry News  

    Every year, the search engines post special logos for Martin Luther King, Jr. This year is no different, we have logos from Google, Yahoo, Bing, Ask.com, Dogpile and others. MLK, Martin Luther Kind, Jr needs no explanation. It is a legal US holiday today and a day celebrated by many around the world. Here are the logos:

    Google's MLK Logo:

    Yahoo's Flash MLK logo:

    Bing's MLK Theme:

    Ask.com's MLK Theme:

    DogPile:

    Search Engine Roundtable:

    Also see the 2009 MLK logos and 2008 MLK logos for a bit of the history with these logos and doodles.

    Forum discussion at Google Web Search Help.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2010/01/18/Bing_Showing_Related_Search_Results_By_Default'

    Bing Showing Related Search Results By Default

    Posted: January 18th, 2010, 2:22pm CET by rustybrick
    Tags:  Search MSN Microsoft  

    A WebmasterWorld thread has discussion about a search on Bing for [digital camera]. If you search on Bing for that query, you will not only see search results that match [digital camera] but Bing will show you other related queries and their search results.

    Bing will show you 3 additional results for each of the following related queries, they include: Digital Camera Brands, Digital Camera Types, Top 10 Digital Cameras, Digital Camera Repair and Digital Camera Accessories. Here is a video showing this:

    The interesting part here is that this is somewhat like the Google knows best but not fully. Here Bing is showing you what you queried for first and then shows you other search results that they think would be useful.

    Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2010/01/16/Daily_Search_Forum_Recap__January_15__2010'

    Daily Search Forum Recap: January 15, 2010

    Posted: January 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.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2010/01/15/Video_Recap_of_Weekly_Search_Buzz____January_15__2010'

    Video Recap of Weekly Search Buzz :: January 15, 2010

    Posted: January 15th, 2010, 10:20pm CET by rustybrick
    Tags:  Search Buzz RoundUp  

    This week we covered topics from SEO to topless Playboy girls. We discussed how to rank high in the Google real-time results with Twitter. We asked, when is Google launching the Caffeine index? Google added favorite icons to Webmaster Tools. Google added Fast Flip to Google News and we spotted a topless Playboy model on the home page. Google search spelling feature stole traffic from a web site. AdWords says your click through rate should be about 2 percent or higher. A new AdWords display URL policy requires subdomains for hosted domains. Google can transfer the campaigns you set up for clients, to their own accounts and leave you in the dust. If and when the Microsoft Yahoo deal goes through adCenter will take of Yahoo Search Marketing. Yahoo killed Shopping Search and outsourced it to PriceGrabber. Google changed home page fade in affect for the Haiti relief message. Google stood up to China and won't censor their results, the world is supporting Google. 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. Here is the YouTube version of the feed:


    For the original iTunes version, click here or to see the YouTube version in higher quality, click play & hit "HD."

    Search Topics of Discussion:
    Google SEO:


    Google Search:

    Google AdWords:

    adCenter & Yahoo:

    Google & Haiti:

    Google China:

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


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2010/01/15/Google_Now_Shows_Haiti_Relief_Message_on_Home_Page_Before_Fade'

    Google Now Shows Haiti Relief Message on Home Page Before Fade

    Posted: January 15th, 2010, 2:22pm CET by rustybrick
    Tags:  Google Search Engine  

    Everyone knows about the horrible events that happened in Haiti this week. The world has come together to help out, and that includes Google. A few days ago, Google placed a link on their home page, giving people information on how they can help out. The link said, "Information, resources, and ways you can help survivors of the Haiti earthquake." If clicked on, it took them google.com/relief/haitiearthquake/ with more information on how to help out.

    But a day ago, that link was not included in the pre-fade portion of Google. By that I mean, Google's home page shows the search box, logo and search buttons by default and then fades in the navigation links. Prior, Google faded in the information about the Haiti relief efforts but today, Google is showing this information on first load, prior to the rest of the page fading in. Here are pictures:

    Pre-Fade:

    Post-Fade:

    Why did Google change this? Well, it was brought up in the Google Web Search Help forums by someone and Jaime from Google took notice. Jaime from Google said:

    jeretik -- thanks for bringing this up. We all share your concern for the victims of this disaster and I'm currently discussing the matter of the homepage link with the rest of the team.

    This is a small but major change to the nature of Google's fade in home page.

    Forum discussion at Google Web Search Help.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2010/01/15/Should_Search_Engines_Be_Immune_to_Copyright_Infringement_'

    Should Search Engines Be Immune to Copyright Infringement?

    Posted: January 15th, 2010, 2:12pm CET by rustybrick
    Tags:  Search Engine Industry News  

    A new bill in the UK Parliament named the Digital Economy Bill [HL] 2009-10 is proposing to give search engines, such as Google, a form of immunity against being sued over copyright infringement. It is a bit more complex than that but overall, if you want your content out of the search engines, block them - otherwise, you can't sue them over copyright law.

    A Sphinn thread is pretty heated over the topic. Primarily between Michael Gray and Danny Sullivan. Let me quote some of the conversation:

    Danny Sullivan in response to Michael Gray:

    Yeah, yeah, simmer down there troll boy :)

    So the actual article this is talking about from The Guardian says this proposal also says:

    The presumption (of having an automatic license) may be rebutted by explicit evidence that such a licence was not granted. Such explicit evidence shall be found only in the form of statements in a machine-readable file to be placed on the website and accessible to providers of search engine services.

    In other words, this gives robots.txt legal backing. You block that way, search engines can't index you. Fair enough. I mean, that's how things have worked for ages with the respected search engines. But if some rogue spider copied you, you couldn't easily claim a copyright violation because robots.txt had no force of law. Now, you could sue saying they'd been restricted and still indexed your content.

    Michael Gray in response to Danny Sullivan:

    being a troll boy ;-) and not a lawyer I may be missing something, but this seems pretty clear...

    In other words, Google would be free to copy everything - but a publisherblocking search spiders with a robots.txt file would be taken as withholding that right. An explicit "fair use" provision, which Google often cites against copyright-abuse claims, does not exist in UK law.

    Google can copy whatever it wants, unless you block it with robots, so if you want to retain you copyright then you do so by slitting your own throat for search engine traffic. That just doesn't make any sense for anyone ... except google.

    The debate goes on and on in the thread, so if you are in a troll/rant mood or if you just find the topic interesting, do check it out.

    Forum discussion at Sphinn.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2010/01/14/Google_UK_Showing_US_Based_Spelling_Suggestions'

    Google UK Showing US Based Spelling Suggestions

    Posted: January 14th, 2010, 1:44pm CET by rustybrick
    Tags:  Google Search Engine  

    If you search at Google UK for keywords such as [search engine optimisation] or [personalised napkins] or the like, you will get US based spelling suggestions from Google.

    Here are some screen captures:

    The old S vs Z in US vs UK English.

    As you can imagine, this is not just annoying for UK searchers but also can be a bit insulting. So far, Google has not commented in any of the threads I have seen report this.

    Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld, DigitalPoint Forums & Google Webmaster Help.

    Update: Google seemed to quietly fix this in the past 24 hours.

    Update 2: Here is a statement from Google over 24 hours later:

    We recently introduced a change to the spell correction feature on the google.co.uk domain. This change introduced a bug where we were suggesting American English spelling refinements. We have temporarily rolled back the change while we fix the problem.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2010/01/13/Daily_Search_Forum_Recap__January_13__2010'

    Daily Search Forum Recap: January 13, 2010

    Posted: January 13th, 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.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2010/01/12/Daily_Search_Forum_Recap__January_12__2010'

    Daily Search Forum Recap: January 12, 2010

    Posted: January 12th, 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.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2010/01/12/Yahoo_To_Kill_Shopping_API___Outsource_to_PriceGrabber__Not_Bing'

    Yahoo To Kill Shopping API & Outsource to PriceGrabber, Not Bing

    Posted: January 12th, 2010, 2:24pm CET by rustybrick
    Tags:  Search Yahoo Marketing  

    Yahoo quietly announced they are discontinuing their Yahoo Shopping API, because they are going to be outsourcing the Yahoo Shopping component of their site to PriceGrabber.com. Greg Sterling has excellent questions and observations about this decision. The main question is why isn't Bing going to power this search feature?

    On a webmaster note, just look at the first comment in the Yahoo announcement:

    This is very disappointing to me. Several of my web apps depend on the API it for their real-time data needs. Pricegrabber is not a replacement. I suppose this means I'm collaterally going to shut down my own services as well. A big sarcastic "thanks" goes out to the Yahoo team for this.

    A WebmasterWorld thread both sympathizes with those in this trap and also somewhat mocks them. For example one said, "This is yet another lesson for lazy or naive webmasters that build their sites around the services provided by third parties (mostly by Google in these days)."

    incrediBILL adds, "The most amusing part is it probably requires no maintenance to leave the API function as-is." httpwebwitch explained the other value in this API:

    The Yahoo! Shopping API is/was a really good product, too. Well designed, with massive amounts of excellent data. One of the best data API's out there, IMHO - I've often used it as an example when teaching others about APIs and XML.

    I have several apps out there that depend on it, and projects in development that also rely on it. All those projects will be scrapped.

    This is not the first time some webmasters were 'burned' by using a free and open API.

    Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2010/01/12/Baidu_s_Domain_Name_Snatched_by_Hackers_For_Four_Hours'

    Baidu's Domain Name Snatched by Hackers For Four Hours

    Posted: January 12th, 2010, 2:09pm CET by rustybrick
    Tags:  Search Other Engines  

    Imagine going to Google.com and seeing that it has been hacked and taken over by hackers? That is what happened to Chinese searchers, with their favorite search engine, Baidu. @mranti snapped a picture of the Baidu home page, when it was hacked:

    The news can be found on Techmeme, but in short, it seems like they took over Baidu's domain name for about four hours. Now, when I go to Baidu.com it redirects me to http://202.108.22.5/, which is a server operated by Baidu.

    Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2010/01/11/Daily_Search_Forum_Recap__January_11__2010'

    Daily Search Forum Recap: January 11, 2010

    Posted: January 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.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2010/01/11/Google_Suggest_Leads_to_14_Year_Old_Stripping'

    Google Suggest Leads to 14 Year Old Stripping

    Posted: January 11th, 2010, 2:49pm CET by rustybrick
    Tags:  Google Search Engine  

    We asked earlier today if Google should censor non-adult search suggestions. Google does censor out adult-oriented or illegal suggestions. But often they do not get censored unless someone really points it out in a public setting.

    A Google Web Search Help thread points out the next upsetting search suggestion found on Google. Now, it isn't upsetting to me that Google is showing it, it is upsetting to me why Google is showing this. I'll explain in a bit. Here is a picture showing the search suggestion for [14 year old stripping].

    Yea, Google is showing a search suggestion for [14 year old stripping.] Why? I guess because it is a popular query associated with the number 14. People who enter in 14 into Google are very likely to search for [14 year old stripping]. That is what is sad to me.

    In any event, Google will remove the both adult-oriented and illegal search suggestion soon enough.

    Forum discussion at Google Web Search Help.

    Update: Google has removed the search suggestion and updated the forum thread explaining why:

    Thank you for alerting me about this inappropriate query suggestion. The phrase that you reported falls into the category of pornographic terms that we'd consider for filtering from query suggestions. Will let you know if there are any updates to share.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2010/01/11/Poll__Should_Google_Censor_Non_Adult_Search_Suggestions_'

    Poll: Should Google Censor Non-Adult Search Suggestions?

    Posted: January 11th, 2010, 2:30pm CET by rustybrick
    Tags:  Google Search Engine  

    Ever since Google suggest became the default at Google.com back in 2008, the search suggestions had led to some controversy. Most recently over religions suggestions such as Christianity or Islam. Plus a month or so back, we had the Climategate controversy. We do know that Google censors out adult search suggestions and I don't think anyone would argue with that.

    However, do you think Google should censor out non-adult negative search suggestions? Such as those that appear negative to religious beliefs or make companies look bad. For example, a WebmasterWorld thread is discussing a French ruling which required Google to remove the search suggestions that had the word 'scam' when you entered in a company name. Should those also be censored?

    Take my poll:


    Should Google Censor Non-Adult Search Suggestions?(opinion)

    I for one believe adult content should be censored there, as Google does. But I do not believe Google should remove the others.

    Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2010/01/09/Video_Recap_of_Weekly_Search_Buzz____January_8__2010'

    Video Recap of Weekly Search Buzz :: January 8, 2010

    Posted: January 9th, 2010, 12:00am CET by rustybrick
    Tags:  Search Buzz RoundUp  

    This week, I try to get fancier with my video set up and integrate multiple video sources, including my monitor - let's see how that goes. I posted the Google webmaster report for January. There were rumors Caffeine went live, but it did not. More people are seeing the Google blue Jazz interface. Malware is becoming a bigger and bigger issues. Was there a Yahoo Search update or was it the paid inclusion results being removed? Google's local business privacy blunder caused some overall concern. Google may return the SEO and web design local pack? Bing says they are slow and recommends you spam Digg or Yahoo Buzz. Microsoft adCenter offered free clicks, well - not really. AdWords tests a CPA lead form and also click to call on mobile phones. Also, most PPCers have participated in bid wars, while most advertisers are not afraid to make changes to their accounts. Finally Googlers were working on New Years and Google animated their logo for Issac Newton. 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. Here is the YouTube version of the feed:


    For the original iTunes version, click here or to see the YouTube version in higher quality, click play & hit "HD."

    Search Topics of Discussion:
    Google SEO


    Google Search

    Yahoo SEO

    Google Local

    Bing SEO

    adCenter

    AdWords

    Misc

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


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2010/01/08/Daily_Search_Forum_Recap__January_8__2010'

    Daily Search Forum Recap: January 8, 2010

    Posted: January 8th, 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.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2010/01/08/Should_You_Ever_Have_More_Than_5_Clicks_To_Get_To_a_Page_'

    Should You Ever Have More Than 5 Clicks To Get To a Page?

    Posted: January 8th, 2010, 2:11pm CET by rustybrick
    Tags:  Search Engine Optimization  

    Most search engines find new pages by crawling links from other sites. At the same time, the more links to a page and the quality of the pages linking to a page, drives the quality of the page being linked to. These are all basic SEO principles.

    This is why many SEOs place links to their most important internal pages, right off of their home page. Why?

    (1) They want them indexed faster and typically one's home page is indexed more often than other pages (not always). So having a link from your most popular page to other pages, help the other pages also get indexed faster.

    (2) Also your home page normally has the most amount of links to it, so typically has the higher link equity of all your page (not always), so linking to pages off your home page will funnel some of that high link equity to the pages you are linking to. This may result in a higher ranking for those pages linked to from your home page.

    Again, all basic SEO principles.

    The myth is having pages based in the root directory of your server results in higher ranking. That is not true, it is all about the click path.

    That being said, does it ever make sense to require people to click and click, five or more times to get to an internal page? Since search engines will have to do the same clicking, it might take them longer to find the page and it won't pass the majority of your home page's link popularity.

    JohnMu, a Googler, in the Google Webmaster Help forums discussed just that in less than a sentence. He said:

    I'd have no problem clicking through 5-6 links to get to highly specific content if I needed it and your site had it.

    Google knows that there is a logical site hierarchy. Google knows that there are deeper pages on a site that is important. As an SEO, it is not just about linking to them off your home page, but also about getting external links to those pages. And it is also about utilizing your other internal pages to get the search bots to bite them.

    Forum discussion at Google Webmaster Help.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2010/01/08/What_Time_Is_It_In_Bangladesh__Google___Yahoo_Disagree_With_Bing___Ask'

    What Time Is It In Bangladesh? Google & Yahoo Disagree With Bing & Ask

    Posted: January 8th, 2010, 2:04pm CET by rustybrick
    Tags:  Search Other Engines  

    When you ask someone what time is it, you normally don't have to second guess them. But when it comes to asking Google, Yahoo, Bing or Ask.com what time is it, you have to second guess them.

    If you search [bangladesh time] at the four search engines, you will have Google and Yahoo telling you one time, while Bing.com and Ask.com telling you a different time. Who do you believe?

    Google & Yahoo:

    Bing & Ask.com:

    So who is right?

    Forum discussion at Google Web Search Help.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2010/01/08/Google__Christianity_is_Absurd___Stupid'

    Google: Christianity is Absurd & Stupid

    Posted: January 8th, 2010, 1:53pm CET by rustybrick
    Tags:  Google Search Engine  

    I am using an extreme title here to illustrate a point. We have a searcher come to the Google Webmaster Help forums and complain about the search results for a search on Google for [christianity is]. The results are mostly informational but you have a few results which are negative. I cropped this image to show only some of the negative-like results:

    The person said, "I have never been so mad in my life. We have enough problems in the United States without Google slamming Christianity!"

    When will people learn that this is not Google slamming Christianity? Well, maybe what set this person off is that Google wouldn't say Merry Christmas on Christmas? But still, these are the Google search results. Brin, Page and Schmidt aren't sitting down and saying, hmm - I hate Christians and I want to place these results there simply to tick them off.

    There are just so many cases like this, for all religions. It comes down to education, which is a hard thing to do.

    Forum discussion at Google Webmaster Help.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2010/01/07/Daily_Search_Forum_Recap__January_7__2010'

    Daily Search Forum Recap: January 7, 2010

    Posted: January 7th, 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.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2010/01/07/Microsoft_Bing_Says_They_Are__Fairly_Slow_'

    Microsoft Bing Says They Are "Fairly Slow"

    Posted: January 7th, 2010, 2:42pm CET by rustybrick
    Tags:  Search MSN Microsoft  

    One of the latest comments to come from Microsoft's Bing representative in the Bing Forums was that they consider themselves to be "fairly slow." Fairly slow at indexing new sites and new pages, that is.

    Brett Yount, the Program Manager at Bing Webmaster Center, said in a Bing Forums thread:

    It is well known in the industry that MSNbot is fairly slow.

    Did he just say that? For real?

    So what is Microsoft's solution to get new sites into their index? Well, either spam Digg or Yahoo Buzz to be discovered or post a message in the Site not in index thread at Bing Forums and they will manually add you. Yes, there is a forum thread pretty much acting as a URL submit form. How 1995 of them.

    Forum discussion at Bing Forums.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2010/01/07/Jill_Whalen_Takes_a_Look_at_10_Past_Years_of_SEO'

    Jill Whalen Takes a Look at 10 Past Years of SEO

    Posted: January 7th, 2010, 2:05pm CET by rustybrick
    Tags:  Search Engine Industry News  

    I love it when you have the old geezers (in the SEO world, that means 10 years old), take a look in the past at how the industry has evolved. Danny Sullivan has done it and so have others. I personally have only been covering search for over six years, but I have been involved in the web development since I was 16, which was in 1996 (yea, I turn 30 this year).

    In any event, Jill Whalen posted her A Decade of 21st Century SEO. She goes through each year, starting in 2000, and pulls out her notes of SEO thoughts and best quotes for that year. I cannot summarize them all, and although it is 10 years long, it is a quick and fun read. So make sure to check it out.

    There is a Sphinn thread on the topic as well. Danny Sullivan let the cat out of the bag that his decade in search post will be out over the weekend. He is currently up to 2007.

    I'll just end this post with a quote from her ending remarks:

    It's important to note that my ideal of SEO even before the year 2000 has always assumed that search engines will someday be perfect. Through the years, Google has given credence to my mantra during the times when they haven't allowed the crap-hat SEO stuff to work. By the same token, they have also made me look silly at the times when it does still work. My hope is that Google (or any other search engine) never gives up trying to find the best, most relevant results for their users – the searchers – because my SEO methods are based on that ideal.

    There are only a few in this industry who have stood up, given themselves to the community for as long as she has. I won't name them all, but Jill deserves huge credit for not just practicing SEO for over 10 years, but for being involved in the industry, actively, every day, for the past 10 years plus. You can't say that about many people in the industry.

    Thank you Jill.

    Forum discussion at Sphinn.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2010/01/06/Daily_Search_Forum_Recap__January_6__2010'

    Daily Search Forum Recap: January 6, 2010

    Posted: January 6th, 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.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2010/01/06/Yahoo_Search_January_2010_Update_'

    Yahoo Search January 2010 Update?

    Posted: January 6th, 2010, 2:46pm CET by rustybrick
    Tags:  Search Optimization Yahoo  

    There is a single report at a WebmasterWorld thread of a possible Yahoo Search update. Senior member, textex, is noticing changes in the Yahoo Search results, but clearly, the Yahoo Search Blog has not posted anything since December 15th.

    Typically, when it comes to Yahoo Search updates - we normally see it being reported in the forums before Yahoo posts anything on their blog about it. Also, we typically see Yahoo Search update every quarter or so and the last update was in September 2009, so we are do an update.

    Do you notice any ranking changes in Yahoo or a shift in your Yahoo referrals?

    Note: As Yahoo loses market share, less and less webmasters and SEOs are concerned about Yahoo. So it doesn't surprise me to see such little activity in the thread at this point. I do hope the thread picks up.

    Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2010/01/04/Daily_Search_Forum_Recap__January_4__2010'

    Daily Search Forum Recap: January 4, 2010

    Posted: January 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.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2010/01/04/Google_s_Blue_Interface__AKA_Jazz__Being_Seen_By_More_Searchers'

    Google's Blue Interface (AKA Jazz) Being Seen By More Searchers

    Posted: January 4th, 2010, 2:42pm CET by rustybrick
    Tags:  Google Search Engine  

    In November, we reported on the Google Blue Jazz interface, a new Google user interface Google hopes to push sometime this year. Technically, it is not named Jazz, but I think that is the name that might stick. Only a few Google users saw the interface. But ever since the New Years period, I have been seeing more and more reports of users seeing the interface.

    Here is a picture of the front page:

    Actually, a reader sent me some crisp pictures of the various pages. You can see them all at [twitpic.com].

    Anyway, the main thing here is that it is not "new" in that it was announced a few months back. But expect more and more people to see it in the upcoming weeks and/or months.

    Forum discussion at WebmasterWorldand DigitalPoint Forums and many other threads which prop up at Google Web Search Help.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2010/01/04/Yahoo_Paid_Inclusion_Still_Live_'

    Yahoo Paid Inclusion Still Live?

    Posted: January 4th, 2010, 2:29pm CET by rustybrick
    Tags:  Search Yahoo Marketing  

    Yahoo's paid inclusion program was suppose to end on December 31st. But some are reporting in a WebmasterWorld thread that the paid inclusion results are still in the Yahoo Search index.

    I have not looked myself, but this person is saying the paid inclusion (search submit) URLs are still in the index. He said:

    I still see all the paid spots working.

    This can be for two reasons:

    (1) Yahoo's Search Submit product is still indeed active.

    or

    (2) Yahoo indexed the special search submit URLs and they show up in the free listings as free?

    Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2010/01/04/Malware_in_2010___Hiding_in_Google_Search_Results'

    Malware in 2010 : Hiding in Google Search Results

    Posted: January 4th, 2010, 2:11pm CET by rustybrick
    Tags:  Google Search Engine  

    No one will deny it, not even Google. Viruses, malware, spyware and so on, is currently a major issue on the Internet. Google and other search engines has stepped up how they detect and block malware from showing up in their index. But now, in 2010, expect it to get a lot worse. Expect those who produce malware to not look to just infect computers, but to look to get around Google's malware detection techniques and infect even more computers.

    A WebmasterWorld thread has reports of more and more malware getting through Google's filters. For example, we reported a major malware breach using the keyword phrase blackberry news via CNN as some sort of 302 redirect malware hack. Google finally removed it, but I wonder how many computers were infected by that?

    The WebmasterWorld thread is discussing several people's experiences with recent malware infections they or friends received via a Google search.

    I know Google is doing what they can to prevent this, but it is hard to keep up. So just be wary of what you click on via email, Google, Facebook and so on. The best prevention is being smart.

    Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2010/01/04/Isaac_Newton_367th_Birthday_Brings_Google_s_First_Animated_Doodle__Logo_'

    Isaac Newton 367th Birthday Brings Google's First Animated Doodle (Logo)

    Posted: January 4th, 2010, 1:36pm CET by rustybrick
    Tags:  Google Search Engine  

    If you visit Google.com today, you will see a Google Doodle (logo) of an Apple tree. If you wait a couple seconds, you will notice that one of the apple's falls off the tree. Yes, it is Issac Newton's birthday, 367 years ago today, and it is also the first ever (I believe) animated Google Doodle (logo) in history.

    Here is a picture of the logo:

    Want to see how it was/is animated? Here is a short video:

    Everyone, I think, knows the story behind Issac Newton's theory of gravitation. So hence the apple falling off the apple tree. It is great to see Google have a Doodle for Issac Newton. But you got to believe there will be two points of controversy with this Doodle.

    (1) Like always, there are plenty of other important events that occurred on January 4th

    (2) Google has never really animated their logo in the past. Why now? They did recently have a neat I'm Feeling Lucky easter egg. Too see that click here.

    Forum discussion at Google Web Search Help, DigitalPoint Forums and Google Webmaster Help.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2010/01/01/Video_Recap_of_Weekly_Search_Buzz____New_Years_Day_2010'

    Video Recap of Weekly Search Buzz :: New Years Day 2010

    Posted: January 1st, 2010, 6:00am CET by rustybrick
    Tags:  Search Buzz RoundUp  

    In our New Years day video recap, I covered the last week of 2009 in search at the Search Engine Roundtable. I first showed off the various logos for New Years by Google, Yahoo, Bing, Ask.com and many others. Google also had a PageRank update on New Years eve. Google uses ccTLDs over server location. Google slapped SEOs by dropping them and web designers from the local pack. Bing's MSNBot is up to no good again, crawling fake file names. Google AdWords advertisers feel paralyzed. Increase your click through rate with women in thongs in your Google ads. Google launched the advertising professional search feature. Google had a weird bug related to the September 11 attacks. Finally, Google's porn filter had some issues this week. That was the last week of 2009 in search at the Search Engine Roundtable! Happy & Healthy 2010!

    FYI - Sorry for the volume, you will have to crank it up to hear me.

    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. Here is the YouTube version of the feed:


    For the original iTunes version, click here or to see the YouTube version in higher quality, click play & hit "HD."

    Search Topics of Discussion:
    New Years:


    Google SEO:

    Bing SEO:

    Google AdWords:

    Google Issues:

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


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/12/31/Daily_Search_Forum_Recap__December_31__2009'

    Daily Search Forum Recap: December 31, 2009

    Posted: December 31st, 2009, 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.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/12/31/2010_New_Year_Logos_from_Search_Engines__Yahoo__Bing__Ask.com____Google'

    2010 New Year Logos from Search Engines: Yahoo, Bing, Ask.com & Google

    Posted: December 31st, 2009, 2:48pm CET by rustybrick
    Tags:  Search Engine Industry News  

    Typically, I compile the New Years logos from the various search engines and search industry on New Years Day, but most of the search engines, with the exception of Google, have the logos out already. So here are the 2010 New Years logos. If any of them update and when Google adds there logo, I will update this post.

    Google:

    Yahoo (Animated):

    Yahoo (Static):

    Bing:

    AOL:

    Ask.com:

    DogPile:

    Baidu:

    Clicker:

    Sogou:

    Zuula:

    Cre8asite Forums:

    Search Engine Roundtable (that's us):

    For the past year's logos, see: New Years 2009, New Years 2008, New Years 2007, Google's 2006 logo, Search Engine Roundtable's 2006 logo, Ask's 2005 logo, and Cre8asite's 2005.

    Forum discussion currently at Search Engine Roundtable Forums, Bing Forums, HighRankings Forums, Google Webmaster Help, WebmasterWorld and Cre8asite Forums.


    Update: Remember the I'm Feeling Lucky Google Countdown feature? Well, at midnight, when you click it, this is what it looks like: Via websonic.nl...


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/12/30/Daily_Search_Forum_Recap__December_30__2009'

    Daily Search Forum Recap: December 30, 2009

    Posted: December 30th, 2009, 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.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/12/30/Can_You_Optimize_for_Stop_Words_in_Search_Results_'

    Can You Optimize for Stop Words in Search Results?

    Posted: December 30th, 2009, 2:39pm CET by rustybrick
    Tags:  Search Engine Optimization  

    A HighRankings Forum thread asks an interesting SEO question. The question is, can you optimize for stop words in Google or other search engines?

    His particular example seems flawed, in that he is calling IT a stop word and it is stopping him for optimizing for the query [it companies]. However, when I search for [it companies] in Google, it does seem to figure out, IT here stands for information technology.

    But in general, is there a need to optimize for stop words? Do we have more examples of cases? If so, can it be done?

    Here is a poll:


    Can you SEO for stop words?(polls)

    Forum discussion at HighRankings Forum.

    Update: See Jill's comment below for the issue this SEO has in the thread.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/12/29/Daily_Search_Forum_Recap__December_29__2009'

    Daily Search Forum Recap: December 29, 2009

    Posted: December 29th, 2009, 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.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/12/29/Hate_Fox_on_Google_News__Join_the_Google_Club'

    Hate Fox on Google News? Join the Google Club

    Posted: December 29th, 2009, 2:11pm CET by rustybrick
    Tags:  Google Search Engine  

    Everyone talks about how liberal Google is and how it may bias their objectivity in the search results and their other agendas. But every day, I check the Google News Forum and see complaints from "liberals" that Google News shows Fox News, a very conservative news source, in the Google News search results and home page. The more I see the complaints, the more I see that Google is not politically bias in their search results.

    Just take a quick scan of the Google News Forum and see how many complaints there are about Fox News being included:

    I find it a bit comical to be honest. I did think it would be nice to give searchers an option about how liberal or conservative they want the news to be. I asked they create a liberal & conservative news slider control that allows users to adjust how liberal or conservative the news gets. Of course, if Google did that, they would have to label each news source as liberal/conservative or pick up words on a page that make a news source liberal or conservative. That can get a bit hairy.

    I just thought I point out the daily activity in this Google News Forum.

    Forum discussion at Google News Forum.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/12/28/Daily_Search_Forum_Recap__December_28__2009'

    Daily Search Forum Recap: December 28, 2009

    Posted: December 28th, 2009, 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.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/12/28/Bing_s_MSNBot_Crawling_Fake_File_Names_'

    Bing's MSNBot Crawling Fake File Names?

    Posted: December 28th, 2009, 2:41pm CET by rustybrick
    Tags:  Search MSN Microsoft  

    A WebmasterWorld thread and an older Bing Forums thread has discussion from webmasters over the issue of Microsoft Bing's web crawler, MSNBot, crawling file names that do not exist on a specific site.

    This reminders me of the ongoing issue of Bing creating fake referrals in webmaster log files. This has been going on for years, where Microsoft claims they have fixed it, but never really has.

    In this specific case, it seems like Bing is creating file names on a specific site to crawl. Wel, they are not creating files, just trying to fetch pages that do not and never have existed on a specific site. I am not sure if this is a Bing issue or a webmaster issue.

    A long time WebmasterWorld member explained the issue:

    In what is apparently a rather old bad behavior, msnbot has a practice of regularly requesting totally manufactured URIs that appear to be designed to trigger 404 errors. Here are two sample log entries of the two styles of bogus URIs msnbot requests:

    '65.55.207.126'¦Tue, 15 Dec 2009 20:39:49 -0500¦'msnbot/2.0b (+http://search.msn.com/msnbot.htm)'¦'*/*'¦'/ADBF3C7AB534E8356F30D8AC05291640_00000.temp019f.html'¦''
    '65.55.207.28'¦Wed, 16 Dec 2009 05:46:22 -0500¦'msnbot/2.0b (+http://search.msn.com/msnbot.htm)'¦'*/*'¦'/000166709_00001.temp00be.html'¦''

    The requests ALWAYS take on one of the formats above starting with either a 32byte GUID or a nine digit integer.

    In the Bing thread, another person said:

    For many many years, msnbot has been crawling my sites looking for files that have never existed... i'm trying to figure out why...
    the filenames have changed slightly in recent times but they have been similar in structure since the beginning... they are something like 000092601_00002.temp0001.htm... in other words, 9 numbers underscore 5 numbers dot temp 4 numbers dot htm... the search for these is all over my server's directory tree...

    I'll emphasize once more that these files have never existed on my site and i have no clue how msnbot may have picked them up...

    Honestly, I feel bad that I am always beating up on Microsoft. I know they are new to the game, when you compare them to Google. But I have to report these issues.

    Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld & Bing Forums.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/12/28/Porn_on_Google_Image_Search_with_Strict_Search_On'

    Porn on Google Image Search with Strict Search On

    Posted: December 28th, 2009, 1:53pm CET by rustybrick
    Tags:  Google Search Engine  

    A DigitalPoint Forums thread reports that a search on (beware before you click) [cricket talks] in Google Image search returns a pornographic image. It happens both on standard safe search and strict safe search, but goes away completely when you turn off the safe search feature.

    Here is a picture, which I cropped a bit to show the result here:

    I personally see the image on the 3rd row when strict search is on and the second row when safe search is in standard or moderate mode.

    What is interesting is that it is hosted on a pretty bad domain, i.e. asianteenmovieslesbiananal.info. OpenDNS for me blocks the domain due to the domain and network containing pornography and nudity. I guess Google got mixed up with this one.

    On a related note, a Google News Help thread reports that Google News had an image of a PlayBoy teaser on their most viewed section. I personally did not see it, but it would not have been the first time seductive or nude images showed up on the front page of Google News.

    Forum discussion at DigitalPoint Forums & Google News Help.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/12/25/Video_Recap_of_Weekly_Search_Buzz____Christmas_Day_2009'

    Video Recap of Weekly Search Buzz :: Christmas Day 2009

    Posted: December 25th, 2009, 4:10pm CET by rustybrick
    Tags:  Search Buzz RoundUp  

    Merry Christmas everyone! This week at the Search Engine Roundtable was a fairly slow week, due to the holidays. Some of the news I wanted to cover includes that Googlers are working on Christmas. Also, I posted the Christmas logos and themes from Google, Yahoo, Bing, Ask.com, Baidu, and so many others - so check it out. Google sent out e-cards saying they will be giving $20 million in charity in exchange for sending out schwag to advertisers and publishers. Brett Tabke felt we got stiffed and was pretty upset. Brett later explained he feels Google is cutting on webmaster and advertiser support and relations. Also, Bing really has zero support for the canonical tag and I explained why that upset me. QuickMark QR scanner fixed their bug, which caused a major headache for Google's favorite places decals. That was this week at the Search Engine Roundtable - Merry Christmas!

    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. Here is the YouTube version of the feed:


    For the original iTunes version, click here or to see the YouTube version in higher quality, click play & hit "HD."

    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!


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/12/25/Merry_Christmas_All___Googlers_Working_Today'

    Merry Christmas All & Googlers Working Today

    Posted: December 25th, 2009, 2:22pm CET by rustybrick
    Tags:  Search Engine Industry News  

    Merry Christmas! Although I have about five items to write about today, I figured I hold off on them until Monday. Trust me, I know how it is to be swamped and buried in feeds and news to catch up on while I am celebrating a Jewish holiday - so I will spare you all. Plus, I finally am making the move to Google Chrome, using Chromium on my Mac - so it is nice to take it slow to get up to speed on it.

    If you are reading today, make sure to check out our Christmas logos for 2009, which I just updated this morning to add several more logos from other search engines. In short, there are logos from Google, Yahoo, Bing, Ask.com, and many others - so check it out.

    In addition, I caught Googlers working on Christmas again. For the past few years, I have caught Googlers helping webmasters in the forums. This year is no different. JohnMu from Google posted in at least two threads on Christmas eve. One was the Merry Christmas Google thread and the other was a more technical webmaster question. Googlers did the same in 2008, 2007 and 2006. They also worked on New Years last year and the year before.

    Finally, I will be working on my weekly search video recap today. Expect it to go live later today and you can watch (or just listen to) it at your leisure.

    Merry Christmas and in our tradition, forum discussion at Search Engine Roundtable Forums, Cre8asite Forums, Google Toolbar Help, HighRankings Forums, WebmasterWorld, DigitalPoint Forums, Google Maps Help, Google AdWords Help & Google Webmaster Help.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/12/24/Daily_Search_Forum_Recap__December_24__2009'

    Daily Search Forum Recap: December 24, 2009

    Posted: December 24th, 2009, 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.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/12/24/Bing_Doesn_t_Support_the_Canonical_Tag_At_All_Right_Now'

    Bing Doesn't Support the Canonical Tag At All Right Now

    Posted: December 24th, 2009, 3:02pm CET by rustybrick
    Tags:  Search MSN Microsoft  

    There is this old and upsetting thread in the Bing Forums about how Bing handles the canonical tag. The thread is filled with misinformation. Matt McGee's post at Search Engine Land a week ago says it clearly.

    Bing says it's still working on supporting the canonical tag on a single domain, and suggests webmasters should rely on other means to manage duplicate content.

    You got that right, 11 months ago, Google, Yahoo and Bing announced support for the Canonical tag. As far as I know, only Google really uses it and they even added cross domain canonical support this month. Where is Bing at this? Well, in the next several months they hope to support a single domain use of the canonical tag and hopefully soon after the cross domain support. So it would have taken Bing over a year since they announced support of this tag to actually support it?

    I am not too upset about that, to be honest. What I am more upset about is that official Bing support representatives are pretty much lying in the Bing Forums. Brett Yount, the Product Manager of Bing Webmaster Center said:

    accourding to our blog post, http://www.bing.com/community/blogs/webmaster/archive/2009/02/12/partnering-to-help-solve-duplicate-content-issues.aspx, the canonical tag is used as a hint only.

    No, it is not used as a hint or anything. It is not used period, not yet. Maybe in four months, but not yet.

    Forum discussion at Bing Forums.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/12/24/Christmas_Logos_From_Google__Yahoo__Bing__Ask___Others'

    Christmas Logos From Google, Yahoo, Bing, Ask & Others

    Posted: December 24th, 2009, 1:31pm CET by rustybrick
    Tags:  Search Engine Industry News  

    Merry Christmas Search Engine Roundtable readers! I believe most of the search engines have their special logos or themes live today. They include a handful of logos from Google, an animated logo from Yahoo, an awesome picture from Bing, a sweet Ask.com theme, DogPile's fun dress up and more from the industry.

    Google began their logo blitz on the first day of Winter. While, we had Winter themes from YouTube, Bing and others, Google started with "the holidays." Calling it "The Holidays" made some Christians upset, mostly those in the U.K. Also, Google did not have a Chanukah logo like Bing or Ask did.

    In any event, here are pictures of the Christmas logos, but this time I will end with Google, since they have so many:

    Yahoo (animated) Christmas logo:

    Yahoo (static) Christmas logo:

    Bing's Christmas Theme:

    December 24th:

    December 25th:

    Ask.com's Christmas Theme:

    DogPile's Christmas Theme:

    Baidu's Christmas Logo:

    Quintura's Christmas Logo:

    Clicker Christmas Logo:

    Sogou Christmas Logo:

    FriendFeed Christmas logo:

    Zuula Christmas Logo:

    BruceClay Christmas Logo:

    Cre8asite Christmas Logo:

    Search Engine Roundtable Christmas Theme:

    Google's Christmas / Holiday Logos (so far four):

    #1:

    #2:

    #3:

    #4:

    #5:

    I'll update this post when I find more logos from the search industry.

    For the past year's holiday and Christmas logos, see our posts from 2008, the 2007 logos, plus Google's five logos, 2006 logos, Cre8asite in 2005, also '05 Search Engine Roundtable and '05 Google, Yahoo and Ask, plus we have 2004 and some of 2003 archived for you.

    Forum discussion at Search Engine Roundtable Forums, Cre8asite Forums, Google Toolbar Help, HighRankings Forums, WebmasterWorld, DigitalPoint Forums, Google Maps Help, Google AdWords Help & Google Webmaster Help.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/12/23/Daily_Search_Forum_Recap__December_23__2009'

    Daily Search Forum Recap: December 23, 2009

    Posted: December 23rd, 2009, 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.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/12/22/Funny_Ballmer_Firing_Bing_Employee_Hoax'

    Funny Ballmer Firing Bing Employee Hoax

    Posted: December 22nd, 2009, 2:45pm CET by rustybrick
    Tags:  Search MSN Microsoft  

    This is a hoax, this is not true, but it spread around the internet over the weekend and I found it pretty funny. Again, this is a comic, who did a skit of some sort. Microsoft confirmed this is not a real employee or ex-employee at Microsoft.

    The video portrays a disgruntled ex-Microsoft employee describing how he was fired by Microsoft's CEO, Steve Ballmer, over not saying "Bing" with enthusiasm.

    If you know the jokes about Ballmer, this is pretty funny.

    Forum discussion at DigitalPoint Forums.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/12/22/Google_Images_Bug_Shifts_Images_Off_Search_Results_Page'

    Google Images Bug Shifts Images Off Search Results Page

    Posted: December 22nd, 2009, 2:25pm CET by rustybrick
    Tags:  Google Search Engine  

    I am seeing random reports, now a total of three individual reports, in the Google Web Search Help forums where users are reporting that Google Images search results are going off the page.

    One user posted a picture, which describes the issue. Here is a picture:

    It seems like the first row of images is shown on the far left side of the browser and then the rest are displayed down the row, but under the fold. One person explained:

    All the images are on the left side of the page going down the page. You can bearly see the image and it is very anouying!! How do u make it so it is back to the normal way, were the images go across the page instear of going down????

    Googler, Jem thinks this is some type of browser bug. Jem asked the users to clear their cookies and try again. Jem is also asking users for more feedback so they can debug the issue.

    Forum discussion at Google Web Search Help.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/12/21/Daily_Search_Forum_Recap__December_21__2009'

    Daily Search Forum Recap: December 21, 2009

    Posted: December 21st, 2009, 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.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/12/21/Google_One_Box_Blindness'

    Google One Box Blindness

    Posted: December 21st, 2009, 3:02pm CET by rustybrick
    Tags:  Google Search Engine  

    An early WebmasterWorld thread is discussing the topic of Google One Box "blindness." Google One Boxes are those enhanced results you see at the top or within the search results of Google. When they first came out, there were hard to miss, but now SEOs and maybe some searchers are subconsciously blocking them out, like they would ads?

    Here are some examples of "one boxes":

    Get the point?

    Do you think all this injection of special "universal search" results, as well as Google owned content (i.e. YouTube, weather, google groups, blogspot, definitions, etc) is going to eventually suffer from "one box blindness"?

    Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/12/21/Google_Holiday_Logos__Also_Yahoo__Bing___YouTube_Winter_Logos'

    Google Holiday Logos, Also Yahoo, Bing & YouTube Winter Logos

    Posted: December 21st, 2009, 2:04pm CET by rustybrick
    Tags:  Search Engine Industry News  

    The next two weeks are typically the slowest two weeks in the search industry (and probably most other industries). It is the holiday week, with Christmas and New Years coming, as well as it being the first day of Winter today.

    Google already started their holiday logo blast, although Google missed Chanukah this year, they are calling the logos "Holiday logos". You will be able to see a new one every day and Google will archive them at google.com/logos/holidays-2009.html. Here is the first one:

    Like I said, Google will have a new logo each day (maybe I will update this post here or make a new one for those).

    Google # 2:

    Yahoo is running a flash based logo also for the past few days:

    But today is actually the first day of Winter here on our side of the world. And for the day, we have a nice theme from Bing, YouTube and from ourselves as well:

    Bing Winter:

    YouTube Winter:

    Search Engine Roundtable Winter:

    Happy holidays, cold winter and relaxing/healthy next two weeks.

    Forum discussion at Search Engine Roundtable Forums and Google Web Search Help.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/12/18/Daily_Search_Forum_Recap__December_18__2009'

    Daily Search Forum Recap: December 18, 2009

    Posted: December 18th, 2009, 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.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/12/18/Video_Recap_of_Weekly_Search_Buzz____December_18__2009'

    Video Recap of Weekly Search Buzz :: December 18, 2009

    Posted: December 18th, 2009, 9:54pm CET by rustybrick
    Tags:  Search Buzz RoundUp  

    This week in search, I announce that I am hosting SMX SphinnCon Israel on March 7, 2010 in Jerusalem. Google announced the support for cross domain canonical tags. There may have been a Toolbar PageRank penalty earlier this week. Google may add PDF support to fetch as Googlebot. Google dropped Answers.com for their own definitions. Google is testing infinite scroll in image search. Bing might add "page score" to their toolbar. MSNBot crawls pages twice, once for compressed http and one for uncompressed. Google's new QR codes on the favorite places maps decals are sending users to wrong business, likely because of QR scanners and not Google. Google messed up the AdSense reporting again. Yahoo Search Marketing ads went down for a short period of time. Google is now in the URL shortening business with goo.gl. Google may buy Yelp for $500 million. Google is inviting publishers for Christmas lunch. Google's Im Feeling Lucky button does the New Year countdown. Google did a Doodle for Zamenhof. Google forgot about The Simpons 20th birthday, a shame. 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. Here is the YouTube version of the feed:


    For the original iTunes version, click here or to see the YouTube version in higher quality, click play & hit "HD."

    Search Topics of Discussion:
    Misc:


    Google Web Search:

    Bing:

    Google Maps:

    Paid Search & Contextual:

    Misc Google:

    Fun Search Topics:

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


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/12/17/Google_Drops_Answers.com_For_Google_Definitions'

    Google Drops Answers.com For Google Definitions

    Posted: December 17th, 2009, 3:13pm CET by rustybrick
    Tags:  Google Search Engine  

    Earlier this month, Google dropped Answers.com as their definitions provider. A month ago or so, Google would link from the word "definition" to Answers.com, now Google links to themselves.

    For example, a search for [definitions] shows a hyperlink named "definition". Here is a picture:

    When you click on it, it now takes you to Google Definitions at Google.com/Dictionary. In the past, and since early 2005 it took you to Answers.com.

    I have not seen a thread or complain about this until today - so I guess most people didn't take much notice. The thread is at Google Web Search Help and it reads:

    The "definition" feature Google has in its search page includes lots of features including comprehensive dictionary, pronunciation of words, translation to many other languages, all this gone, I have noticed its format was changed recently to a very simple uninformative format, very very disappointing! I was using it quite a lot.

    Forum discussion at Google Web Search Help.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/12/17/Bug__Bing_Webmaster_Tools_Not_Accepting_URLs_with_Hyphens'

    Bug: Bing Webmaster Tools Not Accepting URLs with Hyphens

    Posted: December 17th, 2009, 3:03pm CET by rustybrick
    Tags:  Search MSN Microsoft  

    There are a few reports in a Bing Forum thread that adding a site to Bing Webmaster Tools might not work. Specifically, if the URL or domain contains a hyphen (dash) such as www.best-domain.com.

    Brett Yount from the Bing Webmaster team confirmed the bug, saying:

    Currently, we are having a few difficulties which I just received confirmation from the indexing team. They are currently working on it, but said that if you try a couple times, it should work. If not, and your site isn't in the index at all , please post on the not in index thread and I will work to get your home page (only) into the index.

    I personally tried adding a domain with a hyphen and it worked for me on the first try. So maybe it is resolved or maybe those specific domains have other issues?

    Forum discussion at Bing Forum.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/12/17/Microsoft_Might_Add_Bing_Page_Score_to_MSN_Toolbar'

    Microsoft Might Add Bing Page Score to MSN Toolbar

    Posted: December 17th, 2009, 2:35pm CET by rustybrick
    Tags:  Search MSN Microsoft  

    Brett Yount from the Bing Webmaster Team dropped a hint in the Bing Forums that they may add the Bing Page Score (similar to Google's PageRank) to the MSN Toolbar.

    Bing has what they call Bing Page Score when you login to their Bing Webmaster Center. Someone asked in the thread, "is it possible to enable page rank in bing toolbar?"

    Soon after, Brett Yount from Bing responded saying:

    We might once we complete the rework of that tool, which will be Fall earliest. Good news is, there are some changes in the works due in May/June to many things important to the webmasters frequenting these forums.

    So there are two things here:

    (1) Bing's Page Score may come to their Toolbar.
    (2) They will be reworking "that tool," which I believe is talking about Page Score specifically.

    Forum discussion at Bing Forums.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/12/16/Daily_Search_Forum_Recap__December_16__2009'

    Daily Search Forum Recap: December 16, 2009

    Posted: December 16th, 2009, 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.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/12/16/Bing_s_MSNBot_Crawls_Twice__Once_For_Compressed_HTML___Again_For_Uncompressed'

    Bing's MSNBot Crawls Twice, Once For Compressed HTML & Again For Uncompressed

    Posted: December 16th, 2009, 2:38pm CET by rustybrick
    Tags:  Search MSN Microsoft  

    Here is one more oddity to add to Microsoft Bing's web crawler, MSNBot. Why on earth are people reporting that MSNBot is crawling the same page twice, once for the compressed version and then once again for the uncompressed version? Technically, it should probably only crawl once and it should opt for the compressed, gzip version - don't you think?

    We have two threads complaining about this, one oldish one at WebmasterWorld and another at Bing Forums. Let me quote the Bing thread:

    I've notice that bing is crawling each page of my website twice, first making an HTTP 1.1 request and getting a compressed response then immediately issuing an HTTP 1.0 request to receive the same page without gzip compression

    The following lines from my log show the issue (there are thousands more similar occurrences):
    65.55.207.74 - - [13/Dec/2009:14:58:42 +0000] "GET /specimen/235698/ HTTP/1.1" 200 1742 "-" "msnbot/2.0b (+http://search.msn.com/msnbot.htm)"
    65.55.207.74 - - [13/Dec/2009:14:59:06 +0000] "GET /specimen/235698/ HTTP/1.0" 200 4259 "-" "msnbot/2.0b (+http://search.msn.com/msnbot.htm)"
    65.55.106.209 - - [13/Dec/2009:15:03:08 +0000] "GET /specimen/250262/ HTTP/1.1" 200 1733 "-" "msnbot/2.0b (+http://search.msn.com/msnbot.htm)"
    65.55.106.209 - - [13/Dec/2009:15:03:14 +0000] "GET /specimen/250262/ HTTP/1.0" 200 4164 "-" "msnbot/2.0b (+http://search.msn.com/msnbot.htm)"

    This seems a waste of bandwidth and completely defeats the point of supporting http compression.

    Indeed a waste of bandwidth and yes, it defeats the point of supporting HTTP compression.

    A Bing representative, Brett Yount said:

    could you please mail this information to bwmc@microsoft.com and I will get our crawling team to check it out?

    But we have no confirmation from Bing on why this issue is occurring or when it will be fixed. Like I said, just one more oddity to add to MSNBot's crawl behavior.

    Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld and Bing Forums.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/12/16/Yahoo_Search_Marketing_Down_For_Some_Advertisers'

    Yahoo Search Marketing Down For Some Advertisers

    Posted: December 16th, 2009, 2:25pm CET by rustybrick
    Tags:  Search Yahoo Marketing  

    A WebmasterWorld thread reports that Yahoo Search Marketing is down for some. When some advertisers are trying to use Yahoo's pay per click ad system, they get an error.

    The error reads:

    We are currently experiencing a technical issue that is causing the ads of some advertisers to not be displayed properly to users. This may cause your account to receive a lower volume of clicks than normal. We are aware of this issue, and are working diligently to resolve it as soon as possible. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause you.

    So far, we have two confirmed reports of this bug in the WebmasterWorld thread.

    I am not sure how widespread the issue is or if it is resolved yet.

    Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

    Yahoo updated the thread, saying:

    I can confirm that this issue was resolved at approximately 10:30 a.m. Pacific Time on December 15, and ads should be displaying normally since then. Sorry for any inconvenience this may have caused.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/12/15/Daily_Search_Forum_Recap__December_15__2009'

    Daily Search Forum Recap: December 15, 2009

    Posted: December 15th, 2009, 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.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/12/14/Daily_Search_Forum_Recap__December_14__2009'

    Daily Search Forum Recap: December 14, 2009

    Posted: December 14th, 2009, 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.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/12/14/Google_s__I_m_Feeling_Lucky__Button_Counts_Down_To_New_Year'

    Google's "I'm Feeling Lucky" Button Counts Down To New Year

    Posted: December 14th, 2009, 3:00pm CET by rustybrick
    Tags:  Google Search Engine  

    If you go to Google.com and click on the "I'm Feeling Lucky" button, Google will show you a countdown to the new year. You cannot type anything into the search box for this to work, just click on the button with an empty search box.

    Here is a video of it working just minutes ago, on my screen:

    Forum discussion at Google Web Search Help and DigitalPoint Forums.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/12/11/Video_Recap_of_Weekly_Search_Buzz____December_11__2009'

    Video Recap of Weekly Search Buzz :: December 11, 2009

    Posted: December 11th, 2009, 10:01pm CET by rustybrick
    Tags:  Search Buzz RoundUp  

    Just a reminder, we did not do a video recap last week, we did a text one - so if you missed it, check it out. This week was the SES Chicago conference and we covered tons of sessions. Google switched personalized search on by default and SEOs are freaking out. Google and Yahoo both added real time Twitter results to the search results. Google launched image based search with Google Goggles. Google will add a trustworthy indicator to the page speed report because webmeisters aren't sure if it is accurate. Why? Well, both Google AdSense and Analytics have long page load times, but AdSense will be fixed and Google told us to ignore Analytics. Bing will crawl a 301 two or three times before registering it. We also posted our December Google webmaster report. Google is taking Google Money scammer to court and AdSense Pirates are becoming more of a problem. Ruscoe from Google Blogocoped is joining Google next month. Being an AdSense publisher doesn't mean Google will be a job reference for you. Don't search for 123456 in Google, you might get slapped in the face. Yahoo closed their deal with Microsoft, now they wait on the regulators (sorry, did not cover in video). Google had a Popeye logo this week. Tonight is Chanukah and Bing and we have themes live. Happy Chanukah everyone and have a great weekend. 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. Here is the YouTube version of the feed:


    For the original iTunes version, click here or to see the YouTube version in higher quality, click play & hit "HD."

    Search Topics of Discussion:
    Conference:


    Google & Yahoo Search Results:

    Google Misc:

    Webmaster/SEO for Google & Bing:

    AdWords & AdSense:

    SEM Industry:

    Funny Search:

    Business:

    Logos & Events:

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


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/12/11/Daily_Search_Forum_Recap__December_11__2009'

    Daily Search Forum Recap: December 11, 2009

    Posted: December 11th, 2009, 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.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/12/11/Chanukah_2009_Logos_from_Bing___SERoundtable'

    Chanukah 2009 Logos from Bing & SERoundtable

    Posted: December 11th, 2009, 3:13pm CET by rustybrick
    Tags:  Search Engine Industry News  

    Chanukah (Hanukah) starts tonight, technically, in Israel it is already Chanukah. It last for eight days and this year it does not overlap with Christmas. Currently, the only major search engine to have a logo or theme up is Microsoft's Bing. Google (even Google.co.il), Yahoo, and Ask.com do not have a theme up yet. Maybe they will wait for tonight or tomorrow, but for now, here is Bing's theme:

    We also have theme, sporting driedels with SEO spelled on them out of our name, the Search Engine rOundtable.

    Also, Cre8asite Forums plans on uploading this logo shortly for the holiday season:

    We will update this post with more logos if they come out. For the past years, see 2008, 2007 and 2006.

    Forum discussion at Search Engine Roundtable Forums.

    Update: Ask.com posted a theme on Saturday, December 12th, see Nick's comment below:

    No logo from Google, Yahoo or others.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/12/11/Yahoo_Adds_Twitter_to_Search_Results__Google_s_Twitter_Results_Now_Live'

    Yahoo Adds Twitter to Search Results, Google's Twitter Results Now Live

    Posted: December 11th, 2009, 3:06pm CET by rustybrick
    Tags:  Search Engine Yahoo  

    Not to be outdone by Google, Yahoo also added real-time Twitter results for "buzzing" keyword phrases. I tried to replicate any results on Yahoo, but I was not yet able to see them. Maybe it is still rolling out.

    The industry is discussing the Yahoo roll out at WebmasterWorld.

    Meanwhile, sometime mid-afternoon yesterday, the real time results Google previewed a couple days ago, went live in the main Google search results. SEOs and Webmasters are now playing with it, looking for ways to exploit take advantage of it. There is discussion on it going live at WebmasterWorld.

    Both Rae at OutSpokenMedia.com and Danny at Search Engine Land covered how the results can be exploited and get a be "mad."

    Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld (Yahoo) and WebmasterWorld (Google).


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/12/11/Don_t_Search_Google_for_123456'

    Don't Search Google for 123456

    Posted: December 11th, 2009, 2:46pm CET by rustybrick
    Tags:  Google Search Engine  

    A Google Web Search Help thread reports that he was testing to make sure his boss's computer network had connectivity, so he searched for [123456] in Google and up came a porn video hosted on Google Video in the top result.

    Here is a picture:

    The video on the right is complete adult pornographic material - so don't click on it (unless you want porn, then click on it).

    The person who spotted this was very disturbed. He said:

    I was assisting our CEO's secretary today, and to test whether she had connectivity, I did a quick search on google for "123456".

    She thought I was being disgusting, but I eventually convinced her it was a freak occurrence.

    Can you imagine that, this woman thought this guy was playing a trick on her or something. How sad.

    Forum discussion at Google Web Search Help.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/12/10/Daily_Search_Forum_Recap__December_10__2009'

    Daily Search Forum Recap: December 10, 2009

    Posted: December 10th, 2009, 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.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/12/10/Bing_Requires_3_MSNBot_Crawls_To_Register_301_Redirects'

    Bing Requires 3 MSNBot Crawls To Register 301 Redirects

    Posted: December 10th, 2009, 2:40pm CET by rustybrick
    Tags:  Search MSN Microsoft  

    I spotted a useful tidbit for SEOs in the Bing Forums today. Brett Yount from Bing Webmaster Center team explained how Bing picks up on 301 redirects.

    Brett said it can take two to three crawls from Bing to register a 301 redirect in their index. Brett said:

    By design, our crawler usually takes 2-3 crawls before it registers the redirect.

    I wonder how many crawls Google takes to do the same thing? I can see why you would want to wait at least for a second crawl to confirm a 301 redirect is indeed legit.

    We had some reports recently that Bing is handling 301s much better now than they have in the past.

    Forum discussion at Bing Forums.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/12/09/Daily_Search_Forum_Recap__December_8__2009'

    Daily Search Forum Recap: December 8, 2009

    Posted: December 9th, 2009, 12:30am 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.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/12/08/Cool_Mobile_Apps__Augmented_Reality___It_s_a_Brave_New_World_from_SES_Chicago__09'

    Cool Mobile Apps, Augmented Reality - It's a Brave New World from SES Chicago '09

    Posted: December 8th, 2009, 11:00pm CET by rustybrick
    Tags:  Search Engine Strategies 2009 Chicago  

    Below is live coverage of the Cool Mobile Apps, Augmented Reality - It's a Brave New World from the SES Chicago 2009 (official SES Chicago Site) 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.

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     Cool Mobile Apps, Augmented Reality - It's a Brave New World(12/08/2009) 
      
    Close  
    4:03
    Barry Schwartz: We start here in about 10 minutes.
    Tuesday December 8, 2009 4:03 Barry Schwartz
    4:03
    Barry Schwartz: 

    Cool Mobile Apps, Augmented Reality - It's a Brave New World!
    User migration to a mobile environment is driven not only by information and communications requirements, but also a host of applications that are useful, quirky, or just plain fun. App developers and experts explain how these apps hook users, demonstrate their rapid growth trajectory, and explore what might be in store for the future.

    • Moderator:
      Mike Grehan, SES Advisory Board Co-Chair & VP, Global Content Director, Incisive Media
    Tuesday December 8, 2009 4:03 Barry Schwartz
    4:09
    Barry Schwartz: 5 minutes to start time...
    Tuesday December 8, 2009 4:09 Barry Schwartz
    4:14
    Barry Schwartz: About to start....
    Tuesday December 8, 2009 4:14 Barry Schwartz
    4:16
    Barry Schwartz: Some small "technical difficulties"
    Tuesday December 8, 2009 4:16 Barry Schwartz
    4:19
    Barry Schwartz: Panelists introduce themselves...
    Tuesday December 8, 2009 4:19 Barry Schwartz
    4:20
    Barry Schwartz: Here is a picture of Cindy but others aren't uploading.
    Tuesday December 8, 2009 4:20 Barry Schwartz
    4:21
    [Comment From GuestGuest: ] Elephant in room is Google Goggles and "visual search" How do they think what Google demo'd will affect search on mobile devices?
    Tuesday December 8, 2009 4:21 Guest
    4:21Tuesday December 8, 2009 4:21 
    4:21
    Barry Schwartz: 

    She posts a slide of the definition of Augmented Reality from Wikipedia, see [en.wikipedia.org]

    Tuesday December 8, 2009 4:21 Barry Schwartz
    4:22
    Barry Schwartz: 

    Understanding Applications

    - Mobile apps existed before

    - They fundamentally change the way we think about our phones

    - Apps don't market themselves

    - App Store is just a search engine

    - Applications rank in normal Google results

    Tuesday December 8, 2009 4:22 Barry Schwartz
    4:23
    Barry Schwartz: 

    Understanding Augmented Realty:

    - It is based on tagging or meta data using GPS location data, keyword tagging and info search

    - It frequently facilities a search for info

    - Content needs to be locally tagged corrected.

    Tuesday December 8, 2009 4:23 Barry Schwartz
    4:24
    Barry Schwartz: 

    Possibilities with AR:

    - More interactive experience

    - Closed the loop between on and offline

    - Potential Winners include local shops, social networks, travel, real estate, malls, restauratns

    Tuesday December 8, 2009 4:24 Barry Schwartz
    4:24
    Barry Schwartz: Now many here will show us their AR apps
    Tuesday December 8, 2009 4:24 Barry Schwartz
    4:25
    Barry Schwartz: Mark Dixon, VP, Product Management, NearbyNow is up first.
    Tuesday December 8, 2009 4:25 Barry Schwartz
    4:25
    Barry Schwartz: His app is not AR but he will try to incorporate it as he goes
    Tuesday December 8, 2009 4:25 Barry Schwartz
    4:26
    Barry Schwartz: They produce a turnkey solution for iPhone Shopping
    - Easy ability to public local products
    - Killer feature is local product search
    Tuesday December 8, 2009 4:26 Barry Schwartz
    4:27
    Barry Schwartz: Major brands are adopting this he said.
    Tuesday December 8, 2009 4:27 Barry Schwartz
    4:27
    Barry Schwartz: The app is useful, fun and informative. The app has to solve the user's problem. It is fun to use. And provides timely information.
    Tuesday December 8, 2009 4:27 Barry Schwartz
    4:29
    Barry Schwartz: He shows a screen shot of a "find it near me" button near a "find it online" button. Users actually click the Find Near Me button 17 times more than buy online...
    Tuesday December 8, 2009 4:29 Barry Schwartz
    4:30
    Barry Schwartz: Fun because it has multimedia content like videos, it helps increase user engagement and takes advantage of iPhones capabilities
    Tuesday December 8, 2009 4:30 Barry Schwartz
    4:30
    Barry Schwartz: 

    Fun because it has multimedia content like videos, it helps increase user engagement and takes advantage of iPhones capabilities

    In GQ app, they provide fashion advice in all forms.

    Next up...

    Tuesday December 8, 2009 4:30 Barry Schwartz
    4:31
    Barry Schwartz: 

    Colleen Curtis, Midwest Regional Director, Yelp.

    Tuesday December 8, 2009 4:31 Barry Schwartz
    4:31
    Barry Schwartz: Yelp has 8 million reviews, the business categories, 31% res, 23% shopping, mostly in USA.
    Tuesday December 8, 2009 4:31 Barry Schwartz
    4:32
    Barry Schwartz: in August 2006, they had a mobile site and m.yelp.com, then launched iPhone app in July 2007 and then this year launched augmented reality to their app.
    Tuesday December 8, 2009 4:32 Barry Schwartz
    4:33
    Barry Schwartz: Just point your phone at where you want to go, it overlays on the camera view data of restaurants and reviews, etc.
    Tuesday December 8, 2009 4:33 Barry Schwartz
    4:33
    Barry Schwartz: AR is in iPhone and Android, not on Blackberry
    Tuesday December 8, 2009 4:33 Barry Schwartz
    4:34
    Barry Schwartz: Barg Upender, Founder, CEO, Mobomo is next up.
    Tuesday December 8, 2009 4:34 Barry Schwartz
    4:34
    Barry Schwartz: Yes, presentations going quick here...
    Tuesday December 8, 2009 4:34 Barry Schwartz
    4:36
    Barry Schwartz: Cindy just asked the audience if anyone is doing AR or planning on it...

    I raised my hand, the iPhone "Kosher" app rustybrick.com/iphone/kosher
    And Apartments.com also raised their hands.
    Tuesday December 8, 2009 4:36 Barry Schwartz
    4:36
    Barry Schwartz: Now Barg is up....
    Tuesday December 8, 2009 4:36 Barry Schwartz
    4:38
    Barry Schwartz: The use case of his app is that you are at a conference and you can see who in your address book, who is at your conference. But since we are in a basement, it doesn't work here.

    They also have Traffic Tweet, which crowdsources traffic.
    Tuesday December 8, 2009 4:38 Barry Schwartz
    4:39
    Barry Schwartz: They try to combine multiple complex services into a single app
    Tuesday December 8, 2009 4:39 Barry Schwartz
    4:41
    Barry Schwartz: 
    Q: What is your favorite AR App?
    A: One person said Yelp, Delayer, but you can also use the concept of AR as gaming, stuff is coming...
    Tuesday December 8, 2009 4:41 Barry Schwartz
    4:41
    Barry Schwartz: Bryson Meunier, Associate Director of SEO, Resolution Media is up to talk about SEO for this stuff.
    Tuesday December 8, 2009 4:41 Barry Schwartz
    4:42
    Barry Schwartz: App Store Optimization is like SEO 1995...

    This is based on an article for Search Engine Land in April, he said. Here is that article, [searchengineland.com]
    Tuesday December 8, 2009 4:42 Barry Schwartz
    4:42
    Barry Schwartz: There are over 100,000 apps so far, so it is crowded, so how do you compete?
    Tuesday December 8, 2009 4:42 Barry Schwartz
    4:43
    Barry Schwartz: You can increase your app awareness via search
    Tuesday December 8, 2009 4:43 Barry Schwartz
    4:44
    Barry Schwartz: Get App Approved:
    - Visit AppRejections.com for examples of apps that did not get accepted into Apple App Store.
    Tuesday December 8, 2009 4:44 Barry Schwartz
    4:44
    Barry Schwartz: 
    • Read App Store Guidelines
    Tuesday December 8, 2009 4:44 Barry Schwartz
    4:44
    Barry Schwartz: 
    • Apple just removed over a 1,000 apps for someone who gamed the store, so they can pull you.
    Tuesday December 8, 2009 4:44 Barry Schwartz
    4:45
    Barry Schwartz: Apple said, "improper use of keywords is the fourth most common reason for app rejection"
    Tuesday December 8, 2009 4:45 Barry Schwartz
    4:47
    Barry Schwartz: Use keywords in the app name or developer name
    Tuesday December 8, 2009 4:47 Barry Schwartz
    4:47
    Barry Schwartz: Ranking algorithm for app store is primitive. Things that work in web search don't work in app store.

    Keywords is limited to 255 characters.
    Tuesday December 8, 2009 4:47 Barry Schwartz
    4:47
    Barry Schwartz: 

    Follow the Leader:
    - They have lists, top grossing apps, top free apps, etc.

    Tuesday December 8, 2009 4:47 Barry Schwartz
    4:47
    Barry Schwartz: Integrate Facebook and Twitter into your apps, so you can include those keywords in your app description.
    Tuesday December 8, 2009 4:47 Barry Schwartz
    4:48
    Barry Schwartz: Offer a lite or a free version of your app, to get users hooked.
    Tuesday December 8, 2009 4:48 Barry Schwartz
    4:48
    Barry Schwartz: Use keywords in the title or developer name
    Tuesday December 8, 2009 4:48 Barry Schwartz
    4:48
    Barry Schwartz: "free" and "lite" are popular keywords also
    Tuesday December 8, 2009 4:48 Barry Schwartz
    4:49
    Barry Schwartz: Encourage users to write reviews
    - Use appirator app script to encourage loyal users to review app
    - Trade apps for reviews at sites like Fuel My App

    Reviews do influence ranking
    Tuesday December 8, 2009 4:49 Barry Schwartz
    4:50
    Barry Schwartz: Promote the app on your mobile or desktop site
    Tuesday December 8, 2009 4:50 Barry Schwartz
    4:50
    Barry Schwartz: Increase downloads of your app with AdMob App Exchange (free way of promoting your app). Google just bought them.
    Tuesday December 8, 2009 4:50 Barry Schwartz
    4:51
    Barry Schwartz: Alert Relevant Communities
    - Directories such as mjelly.com/apps or apple.com/webapps/
    - Blogs such as appleiphonesschool.com
    - Review sites such as iphoneapplicationlist.com

    Etc.
    Tuesday December 8, 2009 4:51 Barry Schwartz
    4:52
    Barry Schwartz: Google Analytics now supports mobile application analytics (fyi, so does pinch media and others).
    Tuesday December 8, 2009 4:52 Barry Schwartz
    4:52
    Barry Schwartz: Flurry also and others.
    Tuesday December 8, 2009 4:52 Barry Schwartz
    4:55
    Barry Schwartz: That is all!
    Tuesday December 8, 2009 4:55 Barry Schwartz
    4:56
    Barry Schwartz: 12 Ways to Improve your iPhone App Rankings : http://blog.mjelly.com/2009/10/iphone-appstore-seo.html
    Tuesday December 8, 2009 4:56 Barry Schwartz
    4:58
    Barry Schwartz: 

    Q&A Time. I am burned out for live blogging all day. Good night all, more sessions tomorrow!

    Tuesday December 8, 2009 4:58 Barry Schwartz
    4:58
     
     
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  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/12/08/Turning_Simple_Change_into_Big_Profit_from_SES_Chicago__09'

    Turning Simple Change into Big Profit from SES Chicago '09

    Posted: December 8th, 2009, 11:00pm CET by rustybrick
    Tags:  Search Engine Strategies 2009 Chicago  

    Below is live coverage of the Turning Simple Change into Big Profit from the SES Chicago 2009 (official SES Chicago Site) conference.

    This coverage is provided by Brian Ussery - Beu Blog.

    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.

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     Turning Simple Change into Big Profit(12/08/2009) 
      
    Close  
    4:25
    Brian Ussery (@beussery): 
    Turning Simple Change into Big Profit

    If you're a small concern, you are likely leaving business on the table due to easily corrected mistakes in your online marketing plan. Whether it's making your organic and paid search ads more tempting to searchers or correcting the simple mistakes that keep visitors from converting once they reach your site, this panel will provide you with a slew of simple changes that can dramatically increase both your traffic and your conversions. This panel will also share free tips and tools on cheap and easy campaign testing.

    * Moderator:
    Jennifer Evans Laycock, Editor-In-Chief, Search Engine Guide

    * Speakers:
    Matt Bailey is instructing a one-hour Express Site Clinic entitled "Small Changes, Big Results" on Tuesday at 10:30am. Click to find out more!

    Matthew Bailey, SES Advisory Board & President, Site Logic Marketing

    Bill Hunt, President, Back Azimuth Consulting

    Kayden Kelly, CEO, Blast Advanced Media



    Make sure you understand the buying cycle.

    Ask:

    Why are folks leaving your site?

    What are folks looking for?
    Tuesday December 8, 2009 4:25 Brian Ussery (@beussery)
    4:25
    Brian Ussery (@beussery): segment your analytics data
    Tuesday December 8, 2009 4:25 Brian Ussery (@beussery)
    4:30
    Brian Ussery (@beussery): 
    Usability tests can be cheap and eye opening.
    Tuesday December 8, 2009 4:30 Brian Ussery (@beussery)
    4:34
    Brian Ussery (@beussery): 
    Observe users for barriers in site.

    start small, observe improvement and continue

    Tuesday December 8, 2009 4:34 Brian Ussery (@beussery)
    4:38
    Brian Ussery (@beussery): 

    optimizer tips

    - keep it simple

    - conversion within 1 click

    - test pages with most potential impact

    - it's just an experiment

    - be patient

    bit.ly/top50sessj
    Tuesday December 8, 2009 4:38 Brian Ussery (@beussery)
    4:40
    Brian Ussery (@beussery): Thank Kayden
    Tuesday December 8, 2009 4:40 Brian Ussery (@beussery)
    4:40
    Brian Ussery (@beussery): 
    Up next Bill Hunt
    Tuesday December 8, 2009 4:40 Brian Ussery (@beussery)
    4:41
    Brian Ussery (@beussery): Turning simple changes into big profit
    Tuesday December 8, 2009 4:41 Brian Ussery (@beussery)
    4:45
    Brian Ussery (@beussery): 
    Paid Search Ads
    When was the last time you checked you paid search ads?

    illustration s60
    Tuesday December 8, 2009 4:45 Brian Ussery (@beussery)
    4:49
    Brian Ussery (@beussery): When using content network be sure ads are associated with actual content....

    Check translations, lots of mistakes in word for word translation.
    Tuesday December 8, 2009 4:49 Brian Ussery (@beussery)
    4:53
    Brian Ussery (@beussery): 
    Visit your homepage using iphone. [Austin Taxi] doesn't provide phone number on mobile which prevents calls.... Number in meta or ppc not image.

    Integrate Paid and Organic:
    Leverage Paid with organic
    Tuesday December 8, 2009 4:53 Brian Ussery (@beussery)
    4:56
    Brian Ussery (@beussery): 
    finally find a niche and create content about something you know.
    Tuesday December 8, 2009 4:56 Brian Ussery (@beussery)
    4:59
    Brian Ussery (@beussery): 
    79% of users scan a page.

    16% read word for word.
    Tuesday December 8, 2009 4:59 Brian Ussery (@beussery)
    5:04
    Brian Ussery (@beussery): 
    Matt suggests links within content in blue. This makes content scans easy...

    Now make content easier to understand.

    Content scans aren't "reading"

    Make things big and readable
    Tuesday December 8, 2009 5:04 Brian Ussery (@beussery)
    5:06
    Brian Ussery (@beussery): 
    biggest problem being low contrast. This issue causes visitors to miss the objectives of your site.
    Tuesday December 8, 2009 5:06 Brian Ussery (@beussery)
    5:06
    Brian Ussery (@beussery): Avoid red, it's dangerous online.
    Tuesday December 8, 2009 5:06 Brian Ussery (@beussery)
    5:13
    Brian Ussery (@beussery): Thanks Matt!

    Tuesday December 8, 2009 5:13 Brian Ussery (@beussery)
    5:13
     
     
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  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/12/08/How_to_Speak_Geek__Working_Collaboratively_With_Your_IT_Department_to_Achieve_Business_Goals_from_SES_Chicago__09'

    How to Speak Geek: Working Collaboratively With Your IT Department to Achieve Business Goals from SES Chicago '09

    Posted: December 8th, 2009, 11:00pm CET by rustybrick
    Tags:  Search Engine Strategies 2009 Chicago  

    Below is live coverage of the How to Speak Geek: Working Collaboratively With Your IT Department to Achieve Business Goals from the SES Chicago 2009 (official SES Chicago Site) conference.

    This coverage is provided by Chris Boggs of Rosetta.

    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.

    /* Adjust the height to best suite your page */ /* Remove height property to have all text show without scrollbars. */ #cil_page .mainchat { position: relative; overflow: auto; } scrollpos[1]) { divtop = document.getElementById('cil_mainholder').scrollTop + 40; } else { divtop = scrollpos[1] - document.getElementById('cil_mainholder').offsetTop + document.getElementById('cil_mainholder').scrollTop + 40; } document.getElementById('cil_modalitem').style.left = divleft + 'px'; document.getElementById('cil_modalitem').style.top = divtop + 'px'; document.getElementById('cil_modalitem').style.display = 'inline'; } function cil_closeLayer(){ if (document.getElementById('cil_modalitem').style.display != 'none') { document.getElementById('cil_divsrc').innerHTML = ''; document.getElementById('cil_modalitem').style.display = 'none'; } } function cil_replaceString(oldS, newS, fullS) { for (var i = 0; i 0) { position = [document.documentElement.scrollLeft,document.documentElement.scrollTop]; } else if (typeof document.body.scrollTop != 'undefined') { position = [document.body.scrollLeft,document.body.scrollTop]; } return position; } function cil_getCurrentStyle(elem, prop) { if( elem.currentStyle ) { var ar = prop.match(/w[^-]*/g); var s = ar[0]; for(var i = 1; i

     How to Speak Geek: Working Collaboratively With Your IT Department to Achieve Business Goa(12/08/2009) 
      
    Close  
    4:19
    Chris Boggs: Bill Hartzer from Vizion Interactive is up first
    Tuesday December 8, 2009 4:19 Chris Boggs
    4:19
    Chris Boggs: will talk about how they do seo audits and relay the infomration to IT departments
    Tuesday December 8, 2009 4:19 Chris Boggs
    4:21
    Chris Boggs: it comes down to the "wants, needs and goals" of the IT team and the same for the marketing team

    what does IT want? site uptime, secure website, less traffic

    more traffic on the site equals more headaches for IT from hackers, search engines spiders
    Tuesday December 8, 2009 4:21 Chris Boggs
    4:21
    Chris Boggs: what dos IT need? They need specifics, and they like recognition as well

    ITs goal is an easier job
    Tuesday December 8, 2009 4:21 Chris Boggs
    4:22
    Chris Boggs: Marketign wants: more traffic and better rankings

    marketing needs secure fast loading site, and site uptime 24/7

    marketing goals are more sales or other conversions
    Tuesday December 8, 2009 4:22 Chris Boggs
    4:23
    Chris Boggs: how do we marry IT and marketing teams? focus less on the wants and more on the needs and goals

    IT needs very specific directions/recommendations

    IT needs recognition and thanks - send them a pizza
    Tuesday December 8, 2009 4:23 Chris Boggs
    4:24
    Chris Boggs: IT Specifics can be found via their seo audit of the site. they loook at site logs, review robots.txt, they use a tool calkled Optispider that they like
    Tuesday December 8, 2009 4:24 Chris Boggs
    4:25
    Chris Boggs: talks about the full seo audit that they perform, and many of the things you would expect them to check from an SEO technical perspective
    Tuesday December 8, 2009 4:25 Chris Boggs
    4:26
    Chris Boggs: they like to request a list of domains owned by the company, in order to be able to provide a more full review
    Tuesday December 8, 2009 4:26 Chris Boggs
    4:27
    Chris Boggs: log files are important - don't just use Google analytics. log files show data that other analytics don't show. he listed a free tool that he likes at analog.cx
    Tuesday December 8, 2009 4:27 Chris Boggs
    4:28
    Chris Boggs: talks about the importance of reviewing 404 errors to understand missed traffic. redirects are also checked, to ensure proper destination and format
    Tuesday December 8, 2009 4:28 Chris Boggs
    4:29
    Chris Boggs: tell the IT team in simpe words that the robots.txt is for stopping indexing, and will help site security. he goes on to provide other specific best practices related to robots.txt
    Tuesday December 8, 2009 4:29 Chris Boggs
    4:34
    Chris Boggs: he then goes into dealing wiht recurring issues, and recommends settng up Google Alerts.

    It helps to better understand what it is that IT actually does. try to gain an understanding of the programming languages used,

    be satisfied with baby steps, and make sure to befriend your IT colleagues - again, lunch or pizza can be a good thing
    Tuesday December 8, 2009 4:34 Chris Boggs
    4:35
    Chris Boggs: one of the "sneaky" things that he does is to show CEOs and managers how to set up Google Alerts, and then they can see directly when he does something from an seo perspective that they got mentioned.
    Tuesday December 8, 2009 4:35 Chris Boggs
    4:36
    Chris Boggs: next up is Bob Tripathi from Discover Financial Services
    Tuesday December 8, 2009 4:36 Chris Boggs
    4:37
    Chris Boggs: he works with IT daily and has the opportunity to work with a number of lines of business
    Tuesday December 8, 2009 4:37 Chris Boggs
    4:40
    Chris Boggs: he felt originally that he was very different from IT people. he came to learn that in fact there were many similarities

    Just like the marketing team, the IT teams are trying to build a functional role inside the company; they need buy in from c-level; they measure and improve roi on every project; and they know how to ask for more resources

    why cant there be a culture based on these comonalities, he felt.
    Tuesday December 8, 2009 4:40 Chris Boggs
    4:41
    Chris Boggs: IT is more inward/enterpsie-facing. remeber that if something goes wrong with the site, they are always first in the line of fire
    Tuesday December 8, 2009 4:41 Chris Boggs
    4:43
    Chris Boggs: hwo do you break down barriers? Forrester suggests using the TEAM appraoch. Transparency; Embedded groups; Alignments, and Management buy-in.

    trasnparency deals with keeping communication open. embedded means working together as a single team; alignment is a common cause that eBusiness and IT can focus on, and management buy-in is improitant across the organization
    Tuesday December 8, 2009 4:43 Chris Boggs
    4:47
    Chris Boggs: site hygiene is not second nature to the IT team. marketers have to help the IT team understand how site issues can be bad user experience and be more important than what they may think

    he goes through an example of how URL rewriting can actually help make their jobs easier in the long run - look for good reasons to do stuff, and show them why you want to fix things

    domain migration issues are common. he talks about 302 redirects being the usual first choice for redirects - you have to explain to them how to do it properly - moving the content to the new domain on a piece-by-piece basis, and then use 301 redirects
    Tuesday December 8, 2009 4:47 Chris Boggs
    4:52
    Chris Boggs: nothing moves if you do not have a business value attached to it

    most companie shave their own top KPI/financial metric. make sure ot build this into your business case. use data to show the value, and empower the IT team to develop solutions

    make sure you decode your "geeky seo language." dont say PageRank is diluted" instead say "page strength." dont use extremely "Googly" words like domain canonicalization or link juice. dont say site saturation, but number of pages in the search engines database
    Tuesday December 8, 2009 4:52 Chris Boggs
    4:52
    Chris Boggs: takeaways: educate IT team about SEO, attach business value, and the rest he covered.
    Tuesday December 8, 2009 4:52 Chris Boggs
    4:53
    Chris Boggs: next speaker is Jonathan Mendez from Ramp
    Tuesday December 8, 2009 4:53 Chris Boggs
    4:55
    Chris Boggs: 

    he has a list of things to consider:

    1. find a champion. this applies anywhere within a matrixed organization, but especially important for IT. they need to be able to jump hurdles in their internal team to get your work done. it helps if they personally like you, and has some level of senirority and leadership within IT team

    Tuesday December 8, 2009 4:55 Chris Boggs
    4:57
    Chris Boggs: 2. align your goals. IT always has a big queue of thigns stacked up. make sure that everyone understands thsat the goal of the business is to make money - marketers drive traffic and IT needs to make sure evrything works. IT has to be aligned with buisness goals of org
    Tuesday December 8, 2009 4:57 Chris Boggs
    4:57
    Chris Boggs: 3. make it easy to be succesful. give them the information they need as they need it in order to be succesful
    Tuesday December 8, 2009 4:57 Chris Boggs
    4:58
    Chris Boggs: 4. include them in everything. if you are having a strategy meeting about landing pages, and they are going to make the updates, they should be there to understand why its happening. it cannot exist in a vacuum
    Tuesday December 8, 2009 4:58 Chris Boggs
    4:59
    Chris Boggs: 5. have one voice. a person that is going to talk to the champion. they dont want a number of people communicating
    Tuesday December 8, 2009 4:59 Chris Boggs
    4:59
    Chris Boggs: 6. be their bullshit filter. a lot of "crap" gets thrown their way - help filter/block this toi insulate the IT folks from getting angry.
    Tuesday December 8, 2009 4:59 Chris Boggs
    5:00
    Chris Boggs: 7. make sure evryone knows how important they are. include everyone if possible in quarterly results meetings etc "IT team was really responsible for helping us get this done"
    Tuesday December 8, 2009 5:00 Chris Boggs
    5:01
    Chris Boggs: 8. marketing manages the trade-offs. as mentioned by others, there is a long list of stuff to do. it behooves the business if marketing manages the trade-offs, since they are most tied to the success metrics.
    Tuesday December 8, 2009 5:01 Chris Boggs
    5:02
    Chris Boggs: 9. set roadmaps and deadlines. helpful for everyone but especially IT. understand their release schedules, and lay out a spreadhseet with marketing roadmap for the upcoming period.
    Tuesday December 8, 2009 5:02 Chris Boggs
    5:04
    Chris Boggs: 10. share the glory. push for some of the IT people to get a bonus, for example. you can at least share the glory if not sharing the money
    Tuesday December 8, 2009 5:04 Chris Boggs
    5:05
    Chris Boggs: last up is Brian Cosgrove from TPG Direct and writer for searchmarketinggurus.com. i used to work with Brian at Razorfish and he is a very sharp guy.
    Tuesday December 8, 2009 5:05 Chris Boggs
    5:07
    Chris Boggs: he first talks about Change Requests. usually, there is a ticketing system or other method to manage the queue of work

    eventually there starts to be pushback. the IT guys isnt lazy p- jsut doesnt care as much about marketing goals

    marketers then get angry about time it takes to get changes doen. the IT team has good reasons, often, since they did not know what was coming. a lot of the time the IT teams are not measured on marketing in performance reviews.
    Tuesday December 8, 2009 5:07 Chris Boggs
    5:09
    Chris Boggs: Marketers love Google but ina different way than IT team uses it

    he talks about the project requirements sometimes needed when you try to "retrofit" SEO. guys in IT onyl understand requirements. you have to convice them that SEO is not magic, and that there is true value in the work they are doing

    Tuesday December 8, 2009 5:09 Chris Boggs
    5:10
    Chris Boggs: make sure to provide detailed recommendations, and provide a purpose of the document overview. alos list out things that the document is not meant to provide
    Tuesday December 8, 2009 5:10 Chris Boggs
    5:12
    Chris Boggs: Markup is made for documents, and not as much for pages. the IT teams sometimes use software that adds markups within modules.

    this doesnt work with what Google is trying to do which can been seen as library science. they are confusing the issue with the markups. one thing to keep in mind is having version control. Brian also touches on the posibility that a Release Cycle could be happening.

    Tuesday December 8, 2009 5:12 Chris Boggs
    5:15
    Chris Boggs: be patient and start to build a new project around SEO if needed, and create your own release schedule.

    remind the IT teams that SEO is not magic. Brian suggests setting up regular meeting as a way to start the relationship

    make sure that priorities are understood. Brian likes to bring IT guys into "Web Standards." this is not usually taught to computer science majors, rather mostly to design/front end people. helping them understand how web standards fit in and their importance
    Tuesday December 8, 2009 5:15 Chris Boggs
    5:16
    Chris Boggs: once you get to the end of each meeting, try to finish up with a set plan. one goal should be to develop easier ways to make future changes.
    Tuesday December 8, 2009 5:16 Chris Boggs
    5:20
    Chris Boggs: 

    try to find ways to automate things

    he also recommends sharing success and credit.

    Lastly, Brian provides a quick list of topics to cover with IT, in his order of importance:

    1. Spiders, robots
    2. URLs as a collection of web documents
    3. proper use of markups and web standards
    4. relevancy: the need for explicit vs implied phrasing
    5. authority and popularity
    6. site architechture and the relationship between documents

    Tuesday December 8, 2009 5:20 Chris Boggs
    5:28
     
     
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  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/12/08/Igniting_Viral_Campaigns_from_SES_Chicago__09'

    Igniting Viral Campaigns from SES Chicago '09

    Posted: December 8th, 2009, 9:15pm CET by rustybrick
    Tags:  Search Engine Strategies 2009 Chicago  

    Below is live coverage of the Igniting Viral Campaigns from the SES Chicago 2009 (official SES Chicago Site) 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.

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     Igniting Viral Campaigns(12/08/2009) 
      
    Close  
    2:26
    Barry Schwartz: About to begin here...
    Tuesday December 8, 2009 2:26 Barry Schwartz
    2:26
    Barry Schwartz: 

    Igniting Viral Campaigns
    In a world dominated by behemoths like YouTube, how do mid-sized and smaller companies break through to generate online destinations that create buzz, encourage word of mouth and establish relationships with potential buyers? This session unveils the secrets of Web 2.0 techniques and technologies that enable companies to stand out and be talked about.

    • Moderator:
      Tessa Wegert, Interactive Media Strategist, Enlighten
    Tuesday December 8, 2009 2:26 Barry Schwartz
    2:28
    Barry Schwartz: FYI, my internet is up and down... I'll keep taking notes.
    Tuesday December 8, 2009 2:28 Barry Schwartz
    2:29
    Barry Schwartz: Should be starting shortly...
    Tuesday December 8, 2009 2:29 Barry Schwartz
    2:33
    Barry Schwartz: Here we go...
    Tuesday December 8, 2009 2:33 Barry Schwartz
    2:35
    Barry Schwartz: First up Greg Finn, Director of Internet Marketing, 10e20
    Tuesday December 8, 2009 2:35 Barry Schwartz
    2:35
    Barry Schwartz: Mike Ditka, "Before you can win, you have to believe you are worthy." (Chicago Bears Coach)
    Tuesday December 8, 2009 2:35 Barry Schwartz
    2:36
    Barry Schwartz: Ways to identify viral content
    • Humor
    • Educational Resources
    • Comprehensive Lists
    • Breaking Stories
    • Infographics
    Tuesday December 8, 2009 2:36 Barry Schwartz
    2:38
    Barry Schwartz: What To Do:
    • Proper formatting of your content
    • Easy to consume in a glance
    • Make content very visual
    • Talk to the people
    Tuesday December 8, 2009 2:38 Barry Schwartz
    2:38
    [Comment From @erezson@erezson: ] I wonder if they will talk about competitive markets such as Porn, Gambling etc...after all the viral idea is to get links and branding
    Tuesday December 8, 2009 2:38 @erezson
    2:38
    Barry Schwartz: Mediums:
    • Utilize popular destinations such as FunnyorDie, Break, EBaum Wollds, YouTube, Flickr, etc.
    Tuesday December 8, 2009 2:38 Barry Schwartz
    2:39
    Barry Schwartz: Social News:
    • They are the largest sources for "igniting" your campaigns
    • Be as non-corporate as possible
    • Make sure you are part of the community before submitting and participating.
    Tuesday December 8, 2009 2:39 Barry Schwartz
    2:41
    Barry Schwartz: Big Three:
    • Digg is not all about video games or gadgets. They got good health categories, fitness, etc.
    • StumpleUpon is good for ALL your viral content, use proper niches and categories and tag properly
    • Reddit use subreddits for best relevancy.
    Tuesday December 8, 2009 2:41 Barry Schwartz
    2:42
    Barry Schwartz: Niche Social Sites include:
    • Tip'd, Caps, Deals.woot, He lists tons of social niche sites, tons
    Tuesday December 8, 2009 2:42 Barry Schwartz
    2:43
    Barry Schwartz: Make sure you are helping the community, not just helping yourself.
    Tuesday December 8, 2009 2:43 Barry Schwartz
    2:43
    Barry Schwartz: Facebook, a lot of the time you don't want to send people to your wall. Make new pages and tabs.
    Tuesday December 8, 2009 2:43 Barry Schwartz
    2:44
    Barry Schwartz: or apps.
    Tuesday December 8, 2009 2:44 Barry Schwartz
    2:44
    Barry Schwartz: 

    Also with Facebook, if you are doing a contest, make sure you have approval and make sure the content is easy to share.

    Tuesday December 8, 2009 2:44 Barry Schwartz
    2:45
    Barry Schwartz: Use Facebook ads and also utilize Facebook events.
    Tuesday December 8, 2009 2:45 Barry Schwartz
    2:45
    Barry Schwartz: Twitter:
    • Make it easy to tweet your content
    • Allow for easy RTs
    • Promote during peak hours
    Tuesday December 8, 2009 2:45 Barry Schwartz
    2:46
    Barry Schwartz: It is more than just Twitter and Facebook, use blogger outreach and forums (the original social media).
    Tuesday December 8, 2009 2:46 Barry Schwartz
    2:47
    Barry Schwartz: Execution: Use a staggering approach for optimum visibility, provide alternate ways to share and cross promote.
    Tuesday December 8, 2009 2:47 Barry Schwartz
    2:48
    Barry Schwartz: LEveraging viral mentions to continue momentum, just don't give up.
    Tuesday December 8, 2009 2:48 Barry Schwartz
    2:51
    Barry Schwartz: 

    Next up...

    Tuesday December 8, 2009 2:51 Barry Schwartz
    2:51
    Barry Schwartz: Jennifer Evans Laycock, Editor-In-Chief, Search Engine Guide
    Tuesday December 8, 2009 2:51 Barry Schwartz
    2:51
    Barry Schwartz: Jennifer is a Social MEdia Strategiest
    Tuesday December 8, 2009 2:51 Barry Schwartz
    2:52
    Barry Schwartz: Lots of companies do not know what to do with the traffic they get from their viral campaigns.
    Tuesday December 8, 2009 2:52 Barry Schwartz
    2:52
    Barry Schwartz: Viral Goals include:
    • Build the Brand
    • Drive Traffic or Links
    • Drive Sales
    Tuesday December 8, 2009 2:52 Barry Schwartz
    2:54
    Barry Schwartz: She talks about the book, Convergence Marketing. She talks about the Rosen Velocity Scale. Campaign about building brand or driving sales. V1 is emotion to v10 is the SHAM WOW
    Tuesday December 8, 2009 2:54 Barry Schwartz
    2:54
    Barry Schwartz: Brand side is heavily tied to emotion.
    Sale side is more on the SHAM Wow side.
    Tuesday December 8, 2009 2:54 Barry Schwartz
    2:55
    Barry Schwartz: She mentiones the Extreme Brand with this Dove Emotion campaign

    Tuesday December 8, 2009 2:55 Barry Schwartz
    2:55
    Tuesday December 8, 2009 2:55 
    2:56
    Barry Schwartz: Medium Brand + Offer Campaign from Office Max, Back to School for Pennies
    Tuesday December 8, 2009 2:56 Barry Schwartz
    2:56
    Tuesday December 8, 2009 2:56 
    2:57
    Barry Schwartz: Brand + Emotion + Sales = Innocent (The Big Knit) Sainsbury's
    Tuesday December 8, 2009 2:57 Barry Schwartz
    2:57
    Barry Schwartz: See http://www.ageconcern.org.uk/AgeConcern/B66C32B686014647972E5B10CED14732.asp
    Tuesday December 8, 2009 2:57 Barry Schwartz
    2:58
    Barry Schwartz: Uniqueness + Sales Message = Blendtec

    See [www.blendtec.com]
    Tuesday December 8, 2009 2:58 Barry Schwartz
    2:59
    Barry Schwartz: Buy Now = ShoeBuy.com

    When you finish the check out process at ShoeBuy, they give you a way to give $10 off coupon to friends via email, Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, Blogger, WordPress, etc.
    Tuesday December 8, 2009 2:59 Barry Schwartz
    3:00
    Barry Schwartz: viral is as simple as enabling the share of your message
    Tuesday December 8, 2009 3:00 Barry Schwartz
    3:01
    Barry Schwartz: Build The Brand = Slow Sales

    The Breakeven point for brand dollars spent takes a longer time...
    Tuesday December 8, 2009 3:01 Barry Schwartz
    3:01
    Barry Schwartz: Build the Sales = Slow Brand

    These breakeven is quicker with this.

    So sometimes she recommends this route if you need immediate dollars.
    Tuesday December 8, 2009 3:01 Barry Schwartz
    3:04
    [Comment From @erezson@erezson: ] bonus code and coupon is old fashion, it brings bonus seekers
    Tuesday December 8, 2009 3:04 @erezson
    3:04
    Barry Schwartz: She shows more examples of the scale and how it works.
    Tuesday December 8, 2009 3:04 Barry Schwartz
    3:06
    Barry Schwartz: Denise Chudy, Display and YouTube Sales Leader, Google is now up.
    Tuesday December 8, 2009 3:06 Barry Schwartz
    3:08
    Barry Schwartz: She shows some examples of brand videos and viral videos. She will talk about creating videos on a viral level.

    20 hours of video uploaded to YOuTube every minute.
    Tuesday December 8, 2009 3:08 Barry Schwartz
    3:09
    Barry Schwartz: 
    1. Make them findable
    2. Use offline to seed discovery
    3. Leverage existing networks you have
    4. Leverage recognizable people
    5. Use advertising to get people there.
    Tuesday December 8, 2009 3:09 Barry Schwartz
    3:11
    Barry Schwartz: Make them finable but making your titles, description and so on good.
    Tuesday December 8, 2009 3:11 Barry Schwartz
    3:12
    Barry Schwartz: She goes through each example, will pull out highlights, if any...
    Tuesday December 8, 2009 3:12 Barry Schwartz
    3:15
    jhoodbiz: SES Chicago. Igniting Viral Campaigns session. Get good videos discovered. 1. Make them findable 2. Use offline to seed 3. Leverage networks
    Tuesday December 8, 2009 3:15 jhoodbiz
    3:19
    Barry Schwartz: 

    She now shows off the youtube.com/videotargeting product

    Tuesday December 8, 2009 3:19 Barry Schwartz
    3:20
    Barry Schwartz: She is done, sorry for lack of coverage on her presentation.
    Tuesday December 8, 2009 3:20 Barry Schwartz
    3:21
    Barry Schwartz: Q&A Time, I'll leave this open for a bit and chime in with Qs that I like.
    Tuesday December 8, 2009 3:21 Barry Schwartz
    3:24
    Barry Schwartz: Li Evans just tried to stump the YouTube speaker
    Tuesday December 8, 2009 3:24 Barry Schwartz
    3:29
    Barry Schwartz: This session is over soon. Next up:

    • How to Speak Geek: Working Collaboratively With Your IT Department to Achieve Business Goals covered by Chris Boggs
    • Turning Simple Change into Big Profit covered by Brian Ussery
    • Cool Mobile Apps, Augmented Reality - It's a Brave New World! covered by Barry Schwartz
    Tuesday December 8, 2009 3:29 Barry Schwartz
    3:31
     
     
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  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/12/08/Landing_Page_Optimization__The_7_Deadly_Sins_from_SES_Chicago__09'

    Landing Page Optimization: The 7 Deadly Sins from SES Chicago '09

    Posted: December 8th, 2009, 7:45pm CET by rustybrick
    Tags:  Search Engine Strategies 2009 Chicago  

    Below is live coverage of the Landing Page Optimization: The 7 Deadly Sins from the SES Chicago 2009 (official SES Chicago Site) conference.

    This coverage is provided by Brian Ussery - Beu Blog.

    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.

    Landing Page Optimization: The 7 Deadly Sins


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/12/08/Real_Time_SEO__No_More_Yesterday_s_News_from_SES_Chicago__09'

    Real Time SEO: No More Yesterday's News from SES Chicago '09

    Posted: December 8th, 2009, 7:45pm CET by rustybrick
    Tags:  Search Engine Strategies 2009 Chicago  

    Below is live coverage of the Real Time SEO: No More Yesterday's News from the SES Chicago 2009 (official SES Chicago Site) conference.

    This coverage is provided by Barry Schwartz of RustyBrick & Marty Weintraub from aimClear.

    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.

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     Real Time SEO: No More Yesterday's News(12/08/2009) 
      
    Close  
    1:02
    Barry Schwartz: Starting any minute, internet is pretty bad here... Hope it stays live.
    Tuesday December 8, 2009 1:02 Barry Schwartz
    1:03
    Barry Schwartz: Real Time SEO: No More Yesterday's News
    This session will focus on specific aspects of SEO for large media companies. The panelists will discuss the tools that media companies use to help them rank well for breaking news keywords as well as to capitalize on social media opportunities that exist within news content to help media companies to do well on sites such as: Digg, Facebook, Twitter, Reddit, etc. You'll learn about the future of video SEO and how structured data will play an important role in the future of video SEO for media companies. Lastly, the session will show you how to be successful in executing on large projects related to SEO within a media company.

    Moderator:
    Tim Ruder, Chief Revenue Officer, PerfectMarket
    Speakers:
    Brent Payne, SEO Director, Tribune
    Topher Kohan, SEO Manager, CNN
    Rochelle Sanchirico, Senior Director of Acquisition Marketing, Washington Post Digital
    Muhammed Saleem, Director of Social Media Strategy , ChicagoNow
    Tuesday December 8, 2009 1:03 Barry Schwartz
    1:08
    Barry Schwartz: Tiger Woods was more popular than 'sex' or 'porn' he said, using Google Trends.

    Tribune takes time to try to focus on those opportunities and leverage it.
    Tuesday December 8, 2009 1:08 Barry Schwartz
    1:09
    Barry Schwartz: Triune received over 1.5 million visits in a single day for Tiger Woods queries. They saw traffic from Google, Goolge News, and Bing was in there also.

    They use Google Hot Trends on a daily basis. It is an indication of hourly trends. And they use this daily to figure out trending stories.
    Tuesday December 8, 2009 1:09 Barry Schwartz
    1:09
    Barry Schwartz: He showed how he made a mistake about not writing about Penile Fracture. So he lost some traffic because he thought Tribune would not write about it. They then decided to write about it, but it was a bit too late.
    Tuesday December 8, 2009 1:09 Barry Schwartz
    1:09
    Barry Schwartz: Internet slow, sorry for lag...
    Tuesday December 8, 2009 1:09 Barry Schwartz
    1:09
    Barry Schwartz: If you look at the results for Tiger Woods a couple days ago, you would have seen in Google. News results, then after that, you saw kinda static web results, with boring info.
    Tuesday December 8, 2009 1:09 Barry Schwartz
    1:16
    Barry Schwartz: Towards the bottom of the first page you had some organic news results, which was related.

    At the Tribune they would redirect old stories on Tiger to the lead story for a temporary amount of time.

    Stories that have a longer shelf life don't stay long. Google News does recrawl stories, but there are tons of stories Google News needs to get to. It is kind of funny, because old stories with updates to those pages, don't rank well. The funny part (this is my comment) is that Google prefer to have a single updated real time story, as opposed to repetitive updated URLs.

    Recommendations for News:
    - Follow Google Trends
    - Change your URLS during breaking news
    - Change headline, subheadline, story text
    - If you need to cite other sources, do so sparingly
    - Have other site sin Google News link to you
    - Continually redirect old versions of a story to the new version
    - Only do so after new story is included in Google News
    - Find old stories related

    He then shows Google's new real time search feature launched yesterday. See [www.seroundtable.com]

    That is all.
    Tuesday December 8, 2009 1:16 Barry Schwartz
    1:19
    Barry Schwartz: CNN guy now up, Topher Kohan.

    Google is adding support to Yahoo SearchMonkey and RFDa and Facebook share

    Yahoo SearchMonkey:
    - A way to customize the way your results show up in Yahoo Search.
    - Google wants you to do it a little different

    He did this and they saw a 35% increase in indexed videos in Google Video. 22% increase in videos showing up for targeted keywords.
    Tuesday December 8, 2009 1:19 Barry Schwartz
    1:20
    Barry Schwartz: The code size was incredibly big, so they had to cut it down and they keep cutting.
    Tuesday December 8, 2009 1:20 Barry Schwartz
    1:21
    Barry Schwartz: Facebook Share:
    - Allows users to share video on Facebook
    - Allows better tracking of video content on Facebook
    Tuesday December 8, 2009 1:21 Barry Schwartz
    1:21
    Barry Schwartz: They added this to test sites and added to subset of videos on CNN.com. They saw 12% increase in index in universal Google results. 47% increase in vie being shares and viewed on Facebook (this is an estimate). Traffic from Facebook increased by 32%.
    Tuesday December 8, 2009 1:21 Barry Schwartz
    1:22
    [Comment From David BrownDavid Brown: ] Way to revolutionize the way we get our info Barry! WIN!
    Tuesday December 8, 2009 1:22 David Brown
    1:22
    Barry Schwartz: Microformats:

    Google and Yahoo worked on an open source set of standard microformats markup to use the videos and interactive content. It will change the way we do SEO in the next 12 months, he said.
    Tuesday December 8, 2009 1:22 Barry Schwartz
    1:23
    Barry Schwartz: Just watch out for code bloat, he said.
    Tuesday December 8, 2009 1:23 Barry Schwartz
    1:23
    Barry Schwartz: This does not help the search engines find your content, you still need good site architecture and sitemaps. It tells them more about what the content is, what it is about, what category it goes to, etc.
    Tuesday December 8, 2009 1:23 Barry Schwartz
    1:24
    Barry Schwartz: Rochelle Sanchirico, Senior Director of Acquisition Marketing, Washington Post Digital is now up.
    Tuesday December 8, 2009 1:24 Barry Schwartz
    1:25
    Barry Schwartz: She does all the online marketing for Washington Post
    Tuesday December 8, 2009 1:25 Barry Schwartz
    1:26
    Barry Schwartz: Working the "SEO Program" within the organization. She found most people don't understand SEO and are intimidated by it. Then there are those who have a little bit of knowledge and think they are experts. Then there are strong partners, advocates and evangelists - who are hard to find.
    Tuesday December 8, 2009 1:26 Barry Schwartz
    1:28
    Barry Schwartz: Who are ideal partners?
    - Access, people who have regular and unrestricted access to site content and code. Such as senior developers, content owners and senior web editors.
    - Accountability - people who have something to gain or lose, such as traffic owners or brand managers.
    - Enforcers - those who can get things done such as CTO/CIO and General Manager and Publishers
    - Reinforcements - people who are just plain interested, such as site analytics and tech geeks.
    Tuesday December 8, 2009 1:28 Barry Schwartz
    1:30
    Barry Schwartz: Aligning the Goals: It's important to have shared goals. Identify those metrics and report on them. Create weekly, monthly, quarterly and annual goals.
    Tuesday December 8, 2009 1:30 Barry Schwartz
    1:30
    [Comment From @steveplunkett@steveplunkett: ] wheee type Barry type...
    Tuesday December 8, 2009 1:30 @steveplunkett
    1:30
    Barry Schwartz: Creating Accountability: Visuals can work wonders and think about a "burn down chart" or other device that already resonates with your co-workers.
    Tuesday December 8, 2009 1:30 Barry Schwartz
    1:31
    Barry Schwartz: Get these goals tied into their salary, bonus and promotions.
    Tuesday December 8, 2009 1:31 Barry Schwartz
    1:33
    Barry Schwartz: Find Evangelists: People who can spread the "SEO gospel." You don't need the stakeholders, but they need regular content with people on core team. Should be provided with key talking points. Don't underestimate the power of branding. Should have access to most training materials. Should have regular updates on progress to goals and how they can help to move those forward. Ideal to have at least one evangelists per department.
    Tuesday December 8, 2009 1:33 Barry Schwartz
    1:34
    Barry Schwartz: Rally the Masses also. Motivate 5 or 10 people is different then educating and exciting a newsroom of hundreds. You can train and motivate in several ways:

    - Large sessions
    - Small sessions
    - Sit down with people as they work

    Tuesday December 8, 2009 1:34 Barry Schwartz
    1:34
    Barry Schwartz: Every employee has multiple responsibilities, so stay on top of them. Update them daily.
    Tuesday December 8, 2009 1:34 Barry Schwartz
    1:35
    Barry Schwartz: That is all for Rochelle!
    Tuesday December 8, 2009 1:35 Barry Schwartz
    1:35
    Barry Schwartz: Next up Muhammed Saleem, Director of Social Media Strategy, ChicagoNow.
    Tuesday December 8, 2009 1:35 Barry Schwartz
    1:36
    Barry Schwartz: Use social media for massive exposure and linkbuilding...
    Tuesday December 8, 2009 1:36 Barry Schwartz
    1:37
    Barry Schwartz: There are short and long term strategies...
    Tuesday December 8, 2009 1:37 Barry Schwartz
    1:38
    Barry Schwartz: Mainstream media presence on social media news sites are very well represented, such as telegraph.co.uk, bbc, yahoo news, nytimes, and so on. But while these news sites have a presence on these social news sites, they are not really utilizing them well - cause they are not targeted well.
    Tuesday December 8, 2009 1:38 Barry Schwartz
    1:39
    Barry Schwartz: Top 50 sites on Dig control 40% of the content. 50% of that content comes from 25 mainstream sites.
    Tuesday December 8, 2009 1:39 Barry Schwartz
    1:39
    Barry Schwartz: Now he is going to break down how to do this...
    Tuesday December 8, 2009 1:39 Barry Schwartz
    1:40
    Barry Schwartz: 1st look at the category distribution of the popular stories. What is top content categories on Digg frontpage. "Offbeat" is number one, then world news, then technlogy, entertainment, science and so on.
    Tuesday December 8, 2009 1:40 Barry Schwartz
    1:41
    Barry Schwartz: Then look at the competition within each category and the "promotional thershold" in each category. In most cases, the highest volume categories are most competitive. But science has a lower threshold compared to volume.
    Tuesday December 8, 2009 1:41 Barry Schwartz
    1:42
    Barry Schwartz: Average link acquisitoon by category. So technology and world and business are leading in that category. You want the links, so go for those two categories.
    Tuesday December 8, 2009 1:42 Barry Schwartz
    1:42
    Barry Schwartz: Lifestyle category for link acquisiton does poor in link building, but within lifestyle, travel does well, so maybe break down to the sub categories, because some might stand out.
    Tuesday December 8, 2009 1:42 Barry Schwartz
    1:43
    Barry Schwartz: Also look at link acquisitions by day of the week: Monday's do well, but Thursday does better than Tuesday and Wednesday. In terms of link builds.
    Tuesday December 8, 2009 1:43 Barry Schwartz
    1:43
    Barry Schwartz: So how do you create content that will get promoted and get you links?
    Tuesday December 8, 2009 1:43 Barry Schwartz
    1:44
    Barry Schwartz: Average link acquisiton by keyword in title and description. Words that work include:
    • Pics
    • iPhone
    • Top 10
    • Etc
    Tuesday December 8, 2009 1:44 Barry Schwartz
    1:44
    Barry Schwartz: Compare that to the same keyword listed on the landing page. Don't be deceptive with your titles.
    Tuesday December 8, 2009 1:44 Barry Schwartz
    1:45
    Barry Schwartz: Viral News Titles:
    • Lists do well
    • Adjectives (Superlatives, sensationalism)
    • Figures, Numbers (stats, facts)
    • Rich Media (pics, infographics, videos, interactive)
    Tuesday December 8, 2009 1:45 Barry Schwartz
    1:47
    imoneyguy: RT @logik_direct: Good word of mouth is the best marketing money can’t buy. -Muhammad Saleem
    Tuesday December 8, 2009 1:47 imoneyguy
    1:48
    Barry Schwartz: It is about the community on the site... Look at who are the most popular members on the site in the past 30 days. Total posts, total diggs, total comments. Look at what sites, content, categories these members like. Then check out their profile.
    Tuesday December 8, 2009 1:48 Barry Schwartz
    1:49
    Barry Schwartz: It shows success rate and then you can also see their other profiles and how to contact them. Then contact them and ask them to submit your content.
    Tuesday December 8, 2009 1:49 Barry Schwartz
    1:50
    Barry Schwartz: Top 10 are responsible for 10% of all promotions
    Top 25% responsible for 21%
    Tuesday December 8, 2009 1:50 Barry Schwartz
    1:50
    Barry Schwartz: That is all for him, Q&A Time.
    Tuesday December 8, 2009 1:50 Barry Schwartz
    1:51
    Barry Schwartz: Next up at [www.SERoundtable.com] at 2:30pm (central time):
    • Igniting Viral Campaigns covered by Barry Schwartz
    Tuesday December 8, 2009 1:51 Barry Schwartz
    1:54
     
     
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  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/12/08/Social_Media_Checklist_from_SES_Chicago__09'

    Social Media Checklist from SES Chicago '09

    Posted: December 8th, 2009, 5:15pm CET by rustybrick
    Tags:  Search Engine Strategies 2009 Chicago  

    Below is live coverage of the Social Media Checklist from the SES Chicago 2009 (official SES Chicago Site) 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.

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     Social Media Checklist(12/08/2009) 
      
    Close  
    10:23
    Barry Schwartz: Starting in about 7 minutes...
    Tuesday December 8, 2009 10:23 Barry Schwartz
    10:24
    Barry Schwartz: Social Media Checklist
    Before you build or expand your company's social media profile, do you really know what you are getting into? Setting up a Twitter account or Facebook profile or uploading a YouTube video is the easy part. What's next? This panel will examine practical issues you should consider when developing your brand's social strategy.

    Moderator:
    Anna Maria Virzi, Executive Editor, ClickZ
    Speakers:
    Sean Carton, Chief Strategy Officer, idfive
    Jeanniey Mullen, Chief Marketing Officer, Zinio
    Heidi Cohen, President, Riverside Marketing Strategies
    Brian Boland, Manager, Performance Solutions, Facebook
    Tuesday December 8, 2009 10:24 Barry Schwartz
    10:28
    andybeal: Free Lego at the iCrossing #ses booth! Wait til I introduce him to the stormtrooper gang! ;-)
    Tuesday December 8, 2009 10:28 andybeal
    10:29
    Barry Schwartz: Starting in a few minutes...
    Tuesday December 8, 2009 10:29 Barry Schwartz
    10:30
    angkubicek: i heart the live blogging from #ses although it makes me wish i was there
    Tuesday December 8, 2009 10:30 angkubicek
    10:32
    Barry Schwartz: Here we go...
    Tuesday December 8, 2009 10:32 Barry Schwartz
    10:33
    Barry Schwartz: Anna Maria Virzi is moderating this panel.
    Tuesday December 8, 2009 10:33 Barry Schwartz
    10:35
    Barry Schwartz: What is Social Media? We know it is more than Twitter...
    Tuesday December 8, 2009 10:35 Barry Schwartz
    10:36
    Barry Schwartz: Brian from Facebook said, "A fundamental shift in the way that people use the Internet." It changes over time, but the fundamental point is that it is interactive.
    Tuesday December 8, 2009 10:36 Barry Schwartz
    10:37
    Barry Schwartz: Mod doesn't know how to use PowerPoint
    Tuesday December 8, 2009 10:37 Barry Schwartz
    10:37
    Barry Schwartz: Sean said social media is technology that helps facilitate conversation.
    Tuesday December 8, 2009 10:37 Barry Schwartz
    10:39
    Barry Schwartz: Heidi Cohen has many definitions...
    • Involves different levels of engagement, not just the people who put the content out there.
    • Ecomoasses wide variety of content formats, such as text, video, images, pdfs, audio, etc
    • Everyone is now connected in networks
    • Speed of content and movement of that content is faster
    • Conversation can happen in real time or old content rising up again
    • It can be on desktop, handheld, etc
    • It melds offline and online
    Tuesday December 8, 2009 10:39 Barry Schwartz
    10:40
    Barry Schwartz: Jeanniey said she hates going last.. Anything that is watercooler-worthy. Conversation has a chance of becoming succesfful in social media.
    Tuesday December 8, 2009 10:40 Barry Schwartz
    10:40
    Barry Schwartz: Mod apologized for PowerPoint slide handling...
    Tuesday December 8, 2009 10:40 Barry Schwartz
    10:43
    Barry Schwartz: 8 Points Social Media Marketing Checklist
    1. What is your overall marketing strategy
    2. What are your marketing or business goals for your social media marketing?
    3. What forms of social media wil you use and why?
    4. How will you measure your social media marketing? What metrics are appropriate for your campaign and what do they tell you? How will you gather the info? What will you do with the data?
    5. Are you currently listening to what is being said about your firm, brands and products?
    6. What types of supporting marketing will you use to promote and extend the reach of your program?
    7. What dedicated resources will you allocate to your social media programs, both financial and headcount?
    8. Choose the right outlets
    Tuesday December 8, 2009 10:43 Barry Schwartz
    10:43
    Barry Schwartz: You don't need to jump in, first figure out your goals...
    Tuesday December 8, 2009 10:43 Barry Schwartz
    10:45
    Barry Schwartz: Measuring these goals within social media is important...
    Tuesday December 8, 2009 10:45 Barry Schwartz
    10:46
    Barry Schwartz: See the feedback on your brands, see what people are saying about you and your products.
    Tuesday December 8, 2009 10:46 Barry Schwartz
    10:47
    Barry Schwartz: Your social media campaign does not exist in the vacuum, you can't just post and pray it will come, you need to give it care and push it. Think about how do you integrate this.
    Tuesday December 8, 2009 10:47 Barry Schwartz
    10:49
    jhoodbiz: SES Chicago Social Media Checklist session. Decide what forms of social media will you use and why you will use them.
    Tuesday December 8, 2009 10:49 jhoodbiz
    10:49
    Barry Schwartz: You need dedicated people to manage this, and if you don't - it won't happen.
    Tuesday December 8, 2009 10:49 Barry Schwartz
    10:50
    Barry Schwartz: If you do not have dedication from people and money, it won't happen...
    Tuesday December 8, 2009 10:50 Barry Schwartz
    10:50
    Barry Schwartz: Not using names, cause I can't see who is saying what.... Sorry.
    Tuesday December 8, 2009 10:50 Barry Schwartz
    10:52
    Barry Schwartz: Brian said, "be relevant." If it is a Facebook update, Tweet or even an ad - it is about understanding how you are relevant in that context (conversation).
    Tuesday December 8, 2009 10:52 Barry Schwartz
    10:53
    Barry Schwartz: Understand the many ways you can engage with social media. These are from distribution points, similar to SEO, with Facebook pages, Twitter accounts, and blogs to paid ads or youtube ads, facebook ads.
    Tuesday December 8, 2009 10:53 Barry Schwartz
    10:53
    Barry Schwartz: Can you buy this? Brian said, yes you can.
    Tuesday December 8, 2009 10:53 Barry Schwartz
    10:53
    Barry Schwartz: You can use Facebook ads to drive response.
    Tuesday December 8, 2009 10:53 Barry Schwartz
    10:53
    Barry Schwartz: When ads have social context, you engage with them more, Brian said.
    Tuesday December 8, 2009 10:53 Barry Schwartz
    10:55
    Barry Schwartz: If you are trying to drive fans or get followers, it is important for you to define the value of each fan, each follower, each impression, each post and retweet. etc. We are good at measuring this on search, but now it is time for social media.
    Tuesday December 8, 2009 10:55 Barry Schwartz
    10:55
    Barry Schwartz: Because it is a conversation, you need to figure out how to continue that conversation.
    Tuesday December 8, 2009 10:55 Barry Schwartz
    10:56
    purpletrout: You can use Facebook ads to drive response. #SocialMedia #SES
    Tuesday December 8, 2009 10:56 purpletrout
    10:56
    Barry Schwartz: Sean starts off by saying "Don't panic! This isn't new."
    Tuesday December 8, 2009 10:56 Barry Schwartz
    10:57
    Barry Schwartz: We get too hung up on the specific technology, instead of what you want to use it for.
    Tuesday December 8, 2009 10:57 Barry Schwartz
    10:59
    Barry Schwartz: Someone just told her how to use the arrow keys to change slides. She said, "she is a Mac person." But the arrow key works on a Mac also. Still not working, there it goes.
    Tuesday December 8, 2009 10:59 Barry Schwartz
    11:00
    Barry Schwartz: The computer seems very lagged....
    Tuesday December 8, 2009 11:00 Barry Schwartz
    11:00
    Barry Schwartz: Sean then explains about 'dont be reckless.' Have a systimatic way at going into this. You need a strategy.
    Tuesday December 8, 2009 11:00 Barry Schwartz
    11:00
    Barry Schwartz: Sean adds, ask yourself, why social media, espesially when you have a limited budget.
    Tuesday December 8, 2009 11:00 Barry Schwartz
    11:02
    Barry Schwartz: You cannot participate in this stuff unless you are willing to let go a bit. Allowing comments in blog posts, Facebook people can comment on your pages, etc.
    Tuesday December 8, 2009 11:02 Barry Schwartz
    11:03
    purpletrout: Don’t be reckless (with social media)...you need a strategy - Sean Carton #socialmedia #SES
    Tuesday December 8, 2009 11:03 purpletrout
    11:04
    Barry Schwartz: Heidi is now up explaining that you need to look inside your organization for this.
    Tuesday December 8, 2009 11:04 Barry Schwartz
    11:04
    Barry Schwartz: When you go to social media, your audience is broadens to lots of new people outside of your customers, including gov't, competitors and others.
    Tuesday December 8, 2009 11:04 Barry Schwartz
    11:05
    Barry Schwartz: Fresh content is required and you need to be there continouly for this content, interact.... She said.
    Tuesday December 8, 2009 11:05 Barry Schwartz
    11:06
    Barry Schwartz: You need to give people a reason to come back.
    Tuesday December 8, 2009 11:06 Barry Schwartz
    11:07
    Barry Schwartz: Make sure to set parameters for your employees. YOu need internal policies to tell what people can or cannot say, how they should be identifying themselves and so on.
    Tuesday December 8, 2009 11:07 Barry Schwartz
    11:07
    Barry Schwartz: Jeanniey is next up...
    Tuesday December 8, 2009 11:07 Barry Schwartz
    11:08
    Barry Schwartz: There will be new tools and much more going on with this in the future. No social media best practices are written for these new tools.
    Tuesday December 8, 2009 11:08 Barry Schwartz
    11:09
    Barry Schwartz: She said, "apps are the new web." The average consumer has 6 web-enabled devices with access to 2 at any given time.
    Tuesday December 8, 2009 11:09 Barry Schwartz
    11:09
    AnnaMariaVirzi: #ses @empg: apps are the new web; the average consumer has 6 web enabled devices w/ access to 2 at any time
    Tuesday December 8, 2009 11:09 AnnaMariaVirzi
    11:10
    jhoodbiz: SES Chicago Social Media Checklist session. New tools - Apps are the new web. Acknowledge that the Web is no longer tied to a laptop.
    Tuesday December 8, 2009 11:10 jhoodbiz
    11:10
    MissDeFacto: I disagree. U don’t give up control of your brand by doing social media. The outside has always shaped your brand identity. #ses #seschi
    Tuesday December 8, 2009 11:10 MissDeFacto
    11:10
    Barry Schwartz: FYI, these are tweets from people in the audience now...
    Tuesday December 8, 2009 11:10 Barry Schwartz
    11:11Do you have a dedicated person to manage your social media?
    Yes - Employee
     ( 0% )Yes, Myself
     ( 100% )No
     ( 0% )Not yet, but I will
     ( 0% )
    Tuesday December 8, 2009 11:11 
    11:12
    Barry Schwartz: Measure the effectiveness: Use tools that will help integrated and measure the effectiveness of digital channels, including email, SMS, etc on a single platform.
    Tuesday December 8, 2009 11:12 Barry Schwartz
    11:13
    Barry Schwartz: Empower Consumers: Enable customers to choose what messages they receive and in what channels
    Tuesday December 8, 2009 11:13 Barry Schwartz
    11:15
    Barry Schwartz: She ends with "Yesterday's Gone", if you are following a best practice that dates back to 2008 or earlier, toss it away, it is now wrong... Things have changed.
    Tuesday December 8, 2009 11:15 Barry Schwartz
    11:16Have Social Media Best Practices Changed from now to 2008?
    Yes, it Changed
     ( 0% )No, it is the Same
     ( 100% )
    Tuesday December 8, 2009 11:16 
    11:17
    JuliaRosien: At the end of the day, how do you get and sustain engagement on social media. Is it always about buzz or does it go deeper #seschi
    Tuesday December 8, 2009 11:17 JuliaRosien
    11:18
    Barry Schwartz: They are now arguing about this point: " MissDeFacto: I disagree. U don’t give up control of your brand by doing social media. The outside has always shaped your brand identity. #ses #seschi"
    Tuesday December 8, 2009 11:18 Barry Schwartz
    11:22
    Barry Schwartz: Q&A Time btw... Session over in 20 mins..
    Tuesday December 8, 2009 11:22 Barry Schwartz
    11:23
    Barry Schwartz: Next up at [www.SERoundtable.com] at 1pm (central) include:
    • Real Time SEO: No More Yesterday's News covered by Barry Schwartz & Marty Weintraub
    • Landing Page Optimization: The 7 Deadly Sins covered by Brian Ussery
    Tuesday December 8, 2009 11:23 Barry Schwartz
    11:25
     
     
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  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/12/08/Developments_in_Information_Retrieval_on_the_Web_from_SES_Chicago__09'

    Developments in Information Retrieval on the Web from SES Chicago '09

    Posted: December 8th, 2009, 5:15pm CET by rustybrick
    Tags:  Search Engine Strategies 2009 Chicago  

    Below is live coverage of the Developments in Information Retrieval on the Web from the SES Chicago 2009 (official SES Chicago Site) conference.

    This coverage is provided by Brian Ussery - Beu Blog & Marty Weintraub from aimClear.

    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.

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     Developments in Information Retrieval on the Web(12/08/2009) 
      
    Close  
    10:36
    Brian Ussery (@beussery): 
    Good morning from SES Chicago!


    Developments in Information Retrieval on the Web

    Hyperlinked web documents are being described by Internet researchers as the "tip of the iceberg." In this session we will cover the important concepts that are pushing semantic technology such as linked data and RDFa (rich snippets) and will give practical examples as they relate to recent applications. This session will demonstrate how Internet researchers are changing the WWW in a fundamental and powerful way. With Google announcing its support of RDFa and with other large companies pushing support for linked data, it is important for search marketers to be aware of these new developments. This session will showcase practical examples that search marketers and web developers can use to begin participating in the linked data movement.

    * Moderator:
    Sean Golliher, Founder and Publisher, SEMJ.org

    Speakers:
    - Jamie Taylor, PhD., Author, "Programming the Semantic Web" and Minister of Information, Freebase.com
    - Martin Hepp, Professor, General Management & E-Business, Universität der Bundeswehr München
    - Jay Myers, Lead Web Development Engineer, Best Buy Co.
    - Nick Cox, Senior Product Manager, Yahoo!

    Tuesday December 8, 2009 10:36 Brian Ussery (@beussery)
    10:43
    Brian Ussery (@beussery): 
    Jamie leads off


    Jamie starts off with an illustration of how PageRank works through IR eyes. Next illustration looks similar to Google Wonder Wheel. Both illustrations show relationships between topics and pages. Jamie works for Freebase where over 10k apps are available to visualize relationships. Next slide depicts "linked data cloud" but Jamie mentions that some knowledge is involved that these are more than nodes on a graph.

    Jamie mentions Jeff Jarvis's "What would Google Do?" and it's "link economy".

    Jamie hopes to help labeled links become more a vocabulary of sorts….

    For example twitter's @ tags or # tags. These are labels that relate to other content in terms of linked vocabulary. That said, in HTML links aren't annotated this way.

    Tuesday December 8, 2009 10:43 Brian Ussery (@beussery)
    10:46
    Brian Ussery (@beussery): 
    Jamie talks about marking up content so it can be easier used for ecommerce.

    Next he talks about strong identifiers and how identifiers are used.

    Tuesday December 8, 2009 10:46 Brian Ussery (@beussery)
    10:51
    Brian Ussery (@beussery): 
    - Labeled Links
    - Strong Identifiers

    2 formats

    microformats
    -easy to use
    -small fixed vocab

    cons:
    no standard parsing pattern
    no strong identifiers
    - limit to utility

    RDFa:
    unambiguous identifiers

    RDF = Subject Predicate Object } Triple

    Shakira, Knows, Penelope Cruz = Triple

    HTML5 Microdata
    -easy to use
    -strong identifiers
    -extensible
    -easy to parse



    Jamie wrote "Semantic Web" OREILLY

    Thanks Jamie! :)
    Tuesday December 8, 2009 10:51 Brian Ussery (@beussery)
    10:55
    Brian Ussery (@beussery): 
    Up next is Martin from Germany creator of Good Relations vocab which has been adopted by Yahoo Best Buy and others......

    Currently little unified view back and forth across data silos.
    Tuesday December 8, 2009 10:55 Brian Ussery (@beussery)
    10:59Tuesday December 8, 2009 10:59 
    11:01Tuesday December 8, 2009 11:01 
    11:02Tuesday December 8, 2009 11:02 
    11:03
    Brian Ussery (@beussery): By linking your data with other data, you increase visibility of your own data.
    Tuesday December 8, 2009 11:03 Brian Ussery (@beussery)
    11:08Tuesday December 8, 2009 11:08 
    11:08
    Brian Ussery (@beussery): Build links to data, not just documents. Chains of affiliate links are optional
    Tuesday December 8, 2009 11:08 Brian Ussery (@beussery)
    11:09Tuesday December 8, 2009 11:09 
    11:10Tuesday December 8, 2009 11:10 
    11:10
    Brian Ussery (@beussery): mobeedo.com & igoogr.appspot.com are live examples of ecommerce clients
    Tuesday December 8, 2009 11:10 Brian Ussery (@beussery)
    11:11
    Brian Ussery (@beussery): 
    Good Relations Cookbook:
    tr.im/cookbook
    Tuesday December 8, 2009 11:11 Brian Ussery (@beussery)
    11:13
    Brian Ussery (@beussery): 
    Up next is Jay from Best Buy...
    Tuesday December 8, 2009 11:13 Brian Ussery (@beussery)
    11:19
    Brian Ussery (@beussery): ecommerce chanllenges > product data > creates uninformed customers > under utilized product "long tail"
    Tuesday December 8, 2009 11:19 Brian Ussery (@beussery)
    11:22
    Brian Ussery (@beussery): Best Buy Semantic Product Web URLs indexed via:
    [www.google.com]
    Tuesday December 8, 2009 11:22 Brian Ussery (@beussery)
    11:23
    Brian Ussery (@beussery): - human machine readable

    - easy html

    - easy for engines

    - granular
    Tuesday December 8, 2009 11:23 Brian Ussery (@beussery)
    11:23
    Brian Ussery (@beussery): What's next?

    Best Buy plans to provide more information into events....
    Tuesday December 8, 2009 11:23 Brian Ussery (@beussery)
    11:24
    Brian Ussery (@beussery): 
    In terms of products, explore beta (mentioned previously)
    Tuesday December 8, 2009 11:24 Brian Ussery (@beussery)
    11:24
    Brian Ussery (@beussery): @jaymyers
    Tuesday December 8, 2009 11:24 Brian Ussery (@beussery)
    11:25
    Brian Ussery (@beussery): 
    Nick is up!
    Tuesday December 8, 2009 11:25 Brian Ussery (@beussery)
    11:26
    Brian Ussery (@beussery): Nick points out time for implementation is short
    Tuesday December 8, 2009 11:26 Brian Ussery (@beussery)
    11:27
    Brian Ussery (@beussery): 
    Nick points out that search thinks in terms of nouns and not information.
    Tuesday December 8, 2009 11:27 Brian Ussery (@beussery)
    11:28Tuesday December 8, 2009 11:28 
    11:30
    Brian Ussery (@beussery): 
    A side result of richer presentation is richer data. Virtual verticals from structured data from publishers. Structure allows intent to be more clear in many cases.

    Bing it seems is the other major engine using structured data.
    Tuesday December 8, 2009 11:30 Brian Ussery (@beussery)
    11:31
    Brian Ussery (@beussery): 
    Google is taking a "much more familiar approach" by using templates on the fly....
    Tuesday December 8, 2009 11:31 Brian Ussery (@beussery)
    11:36
    Brian Ussery (@beussery): 
    Yahoo is also using RDF for Flash and has published a lot of objects.

    developer.search.yahoo.com/start
    Tuesday December 8, 2009 11:36 Brian Ussery (@beussery)
    11:38
    Brian Ussery (@beussery): Q&A
    Tuesday December 8, 2009 11:38 Brian Ussery (@beussery)
    11:41
     
     
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  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/12/06/Vote_for_Your_Favorite_Internet_Marketer__Search_Marketer'

    Vote for Your Favorite Internet Marketer: Search Marketer

    Posted: December 6th, 2009, 12:47pm CET by rustybrick
    Tags:  Search Engine Industry News  

    SEMs should do their best to represent search marketers in this top 100 marketers vote. There are lots of Internet marketers listed on this list, some are SEOs and SEMs, so go vote for them.

    Shameless plug: If you like, vote for me, I may have the most hats on that list:

    Barry Schwartz of Search Engine Roundtable, Search Engine Land, RustyBrick (@Rustybrick)

    If you do not like me, then vote for another SEM. Keep it in the family!

    Forum discussion at Sphinn.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/12/04/Daily_Search_Forum_Recap__December_4__2009'

    Daily Search Forum Recap: December 4, 2009

    Posted: December 4th, 2009, 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.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/12/04/_Text__Recap_of_Weekly_Search_Buzz____December_4__2009'

    (Text) Recap of Weekly Search Buzz :: December 4, 2009

    Posted: December 4th, 2009, 6:27pm CET by rustybrick
    Tags:  Search Buzz RoundUp  

    I am writing this weekly recap while on a flight to Chicago. I won't be able to do the video version, so hopefully this text version will do. I am on my way to Chicago for Search Engine Strategies 2009. SES is actually when I started this site, six years ago on December 2nd. We have written over 10,000 stories here since and almost 2,000 in the past year alone.

    On the search front, Google's Caffeine index finally made it to a data center. Google added a site performance report to Webmaster Tools to show off page speed. Google also confirmed a Sitelinks bug where you can link to a competitor. On the user interface front, Google decided to go with the fade in home page. They are showing more breadcrumbs as site URLs. They also are using larger images in the search results and region tags for some of the results. Bing went offline for the first time in their short history, it latest for 30 minutes. Bing Maps showed Google they can compete by adding street views and augmented reality. There are stories that Yahoo has begun unbanning web sites from their index. Google AdSense banned a publisher for copyright infringement over their own copyright. Finally, there are tons of more AdWords bans going on right now - I called it the Big Ban of December. That was this past week at the Search Engine Roundtable.

    Select Topics For This Past Week:

    Misc:


    Google Webmaster:

    Google User Interface:

    Bing:

    Yahoo:

    AdSense:

    AdWords:

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


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/12/04/Bing_Goes_Offline_for_30_Minutes'

    Bing Goes Offline for 30 Minutes

    Posted: December 4th, 2009, 4:23am CET by rustybrick
    Tags:  Search MSN Microsoft  

    Bing went offline for about 30 minutes. I captured a screen shot of Microsoft's search engine having issues about mid-way through. Here it is:

    TechCrunch said it was down for about 30 minutes. Twitter was buzzing about the news, and there were threads at Bing Community & WebmasterWorld.

    Bing tweeted when they came back online:

    This may be the first time that Bing.com has been down in its relatively short history.

    Forum discussion at Bing Community & WebmasterWorld.

    Update: Bing blog has a post on this.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/12/03/Daily_Search_Forum_Recap__December_3__2009'

    Daily Search Forum Recap: December 3, 2009

    Posted: December 3rd, 2009, 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.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/12/03/Google_Sticks_with_Fade_In_Home_Page_Despite_Searchers_Hating_It'

    Google Sticks with Fade In Home Page Despite Searchers Hating It

    Posted: December 3rd, 2009, 3:09pm CET by rustybrick
    Tags:  Google Search Engine  

    Back in October, Google began testing the fade in home page and they tried several variations over the course of the time. Google has finally decided to go ahead with this look and feature for simplistically purposes.

    The Google blog announced it last night. They admitted some of those tests were failures and they even admitted they were worried making this the default look. Here is how Marissa phrased it:

    All in all, we ran approximately 10 variants of the fade-in. Some of the experiments hindered the user experience: for example, the variants of the homepage that hid the search buttons until after the fade performed the worst in terms of user happiness metrics. Other variants of the experiment produced humorous outcomes when combined with our doodles — the barcode doodle combined with the fade was particularly ironic in its overstated minimalism. However, in the end, the variant of the homepage we are launching today was positive or neutral on all key metrics, except one: time to first action. At first, this worried us a bit: Google is all about getting you where you are going faster — how could we launch something that potentially slowed users down? Then, we realized: we want users to notice this change... and it does take time to notice something (though in this case, only milliseconds!). Our goal then became to understand whether or not over time the users began to use the homepage even more efficiently than the control group and, sure enough, that was the trend we observed.

    Here is a picture of the fade in choice selected:

    So they kept the search buttons there right away. But many still hate it, I have at least five recent threads with lots of complaints about this new look. I'll link to them below.

    Forum discussion at Google Web Search Help.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/12/03/Larger_Google_Images___Region_Tags_In_Google_Search_Results'

    Larger Google Images & Region Tags In Google Search Results

    Posted: December 3rd, 2009, 2:46pm CET by rustybrick
    Tags:  Google Search Engine  

    Google announced two changes to the search results. The first is larger images in the search results for some searches and the second is region tags in the search results. Let me explain both.

    The larger images may show up in the search results, when Google thinks an image should be highlighted. For example, the before and after:

    Before:

    After:

    Google also announced a new regional tag that will show up in certain situations in the Google search results. The region tags tell the searcher that the site is from a specific country or region. This region tag will only show on about 1% of the search results, Google said. And they have to meet these criteria:

    We currently show region tags only for certain domains such as .com and .net where the location information would otherwise be unclear. We don't show region tags for results on domains like .br for Brazil, because the location is already implied by the green URL line in our default display. In addition, we only display region tags when the region supplied by the site owner is different from the domain where the search was entered.

    Here is a picture:

    Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/12/03/Bing_Maps_Adds_Features___Augmented_Reality'

    Bing Maps Adds Features & Augmented Reality

    Posted: December 3rd, 2009, 2:28pm CET by rustybrick
    Tags:  Search MSN Microsoft  

    Microsoft made buzz yesterday with the announcements on the Bing Maps blog and Bing Search Blog.

    Greg Sterling explains it well at Search Engine Land as "Bing Maps breaks new ground in online mapping even as it plays a bit of catch up with Google."

    The augmented reality comes in where Microsoft overlays data on those maps in a more social way. Microsoft explains:

    Photosynth and Silverlight are the underlying technologies in Bing Maps that connect everything and help provide the more seamless experience. Based on Seadragon and Photo Tourism concepts, Photosynth lets us literally “stitch” together photographs to provide more realistic view of locations as they appear in real life. Photosynth-enabled Streetside imagery is built on geometric models that are reconstructed underneath the imagery to provide a truly 3D experience that shows locations as they are in real life.

    The screen shots at the various blogs are neat, the only downside is the requirement to install Silverlight (I am a mac user). For more coverage of this, see Techmeme.

    Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/12/02/Daily_Search_Forum_Recap__December_2__2009'

    Daily Search Forum Recap: December 2, 2009

    Posted: December 2nd, 2009, 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.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/12/02/Yahoo_Search_Unbanning_Web_Sites_After_Years_'

    Yahoo Search Unbanning Web Sites After Years?

    Posted: December 2nd, 2009, 2:53pm CET by rustybrick
    Tags:  Search Optimization Yahoo  

    Is it possible that Yahoo is unbanning web sites from Yahoo Search after years of being in the penalty box? A single post by an old time member at WebmasterWorld claims that two of his sites are now back in the Yahoo index after years.

    He said:

    Just noticed today two of our sites that were previously banned in Yahoo for 2+ years are now receiving traffic once again from Yahoo and are being reindexed. Anybode else noticing their sites being reindexed? Traffic was first noticed on the 25th of November.

    Did anyone else notice that their sites that were banned from Yahoo is now back?

    Again, this is a single post from one webmaster - so I am trying to see if this is a single incident or a larger one. Please join the thread or comment here.

    Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/12/02/First_Five_Click_Free_Program__Google_Revises_FCF_Program'

    First Five Click Free Program: Google Revises FCF Program

    Posted: December 2nd, 2009, 2:35pm CET by rustybrick
    Tags:  Google Search Engine  

    Yesterday, Google adjusted their First Click Free program and wrote about it at both the Google Webmaster Central Blog and the Google News Blog.

    In the past, the first click free program allowed you to show subscription content to Google even if you required users to login. The only requirement was that when users clicked from Google to the article, they should be able to see the content without having to pay or login. After that first click from Google, you can require them to login. The only issue was that anyone wanting to see any article on a paid subscription site, would simply go to Google and click over to the article from Google to the site to get it for free.

    Google adjusted their policy to allow publishers to limit the clicks to the "five free accesses per user each day." So after five clicks, the publisher can decide to require that user to login. Google does not determine how to calculate or code the first five free accesses per user, and leaves it up to the webmaster to figure out. So that means you will have some publishers who are more lax on that rule, allowing more than five and some might allow up to five in whatever 24 hour period they decide. Do they use cookies, IPs, or something else to track that access, that is up to the webmaster/publisher.

    The first click free program is old, it dates back past 2007 or further, as far as I know. In mid-2008, there was confusion if it could be used in web search as well and the ultimate decision is that is applies both to News and Web search.

    For more technical details on this program, click here.

    Forum discussion at Google News Help and WebmasterWorld.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/12/02/Google__Little_Kids_Having_Sex__Dancing_Dirty___Grinding'

    Google: Little Kids Having Sex, Dancing Dirty & Grinding

    Posted: December 2nd, 2009, 2:10pm CET by rustybrick
    Tags:  Google Search Engine  

    Yesterday, we highlighted a Google Suggest result for I Am Extremely Terrified Of Chinese People. Today, I spotted a new one via Google Web Search Help forums, where someone noticed that if you type in to Google, [little kids], Google then suggests the following results:

    • little kids having sexs
    • little kids dancing dirty
    • little kids grinding

    Here is a screen shot:

    Jem from Google appreciated the report and said:

    Thanks for reporting this to me -- I'll take a look.

    Forum discussion at Google Web Search Help.

    Update: I am glad to see Google removed these suggestions soon after I wrote about them.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/12/01/Daily_Search_Forum_Recap__December_1__2009'

    Daily Search Forum Recap: December 1, 2009

    Posted: December 1st, 2009, 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.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/12/01/SES_Chicago__09_Live_Blogging_Schedule'

    SES Chicago '09 Live Blogging Schedule

    Posted: December 1st, 2009, 9:50pm CET by rustybrick
    Tags:  Search Engine Strategies 2009 Chicago  

    Did you know that the first conference we ever covered here was SES Chicago and that back six years ago in 2003? Since then we covered this conference every year but last. And we will be covering SES Chicago 2009 this year. For our past years coverage see SES Chicago 2003, SES Chicago 2004, SES Chicago 2005, SES Chicago 2006 and SES Chicago 2007. Next week, Monday, December 7th starts SES Chicago 2009.

    We have several volunteers that will be helping with the live blog coverage on the CoverItLive tool. They include Brian Ussery aka Beussery, Marty Weintraub from aimClear, Chris Boggs of Rosetta and myself.

    Here is our coverage schedule, which is subject to change at the last minute:

    Monday, December 7 - Day 1
    9:00am-10:15am
    Jeff Jarvis, Author of What Would Google Do? covered by Barry Schwartz
    10:30am-11:30am
    Mixed Media SERPs covered by Barry Schwartz
    Search Analytics covered by Brian Ussery
    Search Industry Today covered by Chris Boggs
    11:45am-12:45pm
    How to Turn Your Web Analytics Into a Money-Making Machine covered by Brian Ussery
    Search: Where to Next? covered by Chris Boggs
    1:45pm-2:45pm
    Meaningful SEO Metrics: Going Beyond the Numbers covered by Barry Schwartz
    3:15pm-4:15pm
    SEO Through Blogs & Feeds covered by Barry Schwartz
    Search and the Integrated Marketing Mix covered by Chris Boggs
    4:30pm-5:30pm
    Customer Insights via Search Engine Tools covered by Chris Boggs & Marty Weintraub
    Ghost Blogging, Tweeting, Content Production - Ethical? Does It Matter? covered by Barry Schwartz

    Tuesday, December 8 - Day 2
    10:30am-11:45am
    Developments in Information Retrieval on the Web covered by Brian Ussery & Marty Weintraub
    Social Media Checklist covered by Barry Schwartz
    1:00pm-2:15pm
    Real Time SEO: No More Yesterday's News covered by Barry Schwartz & Marty Weintraub
    Landing Page Optimization: The 7 Deadly Sins covered by Brian Ussery
    2:30pm-3:45pm
    Igniting Viral Campaigns covered by Barry Schwartz
    4:15pm-5:30pm
    How to Speak Geek: Working Collaboratively With Your IT Department to Achieve Business Goals covered by Chris Boggs
    Turning Simple Change into Big Profit covered by Brian Ussery
    Cool Mobile Apps, Augmented Reality - It's a Brave New World! covered by Barry Schwartz

    Wednesday, December 9 - Day 3
    9:00am-10:00am
    Keynote: Dan Siroker, Former Deputy New Media Director, Obama Transition Team and Founder, CarrotSticks covered by Barry Schwartz
    10:30am-11:45am
    PPC or SEO? The Ultimate Search Marketing Battle covered by Chris Boggs & Barry Schwartz
    12:45pm-2:00pm
    Facebook Rockstars RoundTable: Marketing For the Other Internet covered by Barry Schwartz & Brian Ussery
    2:30pm-3:45pm
    Search Becomes the Display OS covered by Barry Schwartz

    For those that will be there, I look forward to seeing you. For those that cannot make it, I hope we are covering the sessions you most want to hear about.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/12/01/Google__Yahoo___Ask_Honor_World_AIDS_Day'

    Google, Yahoo & Ask Honor World AIDS Day

    Posted: December 1st, 2009, 2:44pm CET by rustybrick
    Tags:  Search Engine Industry News  

    If you visit Google, Yahoo or Ask.com today, you will see they are all honoring World AIDS Day with a red bow on their logo or on their home page. Bing, AOL, DogPile and others seem to be missing the mention today (we may put something up later).

    Google has a ribbon under the search box which links to google.org/world-aids-day-2009.html (yes, Google.org):

    Yahoo has an animated logo which links to yahoo.com/worldaidsday/:

    Flash Version:

    Static Version:

    Ask.com is the only one linking to a search result (go figure):

    Forum discussion at Google Web Search Help.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/12/01/Google_Suggest___I_Am_Extremely_Terrified_Of_Chinese_People_'

    Google Suggest: "I Am Extremely Terrified Of Chinese People"

    Posted: December 1st, 2009, 1:59pm CET by rustybrick
    Tags:  Google Search Engine  

    If you go to Google.com and just type in [I am] Google will then offer as the third suggestion, "I Am Extremely Terrified Of Chinese People" as a search suggestion. This is not new, it was reported back in February. But back then, you had to type in [I am extremely] to get this search suggestion, now all you need is [I am] to return the search suggestion.

    Here is a screen capture:

    Yes, Google's search suggestions are completely algorithmic. But Google has been known to remove search suggestions - unlike their policy for not removing search results.

    Forum discussion at Google Web Search Help.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/11/30/Daily_Search_Forum_Recap__November_30__2009'

    Daily Search Forum Recap: November 30, 2009

    Posted: November 30th, 2009, 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.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/11/28/Video_Recap_of_Weekly_Search_Buzz____November_27__2009'

    Video Recap of Weekly Search Buzz :: November 27, 2009

    Posted: November 28th, 2009, 12:00am CET by rustybrick
    Tags:  Search Buzz RoundUp  

    There seems to be a major Google update going on, some suspect it is Caffeine related while others do not. Google said comment spam can hurt you bad. Rich snippets are now showing in other Google properties, such as Google UK and Canada. Don't waste your time with a banned domain. Bing and News Corp try to team up to bait Google on indexing their content. Is Bing now handling 301 redirects properly? If you are banned in AdWords, you likely will never be unbanned. Google opened product ads to all U.S. advertisers and then showed off all their new ad styles. Google Maps bug removed the local pack for web design like searches. Google AdSense bug showed weird HTML characters in the ads. Google is testing related search results in the top navigation bar. The Michelle Obama racist image reappeared and Google could not remove it, so they placed an ad as to why not. Finally, we posted all the Thanksgiving logos from Google, Yahoo, AOL, Ask.com, Bing, Dogpile and others - so check it out. 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. Here is the YouTube version of the feed:


    For the original iTunes version, click here or to see the YouTube version in higher quality, click play & hit "HD."

    Search Topics of Discussion:
    Google SEO:

    Bing:Google AdWords:Google Maps:Google AdSense:Misc Google:Community:

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


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/11/27/Daily_Search_Forum_Recap__November_27__2009'

    Daily Search Forum Recap: November 27, 2009

    Posted: November 27th, 2009, 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.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/11/26/Thanksgiving_Greetings_2009_From_Google__Yahoo__Bing__Ask___Search_Industry'

    Thanksgiving Greetings 2009 From Google, Yahoo, Bing, Ask & Search Industry

    Posted: November 26th, 2009, 2:10pm CET by rustybrick
    Tags:  Search Engine Industry News  

    Happy Thanksgiving everyone, it is my favorite holiday. As you can imagine, the search news (as in all news) will be slow today, so here is a look at today's special logos, themes and designs from our industry. We have logos from Google, Yahoo, AOL, Bing, Ask and others in the search industry. For the past years logos, see 2008, 2007, 2006, 2005 and 2004 logos.

    Here are 2009's Thanksgiving Day Logos:

    Google:

    Yahoo (Flash):

    AOL (Flash):

    Bing:

    Ask.com:

    Dogpile:

    Cre8asite Forums:

    PPC Heros:

    Search Engine Roundtable (us):

    Again, For the past years logos, see 2008, 2007, 2006, 2005 and 2004 logos.

    Forum discussion at Search Engine Roundtable Forums.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/11/25/Daily_Search_Forum_Recap__November_25__2009'

    Daily Search Forum Recap: November 25, 2009

    Posted: November 25th, 2009, 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.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/11/20/Daily_Search_Forum_Recap__November_20__2009'

    Daily Search Forum Recap: November 20, 2009

    Posted: November 20th, 2009, 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.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/11/20/Video_Recap_of_Weekly_Search_Buzz____November_20__2009'

    Video Recap of Weekly Search Buzz :: November 20, 2009

    Posted: November 20th, 2009, 9:55pm CET by rustybrick
    Tags:  Search Buzz RoundUp  

    In this week's search video recap, I try a new format, breaking the news up in segments - do let me know if you like it. I am sorry the video is so long, just lots of information to cover. We start with Google's new user interface that is now being seen by some searchers - it is pretty jazzy. Google is showing breadcrumbs instead of URLs in the search results on occasion. Google is testing Image Swirl, it is pretty tasty. Google Social Search labs is now back in action after going offline. Page load time will be a ranking factor in 2010. Is Google's Caffeine index live in a data center? Why did FeedBurner ruin the search engine friendly web? Did Google preform a hand change to the index for Michelle Obama? Microsoft Bing is updating now. Bing UK when out of beta, was it too soon? AdWords goes on another banning spree - but they now have an appeals process. Check out all that Polish Google ad spam. Google no longer allows exceptions to their 35 character display URL limit. Google expanded their product ads beta. AdSense places gold stars near featured ads. I now have access to the new AdSense beta interface. Publishers are being banned over using Tamper Data as a Firefox plugin. Yahoo added a developing news box to some search results. Finally, Danny took us back to the first ever search marketing conference. 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. Here is the YouTube version of the feed:


    For the original iTunes version, click here or to see the YouTube version in higher quality, click play & hit "HD."

    Search Topics of Discussion:
    Google Search:


    Google SEO:
    Google Other:
    Bing:
    AdWords:
    AdSense:
    Yahoo:
    SEM Industry:

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


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/11/20/Google_Jazz_User_Interface_Out_In_The_Wild'

    Google Jazz User Interface Out In The Wild

    Posted: November 20th, 2009, 3:06pm CET by rustybrick
    Tags:  Google Search Engine  

    Yesterday, Danny covered a new user interface Google is testing on about 2% of their users right now. The interface is known internally (actually, it is not named this internally, but the name is catchy, so maybe we should use it?) as the Jazz UI and is much more colorful, has streamlined search options and kind of looks like the the old Ask 3D interface, just a bit. This new UI might be launched after the holiday season to everyone, so be ready.

    Danny wrote (but read the all the details, if you will):

    Sometime later today, a small number of Google users will see a new look to Google’s Search Options feature. If all goes well, the cleaner display may be launched across Google after the New Year. And it’s all because Google’s vice president of search product and user experience Marissa Mayer doesn’t like jazz.

    There are some people who actually see the new interface. There are two thread at Google Web Search Help, one with screen captures, which prove to me they see it. Here are those screen captures:

    This person simply asked, "can anyone help me get Google's regular look back?" The other comment reads:

    I did a search a couple minutes ago and it seems like they changed their user interface to look more like a Bing or Yahoo search. For me this is a major fail because the beauty of Google was not only did it feel comfortable, it gave me a wide variety of options like the site links at the side of the page and the sposored links at the top of my search. I think Google should remain the way it was, maybe some minor tweaks but making it look sterile and utterly boring like Bing won't win fans. No other search engine has ever managed to knock Google off the top, so why are they downgrading to a less popular model?

    Can't make everyone happy, now can you?

    Forum discussion at Sphinn and Google Web Search Help.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/11/20/Microsoft_Bing_November_2009_Search_Update_'

    Microsoft Bing November 2009 Search Update?

    Posted: November 20th, 2009, 3:00pm CET by rustybrick
    Tags:  Search MSN Microsoft  

    There is some early discussion over at WebmasterWorld that Microsoft Bing has updated their search index. Many webmasters are discussing changes in rankings in this and other forums (which are hard to link to).

    Here is what WebmasterWorld moderator, martinibuster wrote:

    Bing engineers may need to refine their trust algos. I'm seeing a SERP where Bing is giving a poor quality subdomain a pass because the main domain has a high amount of inbound links (nearly a million). I think Bings method for determining sites likely to be authoritative needs tweaking.

    Interestingly, Bing produces another result not seen in the other search engines that is actually pretty good.

    For this site, I can tell you Bing sends up more traffic than Yahoo.

    The last Bing update we reported was in late October.

    Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/11/20/Yahoo_Adds_Tweets_In_New_Developing_News_Box'

    Yahoo Adds Tweets In New Developing News Box

    Posted: November 20th, 2009, 2:37pm CET by rustybrick
    Tags:  Search Engine Yahoo  

    Yahoo announced they have added a developing news box that includes news articles, pictures, videos and also tweets.

    Starting today, you can see relevant photos, videos, and tweets about a breaking news story on the Yahoo! News Shortcut. Many of you are already familiar with the existing Yahoo! News Shortcut, which displays headlines on our Web search results page when you look for news stories. The enhanced shortcut with these new tabs will now display for many breaking or major news searches.

    Here are some screen captures:

    Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/11/19/Daily_Search_Forum_Recap__November_19__2009'

    Daily Search Forum Recap: November 19, 2009

    Posted: November 19th, 2009, 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.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/11/19/Bing_UK_Out_of_Beta__But_Too_Soon_'

    Bing UK Out of Beta, But Too Soon?

    Posted: November 19th, 2009, 2:49pm CET by rustybrick
    Tags:  Search MSN Microsoft  

    About a week ago, Bing announced they have taken Bing UK (www.bing.co.uk) out of beta. They basically said, you can now get more relevant UK results when in the UK and searching in the UK. Here is a snippet from the blog post:

    When you search for Football, what kind of answers do you expect to find. Well, I guess it depends on where you are doing the asking, if you are in the UK you probably don’t want to see NFL schedules. You probably mean what we in the US call soccer. Well today, millions of searchers in the UK can rest assured that Bing knows what they are talking about. We are excited to announce today that Bing in the UK is shedding its beta tag. We want to congratulate our pals over in the UK on a huge milestone.

    A HighRankings Forum thread is taking issue with this. Two searchers from the UK were not satisfied with the localized version of Bing. They said:

    I did a study yesterday and the example they provided (Football) still returns the NFL - something they said that the UK 'wouldn't be interested in'. The universal search results are even worse with US today results of 'American Football' being returned (and two images of an American Football).

    You are certainly right, doesn't look like Bing UK has any UK inteligence, I just did a simple search for the word 'analyse' , and the no.1 result returned was spelt with a 'z' , looks like Bing has a long, long way to go yet eh Andy!

    I personally tried a search for football in Bing.com and Bing.co.uk and I am seeing tailored results for each region. Yes, NFL.com comes up in the UK, but not in the top result. Since I am not from the UK, it is hard for me to judge.

    Forum discussion at HighRankings Forum.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/11/19/Danny_Sullivan_Looks_Back_at_Starting_Search_Marketing_Conferences'

    Danny Sullivan Looks Back at Starting Search Marketing Conferences

    Posted: November 19th, 2009, 2:34pm CET by rustybrick
    Tags:  Search Engine Industry News  

    Yesterday, Danny Sullivan wrote an article named 10 Years Ago: The First Search Marketing Conference, A Retrospective. The article is a must read for everyone who is a daily reader of this site.

    In short, Danny talks about how the first search marketing conference came about. He also talks about the various sessions they hosted then. Including many of the panelists who still talk today at his conferences. Yes, the first conference in search marketing was in 1999 and Google's founders were on a panel as the "small search engine."

    While the agenda listed Larry Page as speaking, Sergey was also there. He either joined Larry or replaced him at the last minute. Some conference veterans remember how Sergey rollerskated on stage. Actually, he did that a year later, joking about new Google technologies and demoing his shoes with pop-out wheels.

    We didn't start covering search conferences until 2003, four years after the first search conference. Wow, has the time flown by and has this industry changed or has it?

    Forum discussion at Sphinn.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/11/19/Google_Removed_Negative_Search_Result_Michelle_Obama__Should_They_Have_'

    Google Removed Negative Search Result Michelle Obama, Should They Have?

    Posted: November 19th, 2009, 2:22pm CET by rustybrick
    Tags:  Google Search Engine  

    A week or so ago, we reported that a search in Google images for Michelle Obama returned a racist image. The image was offensive, racist and has been removed from the search results - which is what I was hoping for. But Google responded to the thread and explained that they normally do not change the search results unless:

    (1) It violates our Webmaster Guidelines
    (2) If Google believes they are required to do so by law
    (3) Or at the request of the webmaster who is responsible for the image

    I am not sure if this image fell under any of those three conditions. Google was not clear if it did, nor did they specifically say which this case fell under. I don't think it violated the Webmaster Guidelines, I don't think the image was "illegal," and I doubt the webmaster asked to have the image taken down. I can be wrong on all of these points, but I am not sure.

    Here is Google's full response:

    If you recently used Google Images to search for the term [ Michelle Obama ], you may have seen results that were very disturbing. We assure you that the views expressed by the image in your results are not in any way endorsed by Google.

    As with Google Web Search, ranking in Google Images results relies heavily on computer algorithms using thousands of factors to calculate a page's relevance to a given query.

    Individual citizens and public interest groups do periodically urge us to remove particular links or otherwise adjust search results. Although Google reserves the right to address such requests individually, Google views the integrity of our search results as an extremely important priority. Accordingly, we do not remove a page from our search results, or images from our Google Images results, simply because the content is in very poor taste or because we receive complaints concerning it. We will, however, remove pages from our results if we believe the image, page (or its site) violates our Webmaster Guidelines, if we believe we are required to do so by law, or at the request of the webmaster who is responsible for the image.

    We apologize for the upsetting nature of the experience you had using Google Images and appreciate your taking the time to inform us about it. We will continue to improve the product based on your feedback to make sure that users find the most useful, relevant images through Google Images.

    -Jem

    Am I missing something? Why did Google take it down? Did the White House force them to by making it a legal matter? Maybe the site was indeed in violation of the webmaster guidelines? The site itself is still live, so I am not sure.

    Google is clear that they do not remove offensive, racist or anti-semitic from the search results. I am just confused in this case. Don't get me wrong, I am extremely happy the result was removed - but was this only done because she is the First Lady?

    Forum discussion continued at Google Web Search Help.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/11/17/Holiday_Shopping_With_Google_Search_Options'

    Holiday Shopping With Google Search Options

    Posted: November 17th, 2009, 2:30pm CET by rustybrick
    Tags:  Google Search Engine  

    Jaime from Google reminds us in a Google Web Search Help thread about a 1.5 month old search option feature Google added, named "More shopping sites." Basically, if you conduct a search on Google, click on "search options" and then click on "More shopping sites" Google will try to show you results from sites selling things.

    Here is a picture:

    This kind of reminds me of Yahoo Mindset, a tool Yahoo created a while back allowing people to change the type of search results from shopping to research with a slider. Here is an old picture of the slider:

    Now, personally, I'll probably stick with using Google to research products and then once I find the sku, use both Google, specialized shopping search engines and Bing Cashback to find the best deal.

    Happy Holidays!

    Forum discussion at Google Web Search Help.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/11/16/Daily_Search_Forum_Recap__November_16__2009'

    Daily Search Forum Recap: November 16, 2009

    Posted: November 16th, 2009, 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.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/11/16/Google___Who_Is_The_Failure___President_Obama___White_House'

    Google: "Who Is The Failure"? President Obama & White House

    Posted: November 16th, 2009, 2:16pm CET by rustybrick
    Tags:  Google Search Engine  

    Ask Google who is the failure and you will see Google showing the first result as whitehouse.gov/administration/president-obama.

    Yes, a "Google Bomb" on President Obama and the White House. Google has to run their bomb defuse algorithm, which by the way has two algorithms to fix this issue. Just like they did for miserable failure and failure bombs.

    The best place to see all the history on these types of presidential Google Bombs is at Search Engine Land.

    This search was first sent to me last week by @suzukik.

    Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/11/16/Google_Social_Search_Temporarily_Goes_Offline__To_Return_Soon'

    Google Social Search Temporarily Goes Offline, To Return Soon

    Posted: November 16th, 2009, 1:52pm CET by rustybrick
    Tags:  Google Search Engine  

    October 26th, Google launched a new labs product called Google Social Search. It is basically the only labs product I left on, by default, for my Google searches - it is that cool.

    Over the weekend, I like many many others, noticed a Google notice that Social Search was "no longer available" as a Google experimental option. We all currently get this error:

    There are many complaining about it on the blogs, Twitter and in the Google Web Search Help thread. So I emailed Google, asking what is up and they said:

    The Google Social Search experiment is temporarily down. We are working on it and expect to restore access sometime Monday or Tuesday.

    So expect this feature to return back sometime today or tomorrow. Honestly, this is a feature that I doubt Google will ever completely terminate.

    Forum discussion at Google Web Search Help.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/11/13/Daily_Search_Forum_Recap__November_13__2009'

    Daily Search Forum Recap: November 13, 2009

    Posted: November 13th, 2009, 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.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/11/13/Video_Recap_of_Weekly_Search_Buzz____November_13__2009'

    Video Recap of Weekly Search Buzz :: November 13, 2009

    Posted: November 13th, 2009, 3:40pm CET by rustybrick
    Tags:  Search Buzz RoundUp  

    In this weeks recap, I act all tired and dazed from coming off a red eye from Las Vegas and doing the video at 8am in the morning, with maybe 20 minutes of sleep. Of course I talked about our PubCon coverage, about 40 sessions covered live. Google shut down the Google Caffeine Sandbox and is pushing it out to a single data center soon. Google enhanced the keyword report in Webmaster Tools. MSNBot is having issues respecting the crawl delay directive. Bing added the awesome Wolfram Alpha data. Google Maps has a pornography issue. Are rich snippets being displayed in Google for smaller sites? The AdWords team did a help and tip photo shoot, they also backed a cake for the one year birthday. There is some fake Matt Cutts ban spam that is not real. We also have logos for Veterans Day, Sesame Street and Berlin Wall to show you. 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. Here is the YouTube version of the feed:


    For the original iTunes version, click here or to see the YouTube version in higher quality, click play & hit "HD."

    Some Of The Topics Discussed:

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


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/11/13/First_Google_Image_Result_for_Michelle_Obama_Pure_Racist'

    First Google Image Result for Michelle Obama Pure Racist

    Posted: November 13th, 2009, 1:20pm CET by rustybrick
    Tags:  Google Search Engine  

    If you conduct a search in Google Images for [Michelle Obama] you will see a racist image in the number one result. The image is hosted on buzzoverm.blogspot.com and here is a copy of the search result:

    Someone reported this at a Google Web Search Help thread, but no Googler has responded as of yet.

    I assume after Google sees this post, it will be removed soon.

    Forum discussion at Google Web Search Help.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/11/13/Daily_Search_Forum_Recap__November_12__2009'

    Daily Search Forum Recap: November 12, 2009

    Posted: November 13th, 2009, 1:18am 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.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/10/28/Daily_Search_Forum_Recap__October_28__2009'

    Daily Search Forum Recap: October 28, 2009

    Posted: October 28th, 2009, 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.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/10/27/Daily_Search_Forum_Recap__October_27__2009'

    Daily Search Forum Recap: October 27, 2009

    Posted: October 27th, 2009, 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.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/10/27/Yet_Another_Bing_October_2009_Update_'

    Yet Another Bing October 2009 Update?

    Posted: October 27th, 2009, 3:32pm CET by rustybrick
    Tags:  Search MSN Microsoft  

    Seven days ago, we reported on a Bing Search index update that many began noticing. Well, it seems like the WebmasterWorld thread has been updated by a webmaster that watches Bing closely.

    This webmaster has noticed a totally new update on Bing and the Bing search results. The webmaster, textex, said:

    I am seeing and even different set of results now. We improved nicely in rankings only to drop down to page 2-3. Anyone else seeing this?

    Have you noticed a change from last week to this week on Bing? And traffic changes? Any ranking differences?

    Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/10/27/Google_Social_Search_Now_Live'

    Google Social Search Now Live

    Posted: October 27th, 2009, 3:04pm CET by rustybrick
    Tags:  Google Search Engine  

    Yesterday, we showed you a video demo of Google's Social Search. Well, now it is available for all to play with in google.com/experimental.

    Personally, I think this can work well for my searchers. But for most of those who do not have Google Profiles set up, it likely won't add much. Google currently promises to only look at information you give to them via your Google Profile or via Gmail. For Google to know who your Twitter connections are, you need to share that information on your Google Profile. Then Google will crawl your social profiles and make a map of all your friends, and associate what they read in Google Reader, share, click on and produce with you, when you search.

    Here are two videos explaining it all:

    Here is a useful Google help document and Google Blog post, plus Danny's article and more commentary at Techmeme.

    Of course, there are some worried that Google will go beyond their boundaries and figure out your social profile without you specifically sharing it. Google said they won't, but many don't trust Google.

    Forum discussion at Google Web Search Help, WebmasterWorld and Sphinn.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/10/26/Daily_Search_Forum_Recap__October_26__2009'

    Daily Search Forum Recap: October 26, 2009

    Posted: October 26th, 2009, 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.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/10/16/Daily_Search_Forum_Recap__October_16__2009'

    Daily Search Forum Recap: October 16, 2009

    Posted: October 16th, 2009, 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.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/10/16/Video_Recap_of_Weekly_Search_Buzz____October_16__2009'

    Video Recap of Weekly Search Buzz :: October 16, 2009

    Posted: October 16th, 2009, 8:45pm CEST by rustybrick
    Tags:  Search Buzz RoundUp  

    This week was pretty busy over at the Search Engine Roundtable. We broke the news Google has dropped PageRank data from Webmaster Tools and we hope from more places. Yahoo was wrong about the meta keywords tag, they still use it. Yahoo dropped the controversial paid inclusion program. Microsoft Bing has major bugs preventing people from using their Webmaster Tools for over 3 days. Google launched a labs area for Webmaster Tools, adding Fetch as Googlebot and Malware Details. Did Google Suggest just get smarter and start figuring out abbreviations? Google Maps dropped Tele Atlas for their own data in the U.S. Google now only shows 7 of 10 local results in the "ten pack" on web search. Beware of a Google AdSense "account disabled" phishing email that is going around. AVG has labeled some of the Google search results as a security threat. Google thinks Ireland is New Zealand. Google reported earnings, revenue up 7 percent, clicks up 14 percent and cost per click was down 6 percent. A person lost their unemployment check of $405 per week for earning a dollar a day with Google AdSense. A site is conning convicts into paying $50 to remove their name from their web site, which ranks high for their names in Google. 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. Here is the YouTube version of the feed:


    For the original iTunes version, click here or to see the YouTube version in higher quality, click play & hit "HD."

    Some Of The Topics Discussed:

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


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/10/16/Google_Clicks_Up_14%___CPC_Drops_6%__Overall_GOOG_Up_7%'

    Google Clicks Up 14% & CPC Drops 6%, Overall GOOG Up 7%

    Posted: October 16th, 2009, 3:42pm CEST by rustybrick
    Tags:  Google Search Engine  

    Google released third-quarter earnings last night and it was a very good earnings release. Overall, Google's earnings are up 7% this past quarter compared to last years Q3. They earned $5.94 billion in revenue with operating income at $2.07 billion, or 35% of revenues. Greg Sterling has more of the business news at Search Engine Land.

    Pulling out two snippets from the release, we see that search marketings are more spend conscious because the cost per click went down by 6%. But to make up for it, Google saw an increase in the actual number of clicks on their ads by 14%. Here is that part of the earnings release:

    Paid Clicks - Aggregate paid clicks, which include clicks related to ads served on Google sites and the sites of our AdSense partners, increased approximately 14% over the third quarter of 2008 and increased approximately 4% over the second quarter of 2009.

    Cost-Per-Click - Average cost-per-click, which includes clicks related to ads served on Google sites and the sites of our AdSense partners, decreased approximately 6% over the third quarter of 2008 and increased approximately 5% over the second quarter of 2009.

    GOOG, the stock, is currently up over 3% in pre-market (after hours) trading.

    Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld and DigitalPoint Forums.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/10/16/Yahoo_Dropping_Controversial_Paid_Inclusion_Program__Finally'

    Yahoo Dropping Controversial Paid Inclusion Program, Finally

    Posted: October 16th, 2009, 3:36pm CEST by rustybrick
    Tags:  Search Optimization Yahoo  

    It is true, Yahoo is dropping paid inclusion by years end, as I reported at Search Engine Land. Yahoo issued a statement, I'll cut out the part where they say they are committed to search and show you the relevant part:

    Yahoo! will exit Search Submit at the end of 2009. Yahoo! is providing those advertisers affected by the decision a sufficient lead time to assist in the transition. In addition, Yahoo! has recently announced a series of important enhancements to its Search advertising business and will work closely with many Search Submit advertisers to provide them with search solutions that will benefit their businesses.

    There has always been confusion over the paid inclusion program at Yahoo. In fact, it changed names a few times. There were reports that banned sites were able to be included in Yahoo via this program. Like I said at Search Engine Land, accepting money to be included in a free/unbiased search engine, just seems wrong.

    I for one think this is a good move, although I know many SEOs who love this program.

    Forum discussion at DigitalPoint Forums and WebmasterWorld.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/10/16/Yahoo_s_Senior_Director_of_Search_Got_It_Wrong__Yahoo_Uses_Meta_Keywords_Still'

    Yahoo's Senior Director of Search Got It Wrong, Yahoo Uses Meta Keywords Still

    Posted: October 16th, 2009, 3:18pm CEST by rustybrick
    Tags:  Search Optimization Yahoo  

    Last week, I reported that Yahoo dropped the meta keywords tag and stopped using it completely. Remember, I told you that I wasn't convinced when I heard that and I asked the Senior Director of Search at Yahoo if he was sure? Well, he said he was, but in reality, he was mistaken.

    Danny and others have confirmed that Yahoo is still using the meta keywords tag when ranking. People have set up test sites that show this to be the case. Danny received an official statement from Yahoo on how they use this meta keywords tag, which they do use:

    What changed with Yahoo’s ranking algorithms is that while we still index the meta keyword tag, the ranking importance given to meta keyword tags receives the lowest ranking signal in our system.

    Words that appear in any other part of documents, including the body, title, description, anchor text etc., will take priority in ranking the document – the re-occurrence of these words in the meta keyword tag will not help in boosting the signal for these words. Therefore, keyword stuffing in the keyword tag will not help a page’s recall or ranking, it will actually have less effect than introducing those same words in the body of the document, or any other section.

    However, when no other ranking signal is present, unique words that only appear in the meta keyword tag section of documents can still be used to recall these documents.

    I am not sure why I didn't originally believe it. It was not like I had proof at the time. In any event, we are all human and we make mistakes. Search representatives are often seen as the single authority on SEO related questions, but in reality, they cannot know everything and are human, like you and me.

    Forum discussion continued at WebmasterWorld.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/10/16/AVG_Calls_Some_Google_Search_Pages_A__Threat_'

    AVG Calls Some Google Search Pages A "Threat"

    Posted: October 16th, 2009, 3:12pm CEST by rustybrick
    Tags:  Google Search Engine  

    A Google Web Search Help thread has several Google users reporting that the AVG Free virus scanner is prompting security alerts on some of the Google search results pages.

    Many are claiming the Google result pages with YouTube results are triggering the security threat. The AVG warning reads:

    Danger: AVG Search-Shield has detected active threats on this page and has blocked access for your protection.

    Several searchers reported this but I doubt there is much Google can do to fix the situation. It seems like this would be on AVG's side.

    Again, it seems to come up only when YouTube or other video results would show up in the search results.

    Forum discussion at Google Web Search Help.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/10/15/Daily_Search_Forum_Recap__October_15__2009'

    Daily Search Forum Recap: October 15, 2009

    Posted: October 15th, 2009, 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.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/10/15/Google__Heads_Up__Ireland_Is_Not_New_Zealand'

    Google, Heads Up, Ireland Is Not New Zealand

    Posted: October 15th, 2009, 3:33pm CEST by rustybrick
    Tags:  Google Search Engine  

    Search for Google Ireland in Google and you will notice that Google does not return Google.ie but rather returns Google.co.nz.

    Someone should send Google a memo that Ireland is not the same place as New Zealand.

    Here is a picture:

    Ireland is only about 12,000 miles away from New Zealand.

    Forum discussion at Google Web Search Help & Google Webmaster Help.

    Update: This is not just Google Ireland, but also Google Egypt and other properties where Google thinks they are all New Zealand.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/10/15/3_Days_Later__Bing_Finally_Fixes_Webmaster_Tools_Bug'

    3 Days Later, Bing Finally Fixes Webmaster Tools Bug

    Posted: October 15th, 2009, 3:20pm CEST by rustybrick
    Tags:  Search MSN Microsoft  

    It kind of makes you wonder how important Bing Webmaster Tools is to Microsoft when it takes them over three days to fix a bug that completely makes the tools unusable.

    Monday morning, we reported that Bing Webmaster Tools had an unexpected error which disallowed webmasters from accessing any of their verified domains. Many threads and complaints in the Bing forums, amongst others, were created.

    It took two days for the Bing forum representative to acknowledge the bug in the forums. Brett Yount posted a thread at the Bing Community over two days after the first report of the bug. He said:

    As you are probably aware, the tools are currently down. We are working to correct this ASAP.

    Then finally, yesterday at around 10am, three days after the first report of the bug, Microsoft fixed the issue. Here is what Brett said:

    I just verified that the tools are running again. Though I can't get into specifics, it looks like the problem was caused by an update to the search index. Needless to say, we are working to make sure more issues such as this do not happen in the near future.

    Got that, an update to the search index caused this bug. So there was a search index update that seemed to go unnoticed for the most part. Well, there are some minor threads discussing some issues with the new index, but for the most part, it went unnoticed. That update, caused Webmaster Tools to fail and it took over three days for Microsoft to fix it.

    Forum discussion at Bing Community.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/10/14/Daily_Search_Forum_Recap__October_14__2009'

    Daily Search Forum Recap: October 14, 2009

    Posted: October 14th, 2009, 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.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/10/14/Microsoft_s_Bing_Hiding_Search_Results_For_Perez_Hilton'

    Microsoft's Bing Hiding Search Results For Perez Hilton

    Posted: October 14th, 2009, 3:20pm CEST by rustybrick
    Tags:  Search MSN Microsoft  

    Michael Gray noticed that a search for [Perez Hilton] in Microsoft's search engine, Bing, returns a set of pictures and a single search result (perezhilton.com). Here is a screen shot:

    The question is why is Bing hiding everything else? They show tons of results for [Paris Hilton] and other 'celebrities,' why not Perez?

    Stefan Weitz from the Bing team commented on Michael's blog saying it is by design. He said:

    Yes – that is by design. However, if you click on the “see other results containing Perez Hilton” the rest of the algo web results appear. We carefully monitor these “Best Match” results to make sure we aren’t firing this result type too frequently – let us know if you have feedback!

    Yes, you can click on the Search for other results containing Perez Hilton to bring up standard web results. But why show only the "best match" when there are plenty of other great matches?

    Forum discussion at DigitalPoint Forums.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/10/13/Daily_Search_Forum_Recap__October_13__2009'

    Daily Search Forum Recap: October 13, 2009

    Posted: October 13th, 2009, 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.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/10/13/Mobile_Questions_for_Google__It_s_Google_Mobile_Week'

    Mobile Questions for Google: It's Google Mobile Week

    Posted: October 13th, 2009, 3:59pm CEST by rustybrick
    Tags:  Google Search Engine  

    The Google Mobile team is calling this week, "Google Mobile Week." In celebration for the special week, Google announced in a Google Mobile Help thread that they are accepting a new set of questions for the Google Mobile team to answer on their blog.

    To submit your questions or vote on existing ones, go to this page, sign in and vote and submit.

    Bin from the Google Mobile team explained:

    Google is doing a lot of things in mobile - a lot of products on a lot of phones - and we're sure you have some questions. Here's your chance to ask us anything you'd like to know about mobile strategy or our mobile team! You and others can then vote questions up or down. (Please continue to post your "how do I?" questions and bugs here, since we won't be answering these types of questions on the Q&A form).

    You have until 11:59 PM PST on Oct 13th (that is tonight) to submit your questions. Google will answer the 5 most popular questions on the Google Mobile Blog in the near future.

    Forum discussion at Google Mobile Help.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/10/02/Daily_Search_Forum_Recap__October_2__2009'

    Daily Search Forum Recap: October 2, 2009

    Posted: October 2nd, 2009, 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.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/10/02/Video_Recap_of_Weekly_Search_Buzz____October_2__2009'

    Video Recap of Weekly Search Buzz :: October 2, 2009

    Posted: October 2nd, 2009, 9:00pm CEST by rustybrick
    Tags:  Search Buzz RoundUp  

    Google has been banning AdWords advertisers and warning advertisers of bans for low quality landing pages, but I think something is wrong with Google. Google fixed a low share of voice AdWords bug. Google has an image search update in September 2009. Google updated their search options with neat new filters. Google confirmed adding deeper links and named them forum Sitelinks. Bing added a link to their Visual Search on their home page. Google updated their site verification process in Webmaster Tools. Did the Google Sandbox exist? We polled our users on that. Google launched Merchant Center to help with Google Base product uploads. Google might add tons of ads to Google Maps. Google Maps got foggy over New Delhi. The fake Yahoo employee is real, but might not have Yahoo's approval to post. Google celebrated their 11th birthday on September 27th. Google celebrated also Confucius' birthday with a doodle and Gandhi's birthday with a doodle. 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. Here is the YouTube version of the feed:


    For the original iTunes version, click here or to see the YouTube version in higher quality, click play & hit "HD."

    Some Of The Topics Discussed:

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


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/10/02/Google_Adds_More_Search_Options___Cleans_Up_Verticals'

    Google Adds More Search Options & Cleans Up Verticals

    Posted: October 2nd, 2009, 3:39pm CEST by rustybrick
    Tags:  Google Search Engine  

    Google announced they have added some search refinements to the various Google search properties. The additions include past hour, specific date range, more shopping sites, fewer shopping sites, visited pages, not yet visited, books, blogs and news. To see them yourself, do a search on Google and then click "Show options" at the top.

    Danny Sullivan goes through these changes in detail over here, so I won't bother with that.

    Some Google users are a bit taken back and confused by the changes. One frequent Google News searcher was confused in a Google News Help thread as to where certain features were, when in reality, they were just moved. But overall, I think the additional filters and refinements are useful.

    Jaime at Google posted a thread at the Google Web Search Help thread asking for comments and feedback on these new changes.

    Forum discussion at Google News Help and Google Web Search Help.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/10/01/Daily_Search_Forum_Recap__October_1__2009'

    Daily Search Forum Recap: October 1, 2009

    Posted: October 1st, 2009, 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.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/10/01/Bing_Adds_Visual_Search___More_Links_On_Home_Page'

    Bing Adds Visual Search & More Links On Home Page

    Posted: October 1st, 2009, 3:18pm CEST by rustybrick
    Tags:  Search MSN Microsoft  

    15 days ago, Bing launched visual search, if you haven't heard about it, click the link and watch the video demo.

    Today, people are noticing that Bing has added a link to visual search directly from the Bing home page. So I compared a Bing home page image I had from a month ago, to what I see there today, and I see Bing has added two new links. They added the visual search link and also a link to "more."

    Here is a picture from September 1st, ignore the arrow, just focus on the links on the left:

    Here is a picture from today:

    Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/09/30/Daily_Search_Forum_Recap__September_30__2009'

    Daily Search Forum Recap: September 30, 2009

    Posted: September 30th, 2009, 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.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/09/29/Daily_Search_Forum_Recap__September_29__2009'

    Daily Search Forum Recap: September 29, 2009

    Posted: September 29th, 2009, 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.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/09/10/Daily_Search_Forum_Recap__September_10__2009'

    Daily Search Forum Recap: September 10, 2009

    Posted: September 10th, 2009, 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.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/09/10/Google_Makes_Search_Bigger_With_Larger_Search_Box'

    Google Makes Search Bigger With Larger Search Box

    Posted: September 10th, 2009, 4:04pm CEST by rustybrick
    Tags:  Google Search Engine  

    Google's Mayer announced last night that the search box's size was increased. The box is bigger, the text when you type is bigger and the search suggestions are bigger. Honestly, I am surprised we did not spot Google testing this on the public, but we didn't.

    Old Google:

    New Google:

    There is a lot of discussion around this. Tedster at WebmasterWorld is with me on this and feels Google never really tested it (or else he or I would have seen it or someone reporting that Google is testing this). Some find the new look to be immature and worse off than the previous look.

    Robert Charlton has some measurements:

    OLD SEARCH BOX
    - left edge to end of flowers = 43 px
    - width of search box = 366 px
    - width of flowers compared to width of box = 11.7%

    NEW SEARCH BOX
    - left edge to end of flowers = 54 px
    - width of search box = 483 px
    - width of flowers compared to width of box = 11.2%


    Another person asked if this might lead to "more long-tail searches."

    Anyway, as I said, most people are not too happy about the change - at least those voicing their opinion. Personally, I barely notice it.

    Forum discussion at Google Web Search Help, DigitalPoint Forums and WebmasterWorld.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/09/10/Power_Searchers__What_Is_Your_Favorite_Search_Feature'

    Power Searchers: What Is Your Favorite Search Feature

    Posted: September 10th, 2009, 3:16pm CEST by rustybrick
    Tags:  Google Search Engine  

    Googler, Jem, started a thread at Google Web Search Help asking the forum members to list out some of their favorite search features.

    The ones listed so far include:

    * [4 miles per 30 minutes in minutes per mile]:

    * [intitle:"index of" beatles ( mp3 | wma | mid )]:

    * [whois www.rustybrick.com]:

    My favorite queries are mostly site: command related, when I want to find content on specific web sites. I do however greatly miss inquisitor, the search toolbar, that allows me to save advanced search queries, so I can run them quickly. Snow Leopard totally removed the ability to run these types of plugins in Safari.

    What is your favorite search feature?

    Forum discussion at Google Web Search Help.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/09/10/Bing_s_Fake_Referrer_Spam_Back__Now_Hiding_Referrer_Now_'

    Bing's Fake Referrer Spam Back, Now Hiding Referrer Now?

    Posted: September 10th, 2009, 3:08pm CEST by rustybrick
    Tags:  Search MSN Microsoft  

    The years and years of Microsoft polluting web logs with fake referrer data, which they have 'fixed' numerous times, including a couple weeks ago.

    We had confirmed reports from webmasters that Bing was no longer showing up in the log files with fake referrers. But I am seeing a new report that the log files are showing Microsoft Bing IP addresses in them but without referrer data.

    An updated Bing Forum thread has one webmaster explaining the situation:

    Unfortunately, the problem is back in another shape!

    I have almost the same number of fake referrer hits from bing but in a different shape: no referrer. So, the stats show me the pages visited, no referrer and the IPs (microsoft's) are like: 65.55.110.21, 65.55.110.110, 65.55.107.196

    So this does not generate fake keyword referrer data, but it does spike up Bing's referrer traffic for specific pages. That is assuming the webmaster who posted this is correct.

    Forum discussion at Bing Forum.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/09/09/Daily_Search_Forum_Recap__September_9__2009'

    Daily Search Forum Recap: September 9, 2009

    Posted: September 9th, 2009, 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.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/09/09/Stop_Spiders_From_Crawling_Your_Site_on_Shabbat__Including_GoogleBot'

    Stop Spiders From Crawling Your Site on Shabbat, Including GoogleBot

    Posted: September 9th, 2009, 3:57pm CEST by rustybrick
    Tags:  Search Engine Optimization  

    A Google Webmaster Help thread has an interesting discussion around blocking your site from coming up for both visitors and search engine crawlers on Shabbat (the Jewish Saturday). This is not a new topic, we discussed using cloaking for religious Shabbat purposes in the past.

    In short, some observant Jews do not want their site to be accessible on Shabbat, which is sundown Friday night, to nightfall Saturday night. The issue on the SEO front is if you turn off your site, then what happens to the search engine crawlers? Do they get 404 pages and drop your site from the search index?

    Phil Payne posted an answer to how one can handle this, which Googler JohnMu said was a good answer. Phil said:

    Yes - a 503 is the correct server response for "We're closed". If you substitute a normal HTML page saying "We're closed" and serve a 200 it's very likely to get indexed by Google.

    If you give the Googlebot a 503, it will just go away and come back later without indexing what you give it.

    For humans, you can serve a custom 503 page that explains the situation. Are there no other Orthodox sites you can ask, to see how they do it?

    Now, Friday night here, is not the same as Friday night by you. So detecting the location of a visitor is key here. There are services like Saturday Guard that do this for you, but I am not sure how they handle search bots.

    Technically, the issue, as far as I understand it (I am not a Rabbi, but I am an observant Jew) is that they do not want to earn money on Shabbat or Jewish holidays. Some hold that since the money doesn't transfer from the merchant account to the bank that day, then there is no money being earned technically that day. But some do not hold that way or some want to be extra careful. If it is a matter of money, then just turn off the "add to cart" and shopping cart features for the site.

    If they do not want any activity on their site by potential customers, then I guess a 503 is a good answer. But are search engine bots customers? No. I suspect, most Rabbis would be okay with spiders or automated crawlers using the site on Shabbat. The issue then is, are you allowed to serve up a 503 page to a visitor and not to a crawler - that might be against Google's terms of service and fall within the bad cloaking policies.

    If the issue is about the server actually working on Shabbat. Then a 503 cannot really be served up at all, because you would technically need to power down the server and without a server to send the 503 response code - then you got nothing.

    This is a complex issue that I personally never had to deal with on sites that we have built. But it would be interesting to see what to do in the case of turning off a web server. There isn't much Google can do here.

    Forum discussion at Google Webmaster Help.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/09/09/Bing_Not_Honoring_Robots.txt_Directives_'

    Bing Not Honoring Robots.txt Directives?

    Posted: September 9th, 2009, 3:45pm CEST by rustybrick
    Tags:  Search MSN Microsoft  

    Over the past few weeks, I have been noticing threads pop up in the Bing forums with complaints from webmasters that Bing's bot, aka MSNBot is not honoring their robots.txt directives.

    It was not just one thread, but at least four. They include one from yesterday over here, one started on September 3rd over here, one from September 1 over here and one started on August 25th over here.

    I ignored the first three, trying to give Microsoft the benefit of the doubt. Hoping it is a webmaster issue or someone spoofing MSNBot. But four threads on the same topic, all within a few weeks of each other does stand out as a possible issue.

    I have personally not confirmed the issue, since I have no interest in blocking MSNBot from crawling any parts of my sites - but others don't like Bing as much as I do.

    Forum discussion at Bing Forums here, here, here and over here.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/09/08/Daily_Search_Forum_Recap__September_8__2009'

    Daily Search Forum Recap: September 8, 2009

    Posted: September 8th, 2009, 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.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/08/27/Should_You_Flaunt_Your_Search_Engine_Rankings_'

    Should You Flaunt Your Search Engine Rankings?

    Posted: August 27th, 2009, 4:02pm CEST by rustybrick
    Tags:  Search Engine Optimization  

    A WebmasterWorld thread has discussion on the topic of promoting the fact that you rank number one in a search engine for an important keyword. Does it make sense, in some cases or any case, to promote the fact that you are the top result in Google, Yahoo or Bing?

    Clearly, if you are an SEO company and you need to show your results to prospects, it would be wise to show off your success. But do you plaster the specific search terms you rank well for on your web page for all to see?

    If you are a web site that ranks number one for blue widgets, do you flaunt the fact on your web site? Or do you keep it under the radar? I would assume your competitors already know, so does it hurt? Can it help if you promote that fact to your potential customers?

    As you can see, there are many variables mentioned here and many I have not mentioned.

    What do you think? Is it wise to show off your success or are you asking for a beat down? Take our poll:


    Should You Show Off Your Success With Search Rankings?(polls)

    Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/08/26/Daily_Search_Forum_Recap__August_26__2009'

    Daily Search Forum Recap: August 26, 2009

    Posted: August 26th, 2009, 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.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/08/26/When_Should_You_Undo_a_301_Redirect_'

    When Should You Undo a 301 Redirect?

    Posted: August 26th, 2009, 4:10pm CEST by rustybrick
    Tags:  Search Engine Optimization  

    A thread at WebmasterWorld has a webmaster who is getting a bit nervous that the 301 redirects he set up for a site won't be the best bet in the long run for his end goals. In summary, his original URL was doing "great" in both Google and Bing, with number 3 and 1 rankings, respectively. But about a month ago, he did a 301 redirect and the rankings have not recovered. He wants to know if he should reverse the 301 and go back to the previous state.

    Excellent question and something that SEOs and webmasters struggle with all the time. If you have a well-ranking web site, but you need to move URLs, should you do a 301 or look for a way to keep the URL. The answer is not always in the control of the webmaster, but when it is, it is always a painstaking decision to make.

    The question here is, after a month in place, should you reverse a 301 redirect? I like the response from senior WebmasterWorld member, willybfriendly, who said:

    From my experience it will take a minimum of 3-4 months. Redirecting an entire successful site as you did is not for the faint of heart.

    Going back to the old site will in all likelihood only increase the time it takes to get your rankings back. If you are confident that your original reason for moving was sound, then I would advise you stay true to your conviction.

    It will probably get worse before it gets better if it has only been a month now. But, assuming you have done it right, it will get better...

    I would likely agree with this statement. Stick to your guns, at this point in time, if possible. If after three months, things don't look good, then maybe there is another issue with the new domain.

    What would you do?

    Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/08/26/The_Big_SEO_Ranking_Factors_List_from_SEOMoz__Is_It_Accurate_'

    The Big SEO Ranking Factors List from SEOMoz, Is It Accurate?

    Posted: August 26th, 2009, 3:40pm CEST by rustybrick
    Tags:  Search Engine Optimization  

    SEOMoz published a revised version of their Search Engine Ranking Factors survey. They had 72 contributors complete a long survey, including myself, answering questions specific to ranking in search engines. I am not going to bother summarizing all the details of the survey, you can read them at SEOMoz in a concise fashion.

    I thought it would be fun to run a poll on this survey, asking our readers, how accurate do you find this SEOMoz survey?


    How Accurate Is the SEOMoz Search Ranking Survey?(online surveys)

    Please take the poll, the responses should be interesting.

    Forum discussion at Sphinn and SEOMoz.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/08/25/Daily_Search_Forum_Recap__August_25__2009'

    Daily Search Forum Recap: August 25, 2009

    Posted: August 25th, 2009, 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.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/08/25/SEO___Print_URLs'

    SEO & Print URLs

    Posted: August 25th, 2009, 4:08pm CEST by rustybrick
    Tags:  Search Engine Optimization  

    Many sites feature a way to print a page of your site in a printer friendly view, by removing many of the ads, removing a lot of the navigation and so on. The issue with this, in some cases, is that webmasters creating a new URL with the same content, causing a duplicate content issue on the SEO front.

    In the past, the solution was to call these printer friendly URLs in a non-search engine friendly manner, i.e. through JavaScript. But now that many search engines can find URLs within JavaScript, you can run into an issue with this method.

    The best solution is to use a printer friendly CSS template. This will ensure that the URL is the same, no matter what view is given to the user or search engine. If you cannot create a CSS template for printer friendly versions of the page, then the next best thing to do is exclude those printer friendly URLs (i.e. the duplicate URLs) with a robots.txt file.

    One person asked in a Google Webmaster Help thread, can they use the newish rel=canonical link element to redirect search engines to the main URL, so they pass the link equity? Googler, JohnMu, said you shouldn't. He said, "I don't think using the rel=canonical link element would be that valid here, since the two pages do look pretty differently (they're not really interchangeable canonicals)."

    Let me show you a real life example of what we did on RustyBrick.com, my real business (outside of this blogging stuff, which is just a hobby for me).

    In the past, we had a print URL for each page of the site, generated through JavaScript. It worked well in the past, the search engines ignored that JavaScript and it was rarely found in the Google or other search indexes. Now, you can clearly see Google indexed both URLs:

    On Thursday, we launched a redesign for the RustyBrick site, a redesign and technology upgrade nine-years in the making. Part of that was to fix this issue.

    • Created a print CSS template
    • 301 redirected the ?print_page=1 to the parent URLs

    In addition to that, we created a neat mobile template, which uses the useragent to change the CSS (not the URL) when you access the site on most mobile devices. And our print pages are also using the same URL and look pretty good.

    Here are pictures of the same URL on a desktop web browser, on an iPhone and as a print friendly page:

    Desktop Version:

    Mobile Version:

    Print Version:

    There are some things we still need to clean up with this design and our templates, but for the most part, I am happy with the look, feel and search engine friendliness of the new site.

    Forum discussion at Google Webmaster Help.

    Oh, and to comment on the new design, go to my blog post at the RustyBrick Blog and comment there.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/08/25/Google_Tries_Same_Page_Anchor_Sitelinks'

    Google Tries Same Page Anchor Sitelinks

    Posted: August 25th, 2009, 3:56pm CEST by rustybrick
    Tags:  Google Search Engine  

    Over a week ago, a WebmasterWorld thread reported that Google was testing a new form of Sitelinks. These sitelinks didn't link to different URLs, but instead, linked to the same URL but with anchors (i.e. # signs at the end of the URL, which drop you down to a section on the same web page).

    I skipped past the thread, not understanding it as a new feature, until I spotted a post from Google Operating System blog detailing the difference.

    For example, a search for [charles darwin] shows a Wikipedia listing with those special sitelinks, here is a picture:

    The links send you to, for example, [en.wikipedia.org] which anchors you down to that section of the page.

    As I noted at Search Engine Land, Yahoo has been doing this for a while with their quick links.

    The big SEO question is, how to you get these types of sitelinks on your pages in the search results? Does adding anchor links to pages, where it makes sense, help? I assume so, but this needs to be proven.

    Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/08/22/Video_Recap_of_Weekly_Search_Buzz____August_21__2009'

    Video Recap of Weekly Search Buzz :: August 21, 2009

    Posted: August 22nd, 2009, 1:05am CEST by rustybrick
    Tags:  Search Buzz RoundUp  

    In this week's recap, Google began forcing even more advertisers into the new AdWords interface, some are not happy. Microsoft said they fixed the one word query fake referrers issue, again. We have listed several tools to compare Google Caffeine's index to the current index. Google Caffeine seems to be running off of Google's new file system - do we care? Bing's search results are showing up in Google. Google News now recrawls articles within 12 hours. Why do SEO experts get a bad rep? Matt Cutts gives two wonderful presentations, it is a must see. Also, Matt might be the new "hot guy" in the search industry. Did you catch the Google logo question on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? 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. Here is the YouTube version of the feed:


    For the original iTunes version, click here or to see the YouTube version in higher quality, click play & hit "HD."

    Some Of The Topics Discussed:

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


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/08/21/Daily_Search_Forum_Recap__August_21__2009'

    Daily Search Forum Recap: August 21, 2009

    Posted: August 21st, 2009, 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.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/08/21/Bing_Search_Results_In_Google'

    Bing Search Results In Google

    Posted: August 21st, 2009, 3:44pm CEST by rustybrick
    Tags:  Google Search Engine  

    Google seems to be indexing Bing search results. Take a look at this query and you will see some of the Google search results leading to Bing search results.

    So I decided to check to see if Yahoo, Ask.com or even Bing themselves were doing the same. It seems like Ask.com is also doing this, but Yahoo and Bing are not indexing Bing results.

    Google doesn't like to see search results in search results so this is not common to see in Google.

    Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/08/21/Can_A_B_Testing_Cause_An_SEO_Problem_'

    Can A/B Testing Cause An SEO Problem?

    Posted: August 21st, 2009, 3:33pm CEST by rustybrick
    Tags:  Search Engine Optimization  

    A/B testing is the process of setting up two or more styles for a page, for the same piece of content. For example, let's say you had a page where you sold blue widgets and you wanted to try using a blue button versus a red button to buy the widget. What you can do is A/B test the two types of buttons against each other.

    How would you accomplish this? Well, you can send 50% of your traffic to example.com/widget.html?button=red and the other 50% to example.com/widget.html?button=blue and see which page converts better. But that can lead to duplicate content, i.e. the same URL, example.com/widget.html with three URLs for the same content. Or would it? Google and some search engines are smart enough to pick up on this. There are other ways to test this using JavaScript (potential cloaking issue?) or CSS or use Google Website Optimizer.

    How would you handle it? That is the question asked in a WebmasterWorld thread. Honestly, I am not sure what the "best" method to handle this is. So please join the thread or comment here.

    Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/08/20/Daily_Search_Forum_Recap__August_20__2009'

    Daily Search Forum Recap: August 20, 2009

    Posted: August 20th, 2009, 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.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/08/20/Microsoft_Claims_To_Fix_Fake_Referrals_or__Single_Word_Query__Complaint'

    Microsoft Claims To Fix Fake Referrals or "Single Word Query" Complaint

    Posted: August 20th, 2009, 3:31pm CEST by rustybrick
    Tags:  Search MSN Microsoft  

    Last night, Microsoft Bing representative, Brett Yount, said that they have rolled out a fix for the fake referrals or single word query issues people have been noticing. Brett said:

    We released a fix last night that should take care of these issues. If you are still having problems, let me know and I will investigate.

    I am just not confident that this is resolved for the long haul. Why? Well, history shows that this has been going on since 2007 and has popping up time and time again since.

    Plus, I was hoping for an official explanation on what this issue was, and I have yet to see one.

    Forum discussion at Bing Forums.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/08/20/Google_Video_Porn_in_Universal_Results_For_Famous_Indian_Actress__Rambha'

    Google Video Porn in Universal Results For Famous Indian Actress, Rambha

    Posted: August 20th, 2009, 3:16pm CEST by rustybrick
    Tags:  Google Search Engine  

    Yesterday, I spotted a post in the Google Web Search Help threads from an individual who claims to be representing Rambha, a famous Indian actress. This person is looking for Google to remove a video from the Google search results that depicts Rambha as having sexual relations.

    Currently, a search for rambha returns video results in the middle of the page. This is Google Universal Search in action, one of those videos shows a woman depicted to be Rambha as having relations with a man. It is hosted on Google Video, displayed on Google web results.

    I reported the video, as did this person, over 24 hours ago. I was hoping it would be removed from the search results. Not because it shows Rambha in a bad light, but because it is adult content and my adult filter (SafeSearch) is set to moderate.

    I am sure there are plenty of videos reported to Google every day, but videos that end up on the search results page for a search term that receives hundreds of thousands of searches per month - must have a way of being moved to the front of the line. If not, a blog post about it over here, tends to speed things along.

    We do report on Google porn issues from time to time, when the details are public in a thread.

    Forum discussion at Google Web Search Help.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/08/19/Daily_Search_Forum_Recap__August_19__2009'

    Daily Search Forum Recap: August 19, 2009

    Posted: August 19th, 2009, 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.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/08/19/Google_s_Caffeine_Update_Running_Off_Google_s_New_File_System__GFS_'

    Google's Caffeine Update Running Off Google's New File System (GFS)

    Posted: August 19th, 2009, 4:26pm CEST by rustybrick
    Tags:  Google Search Engine  

    Shortly after Google announced the Caffeine preview update The Register published an article named Google File System II. The two are actually mostly unrelated, in that the caffeine update runs off the second Google File System, like Microsoft Word runs off Windows.

    But Matt Cutts confirmed in a recent interview with The Register that Google's Caffeine infrastructure, does indeed run off the second Google File System. The article said, "Matt Cutts confirms that the company's new Caffeine search infrastructure is built atop a complete overhaul of the company's custom-built Google File System."

    "There are a lot of technologies that are under the hood within Caffeine, and one of the things that Caffeine relies on is next-generation storage," he says. "Caffeine certainly does make use of the so-called GFS2."

    How does this impact SEOs? Well, honestly, it doesn't. Caffeine will have an impact, but it running on GFSII really doesn't matter technically to SEOs.

    Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.


Official Google Webmaster Central Blog

  • Permalink for 'Official_Google_Webmaster_Central_Blog/2009/08/10/Help_test_some_next_generation_infrastructure'

    Help test some next-generation infrastructure

    Posted: August 10th, 2009, 6:14pm CEST by Maile Ohye
    Tags:  Search results  
    Webmaster Level: All

    To build a great web search engine, you need to:
    1. Crawl a large chunk of the web.
    2. Index the resulting pages and compute how reputable those pages are.
    3. Rank and return the most relevant pages for users' queries as quickly as possible.
    For the last several months, a large team of Googlers has been working on a secret project: a next-generation architecture for Google's web search. It's the first step in a process that will let us push the envelope on size, indexing speed, accuracy, comprehensiveness and other dimensions. The new infrastructure sits "under the hood" of Google's search engine, which means that most users won't notice a difference in search results. But web developers and power searchers might notice a few differences, so we're opening up a web developer preview to collect feedback.

    Some parts of this system aren't completely finished yet, so we'd welcome feedback on any issues you see. We invite you to visit the web developer preview of Google's new infrastructure at [www2.sandbox.google.com] and try searches there.

    Right now, we only want feedback on the differences between Google's current search results and our new system. We're also interested in higher-level feedback ("These types of sites seem to rank better or worse in the new system") in addition to "This specific site should or shouldn't rank for this query." Engineers will be reading the feedback, but we won't have the cycles to send replies.

    Here's how to give us feedback: Do a search at [www2.sandbox.google.com] and look on the search results page for a link at the bottom of the page that says "Dissatisfied? Help us improve." Click on that link, type your feedback in the text box and then include the word caffeine somewhere in the text box. Thanks in advance for your feedback!

    Update on August 11, 2009: [ If you have language or country specific feedback on our new system's search results, we're happy to hear from you. It's a little more difficult to obtain these results from the sandbox URL, though, because you'll need manually alter the query parameters.

    You can change these two values appropriately:
    hl = language
    gl = country code

    Examples:
    German language in Germany: &hl=de&gl=de
    [www2.sandbox.google.com]

    Spanish language in Mexico: &hl=es&gl=mx
    [www2.sandbox.google.com]

    And please don't forget to add the word "caffeine" in the feedback text box. :) ]

    Posted by Sitaram Iyer, Staff Software Engineer, and Matt Cutts, Principal Engineer

Search Engine Roundtable

  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/07/24/Your_Google_Web_History_Not_Yours__Maybe_Someone_Is_Watching_You.'

    Your Google Web History Not Yours? Maybe Someone Is Watching You.

    Posted: July 24th, 2009, 3:21pm CEST by rustybrick
    Tags:  Google Search Engine  

    We have covered the topic of someone else's Google web history showing up as yours. Including one parent catching her son searching for pornography. But what if you find your web history showing searches you did not do personally and you are convinced no one has access to your computer.

    There are two possibilities, the first we covered as Google might have a bug where your history is merged with another Google user. The second is discussed in a new Google Web Search Help thread.

    There, Googler, Jimmy Deheeger said that in some cases, someone may be watching you with keylogging software. The keylogging software can watch you as you type in your passwords and then these evil people might login as you and conduct searches that make you unhappy. Why would a person spend the time to use keylogging software, simply to run pornographic queries on someone else's account makes little sense to me, but Google suggests it as a possibility. I mean, the person can easily sign out and no web history would be tracked. I don't get it.

    In any event, Google offers this up as a possible reason why web history that is not yours would show up in your Google account.

    Forum discussion at Google Web Search Help.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/07/24/Traffic_From_spresults.aspx_Comes_From_IE6_Search_Pane'

    Traffic From spresults.aspx Comes From IE6 Search Pane

    Posted: July 24th, 2009, 2:57pm CEST by rustybrick
    Tags:  Search MSN Microsoft  

    A Bing Community thread has one webmaster asking why is he getting traffic from http://www.bing.com/spresults.aspx?

    Brett Young from Microsoft's Bing Team came in to explain that the traffic seen coming from http://www.bing.com/spresults.aspx is actually from the Internet Explorer (IE) version 6 search pane or search box.

    Brett said:

    It is used for the IE6 search pane. I'm thinking the traffic is legitimate.

    So if you see this traffic, it may be coming from a really old and outdated browser.

    Forum discussion at Bing Community.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/07/23/Daily_Search_Forum_Recap__July_23__2009'

    Daily Search Forum Recap: July 23, 2009

    Posted: July 23rd, 2009, 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.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/07/23/Yahoo_s_Revenue_Drops_Again__Squeeze_Out_Higher_Profits__YHOO_'

    Yahoo's Revenue Drops Again, Squeeze Out Higher Profits (YHOO)

    Posted: July 23rd, 2009, 3:33pm CEST by rustybrick
    Tags:  Search Engine Yahoo  

    Greg Sterling always does a great job with the financials, and he did so with the Yahoo (YHOO) earnings details. Yahoo Q2 Revs: $1.57B, Down 13 Percent But Profit Up 8 Percent from Search Engine Land has those details.

    In short, revenue was down 13% but profit was up about 8%. Some thought Yahoo would layoff an additional 5%, but those reports were wrong.

    We are all anticipating some Microsoft/Yahoo deal happening sooner then later, so time will tell. The Yahoo home page news failed to excite and the earnings report was not too positive. No wonder 60% feel Yahoo won't make a come back.

    Microsoft (MSFT) is to announce earnings tonight, while Google (GOOG) already announced higher earnings. The real impressive company, to me, is AAPL.

    Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/07/22/Daily_Search_Forum_Recap__July_22__2009'

    Daily Search Forum Recap: July 22, 2009

    Posted: July 22nd, 2009, 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.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/07/22/96%_Say_Clients_Need_To_Be_Involved_In_the_SEO_Process'

    96% Say Clients Need To Be Involved In the SEO Process

    Posted: July 22nd, 2009, 4:32pm CEST by rustybrick
    Tags:  Search Engine Optimization  

    Last week, we asked you if you felt client involvement is necessary for a successful SEO campaign. The obvious answer to me, was yes, it was. But not everyone agrees, most do, but not everyone.

    96% said some level of client involvement is necessary for a successful SEO campaign. Only 3% said, it is not necessary. This is out of over a 160 responsiveness. Let me break out the poll results for you:

    Question: Is Client Involvement Necessary for SEO Success?

    :: Yes said 138 respondents or 84%
    :: Maybe Just a Little said 19 respondents or 12%
    :: No said 5 respondents or 3%
    :: Other... said 2 respondents or 1%

    The other responses, really are not valid here. In any event, no surprise here in this poll.

    Forum discussion continued at HighRanking Forums and Sphinn.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/07/16/Daily_Search_Forum_Recap__July_16__2009'

    Daily Search Forum Recap: July 16, 2009

    Posted: July 16th, 2009, 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.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/07/16/Poll__Should_Search_Updates_Be_Named_'

    Poll: Should Search Updates Be Named?

    Posted: July 16th, 2009, 4:24pm CEST by rustybrick
    Tags:  Search Engine Industry News  

    The Florida update, Vince/Brand update, April Fools update, Dewey update and so many more are code names for Google updates. We even named a few Yahoo updates, like the Tim update.

    A Google Webmaster Help thread asks what are these names all about? Well, typically nothing. Naming updates first came from WebmasterWorld, with the Boston update being named in 2003. Sometimes they are named after people, like the Tim update and Vince update. Sometimes they are named for places or events and sometimes by date and by type of update.

    The question is, do we need the names? I personally don't think the names are necessary, but they are nice to have, especially for big updates. Who doesn't remember the Florida update that shook the SEO space? Calling updates by names, gives it more character in my opinion. Some don't agree, what do you think? Take our anonymous poll:


    Should We Name Search Updates? (i.e. Florida Update)(polls)

    Forum discussion at Google Webmaster Help.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/07/16/UK___French_Users_Now_Seeing_New_iGoogle_Layout'

    UK & French Users Now Seeing New iGoogle Layout

    Posted: July 16th, 2009, 3:55pm CEST by rustybrick
    Tags:  Google Search Engine  

    A Google Web Search Help thread reports that now Google is rolling out the left hand navigation design to iGoogle users in the UK and France.

    I believe the US had the new, left hand navigation for a while now. Many users miss the old tabs at the top and we discussed a way to bring the top tabs back. So, if you are in the UK or France and you miss the old tabs, check out that article, I hope it still works. mooredc54, in the thread, discusses other methods to get the old tabs back.

    Old:

    New:

    Forum discussion at Google Web Search Help.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/07/15/Daily_Search_Forum_Recap__July_15__2009'

    Daily Search Forum Recap: July 15, 2009

    Posted: July 15th, 2009, 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.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/07/15/Before_Google_News_Removes_Source__They_Often_Email_Publication'

    Before Google News Removes Source, They Often Email Publication

    Posted: July 15th, 2009, 3:33pm CEST by rustybrick
    Tags:  Google Search Engine  

    I am pretty fascinated with how Google News works and how the workflow runs there. I recently spotted a thread at the Google News Help forum which shows how not only does Google review publications periodically, but before removing publications, they may email those publications.

    One site owner was upset his site no longer showed up in Google News. Inbal, a Googler, informed this site owner that after receiving some complaints from Google News users, the site was reviewed and removed. Inbal said:

    The reason why we stopped crawling your content since July is that we periodically review news sources, particularly following user complaints, to ensure Google News offers a high quality experience for our users. When we reviewed your site we found that we can no longer include it in Google News at this time.

    We currently only include articles from sources that could be considered organizations, generally characterized by multiple writers and editors, availability of organizational information, and accessible contact information. When we reviewed your site we weren't able to find this evidence of an organization.

    What was more interesting was that Inbal said they do try to contact the publication before removing it, to get more facts about the complaints. Inbal said:

    Please be assured that we tried to contact Eritrea Daily via email before removing it from Google News to offer the necessary remedy, however, alas, our emails bounced back, and due to some user complaints about no evidence for an organization behind the source we took this action, as we weren't able to find multiple writers and editors and accessible contact information on your site.

    In this case, the publication was restored and placed back in Google News after being removed for a couple weeks. But learning about this process, I admit, does fascinate me a bit.

    Forum discussion at Google News Help.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/07/15/Google_News_RSS_Searches_Having_Issues'

    Google News RSS Searches Having Issues

    Posted: July 15th, 2009, 3:26pm CEST by rustybrick
    Tags:  Google Search Engine  

    For several weeks, Google News has been tinkering with their RSS feeds. We have a thread at Google News Help where Googler, Inbal, said it should be fixed in a week or so, well, it has been a week.

    We have a new Google News Help thread with an example of foreign language searches via RSS not working. Let me show you.

    A Google News search for [фармацевтический] which means pharmaceutical returns several results on the web version but when I flip to the RSS version, I get no results. Here is a picture of the RSS version using Safari's RSS reader:

    I am not sure when this will be fixed, but Inbal from Google said, "Thanks for taking the time to report this issue. Our engineers are on top of it."

    Forum discussion at Google News Help.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/07/14/Daily_Search_Forum_Recap__July_14__2009'

    Daily Search Forum Recap: July 14, 2009

    Posted: July 14th, 2009, 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.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/07/14/60%_Of_Our_Readers_Feel_Yahoo_Cannot_Turn_Things_Around'

    60% Of Our Readers Feel Yahoo Cannot Turn Things Around

    Posted: July 14th, 2009, 4:18pm CEST by rustybrick
    Tags:  Search Engine Yahoo  

    The other day, I spilled my guts out about missing the old days of Yahoo. I honestly wish Yahoo was on their way to a full recovery and become a strong competitor to Google or even not compete with Google, but just become stronger then it was a year ago. But it doesn't seem to be happening and it is sad.

    I decided to feel out our readers, and ask them if they feel Yahoo has a shot and making a come back? Here are the results:

    Question: HowWill Yahoo Turn Things Around?

    :: No said 45 respondents or 60%
    :: Yes said 25 respondents or 33%
    :: Other said 5 respondents or 7%

    Most of the "other" answers were "I doubt it" type of responses. Yahoo, prove us wrong, please!

    Forum discussion continued at WebmasterWorld.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/07/13/Daily_Search_Forum_Recap__July_13__2009'

    Daily Search Forum Recap: July 13, 2009

    Posted: July 13th, 2009, 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.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/07/13/Is_Bing_s_Algorithm_Domain_Name_Heavy_'

    Is Bing's Algorithm Domain Name Heavy?

    Posted: July 13th, 2009, 3:49pm CEST by rustybrick
    Tags:  Search MSN Microsoft  

    There is a large thread at the Bing Community on the topic of how Bing treats domain names. There are some people that feel that Bing's algorithm weighs too heavily on words in a domain name.

    Cleo started the thread, which now has about 30 replies, even from Brett Young of Microsoft. Cleo said:

    If I have one criticism of the Bing, it is that it puts WAY too much emphasis currently on keyword domain names. Like for example, if you made bread and had a website named www.bread.com, it would rank really high with Bing.
    However, the actually quality and content or even code of the website may be terrible. It may not even be related to bread, but the people at Bing put way too much emphasis on just the names alone...

    In the past and present, it has been a major source of abuse/keyword stuffing.

    Two things I find interesting in this thread.

    (1) The topic of how valuable a domain name is in the eyes of Bing. Clearly this is up for debate and anything you see today, can change tomorrow.

    (2) How a site was sent to the spam team for review after discussion in the thread. Yes, you may be able to expedite spam reviews if you complain about specific sites in the Bing community.

    Forum discussion at Bing Community.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/07/13/Google_Image_Search_Improves_Filter_'

    Google Image Search Improves Filter?

    Posted: July 13th, 2009, 3:39pm CEST by rustybrick
    Tags:  Google Search Engine  

    Whenever there is an image search change at any search engine, Zeus, a WebmasterWorld member, knows about it. He posted a thread at WebmasterWorld noting that he has seen a change to the moderate filter used by Google Image search.

    Zeus said the change is a big improvement to what was there previously. Specifically, images often wrongly associated with being adult pictures are no longer classified as such. He said, and I quote:

    Today I see big changes in search with "Moderate filter on" and I can say its to the way better, I have made my usual searches with some keywords which can not be mistaken as adults searches and some which could be mistaken both search gave me good results with more images presented, so as it seems now we are on a good way, but sometimes they make a few changes to the filter, so we have to wait a few days, but for now it looks good.

    WebmasterWorld administrator, Tedster, also noted that Google Image Search's product manager, Peter Linsley was interviewed by Eric Enge last week. There are some good tidbits in there.

    So if you noticed an spike or decline in Google image search referrals, this may be why.

    Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/07/09/Is_Microsoft_Bing_Slow_At_Malware_Reviews_'

    Is Microsoft Bing Slow At Malware Reviews?

    Posted: July 9th, 2009, 4:06pm CEST by rustybrick
    Tags:  Search MSN Microsoft  

    There is almost nothing worse than a malware warning for a webmaster or SEO to see in the search results. You can have top rankings in a search engine, but if your listing is labeled to be harmful and the search engine warns users not to visit the site, it can be devastating.

    That is why Google and the other search engines offer malware reviews, either in their webmaster tools section or via a form. Google is known to take action on malware reviews within hours, the other search engines typically take days. But according to one thread, Microsoft's Bing may take several weeks.

    A Bing Community thread has one webmaster who claimed he submitted his site for a malware review to all the search engines. Google removed the malware label within the same day, the other search engines took days, but Bing took several weeks, according to this webmaster. The webmaster simply said, "but this whole process did take too long."

    I am not sure if this is a common practice with Bing or not. Any webmasters experience this as well? Please let me know.

    Forum discussion at Bing Community.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/07/09/Google_News_Mobile_Now_Defaulting_To_Desktop_Version_For_Some'

    Google News Mobile Now Defaulting To Desktop Version For Some

    Posted: July 9th, 2009, 3:55pm CEST by rustybrick
    Tags:  Google Search Engine  

    Google has confirmed in a Google Mobile Help thread that many mobile users of Google News will be redirected to the desktop version. Some people already began noticing it and Google's Robin has confirmed it saying:

    Hi folks - As you've noticed, we're switching around the Google News site a bit. Let us know what you think about using the desktop site vs. the old mobile version!

    I am not sure if this applies to iPhone and Android users, because I personally see the iPhone version, which looks like this:

    But some are seeing this on their mobile phone:

    Big difference in the mobile experience, don't you think? Most people are not happy with the change.

    Forum discussion at Google Mobile Help.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/07/09/Most_Annoying_Google_Search_Results__Empty_Answer_Sites'

    Most Annoying Google Search Results? Empty Answer Sites

    Posted: July 9th, 2009, 3:43pm CEST by rustybrick
    Tags:  Google Search Engine  

    Remember a little back Matt Cutts of Google posted that he wanted the Google search results to remove empty review sites from the listings? Recently, during my Google searches, I have been landing on sites that have answers, but require you to login and pay to view those answers.

    This has happened to me several times over the course of the week, but let me share one example with you. I was looking on how to mess around with imap outlook folders and found a Google result at, you guessed it, Expert Exchange. Here is a screen shot:

    Great, this is my exact question, I click over and what do I see? I see a teaser to sign up to view the answer:

    I cannot tell you have annoying this search experience has been for me. It makes me want to completely remove all expert-exchange.com results from my search experience at Google. I know this is not new, it comes up very often in the forums. But now it is bothering me personally, so I thought I take a recent thread and vent about it.

    Forum discussion at Google Web Search Help.

    Update: As noted by Adam in the comments, if you actually keep scrolling and scrolling, you will see all the answers listed there. I assume they are doing this to not cloak content to Google, but it still seems wrong.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/07/09/Bing___Yahoo_Can_t_Tell_Time_in_Tehran__Iran'

    Bing & Yahoo Can't Tell Time in Tehran, Iran

    Posted: July 9th, 2009, 3:23pm CEST by rustybrick
    Tags:  Search MSN Microsoft  

    Did you know that both Yahoo and Bing cannot tell the time in Tehran, Iran? A Bing Community thread points out the issue with Bing. Let me share with you searches for [time tehran] from Google, Yahoo, Bing, Ask and Wolfram - you will notice that both Bing and Yahoo are off.

    Bing shows 3:55pm:

    Yahoo also shows 3:55pm:

    Google, Ask & Wolfram Alpha all show the correct time, as 4:55pm:

    I am not sure why there is a difference between these search engines. Some cite that the difference comes from Iran Standard Time versus Iran Daylight Time, but Iran has one time right now.

    Forum discussion at Bing Community.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/07/08/Daily_Search_Forum_Recap__July_8__2009'

    Daily Search Forum Recap: July 8, 2009

    Posted: July 8th, 2009, 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.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/07/08/Getting_Listed_In_Bing_News'

    Getting Listed In Bing News

    Posted: July 8th, 2009, 3:42pm CEST by rustybrick
    Tags:  Search MSN Microsoft  

    You know how to get listed in Google News but what about Bing News? A Bing Community thread has discussion around that topic.

    Brett Yount from the Bing Webmaster Center said the way to be included in Bing News is a manual process. You simply need to email bns@microsoft.com and wait to hear back.

    What if you don't hear back? Brett suggests emailing again:

    There should be confirmation from the review team. If you did not get one, I suggest emailing them again.

    Yahoo News and Google News are tremendous traffic drivers, but Bing is gaining market share, according to some. So it cannot hurt to be listed.

    Forum discussion at Bing Community.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/07/08/Michael_Jackson_Fans_Upset_With_Google_Over__Ugliest_Person_in_the_World_'

    Michael Jackson Fans Upset With Google Over "Ugliest Person in the World"

    Posted: July 8th, 2009, 3:33pm CEST by rustybrick
    Tags:  Google Search Engine  

    If you conduct a Google search for ugliest person in the world today, you will see Google listing a picture of the late Michael Jackson. Here is a picture I took from this morning of the search results:

    As virtually everyone knows, Michael Jackson died on June 25th and the memorial service was yesterday. The popularity of Jackson, especially right now, with how Google ranks documents, has likely lead to Jackson's picture being listed as the number one result for that search.

    A Google Web Search Help thread has one Jackson fan who is somewhat upset with Google over the listing. He said:

    i'd think google would be a little nicer then that maybe put him third at least

    Clearly, there was some sarcasm there, but I doubt you will see Google make any changes to that image result - at least I hope not. Not because I am not a Michael Jackson fan, that has nothing to do with it. Simply because Google has a policy of not changing the search results for things like this.

    Does the search result bother you?

    Forum discussion at Google Web Search Help.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/07/07/Daily_Search_Forum_Recap__July_7__2009'

    Daily Search Forum Recap: July 7, 2009

    Posted: July 7th, 2009, 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.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/07/07/Yahoo_Launching_SearchPad_Today'

    Yahoo Launching SearchPad Today

    Posted: July 7th, 2009, 3:30pm CEST by rustybrick
    Tags:  Search Engine Yahoo  

    Yahoo is reportedly releasing SearchPad today. We covered the preview of this earlier, where webmasters called it a big scraper tool - what search engine isn't. ;-)

    What is it?

    Search Pad is a note taking application built into Yahoo! Search that automatically assists you in saving websites you visit and taking notes as you search. Search Pad helps you collect, edit, organize, save, print, and email your notes for immediate or future use.

    Search Pad is helpful in completing tasks and making decisions that require collecting information over multiple search sessions such as making a large purchase, planning a vacation or gathering information on a health issue.

    You can learn all about it and see additional screen shots at [help.yahoo.com].

    This can be a very useful tool for searchers, so I am looking forward to trying it out once and never using it again.

    Forum discussion at DigitalPoint Forums and WebmasterWorld.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/07/07/Google_Country_Filter_Removal_a_Bug_'

    Google Country Filter Removal a Bug?

    Posted: July 7th, 2009, 3:22pm CEST by rustybrick
    Tags:  Google Search Engine  

    The other day we reported on Searchers Want "Pages From [Country]," Google Might Drop It. Go read it quickly and come back here. The reports of people seeing this has grown tremendously. I see dozens of forum threads on the issue, and it is not limited to countries outside of the United States, it is also being reported within the United States (not sure how that is possible).

    In any event, at first I thought it was a "feature" Google was testing. But I keep watching the threads and I keep seeing Googler, Jimmy and Jem, respond that this is something Google is looking to fix. I don't get why this would be a "bug" because it looks like a deliberate change or test from Google, but Jimmy from Google keeps calling this a bug impacting some users.

    Some people who have seen this are reporting they no longer see it. Again, I really don't think this is a "bug," no matter what Google says. This really seems like a feature test to me. I don't think the Googlers in the thread understand the issue.

    Forum discussion at Google Web Search Help.

    Update: Google has confirmed that this is not a bug, but rather a test they are running.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/07/07/New_MSNBot_Named_adidxbot_Causing_Trouble'

    New MSNBot Named adidxbot Causing Trouble

    Posted: July 7th, 2009, 3:08pm CEST by rustybrick
    Tags:  Search MSN Microsoft  

    There are several reports around the web about a new search bot by Microsoft that is causing major issues for web servers. The bot is named adidxbot and the useragent looks like this: adidxbot/1.1 (+http://search.msn.com/msnbot.htm).

    This bot has been on the loose since the middle of May. There are threads at WebmasterWorld and Bing Community with complaints about this bot. The bot reportedly indexes and crawls incredibly quickly, with no remorse on the web server. This can cause servers to see spikes of CPU usage and slow down the normal visitors from using the site. In addition, the spider does not obey the crawl delay command.

    A Bing representative said the fix was just released this morning and the bot should no longer cause issues for webmasters. Brent Young of the Bing team said:

    I just received word that they fixed the bug that was causing this. If you are still experiencing issues, please email me at lswmc@microsoft.com

    I hope so.

    Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld and Bing Community.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/07/07/Google_Testing_Sub_Links_For_Forum_Thread_Results_'

    Google Testing Sub Links For Forum Thread Results?

    Posted: July 7th, 2009, 3:01pm CEST by rustybrick
    Tags:  Google Search Engine  

    A reader, BlogsDNA tipped me off on a new Google test. It appears that Google is showing a form of sub links under the main search results, that link to additional forum threads, when relevant, from a specific site. Here is a picture showing two such cases for a search:

    I personally do not see this in any browser I tried, nor on any platform. But it does seem interesting. Often discussion forums have many threads about the same exact topic. This gives Google a way to include multiple threads without cluttering up the search results with indented results from the same site.

    I am not sure if this will stick, but it does look interesting.

    Forum discussion at Search Engine Roundtable Forums.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/07/06/Daily_Search_Forum_Recap__July_6__2009'

    Daily Search Forum Recap: July 6, 2009

    Posted: July 6th, 2009, 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.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/06/23/SEOmoz_Releases_Their__SEO_Best_Practices_'

    SEOmoz Releases Their "SEO Best Practices"

    Posted: June 23rd, 2009, 3:24pm CEST by rustybrick
    Tags:  Search Engine Optimization  

    SEOmoz has released their best practices guide on SEO. This time, they used actual data to back up the best practices and have changed some of their previous best practices based on the data.

    The post goes over the follow SEO elements:

    • Title Tag Format
    • The Usefulness of H1 Tags
    • The Usefulness of Nofollow
    • The Usefulness of the Canonical Tag
    • The Use of Alt text with Images
    • The Use of the Meta Keywords tag
    • The Use of Parameter Driven URLs
    • The Usefulness of Footer Links
    • The Use of Javascript and Flash on Websites
    • The Use of 301 Redirects
    • Blocking pages from Search Engines
    • Google Search Wiki's Affect on Rankings
    • The Affect of Negative Links from "Bad Link Neighborhoods"
    • The Importance of Traffic on Rankings

    I tend to agree with most of what is laid out in the guide. But like all SEO guides, there is always room for debate.

    Forum discussion at HighRankings Forums and Sphinn.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/06/22/Daily_Search_Forum_Recap__June_22__2009'

    Daily Search Forum Recap: June 22, 2009

    Posted: June 22nd, 2009, 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.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/06/22/Naver_Launches_Closed_Beta_For_Japan_Search'

    Naver Launches Closed Beta For Japan Search

    Posted: June 22nd, 2009, 4:24pm CEST by rustybrick
    Tags:  Search Other Engines  

    A WebmasterWorld thread has discussion on a closed beta launch of a new Japanese search engine by the very popular South Korean portal, Naver. The search portal can be found at [www.naver.jp] and it is currently a closed beta.

    The early feedback on the new search engine seems positive from what I can tell in the thread. In fact, one member said, "quite positive, and the patented combo SERPS, clean design and cool integrated flash elements seem quite nice." Another said, "Some of beta testers report Naver Japan. It seems to have its original features extisting search engines such as Google and Yahoo! don't have."

    I cannot read the language so, hard for me to translate this review properly. But maybe someone will and post the details in the forum.

    Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/06/22/Google_Upsets_The_Southern_Hemisphere_Over_First_Day_of_Winter_Logo'

    Google Upsets The Southern Hemisphere Over First Day of Winter Logo

    Posted: June 22nd, 2009, 3:45pm CEST by rustybrick
    Tags:  Google Search Engine  

    Yesterday was not only the day Google posted a Father's Day logo, but it was also the day Google posted logos for the first day of Summer and Winter. Here are those logos:

    Google showed the winter/summer logos in countries that do not celebrate Father's Day on June 21st. It showed the winter logo in the Southern Hemisphere and the summer logo in the Northern Hemisphere. The issue is, just like when they showed the first day of Spring logos and ended up showing "First Day of Fall" and not the "First Day of Autumn" in the Southern Hemisphere. This time Google seemed to upset folks from that side of the globe.

    A Google Web Search Help thread has posts from people in that hemisphere who are a bit upset. The original poster said it is a bit more complex:

    The history of seasons associated with calendars is a bit more complex than just the Winter Solstice. Yes, the Winter Solstice (traditional time of MID-Winter festivals) falls on that date according to our modern calendar. No, that does not make it the beginning of Winter. In civil calendars (at least in Australia), Winter begins with the first of June. Earlier calendars involved the cycles of the moon and counts of days more than they involved the sun (the SOLstice being related to the sun).

    In any event, it seems like Google may have ticked off a few people in that hemisphere.

    Other than that, I hope you had a nice Father's Day and we decided to launch our "Welcome Summer" theme a day late, in respect for Father's Day. Here it is:

    Forum discussion at Google Web Search Help.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/06/21/Father_s_Day__09_Logos_From_Google__Yahoo___Search_Industry'

    Father's Day '09 Logos From Google, Yahoo & Search Industry

    Posted: June 21st, 2009, 8:02am CEST by rustybrick
    Tags:  Search Engine Industry News  

    This is my first time being a father for Father's Day, so it is a bit different for me now. I am about to go to sleep here on the East Coast but many of the logos from the search industry are live now. Including logos from Google, Yahoo, AOL, DogPile and others. Here is a quick run down, which I hope to update tomorrow, when more logos and themes go live (specifically from Bing and Ask.com).

    Google:

    Yahoo:

    AOL:

    DogPile:

    Bing:

    Ask.com:

    Cre8asite Forums:

    Search Engine Roundtable:

    For previous Father's Day logos from Google and the search industry, see our archives:


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/06/19/Daily_Search_Forum_Recap__June_19__2009'

    Daily Search Forum Recap: June 19, 2009

    Posted: June 19th, 2009, 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.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/06/19/_Text__Recap_of_Weekly_Search_Buzz____June_19__2009'

    (Text) Recap of Weekly Search Buzz :: June 19, 2009

    Posted: June 19th, 2009, 4:25pm CEST by rustybrick
    Tags:  Search Buzz RoundUp  

    I am skipping the video this week, simply because I am a bit sick and my new iPhone is arriving anytime now. So here is the text recap of what we covered at the Search Engine Roundtable over the past week. We covered possible evidence that Google penalizes on a page by page basis. Google began truncating URLs to one line and removed the file size from the search results snippet. Matt Cutts chimed in about the PageRank sculpting with nofollow. Will you add the common tag to your site? Google changes linkage data reports in Webmaster Tools. Bing does instant translation. Google AdSense gives us font control. AdSense publishers may be losing out from translate and cache. Google is working on a mobile AdWords interface. Microsoft sends a $750,000 warning to click fraud. Our poll on if SEOs are seen as criminals is live.

    Hopefully, we will be back next week with the video recap. Have a great weekend and happy Father's Day!

    Some Of The Topics Discussed:

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


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/06/19/Google_Sometimes_Truncating_URLs_to_One_Line'

    Google Sometimes Truncating URLs to One Line

    Posted: June 19th, 2009, 3:11pm CEST by rustybrick
    Tags:  Google Search Engine  

    Sandip Dedhia from BlogsDNA for spotting this and also Vertical Leap noticed a bit later. It Google seems to be truncating the display URL in the search results to a single line. So I decided to test this and it is not always consistently true.

    A search for iphone 3.0 os does truncate URLs longer than one line, here is a screen capture. Notice how Google adds ... to shorter the URL in the middle portion (not at the end).

    It is very nice how they keep the keywords in the display URL and truncate the less keyword specific components of the URL, i.e. "article/166311."

    But when I do a more complex search for site:cgi.ebay.com test, which I know has longer URLs, it seems like those display URLs act like the old way of how Google truncated URLs to two lines:

    Notice the ... added to the end of the display URL.

    Clearly, the site command search I conducted is more of an advanced search. But I don't think the URL truncating is based on search query but rather the URL structure. For example, if I search for Electrical Test Lead Set you will see two results that have long URLs. One is truncated to a single line and the eBay listing is only truncated to two lines:

    Interesting to see how this works, don't you think?

    Forum discussion at Search Engine Roundtable Forums.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/06/19/Do_You_Like_The_Bing_Commercials_'

    Do You Like The Bing Commercials?

    Posted: June 19th, 2009, 2:31pm CEST by rustybrick
    Tags:  Search MSN Microsoft  

    Recently, there has been a lot of discussion around Microsoft's commercials for Bing. I saw a few on TV several days ago, and they are pretty unique. But some people love them and some people hate them.

    Bing finally set up a YouTube channel with many of their commercials at youtube.com/user/bing so i'll post a few here and please let me know if you like them in our quick poll below.

    Here is the poll, please take it:


    Do You Like The Bing Commercials?(survey)

    Forum discussion at DigitalPoint Forums.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/06/19/Poll_Results_On_How_Google_Views_SEOs__Innocent_or_Guilty_'

    Poll Results On How Google Views SEOs (Innocent or Guilty)

    Posted: June 19th, 2009, 2:07pm CEST by rustybrick
    Tags:  Search Engine Industry News  

    A week ago, we asked our readers to vote on their thoughts on if Google sees SEOs as criminals. If you remember, this is based on the double-standard that some bloggers feel Google is placing on some groups over another group.

    With just under a 150 responses, I wanted to share how we (SEOs) perceive how Google sees us.

    Question: Does Google See SEOs as Criminals?

    :: Only Some Groups of SEOs said 77 respondents or 52%
    :: Yes said 43 respondents or 29%
    :: No said 25 respondents or 17%
    :: Other answer... said 3 respondents or 2%

    It is very interesting looking at how SEOs perceive how Google sees SEOs. Kind of a circular statement there, but you know what I mean.

    Forum discussion continued at Sphinn (Lisa), Sphinn (Michael) and Sphinn (Susan).


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/06/19/Most_Our_Readers_Like_Yahoo_s_New_Home_Page'

    Most Our Readers Like Yahoo's New Home Page

    Posted: June 19th, 2009, 2:01pm CEST by rustybrick
    Tags:  Search Engine Yahoo  

    A few weeks ago, we asked our readers if they like the new Yahoo home page? With 127 responses in, I wanted to share the results.

    Most of our readers do like the new home page. 73% said they like the new home page, while 25% said they do not like it. That is a pretty good distribution. Here is the pie chart:

    The "other" responses were pretty much in the nature of "I don't care, either way."

    Are you surprised by these results?

    Forum discussion continued at WebmasterWorld.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/06/18/Daily_Search_Forum_Recap__June_18__2009'

    Daily Search Forum Recap: June 18, 2009

    Posted: June 18th, 2009, 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.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/06/17/Daily_Search_Forum_Recap__June_17__2009'

    Daily Search Forum Recap: June 17, 2009

    Posted: June 17th, 2009, 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.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/06/17/Will_You_Implement_Yahoo_s_Common_Tag_'

    Will You Implement Yahoo's Common Tag?

    Posted: June 17th, 2009, 2:06pm CEST by rustybrick
    Tags:  Search Optimization Yahoo  

    Several days ago Yahoo announced support for something called the common tag. In short, it basically gives developers a way to tag their content in a more unified way.

    Vanessa Fox has the most detailed explanation of how this all works. In fact, Yahoo's post on the topic is almost unusable.

    So please go skim her article and then come back here and let me know if you plan on giving this common tag a try. Personally, I doubt I will.

    Here is the poll:


    Will You Use Yahoo's Common Tag?(survey)

    Forum discussion at Sphinn.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/06/17/Will_You_Implement_Yahoo_s_Common_Tag_'

    Will You Implement Yahoo's Common Tag?

    Posted: June 17th, 2009, 2:06pm CEST by rustybrick
    Tags:  Search Optimization Yahoo  

    Several days ago Yahoo announced support for something called the common tag. In short, it basically gives developers a way to tag their content in a more unified way.

    Vanessa Fox has the most detailed explanation of how this all works. In fact, Yahoo's post on the topic is almost unusable.

    So please go skim her article and then come back here and let me know if you plan on giving this common tag a try. Personally, I doubt I will.

    Here is the poll:


    Will You Use Yahoo's Common Tag?(survey)

    Forum discussion at Sphinn.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/06/17/Will_You_Implement_Yahoo_s_Common_Tag_'

    Will You Implement Yahoo's Common Tag?

    Posted: June 17th, 2009, 2:06pm CEST by rustybrick
    Tags:  Search Optimization Yahoo  

    Several days ago Yahoo announced support for something called the common tag. In short, it basically gives developers a way to tag their content in a more unified way.

    Vanessa Fox has the most detailed explanation of how this all works. In fact, Yahoo's post on the topic is almost unusable.

    So please go skim her article and then come back here and let me know if you plan on giving this common tag a try. Personally, I doubt I will.

    Here is the poll:


    Will You Use Yahoo's Common Tag?(survey)

    Forum discussion at Sphinn.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/06/16/Daily_Search_Forum_Recap__June_16__2009'

    Daily Search Forum Recap: June 16, 2009

    Posted: June 16th, 2009, 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. Note, I am not feeling well, so I am sorry for the little coverage today. There was a lot more I wanted to write, so it will have to wait.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/06/15/Daily_Search_Forum_Recap__June_15__2009'

    Daily Search Forum Recap: June 15, 2009

    Posted: June 15th, 2009, 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.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/06/15/Google_Removes_File_Size_From_Search_Results_Page'

    Google Removes File Size From Search Results Page

    Posted: June 15th, 2009, 3:23pm CEST by rustybrick
    Tags:  Google Search Engine  

    It appears that Google has quietly removed the file size figure from the search results. I am not sure when this happened, it could have been a year ago, but it did happen.

    A year and a half ago I took a screen capture of a search result for my company rustybrick and it had the file size of the page listed in the search results.

    Now, the same search, does not return the file size:

    A WebmasterWorld thread recently noticed this go missing from the search results. Most people are in favor of removing the file size label, being that many people have broadband connections these days. They rather see other information listed in the search results, such as if the site is in flash or if there is video or PDFs on the page, as opposed to the file size of a given web page.

    Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/06/15/Bing_s_Instant_Translation_Gets_Webmaster_Approval'

    Bing's Instant Translation Gets Webmaster Approval

    Posted: June 15th, 2009, 3:16pm CEST by rustybrick
    Tags:  Search MSN Microsoft  

    Bing added instant translation as a smart answer or instant answer to their search. For example, if you search for how do you say search in spanish you get the answer "búsqueda."

    Google also has some form of translation OneBox results, but they are not as discoverable as Bing. That means, you can't just type, how do you say something, or translate X for me.

    Even more importantly, Webmasters approve of how this instant translation works in Bing. Not only is the translation pretty good, the way the translation shows up in the search results are "neat."

    Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/06/14/Video_Recap_of_Weekly_Search_Buzz____June_12__2009'

    Video Recap of Weekly Search Buzz :: June 12, 2009

    Posted: June 14th, 2009, 5:00am CEST by rustybrick
    Tags:  Search Buzz RoundUp  

    In this week's video, I discuss the recent debate on if Google sees SEOs as criminals or not. I also discuss how Google is now notifying webmasters after they review a site. Google updated the webmaster tools design, added a major feature for domain change and also added email notifications. Google UK is suffering from a major influx. 70 percent of our readers actually like Bing. Google continues test of images between the snippet and the display URL. Google appeals and beats AdSense publisher in appeals court. Google sent the wrong publisher the wrong check. Google released a new iPhone friendly iGoogle. People are upset that Google showed a Tetris logo on D-Day, while Bing did the right thing. Facebook is launching usernames. That was this week on 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. Here is the YouTube version of the feed:


    For the original iTunes version, click here or to see the YouTube version in higher quality, click play at hit "HQ."

    Some Of The Topics Discussed:

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


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/06/12/Daily_Search_Forum_Recap__June_12__2009'

    Daily Search Forum Recap: June 12, 2009

    Posted: June 12th, 2009, 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.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/06/12/6_Months_Later__Google_Finally_Releases_a_New_Mobile_iGoogle'

    6 Months Later, Google Finally Releases a New Mobile iGoogle

    Posted: June 12th, 2009, 3:28pm CEST by rustybrick
    Tags:  Google Search Engine  

    About six months ago, we reported Google Drops iPhone Optimized iGoogle: Users Revolt. In short, Google dropped the iPhone flavored iGoogle and iGoogle mobile users were really upset and they were upset for a long time.

    Now, Google announced a new iGoogle currently being tested for iPhone and Android users. Here are screen captures:

    Much cleaner look for iPhone/Android users, don't you think? The previous look that people were complaining about looked more like this:

    Paul from the Google team said in the long Google Web Search Help thread that has the complaints about this:

    I know you all are very passionate about iGoogle on the iPhone. I'm happy to announce that we've got a new version for you to check out! See the article linked below for details.

    If you'd like to share feedback about the new version, we're collecting it over in the Google Mobile forum.

    Not everyone is currently happy with the changes, but I personally think this is a major improvements from six months ago.

    Forum discussion at Google Web Search Help.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/06/11/Daily_Search_Forum_Recap__June_11__2009'

    Daily Search Forum Recap: June 11, 2009

    Posted: June 11th, 2009, 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.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/06/11/Images_Under_Google_Search_Snippets'

    Images Under Google Search Snippets

    Posted: June 11th, 2009, 3:28pm CEST by rustybrick
    Tags:  Google Search Engine  

    I don't think I wrote about Google's latest search results test. Over the past month or so, Google has been testing images, several of them, directly under a search snippet. BlogStorm first reported the finding back on May 26th, and I covered his finding as Search Engine Land on the same day. Then it seemed to be hitting the Google UK servers as some sort of test.

    Well, it seems to have expanded to Google Sweden. Brent Csutoras (a nice guy btw) wrote how they are now seeing the same thing in Google Sweden for a search on [vigselringar] which means wedding rings. Here is a picture taken from his blog, since I cannot reproduce it here:

    So keep an eye on this, because it might be coming to Google.com.

    Forum discussion at Sphinn.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/06/11/Facebook_Launches_Usernames_But_Stumps_Sabbath_Observers'

    Facebook Launches Usernames But Stumps Sabbath Observers

    Posted: June 11th, 2009, 3:08pm CEST by rustybrick
    Tags:  Search Social  

    Facebook announced they will be adding usernames for profile URLs. For example, my current Facebook URL is [www.facebook.com] but hopefully sometime early next week, it will become facebook.com/barryschwartz. In fact, it will, since Journalists don't have to wait for the Friday night deadline to secure their username on Facebook.

    How does this apply to SEO? Well, for public profile pages that want to solve any online reputation management issues, a nice URL with your name in it, might help a bit.

    So what is the issue? Well, as I tweeted the other day, Facebook is opening the first come first serve username registration at the same time Sabbath observers (like me) cannot login and reserve our names. Facebook said, "starting at 12:01 a.m. EDT on Saturday, June 13, you'll be able to choose a username on a first-come, first-serve basis for your profile and the Facebook Pages that you administer by visiting www.facebook.com/username/."

    Do I think Facebook did this intentionally? No way. Probably just an oversight that will impact many Facebook users. Personally, I did not care that much, I just felt bad for some die hard Facebook users. Now, I can even less, being that I am a journalist and I reserved my name already. But I still feel bad.

    Tamar FriendFeeded (is that a word) that she was upset she couldn't secure her name since she is also a Shabbath observer. Hopefully someone can help her out. I was told that /barry was already taken, I think by a Facebook employee.

    A WebmasterWorld thread has SEOs and marketers already thinking of ways to use these username URLs for their benefit.

    Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/06/10/Daily_Search_Forum_Recap__June_10__2009'

    Daily Search Forum Recap: June 10, 2009

    Posted: June 10th, 2009, 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.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/06/10/Don_t_Search_For_Nude_Pictures_if_You_Don_t_Want_to_See_Nude_Pictures'

    Don't Search For Nude Pictures if You Don't Want to See Nude Pictures

    Posted: June 10th, 2009, 3:38pm CEST by rustybrick
    Tags:  Google Search Engine  

    Some times I have to point out the most ridiculous threads in the forums. This morning I spotted a thread at Google Web Search Help where a person was complaining that searching in Google Images for the search phrase [nude women] returned some images of (now hold on to your chair now....) nude women!

    The individual wrote:

    Please take nude & half dressed women off your images if you type in a name for a women alot of half dressed women come up & young kids do not need to see this kind of stuff. if you are looking for a type of bra alot of bad stuff comes up. i did not think google would have this kind of stuff on there website.

    What type of search engine would Google be if it did not return images that were related to your search query? If you don't want your children searching Google for nude women, then you should get a good internet filter. Also, Google does a pretty good job filtering out nude women, even for a search of nude women, when the safe filter is set to its highest level.

    Sorry for the rant, I am low on sleep.

    Forum discussion at Google Web Search Help.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/06/10/Does_Google_See_SEOs_as_Criminals_'

    Does Google See SEOs as Criminals?

    Posted: June 10th, 2009, 3:22pm CEST by rustybrick
    Tags:  Search Engine Industry News  

    The Nofollow PageRank sculpting topic was not the only heated debate at last week's SMX Advanced conference. We have some SEOs claiming Google sees all SEOs as criminals before being innocent.

    Michael Gray's How Google Profiles SEO’s and Lisa Barone's Google Openly Profiles SEOs As Criminals are both well written pieces arguing that Google doesn't treat SEOs equally to all personalities on the internet. Let me quote one section to sum it up, but honestly, you should read both pieces in their entirety.

    How does this show that Google is profiling SEO’s and not the rest of the blogging world? How else can you explain high profile A-List bloggers like Robert Scoble and Sarah Lacy accepting free all expense paid trips to Isreal and not getting penalized? How can Guy Kawasaki get “loaned” one, two, three cars in three years and still be within Google’s guidelines . How can “lending” Guy Kawasaki an Audi Q7 for three months in exchange for him blogging about it be OK but I can’t connect bloggers with people who want to give away a pair of sunglasses? Matt Cutt’s says “The closer you get to money for links, the higher risk we consider it”. Go to any rental car agency ask how much it is to rent an Audi Q7 for three months, you’ll have your answer how close it is to the money.

    On the other hand, Susan Esparza takes the opposite view in her piece named I Don't Like Conflict (But Google Doesn't Think SEOs are Criminals). Susan explains that SEO are rightly held to a higher standard, because SEOs are search professionals.

    I totally see both sides of the argument. I thought I conduct an anonymous poll asking our readers if they think Google see SEOs as criminals or not. Here is the poll, please have your friends take the poll:


    Does Google See SEOs as Criminals?(polls)

    Forum discussion at Sphinn (Lisa), Sphinn (Michael) and Sphinn (Susan).


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/06/09/Daily_Search_Forum_Recap__June_9__2009'

    Daily Search Forum Recap: June 9, 2009

    Posted: June 9th, 2009, 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.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/06/09/70%_Of_Our_Readers_Like_Bing'

    70% Of Our Readers Like Bing

    Posted: June 9th, 2009, 3:58pm CEST by rustybrick
    Tags:  Search MSN Microsoft  

    When Bing launched a bit over a week ago, we asked our readers via an anonymous poll if they like the new Microsoft search engine.

    To my surprise, 70% of the responses said they like the new search engine.

    Keep in mind, the index is mostly the same, but the search interface is the major difference, from what I understand. Interface is huge and clearly plays a major roll in relevancy.

    Here is the break down of the 120 responses, where I asked, "Do You Like Bing's Search Results?"

    :: Yes said 83 respondents or 69%
    :: No said 29 respondents or 24%
    :: Other... said 8 respondents or 7%

    Here are the other answers:

    • they're okay i guess
    • Does it matter? People won't switch.
    • Relevancy of sites returned is still hinky. but there are interesting feautures
    • Where's the Sarcastic 'yes' option?
    • Generally good, local crap
    • It's really the same, nothing new.
    • No different than LiveSearch results
    • It's OK but not enough to switch

    Forum discussion continued at:


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/06/03/Daily_Search_Forum_Recap__June_3__2009'

    Daily Search Forum Recap: June 3, 2009

    Posted: June 3rd, 2009, 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.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/06/03/Should_Webmasters_Be_Responsible_For_Google_s_Snippets_'

    Should Webmasters Be Responsible For Google's Snippets?

    Posted: June 3rd, 2009, 3:20pm CEST by rustybrick
    Tags:  Google Search Engine  

    Yesterday, I wrote at Search Engine Land about a report from The Register about how a Dutch company was sued over the snippet Google choose for a certain web page of theirs. Let me quickly explain what happened.

    A web page on Miljoenhuizen.nl showed up in Google for the search phrase [Zwartepoorte] and [bankrupt]. When you read the snippet under the Miljoenhuizen.nl listing in Google, it basically read that Zwartepoorte was bankrupt. The issue is, Zwartepoorte was not bankrupt. So Zwartepoorte sued Miljoenhuizen.nl to make Google remove the snippet. The thing is, Miljoenhuizen.nl did not say Zwartepoorte was bankrupt, Google took several words on a page and mixed them together to completely make that up.

    A Dutch court ordered Miljoenhuizen.nl to change the page, so Google's snippet would change. Miljoenhuizen.nl removed the page and the issue is now resolved.

    Personally, I think it is crazy for a court to make such a request. But what do I know? I really want to see how you guys feel about this.

    Should webmasters be responsible for what Google shows in their snippets about our web pages? Take our anonymous poll:


    Should webmasters be responsible for what Google shows in their snippets about our web pages?(poll)

    Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/06/03/Interviewing_Patrick_Gavin_on_DIYSEO.com'

    Interviewing Patrick Gavin on DIYSEO.com

    Posted: June 3rd, 2009, 2:21pm CEST by rustybrick
    Tags:  tools Search Engine  

    It has been about five years since I last interviewed Patrick Gavin, and back then I interviewed Patrick on his new company, Text Link Ads (TLA). Who knew TLA would have such a huge impact on the lives of so many SEOs and shape this industry, for better or worse. I should add that TLA has been a long time advertiser here and RustyBrick, my company, does work for TLA on the development side.

    Patrick has stepped down from TLA's parent company, MediaWhiz a few months ago. Patrick has been informing various bloggers about his new SEO venture with Andy Hagans named DIYSEO.com, Do It Yourself SEO. Since Patrick is one of the most successful, honest and caring people in the industry, I thought I would cover a Sphinn thread on this new project. I asked Patrick several questions over instant messenger on DIYSEO.com. Here is that interview:

    Barry Schwartz: Hi Patrick, thanks for agreeing to answer some questions about your new SEO venture, named DIYSEO.com. Can you first tell us a little bit about the new business?
    Patrick Gavin: Thanks Barry. Sure, DIYSEO is a venture I am launching with Andy Hagans. The product is a SEO software platform aimed at small business website owners.

    Barry Schwartz: Can you tell me about some of the software's features? What features will make this the killer SEO app?
    Patrick Gavin: To start with our software is not a suite of tools, instead it is a task based system designed to give website owners a step by step playbook on how to improve their natural search engine rankings. It is unique in that it gives advice tailored to specific verticals. When a site owner begins the process, they complete a questionnaire. We then take that data to give them an SEO campaign and task list that is truly geared towards their vertical.

    Barry Schwartz: I saw that ShoeMoney wrote about your new tools. But doesn't ShoeMoney also have his own SEO tools he is selling? How does yours compare to his?
    Patrick Gavin: ShoeMoney has a great suite of tools. The difference to us is we are not designed for professional internet marketers who are looking for advanced tools. We instead are designed for business owners who want a step by step plan for SEO success. We think there is a need in the market for both expert tools and what we are doing: an SEO system that takes your hand and walks you through a winning SEO plan without having to be an expert.


    Barry Schwartz: Would you consider any tools currently out there similar to yours? If so, which ones?
    Patrick Gavin: I wouldn't consider any current SEO tools as similar to ours. We are taking a new approach to SEO and I think you would have to look outside of the SEO industry to find similar approaches. Among those would be Mint.com and Basecamphq.com.


    Barry Schwartz: You have been in the SEO industry for a really long time. You are most famous for Text Link Ads, the company you founded and sold to MediaWhiz. How does this product differ from the Text Link Ads product, in terms of market-a-bilty? Do you think it will be as successful?
    Patrick Gavin: The product is really quite different from TLA. Where TLA focuses on advanced "off page" SEO techniques via link buying, with DIYSEO we are offering a full service SEO platform that will instruct users with actionable on page and off page SEO actions. In terms of marketability, the market opportunity is tremendous. Adwords has some 1.5M+ advertisers buying keywords on a PPC basis. Most of these are small business owners. Some 75% of clicks go to natural search results, not PPC. All of these PPC advertisers would love the additional exposure in natural search so that is why we are so excited about this opportunity. We think we can drive value to our clients and if we can do that we will be successful.


    Barry Schwartz: So our readers know, can you explain if you are still working for Text Link Ads?
    Patrick Gavin: I am no longer an employee of MediaWhiz (Text Link Ads' parent company) but do some part time consulting to MediaWhiz. MediaWhiz and TLA have a number of exciting initiatives underway and I remain close to the business as a number of my best friends (and some real talented people) are there.


    Barry Schwartz: To be frank, why are you asking bloggers, such as myself and ShoeMoney to write about DIYSEO when it is not even live yet?
    Patrick Gavin: Well I have never been shy about promotion :-) We wanted to build some buzz to build up an initial contact list that we can then invite to our beta launch and other fun things we are doing. The SEO community is great about participating and giving feedback that we can then act on. Having been in the industry since around 2000 has given me the opportunity to build relationships with some great people and I am very thankful to be in the position to be able to get the word out on this project.


    Barry Schwartz: Since I am being pretty direct, let me point you to the Sphinn thread on the topic. Some folks in our industry find the announcement on Sphinn's home page to be considered spam and should be removed from the home page. What do you think about that?
    Patrick Gavin: I think it's great. Again the SEO community is a lot of fun. We will never agree on everything and I am sure we will have a few DIYSEO dissenters once the product is live but I have found that is what makes the SEO community so much fun. Fiery discussions and if you listen/read close enough there is some great feedback in those discussions.

    Barry Schwartz: Finally, I asked those that follow me on Twitter @rustybrick that I am interviewing @patrickgavin right now and asked some to send questions. @shoemoney sent a question, he asked. Can you ask him about his twitter contest and if he is happy with the results [www.diyseo.com].
    Patrick Gavin: Twitter has been an interesting ride for me. Shoe did a post recently about Twitter being his #3 traffic sourse http://www.shoemoney.com/2009/05/05/for-those-who-still-dont-get-twitter/ and that really got me tuned back in to the marketing power Twitter has. Twitthis.com powered the Twitter contest and the results have been very impressive. Since the contest started my @diyseo follower count has gone from about 100 to 1,400 and still growing, so yes very happy!

    Barry Schwartz: Thanks Patrick, I am looking forward to the DIYSEO product. Any words you want to end with? Like maybe the launch date or something else?
    Patrick Gavin: Thanks Barry it has been my pleasure. We are not ready to announce the launch date just yet but if you sign up at www.DIYSEO.com you will be the first to know! :-)


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/06/02/Daily_Search_Forum_Recap__June_2__2009'

    Daily Search Forum Recap: June 2, 2009

    Posted: June 2nd, 2009, 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.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/06/02/Bing_Hijacks_IE6_Toolbar_Search__Google_Users_Upset'

    Bing Hijacks IE6 Toolbar Search, Google Users Upset

    Posted: June 2nd, 2009, 7:41pm CEST by rustybrick
    Tags:  Search MSN Microsoft  

    There are several reports at Google Custom Search Help and Google Web Search Help with searchers who use Internet Explorer version 6 on their PC and are claiming that Bing has hijacked the search feature in the toolbar.

    Several users are claiming that since Bing was launched, even though Google was their default search provider in IE, Bing has taken control. Even worse, when they try to change it back from Bing to Google, it does not work.

    Here is one post:

    Had Google set as my default browser. woke up this morning to discover that BING had hijacked this feature. cant change it via: search/customize on the IE tool bar. all I get is a windows live page saying Ooops.

    There is no official explanation from either Microsoft or Google, as of yet. Matt Cutts of Google did tweet about the issue. A Microsoft individual did tweet back saying the "folks have escalated your concerns."

    Forum discussion at Google Custom Search Help and Google Web Search Help.

    Update: We have a statement from Microsoft on this issue:

    We're aware of the issue with IE6 and Bing and are investigating a solution. This issue is not impacting IE7 or IE8 users. We respect user choice on search providers in IE and all browsers, and designed IE to enable that choice. We will provide an update soon on this issue, and we apologize for any inconvenience it has caused. In the meantime, we encourage customers to upgrade to IE8 here. Alternatively, Firefox users can install the add-in for Bing here.

    Update: Microsoft emailed me again at 2:45am on June 3, 2009 to inform me the issue is now resolved with IE6. The issue was server side, so the fix was able to be pushed out remotely to all infected browsers.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/06/02/Google_Dupes_Search_Parameters_For_Time_Based_Results'

    Google Dupes Search Parameters For Time Based Results

    Posted: June 2nd, 2009, 3:59pm CEST by rustybrick
    Tags:  Google Search Engine  

    When Google's new search options feature went live earlier last month, Google also changed how they handle time based queries.

    Back in 2007 Google handled the time based query refinements by appending &as_qdr= to the URL, now Google is using &tbs=qdr: for the same refinement. Let me show you how it works:

    To show the pages indexed by Google on this site for the past day, I use the site command and append the past 24 hours refinement.

    So as you can see, both methods still work. Why duplicate the efforts? As Tedster said in a WebmasterWorld thread, it is possible that two different teams at Google worked on the various features and didn't consult each other.

    Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/06/02/Is_Bing_Not_Honoring_NOODP_Tag_'

    Is Bing Not Honoring NOODP Tag?

    Posted: June 2nd, 2009, 3:32pm CEST by rustybrick
    Tags:  Search MSN Microsoft  

    A WebmasterWorld thread reports that Microsoft's new search engine, Bing, which launched the other day, does not seem to support the NOODP tag.

    The NOODP tag tells the search engine not to use the Open Directory Project's title or description for your search listing. Google, Yahoo and MSN Search supported the tag. The tag was introduced back in 2006 after webmasters became upset that the search engines were using some of those titles.

    In any event, the WebmasterWorld thread claims Bing is now using titles and descriptions from DMOZ (ODP) even though the NOODP tag is on the page. I don't have any test cases I can remember off the top of my head to validate this, so I am leaving this open.

    Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/06/02/Some_Users_Seeing_Yahoo_s_New_New_Home_Page'

    Some Users Seeing Yahoo's New New Home Page

    Posted: June 2nd, 2009, 3:20pm CEST by rustybrick
    Tags:  Search Engine Yahoo  

    Yahoo is frequently testing new home pages. The most recent test was announced a few days ago. The new look looks like this:

    Why do I bring it up now? Well, it appears some users are finally noticing the new home page in their daily browsing activities.

    A WebmasterWorld thread has several people who said they now see the new home page. Personally, I don't see it. I am not sure if I like it over the current one. What about you?

    Take our poll:


    Do You Like The New Yahoo Home Page?(polls)

    Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/06/01/Daily_Search_Forum_Recap__June_1__2009'

    Daily Search Forum Recap: June 1, 2009

    Posted: June 1st, 2009, 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.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/05/24/Video_Recap_of_Weekly_Search_Buzz____May_22__2009'

    Video Recap of Weekly Search Buzz :: May 22, 2009

    Posted: May 24th, 2009, 4:40am CEST by rustybrick
    Tags:  Search Buzz RoundUp  

    In this 13 minute video recap, I go quickly through the past two weeks of search news. First, I had a baby girl, so that is why I missed the recap last week. Google made major changes named search options, wonder wheel, timeline, rich snippet markups, search suggestions and news and blog search were updated. Google and Yahoo Japan has a search index update. AdWords shows all queries now. Google tests one line product AdWords ads. Yahoo Search ads test favorite icons. Slow sites do better on AdSense? Google AdSense doesn't work on linux. Google Profile profiles have filters on occasion. Microsoft gets ready to relaunch search. Safka leaves Ask.com. SEO companies are springing up like dandelions. 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. Here is the YouTube version of the feed:


    For the original iTunes version, click here or to see the YouTube version in higher quality, click play at hit "HD."

    Some Of The Topics Discussed:

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


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/05/22/Daily_Search_Forum_Recap__May_22__2009'

    Daily Search Forum Recap: May 22, 2009

    Posted: May 22nd, 2009, 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.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/05/22/SEOs___Digg_Like_Oil___Water_'

    SEOs & Digg Like Oil & Water?

    Posted: May 22nd, 2009, 3:54pm CEST by rustybrick
    Tags:  Search Social  

    A Sphinn thread has discussion around the topic of how much Digg might not like SEO sites or blogs.

    Back when Digg was first getting started, SEOs flocked to it, as a way of driving traffic and ultimately links, to help promote the site in the search engines. In fact, this site was often features on Digg's home page, not because I gamed it or wanted the links, in fact, it often put stress on my server, which I didn't want. It was featured because, on occasion, we write something that is quality. The last time we were featured on the Digg home page was in June 2007 for a brief period until it was manually removed. Since then, hundreds of people submitted our content to Digg and none of it made it "hot."

    Personally, I gave up caring. But there is no doubt, the Digg community doesn't like the SEO community. It is understandable and it is their community.

    The Sphinn thread discusses some of those reasons.

    Forum discussion at Sphinn.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/05/22/Yahoo_Search_Japan_Update__US_Update_Soon_'

    Yahoo Search Japan Update: US Update Soon?

    Posted: May 22nd, 2009, 3:42pm CEST by rustybrick
    Tags:  Search Optimization Yahoo  

    The Yahoo Search Japan blog announced they are updating their index now. Perhaps this is a sign that Yahoo in the US will update soon as well. I am pretty sure that both indexes are mostly separate for the most part, I am not sure if it works the same way at Google, but I think it does at Yahoo.

    A WebmasterWorld thread has a single post about the update. One person who tracks Yahoo Search Japan said "we're experiencing big move on SERP."

    The translated announcement reads:

    Yahoo! In search, Yahoo! Inc. UEBUSACHIENJIN has developed the "Yahoo! Search Technology (YST)" has upgraded the search algorithm.

    Recently we reported Index Update, unlike a significant upgrade and will affect the behavior of search engine algorithms.

    The last US Yahoo Search update we reported was a while ago in March 2009.

    Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/05/21/Daily_Search_Forum_Recap__May_21__2009'

    Daily Search Forum Recap: May 21, 2009

    Posted: May 21st, 2009, 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.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/05/21/What_You_Should_Do_With_Black_Hat_SEOs_'

    What You Should Do With Black Hat SEOs?

    Posted: May 21st, 2009, 4:13pm CEST by rustybrick
    Tags:  Search Engine Industry News  

    This is a great video posted at SEOptimise on what should Google do with black hat SEOs. The video interviews 50 SEOs at SES London.

    Really funny stuff - great job!

    Forum discussion at Sphinn.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/05/21/Google_Launches_New_Search_Suggestions___Drops_Counts'

    Google Launches New Search Suggestions & Drops Counts

    Posted: May 21st, 2009, 3:34pm CEST by rustybrick
    Tags:  Google Search Engine  

    After some testing, Google has finally announced that they will be launching changes to their search suggestions. The key changes include:

    (1) Search Ads in Search Suggestions:

    (2) Improved "navigational query" support:

    (3) Search Suggestions even on search results pages:

    (4) No estimated count numbers, as you can see from the screen shots above. Here is a screen shot of the old way:

    (5) Search suggestions are now personalized based on your search history and other factors:

    (6) Google bolds the query words in the search suggestions drop down.

    I don't see this feature live yet, but it should be soon.

    Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/05/20/Daily_Search_Forum_Recap__May_20__2009'

    Daily Search Forum Recap: May 20, 2009

    Posted: May 20th, 2009, 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.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/05/20/Microsoft_Getting_Ready_to_Launch_New_Search_Engine___Kumo__Bing__Live__MSN_'

    Microsoft Getting Ready to Launch New Search Engine - Kumo? Bing? Live? MSN?

    Posted: May 20th, 2009, 4:00pm CEST by rustybrick
    Tags:  Search MSN Microsoft  

    The exciting topic from last night was that Microsoft is demonstrating their search engine next week at the D: All Things Digital conference. It is expected that the search engine will go live at the SMX Advanced conference a week later.

    Danny Sullivan has a nice write up on what we can expect from Microsoft. There are questions about when it is launching, what brand will it go under and how it will compete with Google. Microsoft is struggling in the area of both branding the engine and making it as good as Google. So we will see how the demo works out and if it can make a dent in Google.

    Time will tell. I was wrong in 2004 when I said Microsoft will beat Google even if they aren't more relevant. I actually am happy that they did not and I am happy to admit I was wrong. I am now wiser to say, let's wait and see with what happens here.

    Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/05/19/Daily_Search_Forum_Recap__May_19__2009'

    Daily Search Forum Recap: May 19, 2009

    Posted: May 19th, 2009, 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.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/05/18/Daily_Search_Forum_Recap__May_18__2009'

    Daily Search Forum Recap: May 18, 2009

    Posted: May 18th, 2009, 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.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/05/14/Daily_Search_Forum_Recap__May_14__2009'

    Daily Search Forum Recap: May 14, 2009

    Posted: May 14th, 2009, 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.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/05/14/Twitter___Replies__Neither_Here_Nor_There'

    Twitter @ Replies, Neither Here Nor There

    Posted: May 14th, 2009, 3:40pm CEST by rustybrick
    Tags:  Search Social  

    Yesterday was a very interesting day for Twitter. In short, Twitter removed the ability to see @ replies. Then they brought it back but in a limited fashion. The Twitter blog explained:

    We're making a change such that any updates beginning with @username (that are not explicitly created by clicking on the reply icon) will be seen by everyone following that account.

    Read that a few times. Neither here nor there.

    Well, you might be able to see people who @ reply you or maybe not, it depends. That is why you might want to conduct a Twitter Search for your name and subscribe to the results via RSS. I do for both @seroundtable and @rustybrick (feel free to follow both).

    To catch up on the Twitter action over the past 24 hours, TechCrunch posted a quality summary of what took place.

    Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld and make sure to follow @seroundtable and @rustybrick on Twitter.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/05/13/Daily_Search_Forum_Recap__May_13__2009'

    Daily Search Forum Recap: May 13, 2009

    Posted: May 13th, 2009, 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.


Official Google Webmaster Central Blog

  • Permalink for 'Official_Google_Webmaster_Central_Blog/2009/05/12/Introducing_Rich_Snippets'

    Introducing Rich Snippets

    Posted: May 12th, 2009, 2:00pm CEST by Maile Ohye
    Tags:  Search results  
    Webmaster Level: All

    As a webmaster, you have a unique understanding of your web pages and the content they represent. Google helps users find your page by showing them a small sample of that content -- the "snippet." We use a variety of techniques to create these snippets and give users relevant information about what they'll find when they click through to visit your site. Today, we're announcing Rich Snippets, a new presentation of snippets that applies Google's algorithms to highlight structured data embedded in web pages.


    Rich Snippets give users convenient summary information about their search results at a glance. We are currently supporting data about reviews and people. When searching for a product or service, users can easily see reviews and ratings, and when searching for a person, they'll get help distinguishing between people with the same name. It's a simple change to the display of search results, yet our experiments have shown that users find the new data valuable -- if they see useful and relevant information from the page, they are more likely to click through. Now we're beginning the process of opening up this successful experiment so that more websites can participate. As a webmaster, you can help by annotating your pages with structured data in a standard format.

    To display Rich Snippets, Google looks for markup formats (microformats and RDFa) that you can easily add to your own web pages. In most cases, it's as quick as wrapping the existing data on your web pages with some additional tags. For example, here are a few relevant lines of the HTML from Yelp's review page for "Drooling Dog BarBQ" before adding markup data:


    and now with microformats markup:


    or alternatively, use RDFa markup. Either format works:


    By incorporating standard annotations in your pages, you not only make your structured data available for Google's search results, but also for any service or tool that supports the same standard. As structured data becomes more widespread on the web, we expect to find many new applications for it, and we're excited about the possibilities.

    To ensure that this additional data is as helpful as possible to users, we'll be rolling this feature out gradually, expanding coverage to more sites as we do more experiments and process feedback from webmasters. We will make our best efforts to monitor and analyze whether individual websites are abusing this system: if we see abuse, we will respond accordingly.

    To prepare your site for Rich Snippets and other benefits of structured data on the web, please see our documentation on structured data annotations.

    Now, time for some Q&A with the team:

    If I mark up my pages, does that guarantee I'll get Rich Snippets?

    No. We will be rolling this out gradually, and as always we will use our own algorithms and policies to determine relevant snippets for users' queries. We will use structured data when we are able to determine that it helps users find answers sooner. And because you're providing the data on your pages, you should anticipate that other websites and other tools (browsers, phones) might use this data as well. You can let us know that you're interested in participating by filling out this form.

    What about other existing microformats? Will you support other types of information besides reviews and people?

    Not every microformat corresponds to data that's useful to show in a search result, but we do plan to support more of the existing microformats and define RDFa equivalents.

    What's next?

    We'll be continuing experiments with new types (beyond reviews and people) and hope to announce support for more types in the future.

    I have too much data on my page to mark it all up.

    That wasn't a question, but we'll answer anyway. For the purpose of getting data into snippets, we don't need every bit of data: it simply wouldn't fit. For example, a page that says it has "497 reviews" of a product probably has data for 10 and links to the others. Even if you could mark up all 497 blocks of data, there is no way we could fit it into a single snippet. To make your part of this grand experiment easier, we have defined aggregate types where necessary: a review-aggregate can be used to summarize all the review information (review count, average/min/max rating, etc.).

    Why do you support multiple encodings?

    A lot of previous work on structured data has focused on debates around encoding. Even within Google, we have advocates for microformat encoding, advocates for various RDF encodings, and advocates for our own encodings. But after working on this Rich Snippets project for a while, we realized that structured data on the web can and should accommodate multiple encodings: we hope to emphasize this by accepting both microformat encoding and RDFa encoding. Each encoding has its pluses and minuses, and the debate is a fine intellectual exercise, but it detracts from the real issues.

    We do believe that it is important to have a common vocabulary: the language of object types, object properties, and property types that enable structured data to be understood by different applications. We debated how to address this vocabulary problem, and concluded that we needed to make an investment. Google will, working together with others, host a vocabulary that various Google services and other websites can use. We are starting with a small list, which we hope to extend over time.

    Wherever possible, we'll simply reuse vocabulary that is in wide use: we support the pre-existing vCard and hReview types, and there are a variety of other types defined by various communities. Sites that use Google Custom Search will be able to define their own types, which we will index and present to users in rich Custom Search results pages. Finally, we encourage and expect this space to evolve based on new ideas from the structured data community. We'll notice and reach out when our crawlers pick up new types that are getting broad use.

    Written by Kavi Goel, Ramanathan V. Guha, and Othar Hansson

Search Engine Roundtable

  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/05/04/Wolfram_Alpha___The_Real_Thing'

    Wolfram Alpha : The Real Thing

    Posted: May 4th, 2009, 4:01pm CEST by rustybrick
    Tags:  Search Other Engines  

    I cannot tell you how many emails I get from PR companies telling me that the next Google is here. Wolfram Alpha, a "fact engine" might be the closest search engine to meet that criteria and in my opinion, Wolfram Alpha does not compete with Google, but it will be a must use search engine.

    Wolfram Alpha is a "fact engine" as Danny describes at Search Engine Land. Actually, before reading on here, you should first read Danny's review and then come back here.

    I watched the full demo, live, last week and I was honestly blown away. It doesn't replace Google but it does fill a much desired need in the search business. Wolfram can answer your questions with hard cold facts. It is more than a Butler answering questions, it is a whole group of Harvard professors answering your questions with incredible detail and clarity.

    Here is a quick demo of the screen shots of Wolfram Alpha:

    Wolfram comes in and gives searchers something they have been missing. You can search for very specific things in the realm of science, math, geography, demographics, and so on and get not just the answer, but detailed information from real sources. There is really nothing like this out there at this scale.

    A WebmasterWorld thread has some interesting comments from SEOs and webmasters on what Wolfram may have to offer:

    Tedster: "I look forward to what this approach may offer. Wolfram brings fundamental genius on the level of Einstein and Hawking, rather than intelligence at the level of Page and Brin."

    JS Harris: "Wolfram seems to be a different beast, not only is all the knowledge there but it's being analyzed and compared in some ingenious ways."

    But most people in the thread are skeptical for good reason. But we need to think that a search engine does not have to compete with Google to be the next Google. It can fill a new need that has been unfilled in the past. I think Wolfram Alpha will fill that need.

    I personally cannot wait to be able to test the new engine out sometime this month. It is currently not live, but they promised to make it live sometime in May.

    Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/05/04/Live_Search_s_HTTP_Headers_Malformed'

    Live Search's HTTP Headers Malformed

    Posted: May 4th, 2009, 3:56pm CEST by rustybrick
    Tags:  Search MSN Microsoft  

    Microsoft is having a rough couple weeks. First they shut down their tests that is causing fake referral data from being spewed out and now I am hearing reports that their HTTP headers are malformed.

    A WebmasterWorld thread reports Microsoft is keep-alive and transfer-encoding the connection. Here is an export of the status:

    HTTP/1.1 200 OK
    Content-Type: text/html; charset=utf-8
    X-Powered-By: ASP.NET
    P3P: CP="NON UNI COM NAV STA LOC CURa DEVa PSAa PSDa OUR IND", policyref="http://privacy.msn.com/w3c/p3p.xml"
    Vary: Accept-Encoding
    Content-Encoding: gzip
    Date: Sat, 02 May 2009 16:56:37 GMT
    Transfer-Encoding: chunked
    Connection: keep-alive, Transfer-Encoding
    Cache-Control: private


    Moderator, jdMorgan adds one more issue to the pack. He added that Microsoft's Live Search headers have a missing value after the If-Modified-Since date.

    Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/05/04/Google_Knows_The_Answer_To_NY_Times_Crossword_Puzzle'

    Google Knows The Answer To NY Times Crossword Puzzle

    Posted: May 4th, 2009, 3:49pm CEST by rustybrick
    Tags:  Google Search Engine  

    Qwerty, a long time High Ranking Forum personality, wrote a blog post named Google Related Searches - Cheaters Rejoice. In short, he explains that Google is smart enough to know the answers to the New York Times crossword puzzle, without even seeing the puzzle. How is this done?

    Well, according to Qwerty:

    So apparently, Google hasn’t indexed the content of the puzzle and related every clue to it. Rather, it looks like it has detected a trend: someone searches on some of the clues, someone else searches on the same clues, someone else searches on some of those and a few others, and this all happens within a few hours, so Google determines that the searches are related to each other based on that, so when I come in and search on one of the clues, Google offers up some of the other searches that were run today by other people who ran that same search.

    I wouldn't be surprised if this was indeed true. So any of you looking to cheat on the NY Times crossword puzzle, give this a try next week.

    Forum discussion at HighRankings Forum.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/05/01/Daily_Search_Forum_Recap__May_1__2009'

    Daily Search Forum Recap: May 1, 2009

    Posted: May 1st, 2009, 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.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/05/01/Video_Recap_of_Weekly_Search_Buzz____May_1__2009'

    Video Recap of Weekly Search Buzz :: May 1, 2009

    Posted: May 1st, 2009, 10:25pm CEST by rustybrick
    Tags:  Search Buzz RoundUp  

    In this week's search recap, I covered several topics on search. I started off with how Google's localized search engines may have some geo targeting issues. Google ran up a $30,000 bill for some new advertiser. Google has a major issue with merging business data on Google Maps. Microsoft stopped faking the search referrals, for now. You can trick AdWords into giving you longer titles with keyword insertion. Google updated their AdSense program policies, this is a big one. Publishers are upset with Google over delayed AdSense payments. Google might ban you if you don't update your privacy policy. Google fashioned a Morse code logo this week. Some are looking to make money off the Swine Flu. That was this week in search from 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. Here is the YouTube version of the feed:


    For the original iTunes version, click here or to see the YouTube version in higher quality, click play at hit "HD."

    Some Of The Topics Discussed:

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


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/05/01/SEO_Tip__NoIndex_Or_503_Site_Coming_Soon_Pages'

    SEO Tip: NoIndex Or 503 Site Coming Soon Pages

    Posted: May 1st, 2009, 3:00pm CEST by rustybrick
    Tags:  Search Engine Optimization  

    A Google Webmasters Help thread has a webmaster upset that he lost his rankings in Google. He switched web hosting companies and days later, his Google rankings plummeted. On typical server move, you should not really lose rankings, if done right. But this person lost his/her rankings.

    Google's JohnMu chimed in on the thread, saying:

    It looks like your site might have shown a generic server start page for a while (a "This is the default ... server page. (...)" page). When this happens over a few crawls, it can confuse Googlebot enough to cause problems with the indexing of your pages. At the moment it appears that this is no longer happening, so I imagine it'll just resolve itself automatically over time.

    Good news, the rankings should come back. But I noticed an interesting tweet from @JohnMu saying:

    Tip of the day: If you have a generic "your site will be hosted here soon" page, use "noindex" or 503 result code, thanks!

    Clearly that is related to this post. This is a good tip for anyone who is moving or setting up a site. I would completely avoid showing a generic message on the server, if possible, but if you can't, the advice above makes sense.

    If you want to see a live site with one of these starter pages, see [commgrad.uky.edu].

    Forum discussion at Google Webmasters Help.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/05/01/Yell.com_Threatening_Drop_in_Google_Rankings_'

    Yell.com Threatening Drop in Google Rankings?

    Posted: May 1st, 2009, 2:50pm CEST by rustybrick
    Tags:  Search Local  

    Let me start off by saying I find this hard to believe. A Google Maps Help thread has one individual claiming that a Yell.com representative claimed that if you don't pay for your Yell.com listing, your Google listing will drop down. Yell.com is a popular UK local search engine.

    The Yell representative reportedly said, "of next week, unless you pay for Yell.com, your listing on Google maps will drop down below anyone listed with Yell.com in your area."

    Of course, this is not possible, Google would not let Yell.com influence how Google Maps works and ranks listings. In early 2008, there were rumors that Google would buy Yell and in 2005 Yell even powered Google Local UK, but that is long over with.

    A Google Maps representative made it crystal clear. Joel H from the Google Maps team said:

    Yell.com doesn't control ranking in our search results.

    Maybe the poster was confused or maybe the Yell.com representative was confused or a bit crazed. I don't know for sure, but one thing I do know is that Yell.com cannot do what this poster said.

    Forum discussion at Google Maps Help.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/04/30/Daily_Search_Forum_Recap__April_30__2009'

    Daily Search Forum Recap: April 30, 2009

    Posted: April 30th, 2009, 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.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/04/30/Poll__Do_You__SEMs__Currently_Have_a_Job_'

    Poll: Do You (SEMs) Currently Have a Job?

    Posted: April 30th, 2009, 3:52pm CEST by rustybrick
    Tags:  Search Engine Industry News  

    I wanted to run a quick poll to see how many of you are employed in this deep recession. The poll is completely anonymous and it would help others gauge how safe or unsafe the search marketing industry is during this recession. Please take the poll below and tell your friends to take it.


    SEMs: Are You Employed?(online surveys)

    A Search Engine Watch Forums thread seems to believe that the search marketing industry is doing excellent these days. In fact, this person says that there are plenty of job openings and very few skilled SEMs to fill those positions. Do you agree?

    Are you currently employed or looking for work in the SEM field? Please take the poll above and tell your colleagues and friends to take the poll.

    Forum discussion at Search Engine Watch Forums.


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/04/24/Daily_Search_Forum_Recap__April_24__2009'

    Daily Search Forum Recap: April 24, 2009

    Posted: April 24th, 2009, 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.

  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/04/24/Global_Live_Search_Local_Listings_Coming_Soon'

    Global Live Search Local Listings Coming Soon

    Posted: April 24th, 2009, 3:46pm CEST by rustybrick
    Tags:  Search MSN Microsoft  

    Live Search Maps is still gaining ground and currently, the only businesses that can verify their listings are those in the US. For US businesses, you can go to Live Search Local Listing Center and update your listings. But if you are outside of the US, you are out of luck.

    A WebmasterWorld thread has a UK business owner who was upset he was unable to verify his listing. MSNDude, an official Microsoft representative has finally come in to respond. His response:

    Unfortunately, we currently do not support local listings outside of the US. However, I believe the local listings team is working to expand this in the near future.

    You hear that? It might be here in the "near future." Who knows how long that really means, but "near future" to me, would mean within the year.

    Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/04/23/Daily_Search_Forum_Recap__April_23__2009'

    Daily Search Forum Recap: April 23, 2009

    Posted: April 23rd, 2009, 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.

  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/04/22/Daily_Search_Forum_Recap__April_22__2009'

    Daily Search Forum Recap: April 22, 2009

    Posted: April 22nd, 2009, 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.

  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/04/22/Google_Video_Search_Results_Redesign_Upsets_Searchers'

    Google Video Search Results Redesign Upsets Searchers

    Posted: April 22nd, 2009, 4:29pm CEST by rustybrick
    Tags:  Google Search Engine  

    It appears Google has launched a redesign of the search results pages on Google Video. For example, a search on barry schwartz returns search results on the left side and the video on the right. If you click on a search result, it shows the video directly on that page and gives you the option to click through and watch it on the site it came from.

    Here is a picture:

    A Google Web Search Help thread (note, the Google Video help forum is no longer, they moved it to the web search section) has a couple users who are unhappy with the new layout. The new layout is due to the fact that Google doesn't allow video uploads on Google anymore. It is now just a search engine for videos, while YouTube is their upload and user generated content (video) section.

    One user said:

    I am seeing a redesign of TV view when I search for a video in Google Video. The video description is takes up a lot of space, the video is smaller (and not expandable) and there is no way to rate videos (or even see video ratings!).

    Alex Chitu said, "the new interface has a lot of flaws: the video player moves as you scroll down, the list of related videos is not always visible, Google Video no longer displays ratings and there's a lot of unused space."

    Forum discussion at Google Web Search Help.

  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/04/22/Yahoo__YHOO__Reports_1st_Quarter_2009_Earnings'

    Yahoo (YHOO) Reports 1st Quarter 2009 Earnings

    Posted: April 22nd, 2009, 4:02pm CEST by rustybrick
    Tags:  Search Engine Yahoo  

    Yahoo announced their first quarter earnings for 2009 and it was pretty bad. Here are the highlights:

    Yahoo! Inc. today reported revenues of $1,580 million for the quarter ended March 31, 2009, a decrease of 13 percent from the first quarter of 2008. Excluding the impact of currency rate fluctuations, revenues for the first quarter of 2009 would have declined 8 percent from the first quarter of 2008. The Company’s non-GAAP operating cash flow for the first quarter of 2009 of $409 million exceeded the midpoint of the outlook range provided by the Company last quarter.

    Plus, Yahoo will be cutting 5% of the staff, that is an additional 600-700 employees from the layoffs they had earlier this year and last year. Sounds like Yahoo is bleeding to me.

    But the thing is, Yahoo beat Wall Street Estimates and the stock is up a bit in pre-market conditions.

    In any event, you can read more about this at Search Engine Land or on Techmeme.

    Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/04/22/Microsoft_To_Fix_Fake_Referrer_Data_From_Live_Search'

    Microsoft To Fix Fake Referrer Data From Live Search

    Posted: April 22nd, 2009, 3:39pm CEST by rustybrick
    Tags:  Search MSN Microsoft  

    Since August 2007 Microsoft has been sending out weird referrer data to people's log files. The spam like referrers were official cloaking tests from Microsoft and should have been resolved in 2007. But they came back in January 2008 and then again in July 2008 without explanation.

    We are now seeing them again, starting last month. A WebmasterWorld thread said it is coming from search.live more than MSN bots.

    Microsoft's Jason chimed in the other day suggesting Betsy Aoki at Microsoft via this form. But soon after, Brett Yount from Live Search's Webmaster Center came in as MSNDude and said:

    I would like to apologize for the inconvenience this is causing. We are working to correct this issue ASAP.

    Hopefully it will get resolved soon and forever.

    Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/04/22/How_To_Verify_My_Google_Profile'

    How To Verify My Google Profile

    Posted: April 22nd, 2009, 3:16pm CEST by rustybrick
    Tags:  Google Search Engine  

    Google announced you can now create verified Google Profiles that potentially can show up in the Google web search results. Danny Sullivan has the ultimate guide on how these Google Profiles work. For example here is my profile as displayed in the Google web results:

    It can also show up in this format:

    To have your profile displayed in the Google web results, you likely need to have a verified listing. How do you verify your profile in Google? It isn't that easy.

    Here is a picture of my profile, there are two verifications. (1) The profile itself (aka "verified name") and the (2) email address.

    Let's start with verifying the profile (aka the name):

    (1) You must go to Google's Knol site and sign in.
    (2) Then go to your profile settings.
    (3) Click on the "Name Verification" tab
    (4) Then choose to verify by phone or via credit card

    If you verify by phone, you enter in your phone number and Google will call it. When you get the call, Google will display a pin code followed by a pound sign on the Knol web site. When prompted, enter in the pin code and pound sign and you should be verified. If you verify by credit card, just enter in your credit card information. Note, Google currently can't verify American Express or Debit cards.

    Verifying your email address:

    (1) Go to your Google Profile and click "edit profile"
    (2) Midway through the page it says "Verified domains" and explains:

    You can verify email addresses and choose which domains (the part after the @) you'd like to appear on your profile. Your email addresses will not be displayed. This will help visitors to your profile know that you are the real you. Learn more

    If your email is already verified, it should read:

    You have verified email addresses at the following domains. Check which domains you'd like to appear on your profile. Your email addresses will not be displayed. This will help visitors to your profile know that you are the real you.Learn more

    Gmail, Yahoo, Microsoft and other free email accounts cannot be verified as domains. You need your own domain. You can add a non Gmail alternative to your Google account to verify your email.

    That is basically how to get the verification labels on your Google Profile.

    Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/04/22/_09_Earth_Day_Logos_From_Google__Yahoo__AOL___Others_in_Search_Industry'

    '09 Earth Day Logos From Google, Yahoo, AOL & Others in Search Industry

    Posted: April 22nd, 2009, 1:21pm CEST by rustybrick
    Tags:  Search Engine Industry News  

    Today is Earth Day and many of the search engines have created special logos to remind people of the day! We have Earth Day logos from Google, Yahoo, Microsoft's Live.com, AOL, Ask.com, DogPile and others!

    Google:

    Yahoo (animated):

    AOL (animated):

    Live.com:

    Ask.com:

    DogPile:

    Cre8asite Forums:

    Search Engine Roundtable:

    We covered the logos for the past several years including 2008, 2007, 2006, 2005 and 2004.

    Forum discussion at Search Engine Roundtable Forums & Cre8asite Forums.

  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/04/21/Daily_Search_Forum_Recap__April_21__2009'

    Daily Search Forum Recap: April 21, 2009

    Posted: April 21st, 2009, 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.

  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/04/16/Two_New_Conferences__ADSPACE___Found'

    Two New Conferences: ADSPACE & Found

    Posted: April 16th, 2009, 2:02pm CEST by rustybrick
    Tags:  Search Engine Conferences  

    There are two new conferences coming up that I thought I let you know about. One is focused specifically around contextual ads, and is named ADSPACE. The other is focused on the technical side of SEO and is named Found.

    The ADSPACE conference is an adTech conference taking place in San Francisco on April 22nd. The speaker list is impressive, including keynotes from Brad Bender, Product Management Director at Google, Will Martin-Gill, Director of Internet at Marketing eBay and Tim Kendall, Director of Monetization at Facebook. The Google AdSense blog posted a promo code that can save you 20%, the promo code is ADSPACED.

    The Found conference is an O'Reilly Media backed event, organized by Vanessa Fox and Nathan Buggia of Microsoft. Speakers include Matt Cutts of Google, Nick Cox of Yahoo, Alessandro Catorcini of Microsoft, dozens of other search reps, and SEO celebrities such as Danny Sullivan, Jill Whalen, Greg Boser and others. I have a 15% discount code if you register using fd09ser code.

    Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

    This article was written earlier this week and scheduled to go live April 16th.

  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/04/15/Factors_That_Search_Engines_May_Use_to_Rank_Your_Web_Pages'

    Factors That Search Engines May Use to Rank Your Web Pages

    Posted: April 15th, 2009, 2:19pm CEST by rustybrick
    Tags:  Search Engine Optimization  

    SEOMoz created the first and second comprehensive search ranking factors document. We now have a new one, a shorter one, from HuoMah.com.

    Dave lists out dozens and dozens of factors and adds commentary around them. Here are some of them, without the commentary:

    • PageRank (or relative nodal link valuation)
    • Link text (internal and external)
    • Link relevance (global and page)
    • Also see Temporal, Personalized PageRank and Phrase factors.
    • Page TITLE tag
    • Meta-description tag
    • Document inception/age data
    • Link velocity
    • Link age
    • Viral/Current news (QDF)
    • Time of year (niche trends)
    • Content update rate
    • Domain history
    • Inbound links (global)
    • Outbound links
    • Named entities (products, brand, author)
    • Contact information (also important for geographic signals)
    • Location of client device
    • Location of webpage hosting
    • Contact / location information
    • Inbound/outbound link geo-factors
    • Linguistic indicators (language and nuances)
    • Heading (H1-5)
    • Bold
    • Italic
    • Lists
    • Font attributes (size, color)
    • Related phrase ratios
    • Categorization of content (clusters)
    • Occurrences (probabilistic)
    • Duplication dampening (filters)
    • Personalization (phrase based)
    • Link analysis (inbound)
    • Global site relevance
    • Term proximity (for multi-term queries)
    • Image tagging (in content segment/related terms)
    • Search History
    • Web history (pages/sites we visit)
    • Query revision (and analysis)
    • Search intent (informational, navigational)
    • Explicit data (favourites, reader,wiki)
    • Interaction with advertising
    • Surfing frequency/ time of day
    • Personalized PageRank (yahoo and google)
    • SERP and document interactions
    • Duplicate issues (structural/content)
    • Link devaluations (segmentation, link text, recips)
    • Poor architecture/coding
    • Reviewer penalties
    • Redundant meta-data (such as meta-descriptions)
    • Canonical / URL issues
    • Server reliability (can be de-indexed)
    • Phrase based detection
    • Cloaking
    • Boilerplate
    • Domain history
    • Query analysis
    • Network proxy detection
    • Link based (link spam and excessive recips)
    • Client type (browser, mobile)
    • Toolbars and browser (Google Suggest, web history)
    • Application focus (email, instant messenger, RSS etc..)

    Exhausting list, but it is nice to have an updated version in one place.

    Forum discussion at Sphinn.

    This article was written earlier this week and scheduled to go live April 15th.

  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/04/14/Daily_Search_Forum_Recap__April_14__2009'

    Daily Search Forum Recap: April 14, 2009

    Posted: April 14th, 2009, 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.

  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/04/14/Video_SEO__Host_Internally_or_on_YouTube_'

    Video SEO: Host Internally or on YouTube?

    Posted: April 14th, 2009, 3:11pm CEST by rustybrick
    Tags:  Search Engine Optimization  

    A HighRankings Forum thread asks if one should host videos on their own server or host them on YouTube.

    I do a lot of videos here in my Search Buzz Video Recaps, which are weekly digests of what we covered here over the course of the week, so I have some experience with this topic.

    Let me start off by saying that Google and most search engines have a very tough time understanding the content within the video. Yes, they are testing out speech recognition and other factors, but right now, these search engines don't rank videos based on the words spoken in a video. They determine the relevancy of the video based on meta data, content around the video, links to the video, the video title and so on.

    That being the case, duplicate content is not really much of an issue in videos then it is with standard content on the web. Why do I say this? I publish our videos both on YouTube and on my own server because I am not currently worried about duplicate content in the video search space.

    YouTube videos simply rank incredibly well. I also want my videos hosted internally so that I can publish an iTunes feed and gain subscribers not only to YouTube but also to my video feed, which can be subscribed to on your favorite RSS reader or via iTunes or other video/podcast readers.

    If you had to make a decision on where to host your videos, I would tell you to host them both on YouTube and on an internal server (I use Amazon S3).

    Here is my process for syndicating my videos:

    1. Upload video to YouTube and write descriptive title and description, plus link to my blog via YouTube
    2. Upload video to S3
    3. Create blog post, embed both YouTube video and a link to the raw video on S3.
    4. Create video XML feed file for iTunes and other podcast readers, which includes the YouTube video in description, but also S3 download URL for readers
    5. I make sure the XML file contains description, title, S3 URL, YouTube embed, link to blog post and other meta data

    You can see my latest video on April 3rd, you can subscribe directly on iTunes or via your favorite RSS reader on watch it on YouTube or on my blog. Yes, I give a bunch of options and they all work well.

    Forum discussion at HighRankings Forum.

  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/04/13/Daily_Search_Forum_Recap__April_9__10___13__2009'

    Daily Search Forum Recap: April 9, 10 & 13, 2009

    Posted: April 13th, 2009, 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.

  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/04/13/Case_Study_Shows_Pushed_SEO_Works_Better_Than_Natural_Site_Development'

    Case Study Shows Pushed SEO Works Better Than Natural Site Development

    Posted: April 13th, 2009, 3:49pm CEST by rustybrick
    Tags:  Search Engine Optimization  

    A very helpful WebmasterWorld thread shares insights from a long time SEO who decided to pin two sites, competing in the same industry, with each other. He took two different strategies for each site. One site was pushed using old school SEO tactics, including doorway pages, paid and reciprocal links, content development and so on. The other site was to build a site with no paid links, unique content, no doorway pages, but add videos, blogs, rss feeds, Twitter integration and so on.

    Let's call the first site the "SEO'ed Site" and the second site the "Quality Site." Guess which one is earning money and getting quality Google traffic? You got it, the "SEO'ed Site."

    The member said:

    Site 1 (AKA "SEO'ed Site"): after just 3 months it was skyrocketing past some pretty hefty competition with traffic increasing well each month. The site was making £10,000+ a month for the last six months we had it and just sold for a rather nice figure.

    Site 2 (AKA "Quality Site"): has struggled to rank anywhere, even for it's own name, and traffic has been stagnant since the outset - it made a loss for the first 8 months and made just under £3000 in it's best month which was last month.

    So what is a webmaster to do? Of course, this is just one single case study. To see exactly what tactics were used on each site, see the WebmasterWorld thread.

    Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/04/13/Yahoo_s_New_Local_Targeting_Feature_Showing_Poor_Quality_Traffic_'

    Yahoo's New Local Targeting Feature Showing Poor Quality Traffic?

    Posted: April 13th, 2009, 3:36pm CEST by rustybrick
    Tags:  Search Yahoo Marketing  

    A month ago, Yahoo made some serious enhancements to the search marketing platform, improving the local targeting capabilities amongst other features.

    WebmasterWorld moderator, werty, has been gathering local data since the feature has been released and has posted the somewhat disappointing results. werty said in a WebmasterWorld thread:

    Currently we are using "North American YSM" and should only be getting North American traffic, but if I look through our logs I can see that 29% of the traffic is coming from foreign countries.

    I could see how maybe 2-3% could come from proxies or things like that, but this traffic is highly suspect.

    Werty goes on to share:

    Of those 2061 that we received we were billed for 1894. This is roughly 8% of "bad traffic" that is being caught or screened by Yahoo!

    There is another 21% that is not being caught, screened or refunded.

    The scariest/funniest part of this is; Of the 2061 clicks, only 43 came from Yahoo! or ca.search.yahoo.com. That is 2.1% of traffic we received or 2.3% of traffic we paid for.

    These are some serious insights and hopefully this is only a bug that is impacting this individual advertiser. I do highly doubt it though and I wonder if Yahoo will respond to this.

    Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

    Update: Yahoo responded in the thread asking:

    werty, are you using the Blocked Continents tool? It allows you to select the continents from which you do not wish to receive traffic. (Our lawyers make me say this next part: The accuracy of the Blocked Continents feature is not guaranteed, and may vary depending on a number of factors, such as the quality and type of data in the traffic stream that we receive. For example, if a searcher is using a product or service that makes the IP address "anonymous," our systems will be unable to determine his/her location, and therefore will be unable to apply continent blocking.)

    Follow these steps to turn on or modify Blocked Continents:

    1. Click on the “Administration” tab.
    2. Click on the “Account General Information” link
    3. In the Blocked Continents field, select the checkbox for each continent to block. You cannot block your own continent, meaning the continent included in the market of your account.
    4. Click “Save Changes”.

  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/04/06/Daily_Search_Forum_Recap__April_6__2009'

    Daily Search Forum Recap: April 6, 2009

    Posted: April 6th, 2009, 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.

  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/04/06/Google_s_Tips_on_Unranking_For_Keywords'

    Google's Tips on Unranking For Keywords

    Posted: April 6th, 2009, 4:00pm CEST by rustybrick
    Tags:  Search Engine Optimization  

    Reverse search engine optimization - unranking for keyword or keyword phrases you work well for. Why in the world would you want to rank less in the search engines? Well, people have their reasons. We actually covered this topic twice in the six plus years of writing about SEO topics:

    A recent Google Webmasters Help thread has a question from an SEO blogger named Gab Goldenberg of SEO ROI. He said he ranks too well for [advertising presentation] in Google and wants to not rank as well.

    Why does he want to rank lower? He feels that his page that ranks well for advertising presentation is not what people are really looking for. This leads to those readers being dissatisfied with what they see and also leads to a high bounce rate. Some believe bounce rates influence rankings of the entire site, so it might be detrimental the rest of the site to have a high bounce rate on a specific page (I don't believe that). But the main reason Gab wants to rank lower is because he only wants happy readers.

    Googler, JohnMu, offered advice on how to rank lower in Google. John said:

    If you rank for a phrase that you don't want to rank for, there's not much you can do other than make sure that your content does not include this phrase. Adjusting the description meta-tag and the title element to give more information about what you are really writing about can be helpful as well, although this may not affect your ranking for that phrase. Adding a "not" qualifier won't really help to change the ranking, but it might help users who are looking for something particular.

    One trick you could try is to replace individual letters with alternate glyphs that look very similar. For instance, you could replace a lower case "L" with the number "1" (or use cyrillic characters that look very similar, eg "e"/"е", "r"/"г", "i"/"і", etc.). While this would make it harder for us to understand your content (say if someone wanted to use Google Translate to read it in their own language), it would likely also prevent your content from ranking for those words.

    Simply, complete unoptimize that page. Or try to target the page towards a more relevant keyword phrase.

    Forum discussion at Google Webmasters Help.

  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/04/04/Video_Recap_of_Weekly_Search_Buzz____April_3__2009'

    Video Recap of Weekly Search Buzz :: April 3, 2009

    Posted: April 4th, 2009, 12:35am CEST by rustybrick
    Tags:  Search Buzz RoundUp  

    Google and the rest of the search industry had a lot of fun with April Fools' Day hoaxes, I recap them in the video. Google had a PageRank update on April 1st, no foolin. Yahoo Search updated earlier this week. Google continues classic, one line, Sitelinks test. Publishers accuse Google of stealing AdSense earnings. AdSense gives more email preferences to publishers. Google drops the video ad units from AdSense. AdWords encourages you to use the new beta interface now. Microsoft drops Ms. Dewey, the fun and witty search character. FeedBurner stats go haywire again. 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. Here is the YouTube version of the feed:


    For the original iTunes version, click here or to see the YouTube version in higher quality, click play at hit "HD."

    Some Of The Topics Discussed:

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

  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/04/03/Daily_Search_Forum_Recap__April_3__2009'

    Daily Search Forum Recap: April 3, 2009

    Posted: April 3rd, 2009, 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.

  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/04/02/Daily_Search_Forum_Recap__April_2__2009'

    Daily Search Forum Recap: April 2, 2009

    Posted: April 2nd, 2009, 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.

  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/04/01/Daily_Search_Forum_Recap__April_1__2009'

    Daily Search Forum Recap: April 1, 2009

    Posted: April 1st, 2009, 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.

  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/04/01/April_Fools_Day___Search_Industry'

    April Fools Day & Search Industry

    Posted: April 1st, 2009, 3:33pm CEST by rustybrick
    Tags:  Search Engine Industry News  

    I wrote a big write up at Search Engine Land on the various search related April Fools gimmicks over here. Here, let me focus on the forum threads I found related to questions on the various April Fools jokes.

    Google went back to 1990 with CADIE: Cognitive Autoheuristic Distributed-Intelligence Entity. In short, the intelligently designed this awesome blog. Honestly, I am not too much into the joke. The funny part is that someone asked "How can I install Gmail Autopilot by CADIE in my gmail account?" Hmm, April Fools!

    Cre8asite Forums renamed to Cre8abanana:

    Finally, you may have noticed that visiting this site, will spring you for an April Fools hoax. The hoax changes if you are on a PC or Mac.

    Mac users (or linux) get the ever so scary kernel panic:

    PC users users get the blue screen of death:

    Hope it didn't freak you out too much. Honestly, every time I visit this site and get that hoax, I get nervous. Something about seeing the kernel panic that scares me, even though I know it is a hoax.

    I wrote a big write up at Search Engine Land on the various search related April Fools gimmicks over here.

    Forum discussion at Google Web Search Help, Cre8asite Forums and Search Engine Roundtable Forums.

  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/04/01/Multiple_Robots.txt_Files_for_Single_Domain'

    Multiple Robots.txt Files for Single Domain

    Posted: April 1st, 2009, 3:13pm CEST by rustybrick
    Tags:  Search Engine Optimization  

    A HighRankings Forum thread asks why do some people use more than a single robots.txt file to control and instruct search spiders how to crawl and access their content. That is a good question. Typically, the spiders will only listen to the robots.txt file found in the root level. So technically, if you place a robots.txt on a subdomain, the search engine will likely ignore it. I do not believe the same applies to subdomains, where subdomains have their own root levels.

    HighRankings administrator, Randy, said:

    robots.txt anywhere but the Root level will be ignored by the spiders. In fact it would surprise me if it's ever even queried. robots.txt is not like .htaccess where you can control things on a per directory level.

    The only way a subdirectory robots.txt might be valid is the rare case where someone has a domain name parked on a subdirectory of another domain. Or possibly if the subdirectory is really a subdomain, though that one too is questionable in my mind and isn't something I've tested to see if spiders look for a robots.txt for each subdomain.

    I love what Ron Carnell added:

    FWIW, I almost always back up a file before modifying it. My ex-wife always said I had trust issues? At any rate, I probably have a few copies of robots.txt laying around on more than a few sites. I don't worry about it because, as you pointed out, the only one that counts is in the root.

    I believe Google often uses individual sitemaps per subdomain, to control their content.

    Forum discussion at HighRankings Forum.

  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/03/31/Daily_Search_Forum_Recap__March_31__2009'

    Daily Search Forum Recap: March 31, 2009

    Posted: March 31st, 2009, 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.

  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/03/27/Daily_Search_Forum_Recap__March_27__2009'

    Daily Search Forum Recap: March 27, 2009

    Posted: March 27th, 2009, 10:00pm CET by rustybrick
    Tags:  Search Pulse  

    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.

  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/03/27/_Text__Recap_of_Weekly_Search_Buzz____March_27__2009'

    (Text) Recap of Weekly Search Buzz :: March 27, 2009

    Posted: March 27th, 2009, 7:37am CET by rustybrick
    Tags:  Search Buzz RoundUp  

    I am in Israel now, so I am skipping the video this week. Here is the text based version of the weekly recap. Google seems to be pushing more search options on searchers through something being called Google Search Wheel. Google also added more search refinements and detailed (longer) snippets to Google web search. Google Blog Search finally pushed out their algorithm update for blogroll detectors. 23% of publishers say more than 75% of their income comes from Google AdSense. AdSense had major issues with double serving ads, which results in a reporting spike and a fix from Google. Did you know unpausing deleted campaigns can reactivate them in AdWords? Advertisers, publishers and affiliates are afraid over a new proposed bill that can tax more retailers. Google mobile has a big issue. iGoogle continues to sign people out. Did you know you can get Google to remove porn for Google Suggest? That was this week at the Search Engine Roundtable.

    Next week, I am back with the video recaps.

  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/03/27/Google_Releases_Major_Blog_Search_Blogroll_Algorithm_Update'

    Google Releases Major Blog Search Blogroll Algorithm Update

    Posted: March 27th, 2009, 7:23am CET by rustybrick
    Tags:  Google Search Engine  

    The much awaited update to the Google Blog Search blogroll detector algorithm has finally been pushed through.

    An updated Google Groups thread has Googler, Jeremy Hylton saying:

    We have launched a ranking change that reduces the number of results that are returned because of blogroll matches. There are still problems to work out, but this change appears to be a big improvement over our earlier fix. We had originally planned to launch an experiment for link: queries, but decide more recently to release this change first. We are still working on the link: change and expect to have that ready in a few more weeks.

    We did expect to see an update for how Google Blog Search responds to the link query, but as Jeremy said, that won't be released yet for the next few weeks. But the blogroll matching detector, which matches for keywords in the blogroll sections of sites, should no longer return results for those keywords.

    Why does this matter? Well, lets say you are like me and you track who links or mentions you via Google Blog Search. If someone has the Search Engine Roundtable in the blogroll, and the do a daily blog post, even if that blog post doesn't mention the Search Engine Roundtable, blog search would show that new blog post as a match. Why? Because it is in the blogroll and Google thinks it is part of the content of the blog post. Google said they fixed this issue but they do want feedback at the Google Groups thread.

    Forum discussion at Google Groups.

  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/03/27/Google_Safe_Search_Filter_Bug_Still_Unresolved'

    Google Safe Search Filter Bug Still Unresolved

    Posted: March 27th, 2009, 7:18am CET by rustybrick
    Tags:  Google Search Engine  

    February 3rd, we reported Google Won't Let Some Searchers Turn Off "Safe Search" Filter, well, almost two months later, the issue is still not resolved. In fact, Google cannot find any issue.

    The other day, Googler Skylar said he was unable to find any issue. He said in the Google Web Search Help thread:

    Thanks everyone for providing information about your computers and browsers. I’ve been passing these details along to the rest of the team to check on SafeSearch filtering. We're currently unable to find errors with SafeSearch filtering. It is likely that a corrupt cookie, a third-party add-on, or an anti-virus program could be interfering with your preferences. I recommend giving the "Preferences aren't sticking" help article a try to make your preferences stick. In the meantime, I understand that it is frustrating when your preferences don't stick, and I'm sorry for any inconvenience you're experiencing.

    But this does not explain why hundreds of searchers are still having this issue.

    Forum discussion continued at Google Web Search Help.

  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/03/27/Do_Search_Engines_Read_The_Anchor_Text_of_NoFollowed_Links_'

    Do Search Engines Read The Anchor Text of NoFollowed Links?

    Posted: March 27th, 2009, 7:08am CET by rustybrick
    Tags:  Search Engine Optimization  

    A HighRankings Forum thread asks an interesting question. If I add links to my web page and nofollow them, does Google still read the anchor text of the link and use that in part of how they determine what my page is contextual about.

    For example, if I link to Search Engine Land as follows; <a href="http://searchengineland.com/" rel="nofollow">Search News</a> would Google or any other main search engine, take the words "search news" and place that text as being relevant to what this page is about? We know Google won't pass the link value of that link to Search Engine Land, but do we know if Google ignores that text completely?

    Has anyone done any tests on this yet? If not, anyone want to try?

    Forum discussion at HighRankings Forum.

  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/03/27/How_To_Remove_Google_Porn_Suggestions'

    How To Remove Google Porn Suggestions

    Posted: March 27th, 2009, 6:55am CET by rustybrick
    Tags:  Google Search Engine  

    Almost two months ago, we asked, Should Google Search Suggestions Show Adult Suggestions? In short, Google, on occasion, showed search suggestion for porn/adult related phrases, as you typed your query. The example I gave then, was when you typed "you," Google would offer a suggestion to youpron which is an adult site. Here is the before picture:

    A new Google Web Search Help thread shows that Google listens and does remove porn/adult keyword suggestions from that list. The case in that thread was for when you search for [hvernig] Google offered a suggestion [hvernig á að totta] which in Icelandic means "how to give a blowjob."

    Googler, Skylar, said last night that it has been removed. He said:

    The inappropriate suggestion will no longer appear when someone types "hvernig" in the search box. Thanks again for sharing your feedback about this query suggestion so that we can improve Google Suggest.

    So I decided to check the [you] query and it was gone also:

    So how do you remove porn suggestions from Google? Post your complaint in the web search forums.

    Forum discussion at Google Web Search Help.

  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/03/26/Daily_Search_Forum_Recap__March_26__2009'

    Daily Search Forum Recap: March 26, 2009

    Posted: March 26th, 2009, 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.

  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/03/26/Mobile_Google_Not_Working_For_Many'

    Mobile Google Not Working For Many

    Posted: March 26th, 2009, 10:59am CET by rustybrick
    Tags:  Google Search Engine  

    There is a long thread of upset iPhone, G1 and mobile users at Google Mobile Help discussions. It seems like many users who try to access Google.com on their iPhone or G1 are being presented with errors.

    The first report came in on the 23rd, saying "I get the following error message: "error to use eval to parse history info json string!" But many other users are complaining as well. This is not only impacting iPhone users, but also G1 users and likely users of Google Mobile on any mobile device.

    iPhone users can manually fix the issue by going to Settings, then Safari, and then click on Clear History, Clear Cache, Clear Cookies.

    Googler, Bret, said:

    Thanks for the feedback guys. We're looking into this issue. I'll post any updates I have to this thread.

    Hopefully this gets resolved soon.

    Forum discussion at Google Mobile Help.

  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/03/25/Daily_Search_Forum_Recap__March_25__2009'

    Daily Search Forum Recap: March 25, 2009

    Posted: March 25th, 2009, 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.

  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/03/25/Google_Adds_More_Search_Refinements___Detailed_Snippets'

    Google Adds More Search Refinements & Detailed Snippets

    Posted: March 25th, 2009, 1:01pm CET by rustybrick
    Tags:  Google Search Engine  

    The Google Blog announced Google has added additional search refinements and detailed snippets. Here is part of the announcement:

    More and better search refinements
    Starting today, we're deploying a new technology that can better understand associations and concepts related to your search, and one of its first applications lets us offer you even more useful related searches (the terms found at the bottom, and sometimes at the top, of the search results page).

    Longer snippets

    When you enter a longer query, with more than three words, regular-length snippets may not give you enough information and context. In these situations, we now increase the number of lines in the snippet to provide more information and show more of the words you typed in the context of the page. Below are a couple of examples.

    We noticed Google testing long snippets at least twice and also an option to control snippet size.

    Do you like it?

    Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/03/25/Google_Pushing_More_Search_Options_On_Searchers_'

    Google Pushing More Search Options On Searchers?

    Posted: March 25th, 2009, 12:33pm CET by rustybrick
    Tags:  Google Search Engine  

    Marty from the aimClear blog emailed me a screen shot yesterday morning, which looked like Google experimental search results. I then spotted a WebmasterWorld thread that discusses the same thing Marty emailed me.

    There is a new link in the Google results that says "Show Options." When clicked, it opens up other grouping options. Robert, a WebmasterWorld admin also sees it and he describes the options as:

    The main groupings select among...

    - types of results (All results, Recent, Videos, Forums, Reviews)...
    - time of results (with options between Anytime and the past year)...
    - different types of what I'd call snippet displays (with options including standard or longer snippets, and snippets including image thumbnails)...
    - and different views (including Standard, Wonder wheel, Timeline, and Search Suggestions)

    Here is a screen capture:

    When I try to search for the query that they spotted this with, I get a message from Google that reads:

    The option you have selected is currently unavailable.

    Is this a form of experimental search being forced on searchers?

    Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/03/24/Daily_Search_Forum_Recap__March_24__2009'

    Daily Search Forum Recap: March 24, 2009

    Posted: March 24th, 2009, 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.

  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/03/23/Daily_Search_Forum_Recap__March_23__2009'

    Daily Search Forum Recap: March 23, 2009

    Posted: March 23rd, 2009, 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.

  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/03/23/Advertisers__Publishers___Affiliates_Scared_Over_Proposes_California_Tax_Law'

    Advertisers, Publishers & Affiliates Scared Over Proposes California Tax Law

    Posted: March 23rd, 2009, 1:18pm CET by rustybrick
    Tags:  Search Legal Issues in  

    There are two different threads at WebmasterWorld that show publishers, advertisers and affiliate's concern over a new proposed tax law in California.

    The law, as understood in the thread, would potentially tax any seller who using AdWords to market their product or service. Moderator, incrediBILL, explained:

    The conclusion I drew after reading the law is that since AdSense directly refers customers via links, as do the AdWords ads showing in the SERPs, it's therefore theoretically possible that anyone using Google as an advertising vehicle could be subject to CA tax.

    If people advertising in Google are suddenly subject to collecting and paying CA tax then people will most likely stop advertising on Google.

    You can see the details about this tax proposal named AB178 and the hearing won't be until April 13, 2009.

    Some are very skeptical over the bill and they are not worried too much about how it might impact them.

    Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

    Update: 5 Star Affiliate Blog has very good coverage of this concern. Well worth a read.

  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/03/20/Video_Recap_of_Weekly_Search_Buzz____March_20__2009'

    Video Recap of Weekly Search Buzz :: March 20, 2009

    Posted: March 20th, 2009, 10:22pm CET by rustybrick
    Tags:  Search Buzz RoundUp  

    Today's Search Video I talk quickly about the logos for the first day of Spring, and also St. Patrick's day logos. Google finally spoke about the AJAX pages. Yahoo added features to search marketing product. Google AdWords tests favorite icons. AdWords keyword tool has a bug. Yahoo Directory might be free. I offered three link building tips. I also gave two SEO tips. Don't fall for a potential Google money scam. SEOs are split on need to specialize. I won't be at SES NY and no video next week. That is what we covered 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. Here is the YouTube version of the feed:


    For the original iTunes version, click here or to see the YouTube version in higher quality, click play at hit "HQ."

    Some Of The Topics Discussed:

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

  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/03/20/Daily_Search_Forum_Recap__March_20__2009'

    Daily Search Forum Recap: March 20, 2009

    Posted: March 20th, 2009, 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.

  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/03/10/Daily_Search_Forum_Recap__March_10__2009'

    Daily Search Forum Recap: March 10, 2009

    Posted: March 10th, 2009, 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.

  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/03/10/Happy_Purim__No_Logo_From_Google_This_Year'

    Happy Purim: No Logo From Google This Year

    Posted: March 10th, 2009, 3:18pm CET by rustybrick
    Tags:  Search Engine Industry News  

    In March 2007, Google Israel had a special logo for today's Jewish holiday, Purim. Last year and today, there is no special logo at Google Israel or Google or any of the search engines that I looked at, including Yahoo, Live.com, Ask.com, or even DogPile.

    But that is okay, we have a special theme live for the holiday. Here is a picture of it, but you can see the whole theme live at the Search Engine Roundtable:

    We also had a theme last year and a picture of that is over here.

    Maybe Google will have a logo in 2010? It is a fun holiday and they can go wild with the logo, if they like.

    Forum discussion at Search Engine Roundtable Forums.

  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/03/10/Utah_Law_Passes_Ban_On_Trademarked_Search_Ads__SEMs_Discuss'

    Utah Law Passes Ban On Trademarked Search Ads: SEMs Discuss

    Posted: March 10th, 2009, 3:06pm CET by rustybrick
    Tags:  Search Legal Issues in  

    Last week at Search Engine Land, I covered an Eric Goldman story on Utah trying to pass a bill for the third time, on regulating search ads. In short, the bill finally passed in the Utah House (still needs to be approved by Senate) and it holds search advertisers liable for targeting trademarks as keywords. It does not hold the search companies, i.e. Google, Yahoo and Microsoft liable (that bill failed). To see the bill, click here.

    Shorebreak at WebmasterWorld gives a good explanation of the bill:

    This bill, sponsored by 1-800-Contacts, prevents search engines from being able to serve competitive ads if someone searches for a branded/trademarked keyword. So, for example, if someone Google's '1-800-Contacts', Google would not be able to serve LensCrafters' ad, even if Lenscrafter didn't include the brand term in their ad copy.

    Now, most search companies do not allow the trademarked terms to appear in the ad copy, but do allow bidding on many trademarked terms, as long as they are not in the ad copy. There has been a ton of legal precedent in this area already, so that is why Eric Goldman is surprised it finally passed. He said it "barely made it through due to the fierce last-minute lobbying efforts of 1-800 Contacts."

    That being said, some advertisers hate the law and some actually like it. Guess who likes it and who hates it? :)

    Many don't believe this law will last, since e-commerce goes over state boundaries and because geo-targeting capabilities are often not 100%.

    Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/03/09/Daily_Search_Forum_Recap__March_9__2009'

    Daily Search Forum Recap: March 9, 2009

    Posted: March 9th, 2009, 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.

  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/03/09/URL_Case_in_SEO_Matters'

    URL Case in SEO Matters

    Posted: March 9th, 2009, 2:10pm CET by rustybrick
    Tags:  Search Engine Optimization  

    Sometimes we forget or forget to look after basic SEO topics. The other day, I caught one of my programmers allowing both capitalized URLs and lowercase URLs result in having the same destination page. Let's take Twitter as an example, since it was brought up in a Google Webmaster Help thread.

    Twitter allows both capitalized and lowercase URLs return the same page. For example, both [twitter.com] and [twitter.com] return the same exact page, content and information. But Google considers http://twitter.com/google and http://twitter.com/Google to be different pages, in many cases.

    Now, Google isn't that dumb, just do a search for [www.google.com] (the capitalized version) and Google will know you really want the lowercase version:

    But you don't want to make Google figure this stuff out. What you should do, is make sure there is only one version, preferably the lowercase version in my opinion. If someone does go to a capitalized version, 301 that page to the lower case URL.

    Forum discussion at Google Webmaster Help.

  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/03/06/Daily_Search_Forum_Recap__March_6__2009'

    Daily Search Forum Recap: March 6, 2009

    Posted: March 6th, 2009, 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.

  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/03/06/Video_Recap_of_Weekly_Search_Buzz____March_6__2009'

    Video Recap of Weekly Search Buzz :: March 6, 2009

    Posted: March 6th, 2009, 7:35pm CET by rustybrick
    Tags:  Search Buzz RoundUp  

    Please let me know if you prefer the longer videos in the comments area. Google may have updated PageRank, but the "brand push" is called the "Vince" change. I talk in detail about the "Vince" change and why webmasters are upset. A publisher takes Google to small claims court and wins. You can close down your competitors in Google Maps. Google emails webmasters about malware, again. Microsoft preps new search engine, Kumo. Ask.com just went to far when they started framing search results again. Google UK is testing one line Sitelinks. SEOs still fear the Google supplemental index. Google does expandable AdSense ads. Google AdSense adds Euro reports after exchange rate complaints. AdSense updated their home page. Google delayed payments to some advertisers by three months. AdWords title bug shows more than 25 characters. Is business improving for you in the past two weeks? Finally, happy Square Root day! Again, please let me know about the length and to see the full video, you need to use the iTunes feed or download the original file (I am working on getting an extended YouTube account). 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. Here is the YouTube version of the feed:


    For the original iTunes version, click here

    Some Of The Topics Discussed:

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

  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/03/06/Google_UK_Testing__Classic__One_Line_Sitelinks'

    Google UK Testing "Classic" One Line Sitelinks

    Posted: March 6th, 2009, 2:14pm CET by rustybrick
    Tags:  Google Search Engine  

    I posted a search brief on this topic at Search Engine Land, when I saw Search Engine War noticing Google UK testing single line Sitelinks. But it seems like more folks in the UK are noticing the "classic" Sitelinks showing up. I call them "classic," because the first time we saw Sitelinks, they were in the form of a single line.

    A WebmasterWorld thread has one UK searcher noticing them. They call it "mini" but there is nothing "mini" about having any extra line in the Google search results. Typically, Sitelinks look like this:

    Eight links, in four rows and two columns. Earlier, Google was testing four links in a single column:

    But originally, before we even knew what they were called, they were on a single line:

    Search Engine War has a picture of the new "classic" Sitelinks in place.

    Personally, I prefer the single line Sitelinks - at least from a searcher's perspective. Just seems cleaner and lets me see more results on a page.

    Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/03/05/Daily_Search_Forum_Recap__March_5__2009'

    Daily Search Forum Recap: March 5, 2009

    Posted: March 5th, 2009, 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.

  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/03/04/Daily_Search_Forum_Recap__March_4__2009'

    Daily Search Forum Recap: March 4, 2009

    Posted: March 4th, 2009, 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.

  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/03/04/Google_SMS_Search_Goes_Offline_Again'

    Google SMS Search Goes Offline Again

    Posted: March 4th, 2009, 2:28pm CET by rustybrick
    Tags:  Google Search Engine  

    If there was a three strike rule for Google SMS Search, Google would have been out a long time ago. For the fourth time in about two months, Google SMS Search went offline again.

    The most recent, was the other day. We have two threads at Google Mobile Help. The first thread has confirmation from a Googler.

    Googler, Zeke said:

    Thanks for posting. Yes, we were experiencing some issues yesterday with the mobile aggregator used by many carriers. This caused a delay in responses, but them problem has been fixed.

    You should be able to use Google SMS normally now. Please let me know if you run into any other trouble.

    The later thread specifically complains about Google not returning hockey scores. I tried some of those searches and they did not return results for me, but searching for [scores lakers] did work just fine for me.

    Here are the past articles we wrote on Google SMS search failing:

    Forum discussion at Google Mobile Help.

  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/03/04/Reaction__Microsoft_Testing_New_Search_Features__Code_Name_Kumo'

    Reaction: Microsoft Testing New Search Features: Code Name Kumo

    Posted: March 4th, 2009, 2:08pm CET by rustybrick
    Tags:  Search MSN Microsoft  

    Microsoft Search, MSN Search, Live Search, Windows Live Search, and now Kumo? Yea, Microsoft is still finding themselves with a brand for search. Currently, Live.com is the search portal for Microsoft, but everyone knows they have issues branding that portal. Plus they need to differentiate. Until now, and even now, they are playing catch up with search technology, trying to get up to speed with even Yahoo. Google, well - they are pretty far ahead.

    Microsoft's answer? Code name, Kumo. I am not going to show screen shots, that has been done all over the web already. I would suggest reading Danny Sullivan's break down of screens and features.

    I want to share the reaction from the webmaster from WebmasterWorld. Here are select quotes from the thread:

    Good news but you cannot "catch up". A new service won't create more searches so they'll have to cut into Yahoo and Google to borrow some of theirs.

    You know, it's the Yin and Yang and Yahoo effect.

    Microsoft entered and took over the browser war in about 5 years.

    In search, they have not gained any ground in 5 years. Time to go back to making your OS better. Like maybe having an upgrade path from XP to your latest OS, considering XP still has a 70% market share... But hey, we are talking Microsoft here... They will do what they want regardless of common sense.

    If they're smart and they can work out the licensing, the next version of Windows will ship with IE, FF, Chrome and Safari all set to go and all defaulting to their search engine.

    Oh yeah, and they'll quit changing the name of their search engine every year.

    Oh yeah, and they'll quit choosing stupid names for a search engine, like Live or Kumo.

    Sounds like lipstick on a pig to me. Google's safe for another decade or two.

    What I like about this new search they are testing is their focus on the usefulness of the search engine in terms of accomplishing tasks. Microsoft appears to be looking closer at user intent.

    Some of this comments are classic! I was wrong, I thought by now Microsoft would be totally competing with Google. I admit it, I was wrong.

    Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/03/03/Daily_Search_Forum_Recap__March_3__2009'

    Daily Search Forum Recap: March 3, 2009

    Posted: March 3rd, 2009, 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.

  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/03/03/Happy_Square_Root_Day___Google_Not_That_Geeky_'

    Happy Square Root Day : Google Not That Geeky?

    Posted: March 3rd, 2009, 4:23pm CET by rustybrick
    Tags:  Search Engine Industry News  

    You think Google is a "geeky" company? Well, they did not have a special logo for Pi Day last year, nor do they have a special logo for today, Square Root Day.

    What is Square Root Day? Well, today is 3-3-9 and it is celebrated on "dates where the day and the month are both the square root of the last two digits in the current year," according to Wikipedia. The next time it is celebrated will be on April 4, 2016, so it doesn't happen all that often.

    We decided to put up a special theme for the day, even though no other search engine did. Here is our theme:

    Forum discussion at Search Engine Roundtable Forums and Google Webmaster Help.

    Update: Google's Twitter account posted a mention saying, "Happy Square Root Day from all of us at Google!" at 5:16pm (EST) linking to a search result for square root of 9.

  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/02/27/Daily_Search_Forum_Recap__February_27__2009'

    Daily Search Forum Recap: February 27, 2009

    Posted: February 27th, 2009, 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.

  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/02/27/Video_Recap_of_Weekly_Search_Buzz____February_27__2009'

    Video Recap of Weekly Search Buzz :: February 27, 2009

    Posted: February 27th, 2009, 5:50pm CET by rustybrick
    Tags:  Search Buzz RoundUp  

    In this week's edition, I covered Yahoo's new ad tools that should help them gain support. Also, I discussed Google Search's recent "brand push." Google Blog Search is still working on a solution. I discussed in more detail, the link clique concept - worth watching, in my opinion. Yahoo lowered minimum bids for some advertisers. Google updates their image index again. Google News added 20,000 new sources. Google News also dropped publishers by accident. AdWords is requiring you to link to your Analytics account. Google joined Twitter! We got the Mardi Gras logos archived. 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. Here is the YouTube version of the feed:


    For the original iTunes version, click here

    Some Of The Topics Discussed:

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

  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/02/26/Daily_Search_Forum_Recap__February_26__2009'

    Daily Search Forum Recap: February 26, 2009

    Posted: February 26th, 2009, 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.

  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/02/26/Yahoo_Search_Update__February_2009'

    Yahoo Search Update: February 2009

    Posted: February 26th, 2009, 2:34pm CET by rustybrick
    Tags:  Search Optimization Yahoo  

    There seems to be a Yahoo Search update taking place now. A WebmasterWorld thread has discussion around the update. We do not have official confirmation from the Yahoo Search Blog yet, but we didn't have confirmation the last update either.

    The first report came in early yesterday morning and since then, many others confirmed seeing an update as well. Let me pull out the key findings from the thread:

    • Link counts may have dropped
    • Some are reporting canonical issues
    • One person reported "different titles and descriptions for singular vs. plural of my main keyword. It's the same URL, so kind of odd."

    Why did Yahoo not announce this update? Well, maybe they will today or tomorrow. But the Yahoo Search Japan blog announced it the other day. It translates to:

    Yahoo! In search, Yahoo! Inc. UEBUSACHIENJIN has developed the "Yahoo! Search Technology (YST)" has started a full update of the index.

    The Index Update?

    YST, every day to make a more user-friendly search engine, such as Japan's own and respond to the world stage and improve the work of Akira Osamu develop new features and functions. To reflect the results of this search engine, built-in indexer will update the entire index.
    Position changes are expected to be improved with the results of this search. The full completion of the update takes a few days.

    Yahoo! Search Project

    The last update was a small hiccup on February 9th but a larger update was on or around January 19th.

    Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/02/26/Yahoo_Search_Marketing_Lowering_Minimum_Bids_For_Many'

    Yahoo Search Marketing Lowering Minimum Bids For Many

    Posted: February 26th, 2009, 2:12pm CET by rustybrick
    Tags:  Search Yahoo Marketing  

    Many Yahoo Search advertisers are reporting that Yahoo has decreased the minimum bid requirements on some keywords in their campaigns over the past couple days. A WebmasterWorld thread has several advertisers confirming this activity.

    In fact, I received a message from Yahoo with the exact same notification on February 24th at 8:37 PM. The Yahoo Search Marketing "alert" said:

    Minimum bid requirements have decreased for 'Company Name' [account #]. Some of your inactive Sponsored Search keywords are now active. Review bids now.

    Why has Yahoo reduced the bids for some keywords? Don't they want to make more money?

    Well, it seems that some keywords were "inactive" and were making Yahoo no money at all. Possibly by decreasing the minimum bids, Yahoo has reactivated these keywords and is now capable of making some money on these keywords. Thus activating hundreds, if not thousands of new ads into the search marketplace automatically, but with giving notification.

    In January, Yahoo had the nerve to make changes to advertiser campaigns after there was an outcry already. So clearly this is still going on, but Yahoo is at least sending "alerts" now.

    Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/02/25/Daily_Search_Forum_Recap__February_25__2009'

    Daily Search Forum Recap: February 25, 2009

    Posted: February 25th, 2009, 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.

  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/02/23/Is_There_a_Recent_Big_Brand_Bias_at_Google_Search_'

    Is There a Recent Big Brand Bias at Google Search?

    Posted: February 23rd, 2009, 2:35pm CET by rustybrick
    Tags:  Google Search Engine  

    There is an interesting thread at WebmasterWorld that Google may be biased towards showing more and more "big brands" in the top Google web search results.

    Yea, yea - big brands have more links, more trust, more pages and bigger budgets to rank better. We all know that. But some are speculating that this month, more than any other month, there was a spike in how Google ranks these big brands.

    Tedster, WebmasterWorld's administration, goes as far to possibly imply, and I quote, "Eric Schmidt made some comments that brands were more important."

    The question is how would Google do this?

    • Manually?
    • Using social media metrics
    • Linkage data
    • Something else

    There is a lot of speculation and concern in that thread right now.

    Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/02/23/Yahoo_May_See_Major_Reorganization_In_Coming_Weeks'

    Yahoo May See Major Reorganization In Coming Weeks

    Posted: February 23rd, 2009, 2:23pm CET by rustybrick
    Tags:  Search Engine Yahoo  

    Yahoo's new CEO, Bartz, is rumored to be pushing out a major reorganization for the troubled search engine in the upcoming weeks. Kara Swisher at AllThingsD, I believe, broke the news about this coming down. You can see some additional coverage on the news at Techmeme.

    Greg Sterling summarizes this new management style as "top down" approach, something Yahoo might not be use to. But Yahoo needs change and maybe this will be it.

    Supposedly, Bartz is very tight lipped about who she tells her plans. So I suspect both executives and the normal workers at Yahoo are both a bit antsy on what will take place this week.

    Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/02/23/Misinterpreting_SEO_Advice'

    Misinterpreting SEO Advice

    Posted: February 23rd, 2009, 2:00pm CET by rustybrick
    Tags:  Search Engine Optimization  

    The SEO industry is a conflicted industry to work in, in many respects. Much of the public still thinks this is a form black magic, some feel the industry is packed with scam artists and some just totally don't get it. Let's not forget the conflict of the struggle between the search engine and the search engine optimizers. Oh, then black hat versus white hat. It makes for a very conflicted industry.

    The last thing we need is misinterpreting SEO advice. But it happens more often in conflicted and new industries, then it would happen in other industries.

    A HighRanking Forums thread reminded me of just one minor example of misinterpreting SEO advice. Let me quote you the frustration one SEO felt about his boss's recent SEO discovery:

    My boss went upstate to meet with a partner and their SEO "expert" advised him that Google sets aside the 2, 3 and 6 spot in their Top 10 listings to video. Yes folks, it's a miracle. Someone has in their infinite wisdom broken the Google algorithm and found this wonderful tidbit of information. When I tried to argue the validity of this decree, my boss assured me that the "expert" proved it to him.

    Now, with Google Universal Search, there were times where specific spots seemed to be set aside for video. But not for all queries and not all the time. Even nowadays, it seems like the specific spots that appeared to be set aside to video, in some queries, are no longer the same spots. A video can now show up in the 1st result or the 5th result or the 4th result or any of the top ten results.

    So what happened here? I suspect the "boss" misinterpreted this "SEO experts" advice as to use videos. I personally recommend videos for SEO purposes to many people. It can do very well in the Google results and you can get your message out to a whole group of people through the video. In fact, I did a piece at Search Engine Land named Want To Rank Tops In Google? Do YouTube Videos, Stupid! The summary:

    The Forrester Blog published a small but interesting study on how you can improve your chances, by 50 times, of showing up at the top of the Google search results. Their tip? Utilize Google’s Universal Search by creating videos.

    But it is not that simple, you need to look beyond those numbers and use wisdom and experience to know when to use which strategies.

    Forum discussion at HighRanking Forums.

  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/02/20/Daily_Search_Forum_Recap__February_20__2009'

    Daily Search Forum Recap: February 20, 2009

    Posted: February 20th, 2009, 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.

  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/02/20/Video_Recap_of_Weekly_Search_Buzz____February_20__2009'

    Video Recap of Weekly Search Buzz :: February 20, 2009

    Posted: February 20th, 2009, 5:10pm CET by rustybrick
    Tags:  Search Buzz RoundUp  

    I covered a lot of news in this 10 minute video. I wish I could make them longer, but YouTube has a 10 minute limit. In this recap, I covered the Yahoo Search video ads. Google tests SearchWiki on AdWords. Google now lets publishers pick their fonts. Google decided to slap AdWords advertisers this week. Google now requires pricing in Ringtone ads. Google's reporting engine flipped on the weekend. Google begins offer searcher tips. Can you hijack Google Translate? 70% of AdSense publishers report lower earnings last month. Fake news makes its way onto Google News. Google scores a D at the BBB. Google Webmaster Tools has a Sitemap bug and a link reporting bug. AdWords API extends February 23rd deadline to March 9th. Happy Valentines day and Presidents day, we got the logos covered! That is the news from the past week from 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. Here is the YouTube version of the feed:


    For the original iTunes version, click here

    Some Of The Topics Discussed:

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

  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/02/20/Google_Drops___Yahoo_Gains_In_Search_Share__comScore'

    Google Drops & Yahoo Gains In Search Share, comScore

    Posted: February 20th, 2009, 3:04pm CET by rustybrick
    Tags:  Search Engine Industry News  

    comScore released their January 2009 report on search market share, and for the first time in a while, Google's share declined month to month.

    In December 2008, Google had a 63.5 % share, but in January, they dropped down to a 63.0% share. Yahoo gained month to month with a gain from 20.5% to 21.0%.

    Google Sites led the U.S. core search market in December with 63.0 percent of the searches conducted, followed by Yahoo! Sites (21.0 percent), Microsoft Sites (8.5 percent), AOL LLC (3.9 percent) and Ask Network (3.7 percent).

    In any event, you need to understand this is month to month and you need to look at the numbers over time. So I wouldn't jump to any conclusions after looking at the monthly numbers.

    A WebmasterWorld thread is discussing this and one member said something very funny, as to a possible explanation:

    maybe it had to do with that malware issue to which google was linking people

    Could be... They go to Google, do a search on that Saturday and freak out and leave. Then they head over to #2, Yahoo.

    Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/02/20/Google_Maps_Closes_Down_Business_When_it_is_Still_in_Operation'

    Google Maps Closes Down Business When it is Still in Operation

    Posted: February 20th, 2009, 2:41pm CET by rustybrick
    Tags:  Google Search Engine  

    A business owner is showing his frustration with Google over Google Maps listing his business as closed. In a Google Webmaster Help thread, this business owner said:

    The search result from Google shows our office as closed (the exact phrase shown is "place closed")

    Can someone please point me how I can get this corrected? Our office is not closed.

    Want to see it yourself? Here is a link to the live map, but for archival purposes, here is a screen capture:

    Notice how it says, "place closed" directly under the business name.

    This business owner can fix this by going to the Google Local Business Center and updating his listing there. And if you have not verified your business, go do so, so this doesn't happen to you!

    Forum discussion at Google Webmaster Help.

  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/02/20/Does_Google_Deserve_A__D__On_Their_Better_Business_Bureau_Rating_'

    Does Google Deserve A "D" On Their Better Business Bureau Rating?

    Posted: February 20th, 2009, 2:30pm CET by rustybrick
    Tags:  Google Search Engine  

    If you visit Google's reliability report at the Better Business Bureau (BBB) web site, you will notice they have a rating of a "D." The D rating is when the BBB says:

    We have enough concerns about this company (for example, their offer, customer complaints, advertising, etc.) that we recommend caution in doing business with it.

    How can the BBB caution people conducting business with the largest and most loved search ad company?

    In the past 36 months there have been a total of 424 complaints. To me, that is a pretty low number based on the number of advertisers and Google users they have.

    In July, I reported at Search Engine Land that the BBB listed Google as unsatisfactory. In any event, does Google deserve a D or unsatisfactory rating?

    A Google AdWords Help thread has responses from advertisers. I personally like BizWriter's response:

    I agree with you about the scammers, affiliates etc. but -BBB D rating or not- the real issue is that AdWords support is mostly an euphemism even for honest advertisers. Misleading messages in AdWords interface, no phone support, loops and dead-ends when someone tries to contact support. Is that the customer support one would expect from a multi-billion -"do no evil"- company? Google is getting sclerotic and you need to be nimble in business. Just my 2 cents.

    JezC, a top Google help member said:

    I'm astonished, after all the stuff you've replied to, that you give this any credibility. There's *two* issues (CC denials, and account review speed) that are showing up as a pattern here, and *one* significant cause of increased activity - more newbie affiliates than I can recall seeing in around five years of activity on this forum.

    So what do you think? Does Google deserve this rating?

    Forum discussion at Google AdWords Help.

  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/02/19/Daily_Search_Forum_Recap__February_19__2009'

    Daily Search Forum Recap: February 19, 2009

    Posted: February 19th, 2009, 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.

  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/02/15/2009_Valentines_Day_Logos_from_Google__Yahoo__Live___Search_Industry'

    2009 Valentines Day Logos from Google, Yahoo, Live & Search Industry

    Posted: February 15th, 2009, 1:20am CET by rustybrick
    Tags:  Search Engine Industry News  

    Happy Valentines Day everyone! Here are the logos from the various search engines:

    Google had two logos, depending on where in the world you were:

    Yahoo's animated logo:

    AOL's animated logo:

    Live.com's Theme:

    Ask.com's Theme:

    DogPile's logo:

    YouTube's logo:

    Cre8asite Forum's Logo:

    BruceClay's logo:

    Search Engine Roundtable (us) Theme:

    For the past years, see Valentines 2008, Valentines 2007, Valentines 2006 and Valentines 2005.

    Forum discussion at Google Webmaster Help.

  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/02/13/Daily_Search_Forum_Recap__February_13__2009'

    Daily Search Forum Recap: February 13, 2009

    Posted: February 13th, 2009, 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.

  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/02/13/Video_Recap_of_Weekly_Search_Buzz____February_13__2009'

    Video Recap of Weekly Search Buzz :: February 13, 2009

    Posted: February 13th, 2009, 6:10pm CET by rustybrick
    Tags:  Search Buzz RoundUp  

    This week was SMX West, and I shared my personal favorite sessions and our new way of live blogging them. I would love to hear your feedback on our new live blogging platform, so please let me know what you thought. The search engines announced a new tag to help with duplicate content, a canonical tag. Google Japan got penalized for buying links. Google got into pornography trouble twice with maps and once with search suggestions. Google had a bug that stopped payments to publishers. Google tells some advertisers to take a hike. Some SEO companies instill fear in their clients. Google is testing images in Google Blog Search Alerts. That recaps the news in the 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. Here is the YouTube version of the feed (note: If YouTube shows a video not found message, just refresh the page and play it again, it is a YouTube bug):


    For the original iTunes version, click here

    Some Of The Topics Discussed:

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

  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/02/13/Webmasters_Skeptical_But_Loving_New_Canonical_Search_Engine_Tag'

    Webmasters Skeptical But Loving New Canonical Search Engine Tag

    Posted: February 13th, 2009, 3:25pm CET by rustybrick
    Tags:  Search Engine Optimization  

    Yesterday, Google, Yahoo and Microsoft announced together a new way to handle internal duplicate content issues with a new "canonical" header tag. Vanessa Fox does an excellent job explaining what it is all about in her piece at Search Engine Land.

    So for all duplicate pages, you insert this tag in the header elements of those pages, specifying the main URL. The tag looks like this:

    <link rel="canonical" href="http://www.example.com/true-url.html" />

    Google, Yahoo and Microsoft have detailed explanations of how they work.

    Three main things:

    (1) This works only internally, not across domains.
    (2) Treat this like you would a 301 redirect, so be careful
    (3) Search engines consider this a "hint" and do not have to abide by it (just yet)

    Outside of that, there is good recaps on this at Techmeme.

    We have a ton of Q&A on this from our live coverage of the Ask the Search Engines panel from SMX West. I am sure your questions are answered in that panel or in the discussions below.

    This tag can be confusing, because it is new. But after webmasters begin to understand where, if and how to use it, they are more likely to love it.

    JohnMu said in a forum post:

    Here are some examples where this could be used: - Web-shops (mutliple URLs depending on how you got to a page) - Sites that work with Session-IDs within the URL - Ad-tracking URLs (eg using AdWords + Analytics) - Affiliate tracking URLs - News sites with multiple URLs per article - Forums with multiple URLs per thread/page (eg "&highlight=", etc)

    Plus, Yoast already posted plugins to support this for Wordpress, Magento and Drupal.

    Forum discussion Google Webmaster Help, Cre8asite Forums, WebmasterWorld and Sphinn.

  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/02/13/Daily_Search_Forum_Recap__February_12__2009'

    Daily Search Forum Recap: February 12, 2009

    Posted: February 13th, 2009, 12:27am 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.

  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/02/12/Live_Coverage_of_Productivity_Tips_For_The_Busy_Search_Marketer_at_SMX_West'

    Live Coverage of Productivity Tips For The Busy Search Marketer at SMX West

    Posted: February 12th, 2009, 11:40pm CET by rustybrick
    Tags:  Search Marketing Expo 2009 West  

    Below is live coverage of the Productivity Tips For The Busy Search Marketer from SMX West 2009 conference.

    This coverage is provided by both Barry Schwartz, the editor of the Search Engine Roundtable and Keri Morgret of Morgret Designs.

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

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    Productivity Tips For The Busy Search Marketer(02/12/2009) 
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    2:47 Barry Schwartz:  Matt McGee mods up this panel
    2:47 Barry Schwartz:  Thomas Schmitz is up first from Portent Interactive
    2:48 Barry Schwartz:  Tools
    - Prepacked
    - Written by smart people
    - Save time
    - Avoid aggravation
    2:49 Barry Schwartz:  Tools
    - Limited to program abilities and outputds
    - Stuck with programs faults
    - Can be expensive
    2:50 Barry Schwartz:  Scripts
    - Save time
    - Save money
    - Avoid aggravation
    - Custom & targeted
    - Use anything you cfind and can gather on the net
    2:50 Barry Schwartz:  Scripts
    - Limited to accessible data
    - Limited by scripting ability
    2:51 Barry Schwartz:  Start with PHP or MySQL if your getting startted
    2:52
    2:53 Keri Morgret:  He's talking about brute force tools.
    2:53 Keri Morgret:  Go into Word, replace characters with other characters so you can then dump it into Excel and run things without Excel choking on those first characters.
    2:53 [Comment From Pedro Sttau]
    Looking foward to this. Hello Barry and Keri. :)
    2:54 Keri Morgret:  Access is worth the learning curve, since it's relational.
    2:54 Barry Schwartz:  KEyword research example will bring this all together...
    2:55 Keri Morgret:  He uses iMacros, a firefox addon that automates repetitive tasks.
    2:55 Barry Schwartz:  He shows a script to grab data, parses it and then adds a macro code to automate repetitive tasks
    2:56 Keri Morgret:  He's showing a lot of great things, but I'm not able to write it down fast enough. This is why you should come to the conference. ;)
    2:57 Keri Morgret:  You do need to do hand filtering, you can't automate everything.
    2:57
    2:58 Barry Schwartz:  David Wallace is next up, he is the picture above
    2:58 Barry Schwartz:  David will share more of his routines to be productive
    2:59 [Comment From Pedro Sttau]
    I used to use Macros on My Excel sheets to handle pretty much everything that needed calculations done, but today most of the "repetitive tasks" are repetitive but not so much "automizable", dont know if you have the same experience.
    2:59 Keri Morgret:  Begins day with email, bloglines, and twitter.

    2:59 [Comment From Prashant]
    can you give an example of what you would use these macros for? i'm a little confused
    3:00 Barry Schwartz:  @prashant to help automate the clean up for the data grabbing tool
    3:00 Keri Morgret:  - Take care of new emails that don't require a lot of time -- get it out of the way.
    - Categorize blog feeds, can sift through those based on current priorities
    - Open new posts in separate tab that I want to write a post about.
    - Click on TwitterFox icon and look for DMs or @ replies only.
    3:01 Keri Morgret:  Writing New Posts:

    Creative or resourcevful posts can be scheduled anytime.
    Posts covering industry news need immediate attention
    Read, write, and publish.

    3:01 Keri Morgret:  Everything else:
    can be client projects, RFPs, finances, etc.
    3:02 [Comment From Prashant]
    sorry, which data grabbing tool? i feel like i'm missing a piece of information
    3:02 Barry Schwartz:  @Parshant, he writes his own with scripts
    3:02 Keri Morgret:  Managing email overload:
    Uses outlook express.
    Has extensive category structure
    Only keep "pending" emails. If it's done business, saves it to hard drive.
    Non-important, non-pending emails are discarded.
    Outlook Express Backup Genie
    3:03 Barry Schwartz:  David's inbox slide looks like a post I wrote at my personal blog [www.cartoonbarry.com]
    3:05 Barry Schwartz:  He uses bloglines !!! ugh! why why why
    3:05 [Comment From Pedro Sttau]
    OutlookExpress? Am a bit surprised there. Thunderbird is so superior at organizing email , prioritizing it and making it "actionable"
    3:05 Keri Morgret:  He shows the multiple social bookmarking sites he uses.
    3:05 Barry Schwartz:  His blog reader folders looks very similar to mine also :)
    3:06 Keri Morgret:  He tries to be selective, avoids time wasters.
    3:07 Barry Schwartz:  He uses TwiterFox, never uses the Twitter web page
    3:08 [Comment From Prashant]
    i heart twitterfox. makes the whole "process" of twitter so much quicker
    3:08 Keri Morgret:  Tries to make sure all scheduled work is done by the 20th of the month to make sure you have time for your stuff in addition to client stuff.
    3:09 Barry Schwartz:  Next up is Jennifer Slegg, JenSense
    3:09
    3:10 Keri Morgret:  How to make non-desk time productive. COmmuting time, waiting time, kids' activities.
    3:10 Barry Schwartz:  OMG! She uses notebooks and pens and paper!
    3:11 Barry Schwartz:  I am the anti-paper, so this is weird
    3:11 [Comment From Pedro Sttau]
    Getting client related tasks done 10 days before the month is over? Dear me I am definitely doing something wrong with my time here.
    3:12 Keri Morgret:  This is a way to keep you on task -- if you just write something down on paper, you're not going to get on and check twitter and email and get your spouse to give you a nasty look when you want to write a quick reminder note to yourself.
    3:12 Barry Schwartz:  She makes an excellent point, my wife won't yell at me if I open a small notebook, but when I open my laptop or my iPhone -- oh boy
    3:12 Keri Morgret:  Personal voice recorder. New ones are great. You can dictate blog post ideas, reminders for yourself, etc. It's digital, so you can copy it to your computer.
    3:13 Keri Morgret:  Dragon Naturally Speaking. Converts words to text, imports into word, dreamweaver, wordpress.
    Can either dictate directly into computer or use a digital voice recorder to convert your voice file into text that you can import.
    3:14 Keri Morgret:  Buy the best rated recorder you can afford. Dragon rates many from expensive to top of the line. If you plan to dictate while driving, buy one of the better recorder / microphone options.
    3:14 Keri Morgret:  Dragon's website is the one that rates the recorders.
    3:14 Keri Morgret:  Dragon is trainable, so it can understand SEO, PPC, AdSense, etc.
    3:15 Keri Morgret:  Netbooks and MiniLaptops. It's a fast bootup, easy to carry anywhere, can work on it during downtime. Can upload to webserver or thumdrive .Can't run World of Warcraft or anything, but most business things you need. You've got great battery life with it.
    3:15 Keri Morgret:  BBs, iPhones, etc. She loves it, wonders how she got along without it (so do I! km).
    3:16 Keri Morgret:  At Jott.com you can leave a phone message and it is sent in an email to yourself. It starts at $3.95 a month.
    3:16 Keri Morgret:  She's never had a problem with the transcription. They can also go into your voicemail and transcribe your voicemail to text.
    3:17 Barry Schwartz:  Stephan Spencer is the last speaker, here is a picture
    3:17
    3:19 Keri Morgret:  URL for downloading his powerpoint:
    [www.netconcepts.com]

    3:20 Keri Morgret:  GTD-getting things done. Best thing that's ever happened.
    3:20 Barry Schwartz:  [www.davidco.com]
    3:20 Barry Schwartz:  [www.amazon.com]
    3:21 Keri Morgret:  Multiple action lists running concurrently in your brain? Ideas buried w/in files, folders, emails, Post-Its, to-do lists? Bad, bad, bad!

    GTD stands for Getting Things Done, the best-selling book by David Allen

    Get stuff out of your head & into a trusted system that also tracks the “open loops” you’re waiting on

    Reach a state of flow, i.e. “Mind like water”

    3:21
    3:21 Keri Morgret:  - Processing: For this project/idea, what is the “Next Action”? What is its context?

    - Contexts: @home, @office, @errand, @computer, @email, @blog, @tweet, @read/review, @agenda, ...

    - Review your Next Actions by context. Do in batches.

    - In addition to Next Actions, you can also have Projects, Someday/Maybes, Waiting For, Deferred, Agendas
    Project = anything requiring more than one action
    3:22 Keri Morgret:  You get things into an in-tray of sorts, and you process it as you put it in. YOu process it and decide the context.
    3:22 [Comment From Pedro Sttau]
    One of the best productivity sessions I have ever seen was done by Prof. Randy Pausch on Time Management. Changed my life. :) Anyone mention it so far?
    3:22 Barry Schwartz:  @Pedro, not yet
    3:23 Keri Morgret:  For contexts, this means you can do a task list that's just for your phone -- here's stuff I can do on my phone. You only have 15 things on this list, instead of trying to sort through 300 to dos.
    3:24 Barry Schwartz:  Selling your home is an "actional item" it is not something you put on your "to do list"
    3:25 Keri Morgret:  Project can be something like "buy a house", to do is "contact neighbor about the agent she used"
    3:25 Keri Morgret:  - Horizons of focus: runway (next actions), 10000 ft view (projects, this yr), 20000 ft view (areas of focus), 30000 ft (1-2 yrs), 40000 ft (3-5 yrs), 50000 ft view (life goals)
    - Weekly review: a weekly appt with yourself. The key to successful GTD, though most neglected. 1-2 hrs long.
    -- "Process" your intray
    -- Revisit Someday/Maybes, Projects, Waiting For, Next Actions
    - Two minute rule: if the item can be completed in
    3:25 [Comment From Prashant]
    @pedro where did you see/attend that productivity lecture?
    3:26Are you productive?
    Yes
     ( 20% )No
     ( 80% )
    3:26 Keri Morgret:  Horizons of focus is the big picture.
    3:27 Keri Morgret:  Calendar: Only what must be done on a certain date.

    Tickler file: 43 folders, labeled 1-31 and January-December. Use it to park physical items like bills not yet due. Look at the current day’s file. On the new month, look at that month’s file and if necessary move those into the appropriate 1-31 folders.

    With GTD, easy to fall off the wagon. Also easy to fall back on.
    3:27 [Comment From Pedro Sttau]
    So from what I understant its all about breaking things down into small little actions. I tried that aproach, but it seemed that my "actionable to do list" was so large and time consuming that it simply didn't work. I had to break those little tasks into actionable groups and then sort those groups by relevance. Sounds freaky, but it worked for me. Keri: "Horizons of focus is the big picture". Wont forget that one, nice. :)
    3:27 [Comment From Prashant]
    you have to admit, that "are you productive" question was a bit funny...i am assuming everyone who is here reading this live blog isn't really being too productive :)
    3:28 Keri Morgret:  Mac: Things, Journler, OmniFocus, iGTD

    PC: GTD Outlook Add-in, ClearContext for Outlook, MyLifeOrganized, TimeTo, Easy Task Manager, ThinkingRock

    Web-based: Tracks, GTD V2, Backpack, MonkeyGTD, ActiveCollab

    Paper: “Hipster PDA”
    3:28 [Comment From Pedro Sttau]
    Prashant: Why not? Learning to be more productive is itself productive.
    3:29 Keri Morgret:  He's showing us screenshots of the software he uses.
    3:30 Keri Morgret:  Non-GTD productivity tools:

    ActionMethod.com
    RememberTheMilk.com
    Both of the above are web-based (SaaS)
    3:30 [Comment From Prashant]
    @pedro because personally speaking, i could be working on a client's project but instead i am viewing this live blog which i could read later too when i know i have time ;)
    3:30 [Comment From Pedro Sttau]
    Keri, can you post some of the software in the screenshots?
    3:30 Barry Schwartz:  @Pedro you can download the PPT
    3:30 Barry Schwartz:  URL for downloading his powerpoint:
    [www.netconcepts.com]
    3:31 Keri Morgret:  Read The 4-Hour Workweek by Tim Ferriss fourhourworkweek.com

    Your secret to success: Delegate everything! Let go!
    Tim even outsourced his online dating – successfully!

    Hire 1 or more “VAs” at Calculate your hourly rate. Annual income is a very deceptive number that people use to justify unsustainable workloads.

    Repetitive task? Delegate it.
    3:32 Keri Morgret:  Be sure to download his presention. There are lots of great things there, very well written.
    3:33 Barry Schwartz:  That ends the speaker presentations, time for Q&A.
    3:33 Barry Schwartz:  ~10 mins for Q&A
    3:33
    3:34 Barry Schwartz:  Someone asked David, how would Stephen's idea fit in his schedule?
    3:35 Barry Schwartz:  David said he has to read the book first...
    3:35
    3:36 Barry Schwartz:  Matt talks about the difference between working at home vs in an office...
    3:36 [Comment From Pedro Sttau]
    Any tips on managing constant client phone calls that you simply cant "filter"?
    3:37 Barry Schwartz:  Stephen said he is more productive in an office, at least when he worked in NZ
    3:38 Barry Schwartz:  Now he has his own office to get stuff done... So agree, you need to close the door.
    3:38 Barry Schwartz:  Thomas said, set "busy" on your IM
    3:39 Barry Schwartz:  Get yourself headphones, so you wont be distrubed
    3:39 Barry Schwartz:  The bigger the better
    3:39 Keri Morgret:  Get yourself BIG headphones so they don't come up to you.
    3:40 [Comment From Prashant]
    i like using a separate computer all together for any chat/email. that way i can turn off the monitor/close the lid of the laptop and only check when i can instead of constantly seeing a flash/hearing new email sounds and being impelled to check out what's going on.
    3:40 Barry Schwartz:  Check email only a few times per day (I cannot do that)
    3:41 [Comment From ian]
    You can, of course, turn OFF your IM.
    3:41 Keri Morgret:  Thomas: use the simplest form of whatever you're working on. Use a shared Google Docs document instead of passing around a Word document in email.
    3:42 [Comment From Prashant]
    @ian well if you are using IM to communicate with clients/colleagues on a project then it becomes a little difficult to simply turn it off because then (at least for me) i get phone calls which become even more distracting overall.
    3:44 Barry Schwartz:  That wraps up the SMX West Live Blogging coverage. Thank you so much for reading and particapting. Hoping on a plane to NY tonight.

    Check www.seroundtable.com daily for news and subscribe to our feeds. :)
    3:45 Barry Schwartz:  Thank you Keri for everything!
    3:45


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/02/12/Live_Coverage_of_Ask_The_Search_Engines_at_SMX_West'

    Live Coverage of Ask The Search Engines at SMX West

    Posted: February 12th, 2009, 10:25pm CET by rustybrick
    Tags:  Search Marketing Expo 2009 West  

    Below is live coverage of the Ask The Search Engines from SMX West 2009 conference.

    This coverage is provided by both Barry Schwartz, the editor of the Search Engine Roundtable and Keri Morgret of Morgret Designs.

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

  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/02/12/Live_Coverage_of_Ask_The_SEOs_at_SMX_West'

    Live Coverage of Ask The SEOs at SMX West

    Posted: February 12th, 2009, 8:25pm CET by rustybrick
    Tags:  Search Marketing Expo 2009 West  

    Below is live coverage of the Ask The SEOs from SMX West 2009 conference.

    This coverage is provided by both Barry Schwartz, the editor of the Search Engine Roundtable and Keri Morgret of Morgret Designs.

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

  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/02/12/Live_Coverage_of_Ask_The_Link_Builders_at_SMX_West'

    Live Coverage of Ask The Link Builders at SMX West

    Posted: February 12th, 2009, 6:55pm CET by rustybrick
    Tags:  Search Marketing Expo 2009 West  

    Below is live coverage of the Ask The Link Builders from SMX West 2009 conference.

    This coverage is provided by both Barry Schwartz, the editor of the Search Engine Roundtable and Keri Morgret of Morgret Designs.

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

  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/02/12/Live_Coverage_of_Keynote__John_Battelle_at_SMX_West'

    Live Coverage of Keynote: John Battelle at SMX West

    Posted: February 12th, 2009, 5:55pm CET by rustybrick
    Tags:  Search Marketing Expo 2009 West  

    Below is live coverage of the Keynote: John Battelle from SMX West 2009 conference.

    This coverage is provided by both Barry Schwartz, the editor of the Search Engine Roundtable and Keri Morgret of Morgret Designs.

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

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    Keynote: John Battelle(02/12/2009) 
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    8:57 Barry Schwartz:  Starting in 3 minutes!
    9:02 Barry Schwartz:  Danny starts off by saying how Google banned Google Japan [www.seroundtable.com]
    9:03 Barry Schwartz:  He mentioned Darwin beat out Lincoln in the Google logo [searchengineland.com]
    9:03
    9:03 Barry Schwartz:  He introduces John Battelle now
    9:04 Barry Schwartz:  John Battelle is author of the outstanding book on how search engines developed, The Search, in which he also coined oft-repeated description of search engines as a “database of intentions.” A veteran journalist and entrepreneur, this keynote conversation will cover how John sees search developing, the challenges ahead and searches greater impact on the internet and society.


    9:04
    9:05 Barry Schwartz:  He starts off about the book and how it wasn't named "The Google" :)
    9:05 Barry Schwartz:  They let him call the book "The Search" and they took the title and put it into Google fonts and Google colors
    9:05 Barry Schwartz:  He said in some countries, it is named "The Google" this or that....
    9:06 Barry Schwartz:  Fundamental changes in companies since the time of the book?
    9:06 Keri Morgret:  He got the idea to write the book after a meeting with Eric Schmidt.
    9:07 Keri Morgret:  Battelle thought that search was the largest intersection of media and technology that ever existed, but was hard to convince Schmidt of this back in the beginning.
    9:08
    9:08 Keri Morgret:  There were 900-1000 employees at the time Battelle left the Google offices from this meeting.
    9:08 Barry Schwartz:  Apparently, Google is losing a couple employees here and there, he said.
    9:09 Keri Morgret:  There isn't an ocean Google hasn't boiled, or has tried to boil.
    9:10 Keri Morgret:  Music industry is good example of a shift from one presumptive model to another.
    9:10
    9:11 Barry Schwartz:  He compares this industry to the music industry...
    9:12 Barry Schwartz:  The music industry is now adapting to this world
    9:13
    9:13 Keri Morgret:  It may be true that you want to pay for the Wall Street Journal, but your local paper may not be worth paying for.
    9:13 Barry Schwartz:  He thinks the newspaper business model is broken
    9:14 Barry Schwartz:  he thinks you can monetize papers just with ads, and he disagrees with Walt on his write up on this.
    9:14 Keri Morgret:  All of the search engines have benefited by all of the traditional media that has been put in the web.
    9:14 Barry Schwartz:  [www.time.com] is Walt's theory
    9:15Will the newspaper business survive?
    Yes
     ( 60% )No
     ( 40% )
    9:15 Keri Morgret:  Keeping our government honest and keeping citizens informed is one things newspapers will keep rpoviding.
    9:16 Keri Morgret:  Successful models abroad have newspapers as public trusts.
    9:17 Barry Schwartz:  "Google has been doing pretty well on the balance sheet"
    9:17 Barry Schwartz:  At the end of the day, there is a certain part to journalism that is above pretty profit margin but it needs to be honored by our culture... we need to get to at least break even point...
    9:17
    9:18 Keri Morgret:  There will always be a market for certain types of journalism. Hard to make a profit in straight news though.
    9:18 Keri Morgret:  Danny reminds us that Battelle has a blog and a Twitter account that we should all visit.
    9:19 Keri Morgret:  [battellemedia.com] and [twitter.com]

    9:20 Barry Schwartz:  HE thinks MSFT will grow 5 points in search share because they will "Buy it" -- not necessary buy yahoo or aol but buy distribution deals
    9:21
    9:21 Barry Schwartz:  Just the other day, another Yahoo exec went to Microsoft [searchengineland.com]
    9:21 Barry Schwartz:  He thinks Google will lose some share to Microsoft
    9:22 Barry Schwartz:  Q: Do you think Microsoft will bull past Google?
    9:22 Barry Schwartz:  A: Battelle said not this year...
    9:22Do you think Microsoft will bull past Google?
    Yes
     ( 33% )No
     ( 67% )
    9:22
    9:24 Keri Morgret:  He gives an example of Shazam as a way of search. It's an app for the iPhone where you can have it listen to some music playing and it will tell you what the music was. It's search, but not what we think of search.
    9:24 Barry Schwartz:  [www.shazam.com]
    9:24 Keri Morgret:  He talks about how he thought that having a search engine (hotbot) in 1995 was a bad idea. We already have seven. Why do we need any more? Laughter from the audience.
    9:27 Keri Morgret:  "three bump theory of interface culture".

    What Battelle argues is that in the interface between man and machine, the first interface was a non-grammatical foreign language that made no sense to most people. Gives example of COBAL or FORTRAN programmers.

    Then we got Windows and Mac. We got to what he calls the "hunt and poke" interface. Being in a foreign country where you don't speak the language, but you can "hunt and poke" by clicking icons to figure out what's going on.
    9:27 Keri Morgret:  Fairly full house here this morning.
    9:28 Keri Morgret:  We have so much information now that the hunt and poke method just doesn't cut it. We needed a new interface, and he argues that this interface is search. Using natural language to talk to computer.
    9:28 Keri Morgret:  Right now, search is still the command prompt and blinking cursor. He thinks we're about to shift into a new interface.
    9:29 Barry Schwartz:  There are problems with voice search, but it will get better...
    9:29 Barry Schwartz:  Language is going to be huge in the next search interface...
    9:29 Barry Schwartz:  It doesnt have to talk back to you, but we are just getting started in this area.
    9:31 Keri Morgret:  Danny offers Battelle a Twitter break. John doesn't have his phone, but Danny needs to feed his Twitter addiciton. They start talking about Twitter and where this is taking things.
    9:32 Keri Morgret:  He asks how many people here Tweet. Nearly everyone raises their hand. He talks about how hard it is to explain Twitter to people that aren't familiar with it, like trying to explain that you used FORTRAN.
    9:32 Keri Morgret:  Once you figure out Twitter it's insanely useful.
    9:32
    9:32 Keri Morgret:  When you get to a critical mass of people talking about what they're doing, eating for breakfast, etc. you have a database of intenions with what is happening right now.
    9:33 Keri Morgret:  Can be insanely useful to be able to query this database of realtime information.
    9:33 Keri Morgret:  Gives example of someone going to Twitter to start asking for recommendations of purchases like cars instead of going to a search engine.
    9:33
    9:34
    9:35 Barry Schwartz:  John then talks about his question on AT&T's network, here is his blog post on that [battellemedia.com]
    9:35 Barry Schwartz:  Best use case for Twitter to adopt it, is the comcast cares
    9:35 Barry Schwartz:  [twitter.com]
    9:36Are you own Twitter?
    Yes
     ( 80% )No
     ( 20% )
    9:36 Keri Morgret:  He's telling people to join Twitter, even if you only use it for Comcast customer services. Tweet comcast sucks, you'll get help right away.
    9:36 Barry Schwartz:  Is paid search and SEO gaining on traditional media?
    9:37 Keri Morgret:  He's talking about big brands realizing they need to own their name space.
    9:39
    9:40 Barry Schwartz:  "Conversational Marketing"
    9:40 Keri Morgret:  Marketing online was stuck in two modes -- billboard mode and demand harvesting.
    9:42 Barry Schwartz:  we now know what engagement online means
    9:43 Keri Morgret:  Conversational marketing -- You have to have a practice in figuring out how to create media that adds value to the conversation online.

    If someone runs in and yells that IBM servers are wonderful and runs out, it wouldn't work well. If you were from IBM and sitting there and answering a question and can talk about yes, I'm from IBM, and I think that x might work and here's why, that's much better.
    9:44
    9:44 Barry Schwartz:  Chris Silver Smith snapping pics right in front of me....
    9:44 Barry Schwartz:  Last two questions...
    9:45 Keri Morgret:  "The Conversation Economy" is the name of his next book.
    9:47 Barry Schwartz:  Web 2.0 Expo coming this March
    9:47 Barry Schwartz:  They don't have the theme, 100% for the next show
    9:47
    9:47 Barry Schwartz:  Lots of industries are being forced into being reborn, such as banking
    9:48 Barry Schwartz:  People laughed there, did you?
    9:48 Barry Schwartz:  That is all folks, in less then 15 minutes we will be covering Ask the Link Builders live... should be fun...!!!
    9:49 Barry Schwartz:  That is all we got for this session. We will be ending the live blog session but you can reply or view the transcript immediately after I end this broadcast. Thanks for tuning in to the Search Engine Roundtable's Live Coverage!
    9:49 Barry Schwartz:  More at [www.seroundtable.com]
    9:49


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/01/31/Google_Labeled_My_Site___This_site_may_harm_your_computer_'

    Google Labeled My Site: "This site may harm your computer"

    Posted: January 31st, 2009, 8:04pm CET by rustybrick
    Tags:  Google Search Engine  

    If you conducted a Google search between 9:30am and 10:25 am (EST) on Saturday, January 31st, you would have seen Google label all the search results as "This site may harm your computer." Google admitted it was a human mistake. How did it happen? Here is how Google explained it:

    We maintain a list of such sites through both manual and automated methods. We work with a non-profit called StopBadware.org to come up with criteria for maintaining this list, and to provide simple processes for webmasters to remove their site from the list.

    We periodically update that list and released one such update to the site this morning. Unfortunately (and here's the human error), the URL of '/' was mistakenly checked in as a value to the file and '/' expands to all URLs. Fortunately, our on-call site reliability team found the problem quickly and reverted the file. Since we push these updates in a staggered and rolling fashion, the errors began appearing between 6:27 a.m. and 6:40 a.m. and began disappearing between 7:10 and 7:25 a.m., so the duration of the problem for any particular user was approximately 40 minutes.

    In the meantime, the whole internet went berserk. There were thousands of posts in forums across the web, asking what this was all about. Thousands of webmasters posted with concern that their site had malware or Google mistakenly marked their sites as having malware. For 40 minutes or so, the Internet world was feeling very vulnerable due to this mistake. We even have tons of coverage at Techmeme.

    What is a bit comical, is receiving 85 comments within 30 minutes on a post I wrote a week ago named Your Site May Harm Your Computer? Get That Google Label Removed In Hours.

    Here are just some of the many discussion forums discussing this, now resolved, issue:

  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/01/30/Daily_Search_Forum_Recap__January_30__2009'

    Daily Search Forum Recap: January 30, 2009

    Posted: January 30th, 2009, 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.

  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/01/30/_Text__Recap_of_Weekly_Search_Buzz____January_30__2009'

    (Text) Recap of Weekly Search Buzz :: January 30, 2009

    Posted: January 30th, 2009, 11:57am CET by rustybrick
    Tags:  Search Buzz RoundUp  

    I am still on that quasi vacation so, this will be a text recap, instead of the video recap. Next week, I hope to resume the videos, because I know how much you guys love looking at me.

    This week, I covered over twenty-five threads, the topics I found most interesting were the following. Matt Cutts discussed how Google reacts to Google Bombs. Google also is testing favorite icons to the search results. Yahoo explained why they are doing auto-optimization for some advertisers. Google has a new display URL policy, which might be a big deal for some advertisers. Google's new did you mean feature seems to be here for good. People are seeing AdSense in AOL instant messenger. Google pushes the new interface to some AdWords advertisers. Google fixes SMS search. The click fraud rate is higher. Google helps parents catch their son looking at porn. Yahoo and Google celebrate New Years. Those were the highlights this week from the Search Engine Roundtable.

  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/01/29/Daily_Search_Forum_Recap__January_29__2009'

    Daily Search Forum Recap: January 29, 2009

    Posted: January 29th, 2009, 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.

  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/01/29/Did_Microsoft_s_European_adCenter_Rep_Boycott_WebmasterWorld_'

    Did Microsoft's European adCenter Rep Boycott WebmasterWorld?

    Posted: January 29th, 2009, 9:29am CET by rustybrick
    Tags:  Search Engine Industry News  

    It has now been a year since adCenterEU, the official Microsoft adCenter representative at WebmasterWorld, has posted at the forum. His last post can be found at a thread named Microsoft To Serve Ads On WSJ Digital Network where he said:

    Thankyou pageoneresults!

    Nice comments like that get us all fired up!

    :-)

    Cheers

    adCenterEU

    That was on January 29, 2008 at 12:12 pm (EST). Since then, not one peep from adCenterEU.

    How about adCenterEU's US counterpart, adCenter411? Well, that representatives last post was on February 18, 2008 at 11:36 am in a thread named Is it posible to split test ads with adcenter.

    So why aren't adCenter representatives still participating at WebmasterWorld? I know they have launched a major initiative to education at the adCenter Community, but should they ignore where they got their start? I hope not.

    Forum discussion, well - it doesn't exist.

  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/01/29/Google_s_Enhanced__Did_You_Mean__Now_Default'

    Google's Enhanced "Did You Mean" Now Default

    Posted: January 29th, 2009, 9:21am CET by rustybrick
    Tags:  Google Search Engine  

    You know when you misspell something in Google, they show a "Did you mean" with the correct spelling. Historically, Google has told us that even though they put that Did you mean in red, people still ignore it. So a a month or so ago, they decided to test enhancing the Did you mean feature. The enhanced version showed the correct spelling for the two top results and the remainder of the results were for the wrong spelling.

    Here is an example of a search for matt cuttz versus the correct spelling of matt cutts.

    A WebmasterWorld thread took notice that this seems to always be the case now. Google seems to always be showing the new way of showing Did you mean results. Tedster added that he has been noticing an influx of "no results" found. Here is an example for a search on mesothmioma, which is correctly spelled mesothelioma.

    The above example might be a bug in Google's spell checking software. Outside of the bug, it does seem like the enhanced version of Did you mean, is sticking around for a while.

    Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/01/25/Google_Testing_Site_Fav_Icons_in_Search_Results_'

    Google Testing Site Fav Icons in Search Results?

    Posted: January 25th, 2009, 8:33am CET by rustybrick
    Tags:  Google Search Engine  

    Brian Ussery posted screen captures of Google possibly adding favorite icons on the left hand side of the display URL in the search results. He posted a screen capture at Google Blogoscoped Forums and emailed me a few.

    Here is a screen shot of a site command, which is the only way he was able to see the fav icons, for Matt Cutts' site.

    Now, we are not sure if he has some Firefox extension that is making this happen or if it is something Google is testing. Brian is confident he doesn't have an extension on Firefox that would cause this. It also only shows when he does a site:www.domain.com command.

    I heard some rumors about this a week or so ago, but passed on it, because I thought it was an extension. So, two reports, within a week - might imply it is a Google test. I cannot personally confirm this.

    The images are hosted on Google. For example, if you look at google.com/s2/favicons?domain=seroundtable.com, you will see the favorite icon for this site. But this is used primarily for Google Profile icons. So maybe Google is now using this for search results? I am not sure.

    Forum discussion at Google Blogoscoped Forums.

  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/01/23/Daily_Search_Forum_Recap__January_22__2009'

    Daily Search Forum Recap: January 22, 2009

    Posted: January 23rd, 2009, 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.

  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/01/23/_Text__Recap_of_Weekly_Search_Buzz____January_23__2009'

    (Text) Recap of Weekly Search Buzz :: January 23, 2009

    Posted: January 23rd, 2009, 12:50pm CET by rustybrick
    Tags:  Search Buzz RoundUp  

    I am currently in Israel on a quasi vacation, so I need to skip the video part of this recap. If you are in Israel and want to meet up with me, I am heading to the Jerusalem Web Professionals meet up, this Wednesday night January 28th at 8pm (local time). It is at PresenTense Offices on 64 Emek Refa'im (1 Flight up above the Bridal Shop). You need to register either over here or on Facebook. Hope to see you there!

    In terms of the recap, here are, what I feel, the most important topics of the past week. Google had a minor PageRank update that turned out to be from a canonical URL cleanup that Google was running, so the PageRank update was not real. Yahoo and Ask.com seemed to have updated as well. Google leaked site penalties through a Hyves trick. I covered Google's new "Preferred Sites" extension to SearchWiki. Also, Google and Microsoft announced earnings. Google Image search seemed to have updated. Google said the AdSense earnings were down due to cleaning up arbitrage sites. Google's new AdSense code may invalidate your web site's HTML. Google is late on paying some publishers. Inauguration day fell flat for many publishers. Google Blog Search may have issues indexing your content. Google did away with the iGoogle version for the iPhone. Google and Yahoo didn't have a special logo for Inauguration Day, but did have logos for Martin Luther Kind Day. Here are links to these stories:

    Hope to see you at the Jerusalem Tech Meetup, if you are here! Everyone have a wonderful weekend!

  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/01/23/Google___Microsoft_Announce_Earnings'

    Google & Microsoft Announce Earnings

    Posted: January 23rd, 2009, 12:06pm CET by rustybrick
    Tags:  Search Engine Industry News  

    In the past two days, Google and Microsoft have announced earnings. Google's announcement is over here and Microsoft's announcement is over here.

    The market had time to react to Microsoft's announcement of cutting 5,000 jobs and a weak outlook on sales and products. Microsoft (MSFT) saw a 11.71% drop in their stock price based on that announcement. Google released their earnings report yesterday, after the market closed. It is hard to predict if their stock price will rise or fall but they are currently down 2.67% in the after market. Although Google's revenue was up 18%, they saw a 68% drop in fourth-quarter profit.

    We have lots of discussion around the two announcements. Google discussion at WebmasterWorld,Microsoft job cuts discussion at WebmasterWorld and Microsoft earnings discussion at WebmasterWorld and DigitalPoint Forums. Plus respective coverage at Techmeme.

  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/01/22/Daily_Search_Forum_Recap__January_22__2009'

    Daily Search Forum Recap: January 22, 2009

    Posted: January 22nd, 2009, 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.

  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/01/21/Daily_Search_Forum_Recap__January_21__2009'

    Daily Search Forum Recap: January 21, 2009

    Posted: January 21st, 2009, 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.

  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/01/21/Google_Maps_Says_3_Hour_Drive_To_Go_From_Staten_Island_to_Staten_Island'

    Google Maps Says 3 Hour Drive To Go From Staten Island to Staten Island

    Posted: January 21st, 2009, 2:18pm CET by rustybrick
    Tags:  Search Local  

    Let's say you wanted to drive from the zip code 10302 to 10308, which are both in Staten Island, New York. If you plugged that into Google Maps, Google would tell you, you have to be prepared for a three hour or more commute.

    For some unknown reason, a bug in Google Maps, thinks the zip code 10308, which is owned by Staten Island, is in Schenectady, in upstate New York.

    Adam from the Google Maps team confirmed the issue in a Google Maps Help forum thread. He said:

    Turns out this bug is an artifact of a known issue we're working to resolve, so if you haven't reported this yet to Tele Atlas please don't expend the effort.

    So, if you are driving to 10308, be careful when using Google Maps.

    Forum discussion at Google Maps Help.

  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/01/21/GetListed.org_Brings_Much_Needed_Tool_for_Local_Search_Marketers'

    GetListed.org Brings Much Needed Tool for Local Search Marketers

    Posted: January 21st, 2009, 1:59pm CET by rustybrick
    Tags:  Search Local  

    How often to do you hit yourself on the head and say, "why didn't I think of that?" That is how many felt when Patrick Sexton and David Mihm launched GetListed.org. GetListed.org is an incredibly useful and easy to use tool to quickly see how your local search listings play in the local search space.

    Let me show you. First you enter in a business name and zip code. Then GetListed.org polls Google, Yahoo, Live and Best of the Web's local engines to see how your listings are doing in those engines. Here is a look at RustyBrick's local search reach:

    Then you can drill down deeper to see a better overview:

    Also, you can see a to do list, all your reviews and the details of your listing by those four engines. I suspect GetListed.org will continue to add more engines over time.

    Matt McGee posted his review at Search Engine Land and the Sphinn discussion around the new tool is excellent. This tool is an excellent idea and I am glad it was created.

    Forum discussion at Sphinn.

  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/01/21/Google_Blog_Search_May_Not_Discover_Your_New_Blog_Posts'

    Google Blog Search May Not Discover Your New Blog Posts

    Posted: January 21st, 2009, 1:53pm CET by rustybrick
    Tags:  Google Search Engine  

    A Google Groups thread has confirmed reports from Jeremy Hylton of Google, that Google blog search, in some cases, has issues finding and returning new blog posts in Google Blog Search.

    Jeremy explained that earlier on, there was an issue with Google crawling certain blogs. But then at the end of December they fixed that issue. Now, it appears there is an issue with the same type of blogs, where Google is missing random new blog posts from those blogs.

    Here is how Jeremy put it:

    We are having some problems with your blog that we're still debugging. We have most of your recent posts in the index. At the moment, it looks like the two most recent ones are not getting returned. There was an earlier problem that caused us to stop crawling your blog entirely. We fixed that just before Christmas. I was just checking on your blog to confirm that the fix is working when I noticed that we're again missing a few posts. We'll definitely look into it.

    I believe this all started in early November, when Google changed how they index blogs. In early December they vowed to fix it and then in late December, Christmas time, they thought they fixed the bulk of it. However, there are still issues that Google is aware of, including the issue mentioned above.

    Forum discussion at Google Groups.

  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/01/20/Daily_Search_Forum_Recap__January_20__2009'

    Daily Search Forum Recap: January 20, 2009

    Posted: January 20th, 2009, 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.

  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/01/20/Aaron_Wall_s_SEO_Toolbar_Gets_Major_Buzz_From_Community'

    Aaron Wall's SEO Toolbar Gets Major Buzz From Community

    Posted: January 20th, 2009, 3:02pm CET by rustybrick
    Tags:  tools Search Engine  

    I am not a heavy user of SEO tools or toolbars, but Aaron Wall's latest tool, he named The SEO Toolbar has received a ton of feedback and buzz from the SEM industry. The day it was released, which was some time last week, about a dozen or so SEO blogs wrote about it. Most people praised this toolbar as the only tool SEOs need.

    This toolbar is jam packed with features including link data, directory information, competitive data, rank checking, keyword research, RSS reader, comparison tool and much much more. To see all the features, go to The SEO Toolbar.

    Forum discussion at Sphinn.

  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/01/20/SEOs_Discuss_Impact_of_Google_s__Preferred_Sites__Search_Preference'

    SEOs Discuss Impact of Google's "Preferred Sites" Search Preference

    Posted: January 20th, 2009, 2:43pm CET by rustybrick
    Tags:  Google Search Engine  

    Google Operating System wrote about a new personalization feature Google is testing, named Preferred Sites. How does it works? You go to your search preferences and enter in a list of domains or sub domains that you prefer. If Google finds a result from any of the sites listed in your preferred list, Google will bump up that listing to the top of the search results and label them as such.

    Here is a screen capture from Google's preferred site help document.

    This is not available to most people, but it is a limited test for some users. If you see the preferred site option in your Google search preferences page, that means you are in the test. Clearly, this is an extension of SearchWiki, which is now the default.

    We have two threads discussing the impact this might have on SEOs. One thread is at Sphinn and the other is at WebmasterWorld. And this will impact SEOs just like any other personalization feature and similar to how SearchWiki will impact SEOs. In short, most searchers will be clueless to this preferred site preference, even if Google flashes it in front of their faces, like they do with Search Wiki. So we will see how much of an impact this makes being that (1) it is a test right now and (2) being that users might not know how to use it.

    Forum discussion at Sphinn and WebmasterWorld.

  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/01/19/Google_Drops_iPhone_Optimized_iGoogle__Users_Revolt'

    Google Drops iPhone Optimized iGoogle: Users Revolt

    Posted: January 19th, 2009, 2:36pm CET by rustybrick
    Tags:  Google Search Engine  

    A year ago, Google released an optimized version of iGoogle for the iPhone. But recently, Google began redirecting iPhone users away from that optimized version, and to the standard mobile version of iGoogle.

    The optimized version was located at http://google.com/ig/i and here is a screen capture from Google Operating System.

    Now, users are redirected to http://google.com/m/ig/, which is the standard mobile version, it looks like this:

    This seemed to start happening on Thursday, and since then, iPhone users have jumped into the Google Web Search forum revolting over the change. Paul from Google tried to calm users down by saying:

    Hey everyone, I have an update for you. We've decided to direct iPhone users to the standard mobile iGoogle page. We've found that people hit iGoogle from lots of different phones -- we want to ensure you'll all see the same version.

    Most or all of your existing content should translate over to the standard mobile version. The only exception would be any gadgets that aren't compatible with most mobile browsers.

    We've got several articles in our Help Center about the mobile experience on iGoogle, which you can find in our Help Center.

    But that just caused more discussion and anger towards Google. Just browsing through the really long thread, it seems like Google is getting a lot of backlash about this change. I have a feeling, they might consider putting things back to the optimized iPhone version, which means they have to maintain an iPhone version, along with the mobile version, web version and any other version they might have.

    Who is to blame? I am not sure, Google made a big stink about optimized iPhone versions of their sites. Here is a video they released in June 2008 on this iGoogle for iPhone:

    So, who is to blame for iPhone users not wanting to lose this page?

    Forum discussion at Google Web Search.

  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/01/19/Take_the_2009_SEMPO_In_House_SEM_Salary_Survey'

    Take the 2009 SEMPO In-House SEM Salary Survey

    Posted: January 19th, 2009, 2:20pm CET by rustybrick
    Tags:  Search Engine Industry News  

    SEMPO is running their yearly survey for in-house SEMs. They are asking all in-house SEMs to take the salary survey. The survey is available at this location and is available until February 20th, 2009.

    The survey is 22 questions and should not take more then 10 minutes. It is also completely anonymous.

    I am very interested in seeing how the recession may or may not impact SEM salaries and jobs. So if you have ten minutes, go take that survey.

    Forum discussion at Search Engine Watch Forums.

  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/01/19/Yahoo_Search___Ask.com_January_2009_Search_Updates_'

    Yahoo Search & Ask.com January 2009 Search Updates?

    Posted: January 19th, 2009, 1:57pm CET by rustybrick
    Tags:  Search Optimization Yahoo  

    Textex at WebmasterWorld is reporting that he is seeing both an Ask.com update and a Yahoo Search update.

    He first noticed Yahoo Search changes yesterday afternoon, saying "Seeing movement." He was then backed up by full member, Vimes, who said, "I'm seeing something not sure if I'd call it an update just yet, the sectors i look at there is a shuffle." So this may be the beginning of a Yahoo update or it might be some sector tweaks. We are due a Yahoo update, the last one we noticed was back in November 2008, since then, there have been no confirmed Yahoo Search updates. So having an update now, would not surprise me.

    On the Ask.com front, there is a bit more discussion going on, being that the update was reported at WebmasterWorld a bit earlier. Textex called this update "a complete overhaul." Full member, robzilla, confirmed but cautioned that this update doesn't seem to be "an improvement" to their index. Soon later, they both noticed that clearing their cookies reset the "results reverted back" to their previous state. This implies that the results might be a test on some users. I did some of my own testing and the results do seem a bit better. Still not what I consider "fresh" results, but a bit better on the few dozen results I check to see quality. This cannot have anything to do with Ask.com's recent announcement on NASCAR, so I wonder what exactly is going on here?

    Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld on both Ask.com update and Yahoo Search update.

  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/01/19/Martin_Luther_King_Day_2009__Logos_from_Google__Yahoo__Ask__Live__Dogpile___More'

    Martin Luther King Day 2009: Logos from Google, Yahoo, Ask, Live, Dogpile & More

    Posted: January 19th, 2009, 1:22pm CET by rustybrick
    Tags:  Search Engine Industry News  

    Today is Martin Luther King Jr. Day and many of the search engines, including Google, Yahoo, Ask.com, Live.com, AOL, and others are remembering the day with special logos. Here is a collection of logos from the various search engines in 2009. For last year's collection, see over here.

    Google:

    Yahoo:

    AOL:

    DogPile:

    Live.com:

    Ask.com:

    And us, at the Search Engine Roundtable:

    Tomorrow is inauguration day, so expect a batch of additional logos for tomorrow.

    Forum discussion at Search Engine Roundtable Forums.

  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/01/16/Daily_Search_Forum_Recap__January_16__2009'

    Daily Search Forum Recap: January 16, 2009

    Posted: January 16th, 2009, 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.

  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/01/16/Video_Recap_of_Weekly_Search_Buzz____January_16__2009'

    Video Recap of Weekly Search Buzz :: January 16, 2009

    Posted: January 16th, 2009, 5:53pm CET by rustybrick
    Tags:  Search Buzz RoundUp  

    In this week's recap, I discuss Yahoo's new CEO, Carol Bartz. I talk about how the recession is impacting Google. Google is testing out longer descriptions in the search results. Google Sitemaps gets credit for faster crawling and indexing. Google made a new Sitemap generator. Google is consistently showing search ads on image search. AdSense publishers had the optimization reports. The AdSense competitive ad filter doesn't work. Yahoo Publisher Network might be bust. Yahoo turns on the content network for some. If your Google Sitelinks disappear, do you freak out? I have screen captures of the new YouTube ads. Finally, I share the poll results, over 1,100, on Google's new favorite icon. That was this past week in search from 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. Here is the YouTube version of the feed (note: If YouTube shows a video not found message, just refresh the page and play it again, it is a YouTube bug):


    For the original iTunes version, click here

    Some Of The Topics Discussed:

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

  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/01/15/Daily_Search_Forum_Recap__January_15__2009'

    Daily Search Forum Recap: January 15, 2009

    Posted: January 15th, 2009, 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.

  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/01/15/Google_Showing_Longer_Descriptions_For_Longer_Queries'

    Google Showing Longer Descriptions For Longer Queries

    Posted: January 15th, 2009, 2:51pm CET by rustybrick
    Tags:  Google Search Engine  

    There have been more recent reports of Google showing longer descriptions (aka snippets) in the search results. We have reports from ThatsSEO.com, Holistic Search and SEMVironment.com with examples and screen captures. I was able to reproduce it for a search on fill empty cells with specific value openoffice.

    A typical search shows a two line description or snippet:

    But with the query above, you can get a three line description or snippet:

    Or four line description or snippet:

    Now, it seems like the longer your search query, the longer the snippet might get. But I have not fully tested this theory.

    We have seen incredibly long Google descriptions in the past, plus we have seen Google test snippet size controls.

    Forum discussion at Sphinn 1 and Sphinn 2.

  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/01/15/Did_Google_SMS_Search_Die_Again_'

    Did Google SMS Search Die Again?

    Posted: January 15th, 2009, 2:04pm CET by rustybrick
    Tags:  Google Search Engine  

    Just last week, we reported major issues with Google SMS not returning search results. It was fixed about two days later. But now I am seeing more reports of Google SMS issues, so I decided to try it out myself.

    I sent three SMS messages to Google and now it is 10 minutes later, and still not a single response. Here is a picture:

    Google has confirmed issues with specifically requesting sport scores from Google SMS. In a few Google Mobile Help discussion forums, we have confirmation from Google that there are issues with this request. You can find those threads here, here and here.

    But there is a bigger problem, it seems like some people, including myself are simply not getting any response from Google's SMS search, at all. Like I showed in my screen capture above, not a "no results found" or any type of error message. Is it being blocked by the cell provider or is Google's SMS server down?

    Forum discussion at Google Mobile Help.

    Update: Over an hour later, I got a response from Google, the response didn't have any results, but at least it told me so. Note, that it should have results:


  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/01/14/Daily_Search_Forum_Recap__January_14__2009'

    Daily Search Forum Recap: January 14, 2009

    Posted: January 14th, 2009, 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.

  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/01/12/Daily_Search_Forum_Recap__January_12__2009'

    Daily Search Forum Recap: January 12, 2009

    Posted: January 12th, 2009, 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.

  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/01/12/Yahoo_Search_Marketing_Now_Turning_On_Content_Network__Yahoo_Says_No'

    Yahoo Search Marketing Now Turning On Content Network? Yahoo Says No

    Posted: January 12th, 2009, 1:46pm CET by rustybrick
    Tags:  Search Yahoo Marketing  

    The past week has been a rough one for Yahoo, in terms of advertiser relations. First they emailed notifications of the terms and conditions, which got them in major hot water. Then even after the hot water, they had the nerve to make changes to advertiser's campaigns and keywords without permission or notification.

    But it doesn't end there. Over the weekend, we are getting reports from WebmasterWorld from at least two different advertisers that Yahoo has turned on the advertiser's content network, even though the content network has been explicitly turned off by the advertiser in the master account settings. The interesting point is, that YahooPete, an official Yahoo representative said this should not be the case. Let me quote you:

    I checked with the folks here who are managing the Account Optimization program, and they told me that turning Content Match on or off is not part of the program. So while I can’t say for sure why your settings might have changed, it wasn’t due to the optimization program.

    As Zamboni pointed out, the “master setting” under the Administration tab in your account has the ultimate control over your account: If that account-level setting is set to “Off,” you should not receive any Content Match traffic in your entire account, no matter what the settings are at the campaign or ad group levels. We designed it this way to give advertisers more control of their tactic settings, so that certain campaigns could be set up solely for Content Match traffic, and others solely for Sponsored Search traffic.

    But soon later, an advertiser claimed that this is not true. He said, "just a week or so back, I noticed that content was turned on for one of my campaigns even though content was set to off in "master setting"."

    Now, it is hard to tell who is telling the truth and who is not. The bottom line, as we have been stressing throughout the week, is to make sure to check your accounts and make sure your ad dollars are being well spent.

    Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/01/12/Popular_Chinese_Search_Engine__Baidu__To_Better_Label_Search_Ads'

    Popular Chinese Search Engine, Baidu, To Better Label Search Ads

    Posted: January 12th, 2009, 1:41pm CET by rustybrick
    Tags:  Search Other Engines  

    The Wall Street Journal reported that the very popular chinese search engine, Baidu, will be testing a better labeling and differentiating the paid results from the organic results. The article said, "The company has begun testing a new model for advertising that will place paid advertisements on the right-hand side of its page."

    Over at WebmasterWorld we have some conversation on the news.

    One member feels like Baidu has nothing to lose. He said, "The revenue hit is what has/will prompt changes, not public pressure. Often times public pressure is good, it draws attention and generates income on its own, but when the dollars start to fade it's time to change. I wonder how much of a black eye will linger in a year, if any."

    It is about time, like many of the members think. We will see if it lasts and if it will make a difference in Baidu's ad income.

    Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/01/09/Daily_Search_Forum_Recap__January_9__2009'

    Daily Search Forum Recap: January 9, 2009

    Posted: January 9th, 2009, 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.

  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/01/09/Video_Recap_of_Weekly_Search_Buzz____January_9__2009'

    Video Recap of Weekly Search Buzz :: January 9, 2009

    Posted: January 9th, 2009, 6:05pm CET by rustybrick
    Tags:  Search Buzz RoundUp  

    We have paused our text based weekly recaps, in lieu of the video edition. As always, I will sum up in a paragraph the topics I discuss at greater length in the video and provide links to more details below. Do let us know how much you may miss the weekly text based recaps.

    In this weeks recap, I go on a three-minute rant about Yahoo not only changing their policy giving them the right to make changes to advertiser's campaigns without permission or notice, but also actually doing so after the major outcry from our industry. I then discuss the new budget beta being tested by Google AdWords. I move into the SEO topic of getting your content crawling more quickly, through Sitemaps, FeedBurner and other methods. I discuss why the Sitemaps report may have less results than a site command. Did you know it may take three months to transfer PageRank from URL to URL - or is that just a toolbar delay? Have you experienced the SEO "honeymoon period." Most SEOs feel the PageRank data in Webmaster Tools is useless. Google Trends was attacked and it hurt. That was this past week in search from 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. Here is the YouTube version of the feed (note: If YouTube shows a video not found message, just refresh the page and play it again, it is a YouTube bug):


    For the original iTunes version, click here

    Some Of The Topics Discussed:

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

  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/01/09/Report__Yahoo_Site_Explorer_Updated_Link_Values'

    Report: Yahoo Site Explorer Updated Link Values

    Posted: January 9th, 2009, 2:25pm CET by rustybrick
    Tags:  Search Optimization Yahoo  

    A DigitalPoint Forums thread reports that folks are noticing that Yahoo Site Explorer has updated the link counts for the tool.

    I do not typically track these numbers, but many do. So if you do, definitely take a look and see if you are doing any better.

    Here is a screen capture of our most recent Yahoo Site Explorer link count:

    The 250,000 value shows all links to seroundtable.com, excluding internal links, but to the entire domain. In contrast to Google Webmaster Tools, which only reports 175,408 links for this domain.

    Forum discussion at DigitalPoint Forums.

  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/01/09/SEOs_Finally_Looking_at_Page_Segments__Blocks_'

    SEOs Finally Looking at Page Segments (Blocks)

    Posted: January 9th, 2009, 2:17pm CET by rustybrick
    Tags:  Search Engine Optimization  

    David Harry has an excellent write up on the SEO implications of page segmentation. In short, the piece goes over how search engines can, and probably do, look at each web page and segment the page into components. For example, they can pull out the navigation, footer, ad blocks, and so on from the main body copy.

    This concept is far from new, it goes way back and we even covered it back in mid-2004 with Block (Passage) Level Link Analysis by MSN. It just makes sense, why treat the ads on the page the same way one would treat the body content. That is the purpose behind Text Link Ads new product inLinks.

    In any event, there is some good overall discussion around the topic at Sphinn. Fantomaster said:

    This is developing into an extremely important aspect of state-of-the-art SEO that cannot be ignored with impunity. While it's anybody's guess (still) how much of this technology has already been implemented by the search engines, you can easily bet the farm that it'll happen rather sooner than later.

    In any event, if this is a new concept to you, you may want to read up on it. If some search engines are not deploying this yet, then they likely will soon. It just makes logical sense.

    Forum discussion at Sphinn.

  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/01/09/Yahoo_Has_The_Nerve_To_Change_Advertisers_Campaigns_After_Outcry'

    Yahoo Has The Nerve To Change Advertisers Campaigns After Outcry

    Posted: January 9th, 2009, 2:01pm CET by rustybrick
    Tags:  Search Yahoo Marketing  

    This week I reported how Yahoo notified advertisers of a change to their terms and conditions, which explicitly gave Yahoo legal rights to change advertisers campaigns and keywords without permission from the advertiser. In fact, this has been the case since June of last year, but it wasn't noticed by the masses until now.

    This caused a major outcry by SEMs this week. Andy Beal felt embarrassed for Yahoo, that they would do this. Loren Baker kind of implied this a way for Yahoo to sneak money from advertisers, without them noticing. And back in June, I was really not happy with this change - who would be.

    All in all, we did not hear a peep from Yahoo on the matter. I did not see a Yahoo representative come into a forum to respond. I did not receive a phone call or email from a Yahoo representative on the matter. Nothing from Yahoo, and I am a bit surprised by that.

    To make things worse, Yahoo has the nerve to go into a Search Engine Watch moderator's advertiser's account and make changes without telling them. A Search Engine Watch Forums thread reports that Mel, a moderator who knows a heck of a lot on PPC, noticed that after all these reports, Yahoo changed his campaigns. Let me quote you:

    I never received ANY communication that this had happened - no email, no call, no nothing. I found out about it when I logged in to YSM and saw a note in the YSM Dashboard saying that "new campaigns had been uploaded."

    To make things worse, they made horrid changes to the account, including maxing up the bids to $1! Here are those changes:

    • They upload an optimization into a new, active campaign, with new ad groups and keywords. They do not change current campaigns. Our client's campaign had a daily budget cap of $15 (not a huge deal, except that I don't want to spend $0.01 on something that I haven't seen or approved).
    • The optimization for this particular client was awful - theme & ad copy was super generic, no features and benefits in the ad, looked like the work of someone in their first day at Yahoo. Keywords were even worse. Let's say the advertiser is a video rental store (not the real situation). Yahoo had them bidding on "buy videos" type keywords. WTF??
    • Max bids were set at $1.00. Yikes.
    • No tracking was appended to any of the URLs. We use a proprietary system with keyword-level URLs, and of course Yahoo is not privy to this information. So we have no way to see if the campaign was effective or not.

    Back to the WebmasterWorld thread, one advertiser had to plead with Yahoo to promise not to make changes to his account. He described the process as very frustrating, here it is:

    I called my rep and asked them to ensure that we would not have any changes made. At first, I was told that accounts could not be excluded. I raised a fuss and was told to submit an email request, to which I received a confirmation that no changes would be made to my account with my permission. Haven't seen any, so I guess they're following the rules.

    The good news is that Mel, the moderator, said when she argued with his rep, the rep was very good about "opting" him out of this. She called his "Yahoo rep and she assured me we would be opted out of auto-optimization in the future." So get on the phone and call your rep as soon as possible.

    Yahoo, seriously, how can you do this. It is one thing to change the terms and conditions for legal reasons, but to actually go in and make these changes?

    No, this is not the first time we have heard rumors of Yahoo representatives "auto-optimizing" accounts, but to "auto-optimize" after the outcry, that just makes things a hundred times worse.

    Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld and Search Engine Watch Forums.

  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/01/08/Daily_Search_Forum_Recap__January_8__2009'

    Daily Search Forum Recap: January 8, 2009

    Posted: January 8th, 2009, 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.

  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/01/08/The_Redesign_SEO__Honeymoon_Period_'

    The Redesign SEO "Honeymoon Period"

    Posted: January 8th, 2009, 2:45pm CET by rustybrick
    Tags:  Search Engine Optimization  

    An interesting WebmasterWorld thread discusses the phenomenon of redesigning a site, with brand new URL structure, 301 redirecting the old URLs to the new, and seeing an almost immediate boost in rankings at Google.com. In fact, WebmasterWorld moderator, minnapple, has coined this phenomenon the "honeymoon period."

    What he means by that is that sometimes, a well-liked site, will see an immediate boost in rankings at Google after redesigning and implementing many 301 redirects. Minnapple described the honeymoon period as lasting about 20 days, and it is possible things can go back to how they were, or possibly get worse.

    Tedster said he has seen similar things:

    This lines up with the results of a redesign I helped on - we saw the new urls take over seamlessly. I'd say this is a sign that you had things well handled technically, and that Google already liked the site a good bit. Please let us know if things start to wobble.

    Have you experienced this Google redesign "Honeymoon Period" yourself?

    Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/01/08/How_To_Get_a_Locations_Longitude_Latitude_Using_Google_Maps_on_iPhone'

    How To Get a Locations Longitude/Latitude Using Google Maps on iPhone

    Posted: January 8th, 2009, 2:17pm CET by rustybrick
    Tags:  Search Local  

    Believe it or not, there are times where I want to find the latitude and longitude values of the location I am currently at or at an other location. I spotted a Google Mobile Help thread that goes through the steps on how to obtain the latitude and longitude using Google Maps. I found it interesting and I thought I document the process.

    Step 1: Open up the Maps application on your iPhone and find the location you want to get the latitude and longitude for. Either your current location or scroll through the map or enter in the location by name.

    Step 2: Click on the right bottom most button and then hit "Drop Pin."

    Step 3: Drag the pin to where you want to find the latitude and longitude:

    I picked an area that is under extreme turmoil right now, the border of Gaza:

    Step 4: Click on the blue, right arrow, above the pin. That will bring up this screen:

    Step 5: Click on the "Share location" button, which will open an email containing a link to Google Maps, coded by the longitude and latitude:

    There you go, here is the link, if you are interested. It is at 31.466114/34.484749, which seems to be off from the border by a few miles.

    Forum discussion at Google Mobile Help.

  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/01/08/Google_SMS_Search_Not_Returning_Search_Results'

    Google SMS Search Not Returning Search Results

    Posted: January 8th, 2009, 2:03pm CET by rustybrick
    Tags:  Google Search Engine  

    Google's SMS search is simply not returning results anymore. I am not sure how many people this is impacting, i.e. I have no idea how many people use Google SMS to search on their phones, but some have noticed it.

    For example, here is me sending a text to 466453 and Google returning no results for either "Lakers" or "RustyBrick."

    A Google Mobile Help thread has confirmation from a Google representative, Bret, that there is an issue. Bret from the Google Mobile team said:

    Thanks for bringing this to our attention. I'm looking into the issue and I'll reply to this thread with any updates.

    The issue was first reported last night.

    Forum discussion at Google Mobile Help.

  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/01/07/Daily_Search_Forum_Recap__January_7__2009'

    Daily Search Forum Recap: January 7, 2009

    Posted: January 7th, 2009, 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.

  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/01/07/Tips_on_How_to_Get_Indexed_Faster_by_Google__Yahoo____Live_Search'

    Tips on How to Get Indexed Faster by Google, Yahoo, & Live Search

    Posted: January 7th, 2009, 2:57pm CET by rustybrick
    Tags:  Search Engine Optimization  

    A WebmasterWorld thread asks for tips on how he can get his site indexed and crawled faster by Google. The thing is, most, if not all, of these tips apply not to just Google, but any search engine, such as Yahoo, Live Search and others.

    Here are some of the tips for faster indexing via the thread:

    • Submit an XML Sitemap
    • Have a clean navigation structure
    • Get quality links
    • Go hot on Digg or other social networking sites
    • Make unique and helpful content
    • Use social bookmarking
    • Verify your sites with Google Webmaster Tools, Yahoo Site Explorer and Live Webmaster Tools
    • Remove Canonical domain issues

    For more tips and discussion go to WebmasterWorld.

  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/01/07/Ranking_in_Google_Search_For_Plurarls_Vs._Singulars'

    Ranking in Google Search For Plurarls Vs. Singulars

    Posted: January 7th, 2009, 2:40pm CET by rustybrick
    Tags:  Search Engine Optimization  

    There is a nice old school SEO thread at HighRankings Forum on the old topic of ranking well for singular cases, when you are already ranking well for the plural version.

    For example, you are in the tops of tops at Google for [buy widgets], but you want to rank well for [buy widget]. The thread goes over some SEO copywriting tips on how to help achieve your goal.

    Ian McAnerin has a nice tip, let me quote it:

    Here is a trick I've used (I don't know if it will help you, but it might help someone):

    Original Links:

    Gray Widgets | Blue Widgets | Brown Widgets
    ...this is fine if you are optimizing for the plural, but not helpful if you are optimizing for the singular. Just removing the "s" makes it sound/look funny. But you can fix a lot of plural singular issues by changing the sentence context:

    I'm looking for a: Gray Widget | Blue Widget | Brown Widget

    For the on page stuff, you can control how your content is written. It is not as simple as removing an S at the end of the phrase. You need to make sure to rewrite the content on the page to make sure it still reads logically and grammatically correct after removing the S.

    The only issue is, then you may drop in your ranking for the plural keyword phrase. Personally, I have seen many cases where either the plural version brings in the conversions or the singular case brings in the conversions, but it typically is one or the other. Of course, both would bring in conversions, but in many cases, one version brings in the majority of those conversions. This is something you need to test and fine tune over time, like most of your SEO efforts.

    Forum discussion at HighRankings Forum.

  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/01/07/Google_Trends_Attacked__Again__Targets_Former_World_Trade_Center_Towers'

    Google Trends Attacked, Again: Targets Former World Trade Center Towers

    Posted: January 7th, 2009, 2:12pm CET by rustybrick
    Tags:  Google Search Engine  

    Yesterday, I was tipped off by a reader that the number two listing on Google Trends was this form of "ASCII art" ✈ ▌▌. At first, I thought it was an airplane landing on a runway strip. By I was wrong, it seemed to be an attack by a group of users, targeting Google Trends. They wanted to show an airplane flying into the former World Trade Center "Twin Towers." Yes, horrible!

    Since posting, we have several comments at Search Engine Land. Danny notes that this potentially stemmed from a post at eBaum's World Forum.

    In any event, this is not the first time Google Trends was targeted by hate. We saw a Swastika on Google Trends about six months ago. Then Google told us it was purely algorithmic, based on a spike of searches. This time, likely the same thing. I have a feeling that this is an issue that Google's Search Quality team can fix going forward, but the question is, are the resources there for it.

    You can find more coverage of this story at Techmeme.

    Forum discussion at Sphinn and DigitalPoint Forums.

  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/01/05/Newbie_Thread_of_Week__Alphabetized_META_Tags'

    Newbie Thread of Week: Alphabetized META Tags

    Posted: January 5th, 2009, 2:33pm CET by rustybrick
    Tags:  Search Engine Optimization  

    Sometimes I seriously wonder where some of these SEO theories come from. One that caught my eye this week was found in a Google Webmaster Help thread, asking if it can hurt your SEO efforts if you do not alphabetize your META tags.

    The thread creator wrote:

    Can anyone tell me if it hurts indexing sites that the meta tags have been alphabetized?

    But my editor tends to alphabetize them.

    This webmaster asked a valid question. Since his web editor went through the trouble of making the tags in alphabetical order, should he do the same manually? The answer is no, it doesn't help in any way.

    ZydoSEO replied to the thread, in which a Googler confirmed, saying:

    The meta tags can appear in any order as long as they are contained inside the <head> element. It is not a problem to alphabetize them from Google's perspective... Only possibly from your perspective since time could probably be better spent doing something other than alphabetizing HTML elements.

    In any event, I thought it would be fun to share this with many of the readers here.

    Forum discussion at Google Webmaster Help.

  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/01/05/Poll__Do_You_Like_Video_Thumbnails_Near_Google_Search_Results_'

    Poll: Do You Like Video Thumbnails Near Google Search Results?

    Posted: January 5th, 2009, 2:18pm CET by rustybrick
    Tags:  Google Search Engine  

    Ever since Universal Search hit Google, we have been noticing flavors of video thumbnails and static images left aligned on the Google search results. A WebmasterWorld thread has discussion around this latest format and some are happy with it, while others are not.

    Here is a picture of a subset of a Google search results:

    You tell me, which one will catch your eye first? Likely the one with the image next to it on the right. So, this can be a great way to get your search results more exposure, and a higher click through rate, which might result in a higher conversion rate for your site. At the same time, if you are the listing above the one with the image, you are likely to see a drop in CTR, due to the result directly below. So this can help some webmasters, while hurt others.

    Here is a poll on this topic, would love to see the responses:

    Clearly, adding videos and images to your site, will help you gain the exposure over your competitors. The WebmasterWorld thread discusses various methods on how to get these images near your search result.

    Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/01/02/Daily_Search_Forum_Recap__January_2__2009'

    Daily Search Forum Recap: January 2, 2009

    Posted: January 2nd, 2009, 10:00pm CET by Tamar Weinberg
    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.

  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/01/02/Video_Recap_of_Weekly_Search_Buzz____New_Years_2009'

    Video Recap of Weekly Search Buzz :: New Years 2009

    Posted: January 2nd, 2009, 5:05pm CET by rustybrick
    Tags:  Search Buzz RoundUp  

    In this week's recap, I wish our readers and viewers a happy, healthy and prosperous 2009. Google updated the toolbar PageRank scores, but it seems like the search results both here and internationally were updated also. Live Search is using MSNBOT-Media to crawl JavaScript files. Google got hit with wildcard domain issues. Google Alerts is trigger happy. Google shows a did you mean answer for a child day care service, leading to a porn site. Google's strict image search option shows more porn than the moderate search. Danny Sullivan slaps Microsoft on their search initiatives. Microsoft's Content Ads program is doing poorly. Google AdSense is offending overweight people. Happy 2009 everyone!

    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. Here is the YouTube version of the feed (note: If YouTube shows a video not found message, just refresh the page and play it again, it is a YouTube bug):


    For the original iTunes version, click here

    Some Of The Topics Discussed:

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

  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/01/02/Weekly_Search_Buzz_RoundUp___01_02_09__New_Year_s_Edition'

    Weekly Search Buzz RoundUp - 01/02/09: New Year's Edition

    Posted: January 2nd, 2009, 2:51pm CET by Tamar Weinberg
    Tags:  Search Buzz RoundUp  

    This is my last SearchBuzz RoundUp post for awhile, so enjoy it while you have a chance. This week, we rang in 2009. What happened?

    Happy New Years '09
    Very cool search engine logos have been posted this year. Google had a cool 2009 logo that still somewhat resembled "Google." Even Cre8site, Bruce Clay, and Baidu had cool logos.

    Google's Results Run Wild
    Google had a PageRank update this week, and then we saw some major changes in the SERPs. In fact, on the international side, the results are very odd to those familiar with the usual rankings.

    Microsoft Crawls Through Javascript
    Microsoft is taking a clue and is using the MSNBot-Media crawler to get the data behind Javascript. This is good and innovative -- and since Google has been doing it for awhile, it's about time the other search engines did the same.

    Google's Wildcard Domain Bug
    An interesting observation with a wildcard domain was spotted this week. I'm able to replicate it on my end too. I wish I had a site like that with all page 1 results. Just kidding. ;)

    Google Alerts Accuracy Report
    There have been reports of Google Alerts sending out irrelevant alerts to individuals subscribed to them. I've seen something similar but not 100% and it's related to the blogroll issue we reported earlier. Fun.

    Google Is Not Kid Friendly
    Don't search for child day care centers on Google. The search term for the particular search in question is so rare (and "misspelled") that Google recommends a porn site in the "Did You Mean?" column. Well, I guess I was wrong when I said that people don't primarily use Google to search for kinky stuff. Sheesh, people.

    On that note, Google's "strict" image searching is not strict at all. Don't look if you don't like nude images with your breakfast.

    Microsoft: Not So Good
    This week, Danny Sullivan smacked Microsoft with some advice they should actually take seriously. Unfortunately for my friends in the Live Search team who really ROCK, it is evident that the higher-ups don't care. And that is sad -- and that's why Microsoft deserved everything it got from Danny.

    On another note, Microsoft ContentAds are getting bad CTR. Then again, the information is now private and I'm hearing that ads are performing badly across the board.

    Fat People Should Slim Down
    ...at least according to Google's AdSense ads. People are spotting more and more ads targeting fat people and some are finding it offensive. Are you?

    Have a nice 2009 all!

  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/01/02/Live_Search_Begins_Crawling_JavaScript_with_MSNBot_Media'

    Live Search Begins Crawling JavaScript with MSNBot-Media

    Posted: January 2nd, 2009, 1:49pm CET by rustybrick
    Tags:  Search MSN Microsoft  

    incrediBILL, moderator at WebmasterWorld, noticed that one of Live Search's bots was crawling through his JavaScript. The bot is named MSNBOT-MEDIA and he noticed that it was accessing JavaScript files and AJAX functions.

    He noticed that the bot was triggering actions on a href="#" O