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434 items tagged "Topics and Other"

Top Contributors Hosting Google+ Hangout

Fetched: February 4th, 2012, 11:02pm CET by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Other Google Topics

Moritz Tolxdorff announced on Google+ that the top contributors in the forums are hosting a Google+ hangout to answer questions on Google+.

He said, "we are going to host the first TC Help Desk hangout this week." They hope to continue to do this hangout weekly. He added that they are volunteers not being paid by Google.

These Hangouts will be exclusively for those who have questions about Google+ Top Contributors from the Google+ Help Forum will be available to answer your questions, and give some advise.
We are not working for Google, we are just volunteering in helping others!

So if you want in, just go to his Google+ page at around 1pm EDT today.

There is a lot more discussion around this topic on John Mueller's page.

Forum discussion at Google+.

New iGoogle Layout Live For Some

Fetched: January 24th, 2012, 11:44pm CET by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Other Google Topics

Back in September, Google began testing a new iGoogle design and now it seems more are seeing that test.

A Google Web Search Help thread has one person stating he sees the new design. Even the Google Operating System posted about it with detailed screen shots of how it looks.

Here is one of the many screen shots:

As you can see, the new iGoogle is less colorful, and more the new bland white dull feeling of the new Google look throughout the various properties.

One of the users who is now seeing it said, "center the search bar at the top of the page! and why have a collapsible left nav, if all it does is hide 'chat' which no one uses anyway?" Clearly, they are not happy with it, but the ones that do post about this stuff normally are upset about something.

Forum discussion at Google Web Search Help.

Googlers Working On New Years

Fetched: January 3rd, 2012, 8:35pm CET by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Other Google Topics

I was working and I am sure many of you were, but most likely, we own our business.

Googler who work for 'the man' are also known to work on major holidays, like New Years and like we covered, Christmas.

This year, I spotted several Googlers posting in the Google help forums. But I wanted to highlight three who posted in the Google Webmaster Help forums.

Albert C. posted several times over the New Years break.
Gary Illyes posted several times over the New Years break.
John Mueller posted several times over the New Years break.

The one constant is John Mueller year to year posting on these holidays. The rest sometimes posts and sometimes does not.

In any event, they deserve credit for posting and helping out on a non-work day. The rest of us, well...

Forum discussion at Google Webmaster Help.

Image credit to ShutterStock for fireworks.

YouTube Let's It Snow Too

Fetched: December 24th, 2011, 7:52am CET by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Other Google Topics

A week ago, we reported how if you search on Google for let it snow, the Google search results page will actually snow.

But did you know the same thing happens on YouTube?

Try searching YouTube for [let it snow] and you will be granted snow flakes.

Not only that, if you want to add snow flakes to your videos, all you need to do is click on the snow flake next to the resolution picker on the bottom right of the video player.

Here is a picture:

Heck, give it a try on my video of us testing our RB holiday gifts.

Forum discussion at Google Blogoscoped Forums.

Google's Christmas Decorations

Fetched: December 21st, 2011, 11:54pm CET by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Other Google Topics

Christmas is around the corner and Google has just put up their Christmas decorations for the special day. Do a search for [christmas] or [merry christmas] and other flavors of that and you will see the Christmas decorations along the top of the page.

Google launched the Hanukkah decorations a couple days ago, as Hanukkah started last night.

Google does this every year, but normally the decorations are along the right side, acting as a separator between the ads and the search results.

We are still waiting for the [kwanzaa] and maybe even [festivus] decorations.

Forum discussion at Google Web Search Help.

Google Webmaster Team: How Can We Do Better?

Fetched: December 21st, 2011, 1:29pm CET by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Other Google Topics

Looking back at the years, it is really amazing how far Google has come in terms of webmaster communication. Yea, they have a pretty good search engine, mobile OS platform, ad system and a few other cool products like self-driving cars - but when you look at their webmaster communication - it has grown tremendously from GoogleGuy to where it is now.

Google has a ton of products and services for webmasters. From Webmaster Tools, help content, YouTube videos, XML Sitemaps, Rich Snippets, tons of Google + Hangouts, forum support, Twitter support, third-party support, email support and so much more.

But that won't stop the folks on the Google Webmaster team to try to even do better.

John Mueller from Google said in a Google+ post, how can we do better in 2012? He said:

Google has tried a lot of new things this year when it comes to webmaster support -- such as the hangouts in a variety of languages. Which parts do you all think we should work on next year? How can we make it easier for you all to make awesome websites, which are easily findable in web-search?
More hangouts? videos? more documentation? more detailed examples? Let us know here!

If you have ideas, go to the Google+ post and share.

Forum discussion at Google+.

Google's Let It Snow Hack

Fetched: December 20th, 2011, 1:21pm CET by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Other Google Topics

Google's latest easter egg is a search for [let it snow] where it will begin snowing on the search results screen, so much so that the results will begin to be covered by the white flakes, making it impossible to see the results.

You can then use your mouse to clear away the snow to see the results, or you can hit the "defrost" button, which is converted from the search button.

Click here to see it in action.

Here is also a video:

I should note that this won't work on older browsers. Which is why some people are complaining.

Forum discussion at Google Web Search Help and Google+.

Image credit to ShutterStock for a snowflake image.

Screen Shots Of YouTube Analytics

Fetched: December 3rd, 2011, 11:33am CET by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Other Google Topics

I loved when Google introduced YouTube Insights for my YouTube videos. Stats make me feel all fuzzy and warm. So now that Google reinvented it with YouTube Analytics, I feel all warm and fuzzy again.

Here are the key features followed by detailed screen shots from my YouTube account, where I post our Search Recap Videos every friday.

A Quick Overview: A new overview provides all of the information that you care about quickly, while also enabling you to easily access more detailed information.
More Detailed Reports: Analytics now includes more detailed statistics so that you can have a more precise understanding of your content and audiences.
Audience Builders: Discover which videos are driving the most views and subscriptions.
Audience Retention: See how far viewers are watching through your video in the new audience retention report.

YouTube Dashboard (click to enlarge):

YouTube Demographic Analysis:

YouTube Sources:

YouTube Likes/Dislikes (they can be harsh):

YouTube Playback Locations:

YouTube Earnings (I'm a poor struggling actor):

I didn't include all the reports, because the impression reports are not as snazzy but yet they are cool.

You can break the reports down to each individual video and filter by date ranges.

Tell me you are not warm and fuzzy now...

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Google Music Now Serious iTunes Competitor?

Fetched: November 17th, 2011, 6:31pm CET by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Other Google Topics

Google hosted a big music event yesterday to announce the new Google Music features.

In short they include:

Discover Music
Purchase Music
Share Music via Google +
Listen to Music

Prior, Google didn't have a good way of buying music and the sharing wasn't that great either.

There is also now an "Artist hub" where artists can distribute their music for the price they determine or for free.

For more on Google Music see music.google.com/about.

Google has tried many flavors of Google Music. In 2005 they had Google Music Search and in 2009 they displayed music results in the search results. But now none of that is in the search results. I assume it will come soon enough - I am not worried, it is a way for Google to monetize.

Forum discussion at Google Blogoscoped Forums.

Google+ Pages Via Third Party Social Media Tools

Fetched: November 16th, 2011, 5:14pm CET by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Other Google Topics

Announced on the Google AdWords Blog, which is a sign of things to come, Google is promoting six companies that are now offering tools for businesses to manage their Google + pages.

Google said, "Google+ is enabling six companies to test Google+ functionality in their management tools -- Buddy Media, Context Optional, Hearsay Social, HootSuite, Involver, and Vitrue." Google added, "These companies will offer a subset of their clients the ability to manage circles, publish to Google+, and monitor usage."

Google set up a devoted page at google.com/+/business/3rdpartytools.html for these companies and also said you want to add your tool, how to get in touch.

Anyway, I can go off on this a bit but I'll let you take the hints I dropped here and do that in the comments.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld and Google +.

Google + Pages & Direct Search

Fetched: November 9th, 2011, 7:02am CET by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Other Google Topics

The big news yesterday was that Google announced the launch of Google + Pages.

You can create a page now by going over here. I did not yet create a page because you can only own the page with a single profile and my existing Google Profile is in limbo because the migration tool is not ready yet. When it is, I'll make a couple pages and demand you all add them to your circles.

Here is a video demo explaining what it does:

There is really no point for me to write up a summary of how it all works. Danny Sullivan has two detailed articles on it:

Plus you can read a lot of the other articles via Techmeme. You should also read Scoble's complaints about the program.

On the search front, you can now do direct searches in Google for Google + pages. Here is a video on that:

I do not think the content on those pages are being indexed quickly by Google yet. I am sure it will be soon, but seems kind of slow right now.

Right now, there is not much discussion in the forums of why this matters. It is more about, I need to get my profile asap. Like I said, I'll get my profiles when the migration for my account is complete. Until then, I'll have to wait.

I am sure we will learn over time the importance of search and Google + pages in the near future - so stay tuned.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld, Sphinn, Google Places Help, Search Engine Watch Forums and Google Plus Help.

YouTube May Show Another Video's Thumbnail Image

Fetched: November 3rd, 2011, 6:41pm CET by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Other Google Topics

There is a bug with YouTube being widely reported in the YouTube Help Forums where when you upload your video, when it is done, the preview thumbnails displayed are coming from another random video.

The video itself is correct, but the preview thumbnails came from a random third-party video on YouTube.

Here is a screen shot showing during the upload process and when the upload is complete, it switches the thumbnail images to a random set.

David from the YouTube team said, "Yes, this is a glitch in previews only. We are rolling out a fix this evening to address this problem."

So they are working on the fix.

Update: David from YouTube said it is now fixed.

Forum discussion at YouTube Help Forums.

Google Shutting Google Buzz In Few Weeks

Fetched: October 18th, 2011, 5:08am CEST by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Other Google Topics

Google's Brad Horowitz announced closures of several Google products, including Google Buzz.

He said, "In a few weeks weâll shut down Google Buzz and the Buzz API, and focus instead on Google+. While people obviously won't be able to create new posts after that, they will be able to view their existing content on their Google Profile, and download it using Google Takeout."

This comes with no surprise to many. Google Buzz seems a bit redundant to Google + and we always felt it would someone be incorporated on some level or killed off.

But this means the Buzz layer in Google Maps was removed recently, which got a complaint.

Forum discussion at Google Maps Help & Search Engine Watch Forums.

Results: 47% Will Try Google's PageSpeed Service, 30% Won't

Fetched: October 15th, 2011, 9:37pm CEST by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Other Google Topics

A few months ago, Google launched a CDN like page speed service and we asked, would you give Google pagespeed a try?

47% of you said you would, whereas 30% said you wouldn't and the rest were not sure.

There are many reasons why a webmaster and SEO would reply that they would or wouldn't use the service. Some would love a method to speed up their pages and not have to worry about the technical - how tos. Some don't trust Google to host their content and pages. Some think they can do it better than Google.

That being said, I am so curious if the 47% who said they would try it, if they actually tried it.

Take my new poll asking "Did you try Google Page Speed Service"?

Did You Try Google's Page Speed Service?

Forum discussion continued at WebmasterWorld.

Note: This story was written earlier this week and scheduled to be published today.

Google Updates Design For Web Search Help

Fetched: October 6th, 2011, 4:37pm CEST by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Other Google Topics

Google has updated the design of the Google Web Search Help section on google.com/support/websearch.

The old design looked like this from the beginning of the year:

The new design looks like this:

Googler, Matt, from the Google forums said in a Google Web Search Help thread:

I'm happy to announce that the Web Search Help Center recently received a "makeover"!
http://www.google.com/support/websearch/
We hope that these changes to the layout and design make navigation through the Help Center more seamless and ultimately enable you to find the information you need as quickly as possible.
If you have any feedback, we'd love to hear it on this thread!

What do you think of the new design?

Forum discussion at Google Web Search Help.

Where's The Google Logo For Steve Jobs?

Fetched: October 6th, 2011, 4:37pm CEST by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Other Google Topics

Last night, the world heard the sad news that Steve Jobs has died. Apple and the world has lost one of the most visionary people to ever live. Most of you know, I grew up on Apples and am one of the largest Apple users out there - people think I am a bit cultish. So yea, the news was very sad for me personally.

There is no doubt the impact Steve Jobs had on the world. But yea, he lead Apple, a company that he directed in changing the world. That company and his leadership also shaped Google, Yahoo, Microsoft in many ways.

Larry Page posted a message on Gogle + as did Sergey Brin on Google + on just how much of an impact Apple and Steve Jobs had on Google:

From the earliest days of Google, whenever Larry and I sought inspiration for vision and leadership, we needed to look no farther than Cupertino. Steve, your passion for excellence is felt by anyone who has ever touched an Apple product (including the macbook I am writing this on right now). And I have witnessed it in person the few times we have met.

Apple.com has an iconic image of Jobs on the home page leading to a message at apple.com/stevejobs, here are pictures:

Google rushed last night to put up a small text link under the Google search box that links Steve Jobs to Apple. Here is a picture:

But Google users want and expected more - they wanted a logo that honored and remembered his legacy. I have no doubt there will be one on October 5, 2012 - but for now, Google did not want to do a logo. They don't like doing logos for sad occasions and instead, they used the plain text link approach - which works for me but not for many.

There is a petition in the Google Web Search Help forums to make a Google logo. I doubt we will see one today, but I'd be surprised if we didn't see one next year.

Anyway, I sit with many of the world in mourning the loss.

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

Google Trusted Stores: Badges & Ratings

Fetched: October 4th, 2011, 6:52pm CEST by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Other Google Topics

Google launched a new feature named Google Trusted Stores.

Google launched it to help buyers shop with a little bit more ease and confidence in the retailers they are buying from online.

Google said:

The Google Trusted Store badge is awarded to e-commerce sites that demonstrate a track record of on-time shipping and excellent customer service. When visiting a qualifying store, shoppers can hover over the Google Trusted Store badge and see metrics on the storeâs shipping and customer service performance.

Here is a picture of the badge:

Google said merchants who want to be part of this need to share data about shipments, and Google collects customer service metrics when shoppers seek Google's help with a problem. To apply, click here.

Then when a buyer makes a purchase at a Google Trusted Store, "they have the option to select free purchase protection from Google. Then, if a problem arises with their purchase, they can request Google's help, and Google will work with the merchant and customer to address the issue," Google said.

Here is a video demo of how this works:

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Google's Retail Store: Chromezone

Fetched: October 4th, 2011, 6:52pm CEST by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Other Google Topics

Google is taking the Apple route and opening up retail stores to sell Chromebooks.

ThisisLondon reports Google has set up a "285sqft pop-up "shop within a shop", which only sells Google's Chromebook laptop and a few accessories such as headphones, will run for three months up to Christmas." The store is at PC World in Tottenham Court Road.

Barker has dozens of pictures of the retail store.

This would be Google's first ever retail store - how unGoogley is this?

Forum discussion at Google Blogoscoped Forums.

Verified YouTube Users Can Now Upload Beyond 15 Minutes

Fetched: October 1st, 2011, 3:59am CEST by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Other Google Topics

Today, I am offline, so no video recap from me today. I scheduled this post in advanced, so people have something to read and yes, it is on the topic of YouTube.

A YouTube Help thread has David from YouTube announcing verified users can now upload videos that are longer than 15 minutes in length.

He said:

I am excited to announce that we are opening up longer length uploads to all verified users worldwide. To be eligible to verify your account, you must have no Copyright or Community Guidelines strikes, as well as no global Content ID blocks on any of your videos.

So verified and you can't have any strikes against your account.

If you comply, click on the increase your limit link in the YouTube uploader page.

Exactly how much longer than 15 minutes, I am not sure.

Forum discussion at YouTube Help.

Note: This story was written earlier this week and scheduled to be published today.

Boutiques.com Goes Aways As Google Product Search Gets Classy

Fetched: September 26th, 2011, 6:58pm CEST by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Other Google Topics

Google announced they have redesigned Google Product Search based off the acquisition of Boutiques.com, which is going to be redirected to Google Product Search.

The major changes include:

A Redesigned Homepage
Increased the size of each image
Browse dress collections that match the color, silhouette and genre you desire
Explore similar styles and discover new designers by clicking on that dress and viewing dozens of visually similar ones

Those are the key changes, and - oh, by the way, Boutiques.com is going away. Google said, "If you're a user of Boutiques.com and other Like.com websites, youâll soon receive an email with instructions for saving your data before those websites are transitioned on October 14. If you have any questions please email us at boutiques-feedback@google.com."

Forum discussion at Google Merchant Help.

Google & Senate Antitrust Testimony

Fetched: September 24th, 2011, 10:06am CEST by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Other Google Topics

Yesterday was a busy day for Google in Washington, D.C. Google's Eric Schmidt was the first witness called to answer questions from the committee. I watched a lot of this over the internet and I personally felt he did a very good job.

Personally, I think some of the questions showed that some of the subcommittee members really did not fully understand how Google works. Which might be an issue in general but there are basics that a subcommittee should know when questioning a company on these topics.

That being said, there were some strong accusations about anti competitive practices pointed out, such as Google ranking their own results higher than competitors. Things like Google Finance one box, Google Maps, and so on.

I am not to savvy on these types of hearings and how they work - politics and legal topics honestly do not interest me all that much.

But Greg Sterling has an outstanding Google Senate Hearings: The Post-Game Show where he lays out his thoughts and the key points. Also, Danny live blogged the Google Eric Schmidt interview and the Yelp, NexTag & Others At The US Senate Hearing.

There is a ton of discussion on who is right and wrong at the forums, including WebmasterWorld and Sphinn.

My favorite tweet was from Brett Tabke:

Google - you sent the wrong guy. Should have sent Cutts. He would have had them buying adwords for their re-elections before it was over...

Anyway, I do find it interesting that there are new reports that Google is scaling down the 7 pack.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld and Sphinn.

Google Really Wants You To Sign Up For Google Plus

Fetched: September 21st, 2011, 9:50pm CEST by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Other Google Topics

If you go to Google today, Google will be very persistent about you signing up for Google +, the Google Social Network.

Yesterday, Google announced Google + is available to all and added some key new features. Most importantly to me, a way to search Google + within Google +. The results are not found within Google Search's real time search yet, but you can search Google + posts within Google +.

That being said, there are many complaints about how intrusive the Google home page is today, with Google pushing people into wanting to sign up for the social network. Here is a video of the animation:

Danny Sullivan has a great write up on using Google + Search in detail, so check it out.

Other features include:

Hangouts on your phone, Android now but iPhone soon
Hangouts On Air (aka live broadcasts, limited user testing now
Hangouts with Screensharing, Sketchpad, Google Docs and Named Hangouts
Search in Google+ (as mentioned above
Open to all (minus Google Apps users but that is coming 'really soon'

Forum discussion at Google Web Search Help and WebmasterWorld.

Google Wallet

Fetched: September 21st, 2011, 9:50pm CEST by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Other Google Topics

The Google Wallet is here, well, it is over at google.com/wallet.

If you have a Sprint Nexus S 4G phone, you should see the "Wallet" icon on your device. Other devices will get it soon, but they need near field communication (NFC) built into the device, which many new phones are coming with.

What is it? Here is a quick video from Google explaining:

There have been rumors about this service since 2005 and now it is finally here.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld, where one user said "goog can stay far away from my wallet."

Forum discussion at Google Blogoscoped Forums and WebmasterWorld.

Top Contributors Share One "Disturbing Experience" With Trip To Google

Fetched: September 20th, 2011, 5:02am CEST by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Other Google Topics

Webado, a Top Contributor from the Google Webmaster help forums posted a thread at the Google Webmaster Help forums about a "disturbing incident" they had while visiting Google.

They were at a local mall in San Francisco and noticed a "man stumbled out of a mall" where he was "under kicks and punches from security guards, and was thrown to the ground."

They even captured a video and images:

Of course, we have no idea why the security guards took such action. We do not know if he tried to steal something, if he harassed someone or if it was just all a big mistake.

But for some of these non-US residents it was a bit disturbing to see.

Forum discussion at Google Webmaster Help.

What's Happening At The Google Top Contributor Summit

Fetched: September 16th, 2011, 3:26am CEST by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Other Google Topics

As some of you know, Google is holding their first top contributor summit this week, flying in non-Googlers who help Google in the forums from all around the world.

By now, the two day event is over and personally, I was wondering what took place. I am sure they met a lot of Googlers, toured the GooglePlex, got some nice schwag and learned about some new features. Plus, I am sure they talked about things and issues with Google.

John Mueller posted a picture of Pierre Far on Google + holding a top contributor web search sign. But most of the action can be found not on Google + but rather following the hashtag on Twitter @TCSummit.

@andrea_moro said, "on the google bus heading for a campus tour. And yen the bus a wi-fi connection on board. That's what we need in London too."

@LeMousse2009 said, "great i just won an award from Google Adwords."

@bizwriter wrote about a "social event" taking place.

@beussery posted a picture of one of the panels that took place.

But outside of that, I do not know much else of what went on at the event.

Top Contributors, want to share?

Forum discussion at ... oh, wait, all the TCs are busy, so no forum discussion? Nah, Google +.

Update: Google posted a recap blog post on this and John has some more information on his Google + profile.

Google Launches Offers Site in China

Fetched: September 14th, 2011, 3:36pm CEST by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Other Google Topics

Google has launched a new site in China named Google Shihui.

The site is basically a deals site, or "offer aggregator" as the file name of the logo used on the site. It translates to timely deal.

Google spokesman Robin Moroney told IDG, "Shihui is in the early stages of development and we'll be working with our partners to see what features drive the best traffic to their sites and also what features guide users to the offers that are most valuable to them."

Here is a picture:

Of course, this leads to questions if this will come to other countries, like the US. Google does have Google Offers in the U.S., which is a different model but conceptually similar.

What do you think about this?

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

New iGoogle Design Upsets Users

Fetched: September 10th, 2011, 12:53pm CEST by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Other Google Topics

iGoogle has launched a new design and it was quietly announced in the Google Web Search Help forums. The changes were summarized by Sarah H. of Google who said:

Collapsable Left Nav: The ability to hide the left navigation. Click on the arrow to collapse the left nav and click on it again to expand it.
Google Voice Search (For Chrome Users Only): You'll be able to use Google Voice Search by clicking on the microphone icon.

Sounds really nice, right?

Well, not for many. Many iGoogle users had special custom and fancy Google themes. It appears that with the layout changes, many of those custom themes just simply look bad in the new design.

One iGoogle user said:

Very unhappy about this... it has made many themes completely unusable due to the new placement of the Search field. I'm not happy about having to choose between giving up a theme I've been using for well over a year or else trying to find something else I like that won't make the new offset of the Search field so graphically off kilter with the rest of the design.

Upset also? You can do two things:

(1) Complain in the Google Web Search Help thread.

(2) Fill out this survey form specific to iGoogle's new look over here.

Forum discussion at Google Web Search Help.

Google Says Thank You To Top Forum Posters By Holding A Summit

Fetched: September 10th, 2011, 12:53pm CEST by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Other Google Topics

Google has announced that they are inviting all the top contributors of their Google support forums to fly to California and have a two day summit.

Google is covering all the expenses for the contributors as a thank you for all their hard work over the years in the forums.

The Top Contributors Summit is being held over two days, the first day at Santa Clara Marriott on September 13th and the second day at the GooglePlex.

Google said the Top Contributors will meet guides, engineers and product managers in order to get to know each other, provide feedback and share new ideas.

If you cannot attend, like many of us who will be at the SMX event in New York and the rest of us who are not considered Top Contributors, you can follow the event on Twitter with the hashtag #TCsummit.

You can read the full agenda over here.

This sounds like a lot of fun and I hope everyone gets a lot out of it.

Forum discussion at Google +.

Google Faster DMCA Request Take Downs & Autocomplete Piracy

Fetched: September 7th, 2011, 12:24am CEST by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Other Google Topics

Google announced changes to how they handle some public policy requests.

(1) DMCA takedown requests for Blogger and Web Search will be acted upon within 24 hours.

(2) Blocking piracy related terms from showing up in Google's autocomplete

(3) Google will improve their AdSense anti-piracy review.

(4) Google will also improve the visibility of authorized preview content in search results.

The main things here to me are items one and two. Faster DMCS takedown request actions can be huge and blocking the piracy related autocompletes is nice as well.

A WebmasterWorld thread has discussion around this update. Tedster is excited about the autocomplete change, saying, "It's good to know they have attention on Autocomplete. I have seen very few complaints about false and reputation damaging Suggestions in recent months."

Do you think these policy changes will help in the long run?

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Google Closes Aardvark, Fast Flip, Sidewiki & Many Other Projects

Fetched: September 7th, 2011, 12:24am CEST by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Other Google Topics

Google has announced yet another wave of Google product and services closures. The products hit this time include:

Aardvark
Fast Flip
Sidewiki
Google Desktop
Google Image Labeler
Google Maps API for Flash
Google Notebook
Google Pack
Google Subscribed Links
Google Web Security

Google ends by saying:

Weâve never been afraid to try big, bold things, and that wonât change. Weâll continue to take risks on interesting new technologies with a lot of potential. But by targeting our resources more effectively, we can focus on building world-changing products with a truly beautiful user experience.

It is sad to see some of these go but Google often tries wild things and closes down products, especially recently.

Forum discussion at Google Blogoscoped Forums.

YouTube Adds Support For Resumable Uploads For More Browsers

Fetched: August 31st, 2011, 3:44pm CEST by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Other Google Topics

Back in July, YouTube began enabling a new uploader for resumable uploads for certain browsers.

YouTube's David just gave us an update via the YouTube Help forums that they have made updates to the feature and are now supporting Internet Explorer, in addition to Chrome and Firefox 4+.

David is asking users to give it a try. If you use Chrome or Firefox 4+, go to the standard YouTube uploader and begin uploading a video. Then stop the upload by throwing your computer against the wall, okay - if that is not an option, then just quit the browser or disconnect from the internet. Then after you get your computer back up and running, start the upload again and it should pick up.

If you are running Internet Explorer you will need Silverlight and then you need to go to a special URL at upload.youtube.com/my_videos_upload?restrict=silverlight to use this feature.

There is nothing worse in the YouTube world than uploading a video for an hour only to find out that it stops when it is 99% done uploading because you accidentally quit your browser, your internet died or your computer froze.

Oh and if you like watching videos on SEO, make sure to check mine out and subscribe to them.

Forum discussion at YouTube Help.

Google + Merges Two Titles Tags As One

Fetched: August 28th, 2011, 5:59am CEST by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Other Google Topics

Back in 2004, there was a weird loophole that allowed SEOs to use two title tags to target two different keyword phrases for the same page. I believe that loophole is fixed and Google picks one, if you purposefully or by accident implement two or more title tags (I've have not tested this).

But what happens when you Google + stuff with a page that has two title tags in the source code?

That is exactly the case of a Google Webmaster Help thread for this web site. It has two title tags, one that reads, "Automobile Industry India, Automobile Parts, Automotive Components, Auto Accessories Manufacturers, Suppliers, Exporters" and then another that reads "Untitled Document."

So Google + uses both. Here is a picture of me adding the page to Google +:

Pretty cool, don't you think? I tried to see if I can see this page rank well in the Google search results for the second title tag, the untitled, but I couldn't get it to come up. I wonder if Google search ignores the second one completely and if so, should Google + also do the same?

Forum discussion at Google Webmaster Help.

Google +1 Button Let's You Publish To Google +

Fetched: August 28th, 2011, 5:59am CEST by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Other Google Topics

Yesterday Google announced they have enhanced the Google +1 Button to allow users of Google +, the social network, to publish directly from the +1 button to Google +.

Here is how it works, on this site, you see the Google +1 button and you click it and it opens up an expanded option to add your comments and share it with your circles on Google +:

Then if you see on my Google + profile, the Google+ post shows up right in Google +.

This will save me a ton of time +1'ing my stuff and then posting them to Google + so all my Google + "followers" can be inundated with all my wonderful content on a daily basis.

FYI, Facebook share works pretty much the same way.

Google also added + Snippets within their rich snippets schema to allow publishers to make sure the +1 shares work as best as possible. More on that on the Google Webmaster Blog.

And here is the famous Timothy from Google:

Forum discussion at Google Webmaster Help.

Delete Your YouTube Account? Want It Back? Act Fast!

Fetched: August 24th, 2011, 7:24am CEST by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Other Google Topics

Liz from Google's YouTube support announced in a YouTube Help thread that they are removing the ability to reinstate a YouTube account soon.

Liz said:

We want to let you know that the ability to reopen your deleted account will be going away soon. The form will continue to exist for another 2 weeks during which time you will be able to reclaim a username that you previously deleted.

So if you need to reopen a deleted YouTube account, go over here before September 6th, 2011. If you do not, then the account will be gone forever.

Liz goes on to explain:

After this date, you will no longer be able to reinstate the username. In other words, once you've deleted your YouTube account, the username will become permanently unavailable.
If, after deleting your YouTube account, you want to have another YouTube account, you will not be able to reactivate your old YouTube username, you'll need to make a new account with a new username.
Please Note: Deleting an account is permanent, and you should not delete your Google Account or YouTube account unless you are sure you want to delete the account. Please see this help center article for additional information.

Suggest A New Language To Google News

Fetched: August 11th, 2011, 9:21pm CEST by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Other Google Topics

Do you wish Google News supported your favorite language but it currently doesn't?

Google's Anjali Sharma posted a thread at the Google News Help forums asking Google News users to submit a suggestion to Google for the languages they want to see added to Google News.

Anjali said:

You can request a new language addition as well several other features for Google News through this page: [www.google.com]
If you cannot find the language you want to request for in the 'Language additions' section, scroll to the bottom of the page and select 'I have another idea' and choose 'Language Additions'. Then type the languages you would like to include in Google News and hit the blue bar 'Suggest it'.

Again, to submit a suggestion to Google News, use this page.

Forum discussion at Google News Help.

Be A Better SEO By Reading Google Books

Fetched: August 10th, 2011, 5:12pm CEST by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Other Google Topics

Recently, there were two new books that came out about Google. Not on how to rank well in Google or to do better at AdWords but on how Google works.

The two books are named In The Plex by Steven Levy and I'm Feeling Lucky: The Confessions of Google Employee Number 59 by Douglas Edwards.

Both books go deep into how Google became what it is today. One was written by a reporter who became ingrained in Google's lives. The other was written by a former Googler who was their 59th employee.

I have read In The Plex a month or so ago and learned a great deal as to why Google is the way it is. But I am currently reading Douglas Edwards's book and I am learning a lot more, at least from understanding why Google works the way it does and potentially where they will go in the future.

Ted from WebmasterWorld feels that reading these books makes him an better SEO and better and understanding how Google's algorithms work and where they will go in the future. Ted explained it better than I can:

If anyone wants to sail, then they need a real appreciation for the ocean. If they want to go backpacking, they need knowledge of the woods and terrain, and the more accurate the better.
We want to use Google organic search results as one way to market our web businesses, and yet we often have a very unrealistic idea of what, exactly, Google is. And when we operate under false assumptions, sooner or later we can get crushed.
For this reason I work very hard to build a realistic model of what Google is as a business - and what they are not. No kool-aid for me, but no knee-jerk negativity either. Both are distortions and will lead use astray.
I'm currently about 200 pages into a new book called "In The Plex" by Steven Levy, published April 2011. It's good stuff, and I recommend it for anyone who is trying to appreciate what Google is and what they are not.

I totally agree, but I strong recommend you read both these books.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Google Dictionary Is Next Google Property To Close

Fetched: August 8th, 2011, 2:57pm CEST by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Other Google Topics

If you try to seek out your definitions at the Google Dictionary you will be out of luck. It was closed down over the weekend.

If you go there, you get a notice that reads, "Google Dictionary is no longer available. You can use Google web search to find definitions or Google Translate for your translation needs."

Google has been closing properties recently, such as Google Labs.

I doubt they closed the dictionary because of the recent nudity incident and recently they updated how definitions worked.

There are many complaints in the Google Web Search Help forum. Kelly from Google wrote why they closed the dictionary:

As many of you know, we've recently introduced a dictionary tool into Google Web Search to help you quickly look up the definition of a word,. Because the dictionary tool offers the same functionality as Google Dictionary, we've decided to discontinue dictionary.google.com.
For your definition needs, you can type your query right into the search box and use the dictionary tool located in the left-hand panel on the results page, or you can type [define (your word)] right into the search box.
I want to thank those of who who've been loyal users of dictionary.google.com and welcome you to share your feedback on how the dictionary tool can be improved.

Again, many are not happy about this but I doubt Google will bring it back in its old form.

Forum discussion at Google Web Search Help.

Editors Picks Comes To Google News, Users Want To Remove It

Fetched: August 6th, 2011, 2:21am CEST by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Other Google Topics

Google announced yet another feature added to the Google News side bar, this is called editors picks.

It is a bit un-searchy to me being that editors (not from Google) are hand picking stories to show there. Of course, what users see are personalized based on their preferences in Google News. The only issue is that you can't remove the box, even if you wanted to.

Here is a picture:

Google announced it also in the Google News Help forums but the response has been only negative. Users simply want to remove it. One said:

Please allow Editor's Picks to be disabled as a "feature". I already subscribe to several news organizations and do not need Google to pick for me. This is not good, BTW. It is a form of reverse censorship in that it occupies space that would otherwise be filled with news. I also do not like "most popular" as a category as I believe sheep are interested in that.
Overall, please stop handling me. I am an adult and capable of making my own decisions.

I am not sure if Google will allow users to remove it or not, but for publishers, if you want to be included, you should check out the help document.

To participate in Editors' Picks as a publisher, you will need to create and submit a custom RSS feed. There are guidelines for supplying and managing the feed, as well as technical specifications.
If upon reviewing the RSS feed we find that it does not meet our guidelines, we may disable it in our system. Additionally, pending our own quality measures and user feedback, we may re-review and disable your RSS feed at any time.

Forum discussion at Google News Help.

Webmasters Worries About Google Chrome Pre-Fetching

Fetched: August 5th, 2011, 2:07am CEST by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Other Google Topics

The other day, Google announced a feature built into Chrome named pre-fetching. It isn't new but Google is talking about it again and it is scaring webmasters.

To best describe what it does, see this short video:

Why is this scaring webmasters? Simply because it can skew the web analytics.

A WebmasterWorld thread shares some of those concerns. Here are some quotes:

Now this is going to create fake hits on web servers without any real visitors...

It will be interesting to see how this ties in with google analytics..

You'd have to assume Google Analytics would handle this fine, but other packages?

What about data plans and bandwidth charges?

Either way..how it is set up now..it is the site owner and the end user are the ones actually paying for this "Google feature"..both are paying the bandwidth or the data charges ..and for a "benefit" that we only have Google's word the visitor actually wants ..most pages ( unless they are running Google's own slow analytics codes etc ) load fast enough for every one.

Are you concerned? Personally, I am not.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Google Logo Background Not 100% White

Fetched: August 3rd, 2011, 3:22pm CEST by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Other Google Topics

The only type person who would pick up on this Google logo change would be a mac user who loves Google. No, I am not talking about myself, I can't even see it with my own eyes, but designers who love Google.

A Google searcher asked in Google Web Search Help and MacNN Forums why did Google recently change the color of the background of their logo to an off white.

Do you see it? Go to Google.com and let me know if you see the logo's background not being exactly the same shade of white as the rest of the page?

I couldn't tell, so I used a color picker tool and it is indeed slightly off white.

Here is a screenshot of me selecting the non-logo white:

Here is a screenshot of me selecting the white part in the middle of the G of the logo:

See how the HTML color is slightly off, proving maybe it is a different white?

This is no big deal but I love picking up on these crazy little changes at Google.

Forum discussion at Google Web Search Help and MacNN Forums.

Google Friends Newsletter Retires After 13 Years

Fetched: August 1st, 2011, 3:42pm CEST by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Other Google Topics

After 13 years, the Google Friends Newsletter has been retired.

The first newsletter was sent out by Google co-founder, Larry Page on April 29, 1998. The last one was sent out on July 29, 2011. Here is a picture:

The full newsletter reads:

It's hard to believe, but this monthly missive is now 13 years old. We hope you've enjoyed reading it over time, and wanted you to know that we are retiring it in its current form.
As you may know, the Google Friends Newsletter was created by Larry Page in April 1998, when Google was still on Stanford servers. In the early days, the Friends notes offered newsy details like "We are gearing up to do another crawl. We should start within a few weeks" and tips on tweaking your search queries.
Obviously a lot has happened since then, including changes in how we communicate updates to all of you. So this will be our last Google Friends Newsletter. We started the Official Google Blog in 2004 and joined Twitter in 2009, and we've seen dramatic growth on those channels. Meanwhile, the number of subscribers to this newsletter has remained flat, so we've concluded that this format is no longer the best way for us to get the word out about new Google products and services.
You can still get updates and power tips from Google in several ways:
The Official Google Blog - http://www.googleblog.blogspot.com Our main blog features the widest range of our biggest news and announcements. Subscribe to our blog posts by emailâ"no more than one per dayâ"by scrolling to the "Subscribe" box on the right-hand side of the blog. You can also subscribe to the blog in an RSS reader, or pick and choose which subject(s) you'd like to get news about by subscribing to a topical label (look on the right-hand side for this list).
Topical blogs - http://www.google.com/intl/en/press/blog-directory.html Visit our blog directory to find a blog that covers just what you're interested in, whether it's Chrome or search, or blogs in additional languages that cover countries around the world.
Twitter - http://www.google.com/intl/en/press/twitter-directory.html We have a wide variety of Twitter feeds covering many different topics. Visit our Twitter directory and follow the ones that strike your fancy.
We hope you enjoy whichever channels you choose. You're always a Google friend to us!

Goodbye Google Friends Newsletter!

Forum discussion at Google Blogoscoped Forums.

Former Ask.com Rep, Peter Linsley Featured In Google Video

Fetched: August 1st, 2011, 3:42pm CEST by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Other Google Topics

I am so happy to see Peter Linsley, who is now a product manager for Google Image Search starring in a video about SafeSearch.

Peter Linsley was a former Ask.com employee who really lead up much of their search division. When Ask.com failed at search, he was quickly picked up by Google.

I find it nice to see him working on image search and even more, featured in a video on how SafeSearch works. Some of you may know that Matt Cutts was the first Googler to work on the SafeSearch filter.

Here is the video:

Good job!

Forum discussion at Google Blogoscoped Forums.

Google + Referrals Drop 40% Or More?

Fetched: August 1st, 2011, 3:42pm CEST by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Other Google Topics

Google + launched just about a month ago and early on, it was all the internet was talking about. To be perfectly honest, I still love it but it is not loving me as much.

Google Plus is my number three referrer, beating out Facebook. But over the weeks, Google Plus has been sending me less and less traffic. In fact, comparing last week to the week prior, Google + sent me 40% less traffic.

But on average, Google + is still sending me about twice as much traffic than Facebook. Keep in mind, this is a site that talks mostly about Google.

That being said, I am not the only one reporting this. A WebmasterWorld thread notes that Hitwise reported Google + traffic in general dropped 3%.

But people in the thread said their traffic from Google + to their web site dropped even as high as 50%. Have you noticed huge drops in referrals from Google + like I did and others?

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Will You Give Google Page Speed Service A Spin?

Fetched: July 30th, 2011, 9:38pm CEST by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Other Google Topics

Google announced they will soon be offering a new service for webmasters, a service named Page Speed Service.

The service is a lot like a CDN, content delivery network, where Google will fetch your pages, optimize them, speed them up and then deliver them to your end users. They promise speed improvements of up to 65%, but typically between 25% and 65%.

If you want to try it out, you can request to be a beta tester on this form. But keep in mind, Google will eventually start to charge for the service - plus they aren't yet disclosing how much. So if you think you can't afford it, then maybe don't bother. Google does promise the "pricing will be competitive" and they will give you 30 days to decide once they announce the pricing.

For more on how this all works, see the doc files on it and the FAQs.

A WebmasterWorld has discussion around the service. Some are saying they gave it a try already and it has resulted in making their site slower! One said, "I ran the test and my original is faster than the optimized version." Many add they don't want Google to do this for them and they won't even try it.

I am curious, would you give this a try?

Will You Give Google Page Speed Service A Try?

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Nudity On Google Dictionary For Perverse

Fetched: July 28th, 2011, 11:51pm CEST by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Other Google Topics

A Google Web Search Help thread has a case where the Google Dictionary showed a picture of a topless woman for the definition of [perverse].

I was able to replicate the naked woman for that term this morning, so it may still show up for you.

Sarah, a Google User Experience Specialist, explained the issue:

There are a couple of things going on here that could explain why the image made it through Safe Search. Thomas P made some really great points. Just for future knowledge, when issues like this occur help us out and click the Safe Search link next to the Search box and then click to report offensive image. Click the report button on that image and voila!
I took care of reporting this one for you so you don't need to worry about it, but good knowledge any future occurrences.

This may be the first report of nudity in Google's Dictionary.

Forum discussion at Google Web Search Help.

Google Analytics Changes How They Track Google Image Search

Fetched: July 28th, 2011, 11:51pm CEST by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Other Google Topics

I've been seeing posts and forum complaints that Google Analytics has shown tremendous drops in search referrals from Google Image Search. To make a long story short, Google Analytics seemed to have switched how they report Google Image search traffic, moving it from the referrals report and into the organic search report.

There are reports at WebmasterWorld (see July 26th) and Google Analytics Help forums about this.

As reported by Gabs and AJ Kohn, it is simply a matter of Google moving the traffic under the search engine report.

Here is a graph from Gabs:

I was able to verify this in several of my sites that I track.

Google, I do not believe, has any word about this change, so I can see why people freaked out when they saw this.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld and Google Analytics Help.

Those Gray Google News Badges Are A Tease

Fetched: July 28th, 2011, 11:51pm CEST by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Other Google Topics

A couple weeks ago, Google announced Google News badges. Since then, there has been tremendous confusion about the badges.

The ongoing Google News Help thread has dozens of people asking why their badges don't show up. People are asking how the news badges are unlocked and how you share them. It does not seem that clear for many.

Because of the confusion, Harvey from Google clarified that the early badge you see in your Google News Badge section is a placeholder badge. It is a gray badge to kind of tease you to earn the bronze badges, to tease you to earn more badges.

Harvey from Google made to points of clarification:

When you first get started with Google News Badges you'll see a sample badge that appears in gray. This is a placeholder until you earn some actual badges. When you receive a Bronze level badge, you've achieved your first actual badge.
There seems to be some confusion about whether or not opening up a story in a new tab will count towards your badges. To make sure these stories are counted, make sure your Google News settings are set to automatically open stories in a new tab. You can find instructions to make this change at the link below.

Also, it appears that reading Google News through RSS or Google Alerts do not count for badges.

Forum discussion at Google News Help.

Goodbye Google Labs

Fetched: July 22nd, 2011, 1:54am CEST by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Other Google Topics

Yesterday, Google announced they are shutting down Google Labs.

Google Labs is where many of the neat Google services and products were first introduced, including Google Suggest, which grew into Google Instant.

That being said, Google said that labs within products will continue to remain. So if you are using Gmail Labs, that will still remain. Google said, "we don't have any plans to change in-product experimentation channels like Gmail Labs or Maps Labs."

That being said, Google Labs will be missed by many Google enthusiasts.

Goodbye Google Labs!

Forum discussion at DigitalPoint Forums and Google Blogoscoped Forums.

Google Directory No Longer

Fetched: July 22nd, 2011, 1:54am CEST by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Other Google Topics

Google has quietly dropped the Google Directory.

Now if you try to access it, you will get a message that Google has removed it because it is slow and not as fast as using Google search. Google writes:

Google Directory is no longer available.
We believe that Web Search is the fastest way to find the information you need on the web.
If you prefer to browse a directory of the web, visit the Open Directory Project at dmoz.org

The Google Directory was one of the first added links to Google.com. Former Googler, Douglas Edwards's recent book described the directory addition as one of the first easy ways for Google to add more services to their site. The founders didn't think it was useful to have a directory on the site back then, but if they can make the directory easier and better to search - well, then they decided to add it.

Now Google feels it is not needed and has completely removed it, telling people to go to the Open Directory Project directly.

Here is what you see now on the Google Directory:

Here is what was there yesterday:

We use to cover the directory often enough, tracking directory updates and such, but haven't done so in years.

One SEO said in a WebmasterWorld thread, "Never happy to lose a decent link."

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

YouTube Video Stop Uploading? No Need To Start Again!

Fetched: July 14th, 2011, 3:44pm CEST by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Other Google Topics

David from YouTube announced a new feature for the YouTube video upload tool at the YouTube Help forums.

David said they have implemented a new feature to let users continue their video upload even after it fails. Yes, it has happened to me several times where I have begun uploading a video and either my internet connection dropped or computer restarted or I accidentally closed my browser and I had to start all over again. In the old days, It took me several hours to upload my videos and it was incredibly frustrating when this happened.

Now, if you use Chrome of Firefox 4 or higher, the YouTube uploader will let you resume your upload.

David explained yesterday that "today we are beginning 100% resumability support for the XHR uploader." He added that they are removing the old Java uploader which was one of the methods to do this, which rarely worked for me anyway:

This means if you have a supported browser (Chrome or FF4+), you can upload, pull the plug, resume, and expect it to pick up from where it left off. In our testing the resumability is consistently more reliable than the java uploader.
As I have mentioned before, we plan to get rid of the Java uploader entirely once we are truly confident in the effectiveness of this. Anyway, I will provide some updates once this is actually live later today.

Larry from YouTube added:

The XHR uploader (which is the mechanism used if you access the upload interface with Chrome or Firefox 4+) supports unlimited file sizes. Notice that if you access the uploader with one of these supported browsers 2gb will not be listed as a restriction.
The uploader will run a checksum against previously attempted uploads. So, if you upload to 50% and experience a crash, when you attempt to upload the same video again the progress bar will jump back to 50%, and your upload will continue. Keep an eye out for this around 5 PST and let me know if you have positive or negative experiences with it.

I for one am very happy about this enhancement!

Forum discussion at YouTube Help.

Who's The First Google + User

Fetched: July 14th, 2011, 3:44pm CEST by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Other Google Topics

Brian White, an engineer at Google who deeply involved in Google's search quality, posted a Google + post with some detective work.

Brian White wanted to see who "Profile Zero" on Google + is. So he decided to sniff around the Google robots.txt file and found a sitemap file at gstatic.com/s2/sitemaps/profiles-sitemap.xml. The first sitemap file referenced there listed the first profile as Raj Pudota.

Truth is, and Brian White said it, "I actually don't know if this is a "canonical first profile" or anything--it's just the first one listed."

Technically, this is extremely not likely. The first Google + user was probably a Googler working on the project.

If you look at Facebook, you can see profile number 4 is Mark Zuckerberg. Just try facebook.com/profile.php?id=4, notice the id=4. Who is number one? Someone named Rosa Angelica Alba.

Anyway, any ideas who has the first Google + profile?

Forum discussion at Google +.

Plus One Google Doodles?

Fetched: July 14th, 2011, 6:30am CEST by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Other Google Topics

I spotted a smart request in the Google Web Search Help forums asking why can't we plus one Google Logos?

A good question!

I don't think we need the Google Plus or other social sharing buttons on the Google home page, when the Doodle is live. But I do think adding them to the Google Logos gallery makes sense.

Maybe something like this:

While they are at it, they should document how many clicks each Google Doodle received. Would be awesome to see which are the most "popular" Google Doodles.

Forum discussion at Google Web Search Help.

YouTube Tests New Channel & Video Design

Fetched: July 14th, 2011, 6:30am CEST by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Other Google Topics

Last week, YouTube announced a new design experiment for the channel and YouTube video watch pages. The new look is code named Cosmic Panda.

You can test it out at youtube.com/testtube and learn more about this specific experiment over here.

Here are screen shots of the channel and watch pages:

Hate it? Love It? Let us know.

Want to complain to YouTube, let them know at the YouTube Help thread.

Google's Clinton Says Google + Great Success Already

Fetched: July 6th, 2011, 6:19pm CEST by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Other Google Topics

Google launched their own social network as a limited beta a week ago and named it Google + and personally, I love it.

One thing Google downplayed with the social network was friend numbers and followers, something really important on Twitter and less important on Facebook.

Google engineer, DeWitt Clinton, talked a bit about how he has seen the growth of Google + and how he is surprised by how fast things have evolved on the network, even within the limited test.

Here is a copy of what he wrote on his Google + Post:

I'm not a big fan of numbers gamesâ"they're a signal, but at best a fungible one, and always highly dependent on external factorsâ"but perhaps worth noting in passing (and then moving on) that by sometime later today I'll have added more people to circles, and have been added to more circles, on Google+ than I have friends or followers on Buzz, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, or any other network, and we're not yet a full week into limited field trial. I had expected this to happen eventually, but certainly not so soon.

Here is a screen shot of his numbers:

Mine, on my Google + account is no where near DeWitt's, where I am only in about 1,300 circles. Yes, I am getting into the number game. But DeWitt has a point, Google + is really strong with the engagement.

But what matters much more than raw numbers is engagement, of course, and so far I've been pleased, to say the least, both with the activity on my own posts and with the activity on the posts that I follow. This is a conversational media and a rich media, and from what I can tell it is working well as both.

Where do I find the most engagement? Honestly, mostly on Twitter, then my blog comments, then Google + and then Facebook. But Google + is a limited beta and I can see it growing and surpassing the other networks. It is just so easy to engagement and have a stream of conversation there. More so on Facebook, at least for me.

It is always nice to see Google's view on their own products. So there you have it.

Forum discussion at Google + Post.

Google Calendar Redesign Live

Fetched: July 1st, 2011, 7:33am CEST by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Other Google Topics

As you know, Google is revamping the design across many of their properties. The latest property to get redesigned is Google Calendar.

Here is the new look:

Google actually documented the changes as:

The Quick add function is now under the down arrow next to the Create button Calendars selected for viewing in your My calendars and Other calendars lists will no longer display with a colored background; instead, only the arrows next to them will be colored.
The Print and Refresh buttons are now icons rather than text links. The Print button shows a printer, and the Refresh icon is a circular arrow.
Visual indicator icons (alarm clock icon for events with reminders, person icon for events with guests, etc.) will only show when the event is hovered over.
The My calendars and Other calendars lists on the left are now collapsed by default and may be expanded using the small gray arrow. Once expanded, they will remain expanded on refresh or open.
The mini month view calendar under the Create button is collapsible using the small gray arrow.
The Save and Discard buttons and Back to calendar link are only available at the top of the event page, not the bottom.

I normally do not use Google Calendar's interface, I normally access the data via iCal on my Mac or iPhone - but I can see people complaining about this.

Forum discussion at Google Blogoscoped Forums.

Google +: Google's New Social Network

Fetched: June 29th, 2011, 11:37pm CEST by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Other Google Topics

It is weird, I have yet to see Google +, Google's new social network, myself. I was on the pre-invite list but for some reason, the invite never came and I am locked out. It is very weird for me to write about something that I did not experience first hand and also very weird for me to not have access to a new Google product early.

That being said, everyone else at Search Engine Land has been having a blast teasing me about having access to Google Plus. The SEL team has been 'huddling', 'sparking' conversations, creating 'circles' without me, and even doing 'hangouts' without me - so I feel a bit left out.

Okay, in all seriousness, the reviews seem fairly positive. Since I cannot give you a first hand recount, I recommend reading Danny Sullivan's Google + review and Greg Sterling's first look.

Google has a very easy to understand overview of how Google + works over at google.com/+/learnmore/ - so check that out.

And if you are like me, and do not have access yet, you can check out the interactive tour.

Here are some video demos from Google:

The official Google discussion forum for this Google + support is at Google Groups, believe it or not.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld, DigitalPoint Forums and Search Engine Roundtable Forums.

Bug: New Google Docs Hidden

Fetched: June 28th, 2011, 5:25pm CEST by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Other Google Topics

Gary Price, who is now back writing with Danny and team, tipped me off to a Google Docs Help thread disclosing a bug with new documents.

There was a bug where adding new Google Docs would go missing from your documents list. The only way to have them show up would be to add a * to the search box within Google Docs. Google then claimed to have fixed the bug, and people confirmed the fix. But now, the bug seems to be back.

The bug started in late May and was reportedly fixed on June 17th. Ten days later, June 27th, the bug reappeared.

Personally, I cannot replicate it, but I am told it is impacting a nice number of Google Docs users. One user said:

I'm having the same problem today, but not previously. New documents are not showing up in the Docs list, either in the collection view or in the All Items view. I can get them to show up temporarily in the All Items list by searching for known strings from them, and to show up temporarily in collections by "re-adding" them to the collection, but they disappear from both intermittently. (Chrome 12.0.742.100).

Forum discussion at Google Docs Help.

Update: Gary Price who was tracking this bug has posted more timelines and information at InfoDocket.

Google Kills Google Health

Fetched: June 27th, 2011, 7:12pm CEST by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Other Google Topics

On Friday, Google announced the death of Google Health. Yes, Google Health which launched about three years ago is now being shut down.

Why? As Google said, it "is not having the broad impact that we hoped it would." Therefore they are shutting it down. I am not surprised, in fact, I expected it. I did not think when it launched Google would close it, but someone recently asked me about Google Health and I told them, I wouldn't be surprised if they closed it down within the year.

Why? You never hear anything about it. All the main Googlers in charge of the project either left the company or were migrated to new places. So it comes with no surprise that the announcement was made in 2011. Especially after the official FTC probe - I mean, it can't hurt to turn that off now.

The date it will go offline is January 1, 2012. If you are one of the few using it, you can download your data. To do that, see here.

Forum discussion at DigitalPoint Forums.

Google's Webmaster Blog A Photo Blog? Nope

Fetched: June 4th, 2011, 11:19pm CEST by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Other Google Topics

If you woke up this morning and checked your RSS feeds to see the Google Webmaster Blog filled with pictures from Joe Hewes, you are not alone.

Some are thinking the blog was hacked but when I asked @JohnMu at Google he said:

@rustybrick No, it was a quirk on our side, sorry for the confusion :)

Here is a picture of the feed in the RSS reader:

I am not sure who Joe Hewes is and how that happened but John implied it was not a hack.

Forum discussion at Google Webmaster Help.

Google's +1 Website Button Now Live

Fetched: June 4th, 2011, 11:19pm CEST by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Other Google Topics

The big Google news from yesterday was that they officially launched the Google +1 button for webmasters and site owners to place on their sites.

You can get the code to add the button to your site by going here. We have already replaced our Google Buzz icons with the +1 button. Why? What is the difference between Buzz and +1? Google said:

Buzz buttons are used for starting conversations about interesting web content ("Hey guys, what do you think about this news story?"). +1 buttons recommend web content to people in the context of search results ("Peng +1âd this page"), and +1's from social connections can help improve the relevance of the results you see in Google Search. You can use the +1 button, or the Buzz button, or bothâ"pick whatâs right for your content.

Personally, I still think there will be a lot of confusion between Google Buzz and Google +1. When you "like" stories in Google Reader, should that be a +1 but when you comment in Google Reader, should that be a Google Buzz? I don't know.

Matt McGee at Search Engine Land has two good stories on the button. The stories are named:

How will it affect SEO and results? Google said:

Content recommended by friends and acquaintances is often more relevant than content from strangers. For example, a movie review from an expert is useful, but a movie review from a friend who shares your tastes can be even better. Because of this, +1's from friends and contacts can be a useful signal to Google when determining the relevance of your page to a user's query. This is just one of many signals Google may use to determine a page's relevance and ranking, and we're constantly tweaking and improving our algorithm to improve overall search quality. For +1's, as with any new ranking signal, we'll be starting carefully and learning how those signals affect search quality.

When will it show in analytics? We do not know.

The one thing not mentioned in most blog posts is the code. Google is actually recommending using the HTML5 syntax instead of what Google gives you on the button creation page. The code they are recommending is: <div class="g-plusone" data-size="standard" data-count="true"></div>

You can find out more details and stories on this at Techmeme.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld, DigitalPoint Forums, HighRankings Forum & Google Webmaster Help.

How Google Decides When To Debunk SEO Nonsense

Fetched: June 1st, 2011, 10:40pm CEST by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Other Google Topics

As you can imagine, Google spends too much time debunking false and misunderstood information on how Google works. We covered one this morning on email marketing's effect on rankings. To be honest, we have posted some things in the seven plus years on writing on search that Google was upset with. It happens, Google has a PR team to deal with it and Matt Cutts, amongst other Google engineers, are frequently debunking false information.

Danny Sullivan put together an outstanding chart named The Matt Cutts Debunking Flowchart. It is a somewhat humorous but sometimes true flowchart of how Matt and his team decide when to debunk this information. From conspiracy theories to just wrong information, to making Google look better when they really are somewhat wrong. The large flowchart is at Search Engine Land, but here is a smaller sized version.

So what were some of the recent debunking Google has done? Matt Cutts posted them at HackerNews:

Claiming that your email newsletter's Gmail reputation affects your ranking: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2600933 I did a full debunk here: http://goo.gl/6A8f9
Claiming that Hacker News was penalized by Panda: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2595704 I did a full debunk here: http://goo.gl/7Tw9o
There was an SEO blog that had a headline "Google Copying Bing's Image Results? Google Cheating Bing?" at http://www.seroundtable.com/google-indexing-bing-13477.html when in fact it was just images on bing.net and Bing neglected to have a robots.txt file. We have a policy against search results in search results, so we were happy to remove the images in less than a day. The SEO blogger changed the headline to be less sensational.
Oh, one more debunk: http://allthingsd.com/20110527/google-no-government-investig... The webspam team continues to take manual action to remove spam in the same way that we have for the last decade.
Those are the four debunks that come to mind from the last week or so. Sigh.

Of course I take a little issue with my story but I won't argue here.

The chart is fun and I can totally relate to this on a much smaller scale.

Forum discussion at Sphinn and HackerNews.

Google's Matt Cutts To Give Live Q&A On YouTube

Fetched: May 25th, 2011, 9:23pm CEST by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Other Google Topics

I subscribe to the Google Webmaster Help YouTube Channel and last night noticed a weird video show up. The video is named Ask Matt and the description reads, "Ask Matt a question in the live chat or on Twitter: @mattcutts."

It appears that Google is prepping a live Q&A session with Matt Cutts in the near future. As you know, YouTube will be offering live streaming to more and more people in the future, so maybe Google's webmaster team plans on using it to offer a live Q&A with Matt Cutts?

Here is a picture of the screen:

I do not have confirmation from Google if they will be offering this live Q&A any time soon, but I would put money on it that we will see something in the next few months, maybe even an announcement in days.

Years ago, Google offered three live chats with Google webmaster analysts but those ended in 2008. Webmasters actually loved them, so it would be nice to see them come back, especially live via YouTube.

Forum discussion at Google Blogoscoped Forums.

Update: Matt went live today at 2pm (EST)... You can watch it over here now.

Google +1 Analytics & Implementation Screens

Fetched: May 11th, 2011, 10:46pm CEST by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Other Google Topics

At the Google I/O event yesterday, Danny Sullivan captured a preview of the Google +1 Button.

He wrote about it and posted several screen shots at Search Engine Land.

In short, he showed the implementation screens for publishers to generate the button and pick the button layout and size. He also showed several screen shots of how the +1 button is directly integrated into Google Analytics - which is the cool part.

Here are two of the many screen shots Danny shared - to see them all, go to Search Engine Land.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Putting Words In Google's Matt Cutts Mouth - Literally

Fetched: May 11th, 2011, 10:46pm CEST by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Other Google Topics

Seer Interactive has an absolutely hilarious post named SEO Lessons Learned Through Pictures of Matt Cutts. What they did was take seven still shots from the daily videos Matt puts together and ad one-liners to them. Basically putting words in Google's mouth.

Here are two examples:

Here are the full seven lines but you need to see them via the picture at the Seer blog.

Everything Helps About This Much
Don't Lie To Google
Matt Is Not A Ninja & Neither Am I
You Must Be This Tall To Play With Google
Matt Is A Terrible Dancer
This Hand Doesn't Spoon Feed Answers
Just Like Wayne Brady, Matt Cutts Will Choke... A Website

Forum discussion at Sphinn.

Google Has A Humans.txt File

Fetched: May 11th, 2011, 10:46pm CEST by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Other Google Topics

Go to google.com/humans.txt and you will find a text file that aims at recruiting new talent at Google. The file reads:

Google is built by a large team of engineers, designers, researchers, robots, and others in many different sites across the globe. It is updated continuously, and built with more tools and technologies than we can shake a stick at. If you'd like to help us out, see google.com/jobs.

Here is a picture:

Image credit: Google OS

As I said at Search Engine Land it reminds me of when the DailyMail used their robots.txt to recruit SEO engineers.

Forum discussion at Google Blogoscoped Forums.

Video From 1999 Of Google's TGIF Staff Meetings

Fetched: April 30th, 2011, 2:48am CEST by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Other Google Topics

Want a blast from the past?

Here is a video from a month before Google hired Matt Cutts. It is a video of what Google called "TGIF." They were Google's weekly all-staff meeting. It was used to introduce new hires, birthday wishes, and discuss Google's growth, plans, projects and so on.

The video was taken in December 1999 by Doug Edwards who worked at Google between 1999 and 2005. He posted the video on his blog this past week. Here it is:

Matt Cutts even tweeted about it saying:

A video from Google TGIF, Dec. 1999: http://goo.gl/qtb1a I joined a month later, but what a walk down memory lane to see everyone...younger.

Forum discussion at Google Blogoscoped Forums

Google Video To Be Search Only

Fetched: April 19th, 2011, 10:43pm CEST by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Other Google Topics

Over the weekend, Google emailed those who are hosting videos on Google Video that they are going to be removing all the videos on Google Video for good.

In January 2009, Google dropped the ability to upload videos to Google Video and has decided to try to make Google Video a pure search service. The next step is to drop Google Video from hosting old video content and encourage users to move those videos to YouTube or another video hosting provider.

Google will continue to use Google Video as a search service but not as a hosting service.

Google's email read:

Dear Google Video User,
Later this month, hosted video content on Google Video will no longer be available for playback. Google Video stopped taking uploads in May 2009 and now weâre removing the remaining hosted content. We've always maintained that the strength of Google Video is its ability to let people search videos from across the web, regardless of where those videos are hosted. And this move will enable us to focus on developing these technologies further to the benefit of searchers worldwide.
On April 29, 2011, videos that have been uploaded to Google Video will no longer be available for playback. Weâve added a Download button to the video status page, so you can download any video content you want to save. If you donât want to download your content, you donât need to do anything. (The Download feature will be disabled after May 13, 2011.)
We encourage you to move to your content to YouTube if you havenât done so already. YouTube offers many video hosting options including the ability to share your videos privately or in an unlisted manner. To learn more go here.
Hereâs how to download your videos:
Go to the Video Status page.To download a video to your computer, click the Download Video link located on the right side of each of your videos in the Actions column.
Once a video has been downloaded, âAlready Downloadedâ will appear next to the Download Video link.
If you have many videos on Google Video, you may need to use the paging controls located on the bottom right of the page to access them all.
Please note: This download option will be available through May 13, 2011.
Thank you for being a Google Video user.
Sincerely, The Google Video Team

It is funny because in July 2010 they removed the download video button, but I guess it is now back.

I think this is a good move to let Google use YouTube as an upload / hosting service and Google Video as a search service.

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

In The Plex: Cutts Is GoogleGuy

Fetched: April 19th, 2011, 10:43pm CEST by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Other Google Topics

Since the infamous "GoogleGuy" joined the WebmasterWorld forums in early 2000, the man behind the name has always been a mystery of some sorts.

There was some speculation as to it being Google's Matt Cutts as early as 2005. And then in 2010 again, those speculations were mostly confirmed.

For the first time in history, we have official confirmation in way of a written book. A book that has 100% validity behind it, In The Plex by Steven Levy. In fact, it is one of the few Google books I have ever purchased - I normally get books on Google for free.

Conduct a Google Book search for In The Plex Google Guy and bam, here you go:

The book reads:

Using the pseudonym "Google Guy," Cutts would answer questions and try as best he could to dispel various conspiracy theories, many of them centered around the suspicion that a sure way to rise in search rankings was to buy ads from...

So there we have it, first time Google Guy outed in a print book.

Forum discussion at Google Blogoscoped Forums.

Picture: Google News New "Clusters" Design

Fetched: April 6th, 2011, 4:17am CEST by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Other Google Topics

I reported about two weeks ago about a new Google News home page design named the News Clusters. I asked Google for a screenshot but they refused to send me it, so I asked Twitter if anyone saw anything and people sent me screens. I do not believe those were the proper screens for the Google News "clusters" design.

A Google Blogoscoped Forums thread has one member posting screen shots of a new Google News user interface. I believe this may be the "Clusters" interface Google told us about a couple weeks ago.

Here is one of those screen shots:

You can find more at the Google Blogoscoped Forums.

So what do we see here? Well, just compare it to the current design that I see:

Pretty interesting. Do you like it?

Forum discussion at Google Blogoscoped Forums.

Adultery Web Site Touts Google's Unethical Image Search Filter

Fetched: April 4th, 2011, 2:36am CEST by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Other Google Topics

I do not know much on how the Google Image SearchSearch filter works, I do know that many safe images get caught by the filter and Google has to make exceptions but I also know that it lets through some non-safe images on occasion.

So when I spotted this Google Webmaster Help thread that said an adult oriented web site can still have images included in the moderate or strict SafeSearch filter, I was intrigued.

Susan Moskwa from Google explained "the SafeSearch filter only cares about the content of the images, not of the website." Good to know.

Outside of that tidbit, I found the thread pretty interesting to read. The user is complaining that Google is being unethical by filtering out a "company that promotes adultery" images. But yet doesn't feel adultery is unethical?

The bottom line here is that Google is only filtering the images because some of the images are pornographic and if they remove the pornographic images, the images can be included again in the SafeSearch filter. But to argue ethics of Google about a site like that, just seemed ironic to me.

Forum discussion at Google Webmaster Help.

Image credit: Pascal on Flickr

How Backed Up Are Google News Publisher Approvals?

Fetched: March 31st, 2011, 2:26am CEST by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Other Google Topics

In December, before the holiday season, Google warned us that they would be slowing the approval process for accepting new publishers into Google News.

A month after that announcement, we expected things to be back to normal, but we heard from Google there were still significant delays in the Google News publisher approval process.

So now we are three and a half months later and I learned today Google is still seriously backlogged with Google News publisher submissions. In fact, we think the backlog might have submission approvals or rejections delayed up to a month or two but not longer than three months.

Harvey P. from the Google News team said in a Google News Help thread:

Thanks for your question. We've still got a substantial backlog of sites to process and I can't give any specific timeline. However, for publishers that applied over three months ago, I would encourage you to make sure you responded to our initial email about quality guidelines. If you've lost this email, you may want to consider reapplying. We appreciate your patience.

From this statement, it seems like if you submitted three months ago, you would have received a response by now. So we know the "substantial backlog" is less than three months old.

Forum discussion at Google News Help.

Google Planning Tighter Integration Between Webmaster Tools & Analytics

Fetched: February 21st, 2011, 1:04pm CET by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Other Google Topics

I was wrong, I thought the link between Google Webmaster Tools & Analytics was the most we would get from Google in terms of integration between the two tools for a while.

But it appears Google is really seeking out feedback for what they should add next, in terms of integrating the two reporting tools.

A Google Webmaster Help thread started by Google Product Manager, Christina S. Chen, asked Webmasters to share what future features and integration ideas they have.

Christina said:

What future integrations would you like to see between Webmaster Tools and Google Analytics?
We recently announced the ability to link Google Analytics profiles to sites in Webmaster Tools.
Go here to tell us what future integrations you would like to see between the two products: [goo.gl].

So yes, Google is planning on integrating the two reporting tools more deeply, which is outstanding for webmasters.

My only question is why in the world is Google asking for the feedback in a Quora thread? I mean, isn't this what the Google help forums are for?

Anyway, I suspect Google wouldn't mind feedback in both the Google Webmaster Help forum and/or Quora thread.

Forum discussion at Google Webmaster Help & Quora.

Google Real Estate Search Going Away

Fetched: January 29th, 2011, 4:17am CET by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Other Google Topics

Google announced they are "retiring" their Google Real Estate Search feature, which was launched back in July 2009.

Google said the service will go offline on February 10, 2011. They cite the reason for killing off this search service is partly due to "low usage." But we knew that, we thought Google would save the real estate market - oh well.

I guess companies like Zillow and their competitors can now relax a bit. Google has decided to give up competing on real estate search and let the smaller search companies have it. I for one am happy for them.

Here is a picture of how it looks, so we know after they take it away:

Forum discussion at Sphinn.

Google Plans to Add Thousands of New Jobs in 2011

Fetched: January 28th, 2011, 12:48pm CET by Ben Pfeiffer

Tags: Other Google Topics

Google wants your brain! They have just announced they are wanting to hire brand new smart and creative people for a wide range of jobs within the company. They have indicated that 2011 will be one of the biggest hiring years in the company history since 2007. In 2010 Google added more than 4,500 employees and they plan to top even that. Google has grown substantially over the last year in both company size and products. In order to keep up with the demand of a growing company who has fingers in many pots, they need more people. Google states:

We're looking for top talent across the board and around the globe and we'll hire as many smart, creative people as we can to tackle some of the toughest challenges in computer science.

They go on to say to need people to work on everything from a web based operating system, improvements to the search index, and teaching cars to drive themselves. Sign me up for that last one!

If you interested in working at Google check out the post here on the Google blog, and you can also apply here.

Forum discussion at Google Blogoscoped Forums.

Matt Cutts Defends Google's Search Integrity

Fetched: January 19th, 2011, 1:02pm CET by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Other Google Topics

Matt Cutts doesn't only fight spam and assist the webmaster community, he is also fighting to keep government regulation out of Google's search results.

Mr. Cutts Goes To Washington, Testifies Google Has Integrity by Danny Sullivan recaps Matt's latest adventure at D.C.

Matt presented an 89 page slide presentation called "Search Integrity" in front of US Federal Trade Commission members and congressional staff members. One quote included:

"The only reasons I know of to go in and change [search rankings] manually is for security, a court order or spam," Cutts said. "It is impossible to pay for a better ranking."

I suspect Matt did a great job but I would have love to see this presentation and the reaction of the government officials when he was presenting.

Forum discussion at Sphinn.

Google's Twitter Directory

Fetched: January 5th, 2011, 10:23am CET by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Other Google Topics

Have you ever wanted an easy way to find a specific official Google Twitter account/feed?

In April of last year, Google released a Google Twitter directory which contains a browsable directory of all the official Google accounts.

You can filter the directory by category, language and region.

In 2009, Google tried to simply list them all in a blog post, but soon found it wasn't the most efficient method of documenting their Twitter accounts.

Then on April 14, 2010, they released the directory.

Forum discussion at Google Blogoscoped Forums.

Google Inspiration Party

Fetched: January 3rd, 2011, 6:44pm CET by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Other Google Topics

Google Israel held a party a few weeks ago in Tel Aviv, Israel named the Google Inspiration Party. The purpose of the party was "celebrating the inspiration behind the technology."

According to FourSquare there were at least 83 people there, at least 83 people who thought to use FourSquare to check into the party. It took place at Nemal Tel Aviv 35 in Tel Aviv and seemed like a lot of fun.

Here is a video posted by Google Israel of the event:

Forum discussion at Google Blogoscoped Forums.

Google Donates $20 Million To Charities For 2010 Holidays

Fetched: December 28th, 2010, 3:05pm CET by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Other Google Topics

Like last year, Google has just sent out their thank you e-cards saying they have donated $20 million to "charitable organizations around the world. They in turn will help improve the lives of over 50 million people."

They thank us for "being a part of what Google is today." And then credit us by saying, "all this is possible because of you." Ending the email with a "Have a wonderful holiday."

The email has a link to google.com/landing/thankyou/2010 which demonstrates the charities Google donated to and how it has helped the world.

The charities include APC.org, ASHOKA, Bharti Foundation, Connecting Up, Global Strategies for HIV Prevention, LASA, NatureBridge, NPTech, NTEN and UNICEF.

Here is the video Google sent out to users, followed by pictures of the email and the video landing page.

E-Card:

Landing Page:

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Google News Targeted By Porn Site?

Fetched: December 28th, 2010, 3:05pm CET by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Other Google Topics

A Google News Help thread has two Google News users upset that they stumbled on pornography due to finding a story on Google News.

One person said he/she was searching for Clay Aiken and found nude pictures of his boy friend. A few hours later another person complained about seeing nude pictures, but didn't specify which site.

I have confirmed that some sites containing nude images are in Google news. Just do a site command on [site:pwspoilers.com] in Google News and the site containing nude images does show up in the Google News index.

Google News rarely is hit with pornography or nudity. It was once back in 2006 when a topless woman was on the cover of the Google News home page.

I am not sure if Google will take action on this too quickly due to the holidays, but they might.

Forum discussion at Google News Help.

YouTube Extends Upload Limit Past 2.5 Hours

Fetched: December 11th, 2010, 12:49pm CET by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Other Google Topics

YouTube announced they have extended the upload limits to "videos that are longer than 15 minutes." They did this for "selected users with a history of complying with the YouTube Community Guidelines."

How would you know if you are one of those users who have it? YouTube said go to the upload section and it would give you a message. Personally I do not see this, I believe I have had unlimited upload rights for a while now, but some do.

Here is a picture from Websonic:

As you can see, the video restrictions still say up to 15 minutes but it says:

Congratulations! Your account is now enabled for uploads longer than 15 minutes. Click the Upload button below to select a video.

I personally don't see restrictions in my upload section. Here is a picture:

Anyway, I am a weekly publisher on YouTube, so I am glad to see this limit extended. Exactly how much was it extended? Hard to say, folks in the YouTube Help forum said they uploaded a video which was about 2.5 hours. So at least that long.

Forum discussion at YouTube Help & Google Blogoscoped Forums.

Google Website Optimizer User? Important Security Notice

Fetched: December 9th, 2010, 12:28am CET by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Other Google Topics

Yesterday, all Google Website Optimizer users should have received an important email from Google. The email talked about an exploit within Google Website Optimizer under certain conditions. I covered it at Search Engine Land but this is important, so I want to make sure I reach out through all my channels to make sure you see it.

The Google Website Optimizer blog has a post on it which sums it up.

Earlier this week we notified affected Website Optimizer users of a potential security issue with the Website Optimizer Control Script. If a website or browser has already been compromised by a separate attack, a hacker might also be able to execute malicious code by exploiting a bug in the Website Optimizer Control Script.
We have not seen any evidence indicating that sites using Website Optimizer have been targeted through this bug, but wanted to proactively reach out to site owners. While the probability of this attack is very low, we are urging Website Optimizer users to take action by updating their Control Scripts. We have taken action, so all new experiments created after December 3 are not susceptible.
Any experiments you are currently running need to be updated to fix the issue on your site. Additionally, if you have any Website Optimizer scripts from paused or stopped experiments created before December 3, you should remove or update that code as well.
There are two ways to update your code:
(1) Stop current experiments, remove the old scripts, and create a new experiment.
(2) Update the code on your site directly. We strongly recommend creating a new experiment as it is the simpler method.
Instructions for both methods are available here at the Website Optimizer Help Center.
We're committed to keeping Website Optimizer secure, and we will proactively work to prevent any future vulnerabilities.

It is important that if you use Google Website Optimizer, even if you missed the email due to spam issues, you review this notice from Google and take the necessary steps to protect your site and your visitors.

Forum discussion at Sphinn and Google Website Optimizer Help.

Google eBooks & eBookstore

Fetched: December 9th, 2010, 12:28am CET by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Other Google Topics

Google has finally launched their own eBook platform and eBookstore.

This is somewhat of a branch off of Google's Book Search project, at least the Google Books Help forum, where is the place people went for Book Search support, is also housing support for the new eBook support team.

Google says this opens up reading books digitally, since the books are in the cloud, you should be able to use any device to read your books. From desktop computer, tablet PC, to mobile phone device - the "choice" is yours.

Here is the Google Video demo:

Chris Sherman has his review at Search Engine Land.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld and Google Blogoscoped Forums.

Google To Improve DMCA Requests & Counter Notices

Posted: December 3rd, 2010, 1:04pm CET by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Other Google Topics

The Google Public Policy Blog announced that Google will be improving the process of reporting, counter-reporting and taking action on copyright infringement online, starting with Blogger and Web Search.

Google said the implementations of these new features and policies will go into effect over the next several months. The new changes include, and I quote:

We'll act on reliable copyright takedown requests within 24 hours. We will build tools to improve the submission process to make it easier for rightsholders to submit DMCA takedown requests for Google products (starting with Blogger and web Search). And for copyright owners who use the tools responsibly, we'll reduce our average response time to 24 hours or less. At the same time, we'll improve our "counter-notice" tools for those who believe their content was wrongly removed and enable public searching of takedown requests.

We will prevent terms that are closely associated with piracy from appearing in Autocomplete. While it's hard to know for sure when search terms are being used to find infringing content, weÂ'll do our best to prevent Autocomplete from displaying the terms most frequently used for that purpose.

We will improve our AdSense anti-piracy review. We have always prohibited the use of our AdSense program on web pages that provide infringing materials. Building on our existing DMCA takedown procedures, we will be working with rightsholders to identify, and, when appropriate, expel violators from the AdSense program.

We will experiment to make authorised preview content more readily accessible in search results. Not surprisingly, weÂ're big fans of making authorised content more accessible on the Internet. Most users want to access legitimate content and are interested in sites that make that content available to them (even if only on a preview basis). We'll be looking at ways to make this content easier to index and find.

Folks over at WebmasterWorld are both interested in seeing what happens but also not too confident it will improve things. One even said, "Does that mean they are going to remove their preview pages from SERPS? No, thought not."

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld & Google Blogoscoped Forums.

Google Suspends YouTube Accounts Accidentally

Posted: December 3rd, 2010, 12:44pm CET by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Other Google Topics

A YouTube Help thread has confirmed reports form Google that they have suspended many YouTube accounts completely by mistake.

Liz from YouTube support said in the thread:

We've heard many of you tell us your YouTube Account was suddenly suspended this week, even though you didn't have strikes against your Account and hadn't done anything to merit suspension.
Some YouTube Accounts were suspended this week in error. These Accounts have been reinstated and all of the videos in the Accounts should be restored.

We're you suspended this week?

Liz adds that some who have been reinstated still might have their videos showing in their YouTube accounts. If so, she asks you to post in the thread and make sure to share your YouTube channel or username so they can track it down.

Forum discussion at YouTube Help.

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

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

Tags: Other Google Topics

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

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

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

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

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

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

Forum discussion at Google News Help & WebmasterWorld.

Google Voice For iPhone

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

Tags: Other Google Topics

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

You can download it for free in iTunes.

The features include:

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

Forum discussion at Google Mobile Help and Google Blogoscoped Forums.

Google Hotpot: Friend Powered Local Recommendations

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

Tags: Other Google Topics

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

Here is a picture:

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

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

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

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Some Missing Google Maps Reviews Return

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

Tags: Other Google Topics

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

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

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

One said:

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

Googler, Cecelia replied to a thread saying:

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

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

Forum discussion at Google Places Help.

Robert Louis Stevenson Google Logo

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

Tags: Other Google Topics

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

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

For more information about him, please see Wikipedia.

What do you think of this Google logo?

Forum discussion at Google Blogoscoped Forums.

My Search Rep Friends Keep Losing Their Jobs

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

Tags: Other Yahoo Topics

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

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

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

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

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

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

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Google Maps Shows Asian Characters On University of California San Diego

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

Tags: Other Google Topics

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

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

So Googler Dave responded saying:

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

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

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

Forum discussion at Google Maps Help.

Google Maps Error Causes Military Conflict Between Nicaragua & Costa Rica

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

Tags: Other Google Topics

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

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

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

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

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

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

Pretty crazy!

Forum discussion at Google Maps Help.

Why Google Maps Transit Routes May Not Be Correct

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

Tags: Other Google Topics

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

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

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

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

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

Forum discussion at Google Maps Help.

Google Maps Reviews Gone Missing Again!

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

Tags: Other Google Topics

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

In that thread, Googler Stephan S. said:

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

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

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

Forum discussion at Google Places Help.

Google Shows Wrong Flag For Turkey Republic Day

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

Tags: Other Google Topics

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

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

Now here is the Turkey Flag:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Google Places Removes Website URL Tag Option

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

Tags: Other Google Topics

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Forum discussion at Google Places Help.

Was The Google German Testing Blog Hacked?

Posted: October 25th, 2010, 4:03pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

In 2008, Google launched the Google German Testing blog at googletesting-de.blogspot.com. If you visit the German Testing Blog today, you will see it has a totally irrelevant and off topic, hack-like look.

Here is a picture:

Google announced it's launch on February 02, 2008 at the Google English Testing Blog, saying:

For those German-speaking folks among our readers of this English Google Testing Blog we have exciting news: We have just launched the German Testing Blog!

Thing is, they had one post on that blog and that was it. So maybe the blog elapsed and someone took it over and it wasn't hacked?

Forum discussion at Google Blogoscoped Forums.

Want a Tour of Google? Are You From The Marines?

Posted: October 25th, 2010, 3:35pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

Many people in this world would do a lot to get a personalized tour of Google. Especially those reading this site and those who use Google's products each day. Like it or not, Google is still perceived by the general population as a cool company that is not evil. And because of that, many people want to visit Google but Google doesn't open their doors to everyone (at least I don't think they do).

So how do you get a personalized tour from Google at the GooglePlex? Say you are from the Marines!

A Google Web Search Help thread has Lance Corporal Derrik Trace, a member of the United States Marine Corps. He said he "recently got back from a deployment to Afghanistan" and would love to tour Google. He said he "absolutely loves Google," and explains why:

Heck, I even used Google to look up the Marine Corps when i first thought of joining. It has been a dream since I first used Google to want to tour the facility, even if it's just to shake the engineer's hands. When I got stationed in Camp Pendleton, California, I knew it was time to pursue it. Next thing I know, I was put onto a deployment list with Security Company and went overseas to the glorious country of Afghanistan. I'm not complaining though, it was a blast... No pun intended. Now I'm writing this email hoping that it doesn't fall on deaf ears, as I'll probably still make the journey to Google's HQ to snap a few pictures in front of it, and I promise you they'll end up as my Facebook.

Great story and guess what? He got a pass. Kelly F from Google replied saying she will email him directly to touch base. She said, "First off, thanks for your service! I'm glad to hear that you love Google so much. Would you mind if we continued this conversation over email?"

I assume Lance Corporal Derrik Trace and his friend will be visiting Google in the near future for a private tour of the GooglePlex.

The rest of you? Well, you can visit the Google Culture page to get your virtual tour.

Forum discussion at Google Web Search Help.

Google Maps Not Loading In Some IE Versions

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

Tags: Other Google Topics

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

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

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

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

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

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

Forum discussion at Google Maps Help.

Google Maps Reviews Now Divides Google User Reviews From Others

Posted: October 18th, 2010, 2:48pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

Google's Helen L. posted a Google Places Help thread informing business owners that from now on the reviews on Google Maps, the Google Place pages, will differentiate between those left by Google users and those captured from other places on the web.

Helen from the Google Maps team said:

As of this morning, we've updated the way reviews show up on your Place Page. Now, reviews from other sites will show up under a header called 'Reviews from around the web.' We'll also show a small icon for the third-party site providing the review.
Meanwhile, reviews for your business that were left directly on your Place Page will show up under a header called 'Reviews by Google users.'

Here is a picture:

Google also wrote a blog post on this at the Google LatLong Blog.

Forum discussion at Google Places Help.

Surprise: Google's Q3 2010 Earnings Up

Posted: October 15th, 2010, 3:05pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

Fine, maybe not a surprise, but Google released their third quarter earnings for 2010 yesterday. Here are the highlights:

Revenues of $7.29 billion for the quarter ended September 30, 2010, an increase of 23% compared to the third quarter of 2009.
GAAP operating income in the third quarter of 2010 was $2.55 billion, up from $2.07 billion previous year.
GAAP net income in the third quarter of 2010 was $2.17 billion, compared to $1.64 billion in the third quarter of 2009
Google Sites Revenues - Google-owned sites generated revenues of $4.83 billion, or 67% of total revenues, in the third quarter of 2010. This represents a 22% increase over third quarter 2009 revenues of $3.96 billion.
Google Network Revenues - Google’s partner sites generated revenues, through AdSense programs, of $2.20 billion, or 30% of total revenues, in the third quarter of 2010. This represents a 22% increase from third quarter 2009 network revenues of $1.80 billion.
Paid Clicks – Aggregate paid clicks, which include clicks related to ads served on Google sites and the sites of our AdSense partners, increased approximately 16% over the third quarter of 2009 and increased approximately 4% over the second quarter of 2010.
Cost-Per-Click – Average cost-per-click, which includes clicks related to ads served on Google sites and the sites of our AdSense partners, increased approximately 3% over the third quarter of 2009 and increased approximately 2% over the second quarter of 2010.
Cash – As of September 30, 2010, cash, cash equivalents, and marketable securities were $33.4 billion.
Headcount – On a worldwide basis, Google employed 23,331 full-time employees as of September 30, 2010, up from 21,805 full-time employees as of June 30, 2010.

Lots of coverage of this on Techmeme.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld & Google Blogoscoped Forums.

Yahoo Was "Down a Bit" Yesterday Afternoon

Posted: October 15th, 2010, 2:51pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Other Yahoo Topics

What else can go wrong for Yahoo, I mean, seriously kick them when they are down? Yesterday afternoon, Yahoo.com - the main web site - was offline for just about an hour. It technically seemed to be up, but incredibly slow, taking me personally close to a minute for it to load at times.

I wrote about it at Search Engine Land as soon as I saw people Tweeting about it. During the outage, I was amazed there was no note about this outage on the @Yahoo Twitter account, but later on they did admit to being "down a bit" yesterday.

.bbpBox27385127262 {background:url(http://a3.twimg.com/profile_background_images/108563399/Twitter_BG_060419.png) #642D8B;padding:20px;} p.bbpTweet{background:#fff;padding:10px 12px 10px 12px;margin:0;min-height:48px;color:#000;font-size:18px !important;line-height:22px;-moz-border-radius:5px;-webkit-border-radius:5px} p.bbpTweet span.metadata{display:block;width:100%;clear:both;margin-top:8px;padding-top:12px;height:40px;border-top:1px solid #fff;border-top:1px solid #e6e6e6} p.bbpTweet span.metadata span.author{line-height:19px} p.bbpTweet span.metadata span.author img{float:left;margin:0 7px 0 0px;width:38px;height:38px} p.bbpTweet a:hover{text-decoration:underline}p.bbpTweet span.timestamp{font-size:12px;display:block}

As some of you noticed, Yahoo.com was down for a bit this afternoon. We're back up and running-sorry for the interruption!less than a minute ago via web Yahoo!
Yahoo

I do believe this is the first time I have ever seen Yahoo.com down in my life time. I really cannot remember Yahoo every being down before, at least not their home page.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld and DigitalPoint Forums.

Did Google's Marissa Mayer Get Promoted or Demoted?

Posted: October 13th, 2010, 3:24pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

Bloomberg broke the news that one of the most respected and visible Google personalities, Marissa Mayer, is switching roles in the company. She will no longer be Google's vice president of search products, instead she is moving into overseeing location and local services.

The article, as do others, claim how important those areas are in Google's future. And thus, it is a promotion. In addition, Marissa is joining Google's operating committee, the company's senior most management group.

But other's believe the move was a step down. Claiming Marissa has failed to compete with Bing on the user interface side and to innovate at a faster pass, on the UI side, compared to Bing. Rational? Today is a day full of Bing announcements.

Personally, I am not sure what to believe. I know mobile/local is really an incredibly important part of search. Most of the growth in search over the next years will be via that avenue. But I am a bit surprised to see Marissa not lead up both local and web desktop. I mean, I can see her doing both.

A WebmasterWorld thread has Brett Tabke's comments, Brett is the founder of WebmasterWorld and PubCon. Brett said:

Well gosh - the new serps didn't go over very good with the public. Google instant was rolled out to much fanfare, and quickly ignored by everyone. Essentially every UI change in the last year has been viewed as 'bing'alike. It was clearly time for a major shake up at the UI dept of Google. Lets just hope, Udi believes in stability above all else. If it aint broke - don't fix it.
The real interesting thing to me is how hard Google PR is trying to spin this as a promotion. Ya, that's the ticket. She moves from the look-n-feel director of the top webpage in the world, to a bean counter shuffling map checkins. This does not seem like a promotion to me. She got set down...

So he clearly thinks this was a demotion of some sorts.

But I do not agree with the "if it aint broke - don't fix it" attitude. If you don't innovate, you will die, in my opinion. Especially in this business.

Anyway, what do you think? Do you think Google demoted Mayer or promoted her?

Was Google's Marissa Mayer Promoted or Demoted?online survey

Forum discussion at Sphinn and WebmasterWorld.

Google Maps Penguins - Peguins For Street Views

Posted: October 12th, 2010, 4:40pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

Did you know that in Antartica, Google uses Peguins (aka Penguins) instead of the Pegmans used elsewhere?

Here is a picture of the various rotations of the 'Peguins' used by Google Maps Street Views in Antartica:

Websonic posted this at the Google Blogoscoped Forums today, and linked to an example street view (which shows Penguins hanging out). Here is an screen capture:

How cute! FYI - I don't know if this is new, but it is cute...

Forum discussion at Google Blogoscoped Forums.

What Is Google's "Unknown News Site" Webmaster Tools Error?

Posted: October 12th, 2010, 3:57pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

A Google News Help thread has one news publisher saying he is receiving a news specific error in Webmaster Tools named "Unknown News Site."

I couldn't figure out what it was, I didn't see it in the News-specific crawl errors dictionary provided by Google. Eventually, I spotted the answer in this help document:

This error is displayed if your Sitemap is on a site that is not in the Google News database. Google News can only accept Sitemaps from sites that we crawl. If your site is crawled by Google News, please check that the URL of your Sitemap agrees with the URLs of your articles as they appear on Google News, including any leading "www". If you would like to request inclusion of your site in Google News, please contact us.

The thing is, even if your articles are showing up in Google News you still may see this error. I am not sure if it is just a timing issue or not.

Forum discussion at Google News Help.

Google News Showing News Based On Twitter Friends

Posted: October 12th, 2010, 3:14pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

A week ago at Search Engine Land, I reported Google News is testing Twitter integration. Google News is experimenting with allowing some users enter their Twitter username and receive personalized news based on what their friends are reading and their friends interest.

Google describes this feature as "an experimental section in the side column that helps you find news articles that your friends are sharing on Twitter." Of course, technically you can enter anyone's Twitter username and see news related to their friends - which is not a privacy issue, but it is available. Google explained, "If someone you follow has shared an article or a link that cannot be found in Google News, then you will not see that update in the Friends section."

I should note this is a limited test and I personally do not see it. But @jblukin and @dacort both posted screen shots:

Forum discussion at DigitalPoint Forums.

Funny Google Maps Street View: Pepsi Truck & Then Coke Truck

Posted: October 5th, 2010, 2:41pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

For those that missed it, Gizmodo reported that Google Street Views had an image of a Pepsi truck unloading at (I believe) a supermarket but when you drove forward on that street view, the Pepsi truck changed to a Coke truck.

Clearly the images were taken at different times but it is funny never the less.

You can see it live at 3800 ontario est,montreal and here are two pictures:

Forum discussion at Google Blogoscoped Forums.

YouTube Updates Search Bar Design

Posted: September 30th, 2010, 2:59pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

Some people are noticing a new search bar on Google's YouTube. Here are before and after pictures:

Before:

After:

At the time I wrote this post, which was on September 27th, I did not see the new one. But Hebbet noticed this and posted it at the Google Blogoscoped Forums thread.

This is clearly not a major change but figured I note it here, just so we have it documented.

Forum discussion at Google Blogoscoped Forums.

Note, this post was written earlier this week and scheduled to go live today.

Google's The Flintstones Logo

Posted: September 29th, 2010, 3:47pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

September 30th, tomorrow, is The Flintstones 50th birthday or anniversary. Google has a special worldwide logo for The Flintstones for the special birthday. The logo is already live on Google New Zealand, since it is already September 30th there.

Here is the logo:

I personally grew up watching this show, so it is great to see. The logo (aka doodle) is fantastic!

Forum discussion at Google Blogoscoped Forums.

Why You Should Avoid Deleting Your Google Maps Listing

Posted: September 22nd, 2010, 3:46pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

A Google Places Help thread has one business owner frustrated his business listing is 93% complete according to Google Places. He has tried everything over the course of a few years to complete his profile, but nothing he does works.

He is at the point of wanting to delete his business listing and start "fresh." He asked, "What are the implications of deleting listing and starting fresh?"

Ryan Meley responded in the thread, and his response was noted as the "best answer" by Googler, Cecelia. Ryan said:

The reason I would not recommend starting over is if you have any decent positions in search results, this is most likely thanks to sources outside of your listing. By deleting the listing, these will disappear. Granted, they should come back over time, but in the meantime you would not have a local listing. This process can take some time... many weeks in most cases. In addition, if the review is posted on a third party website, it will come back evenentually no matter what. Finally, it is my personal thought (unconfirmed) that time is a factor Google applies (to a small degree) in the display of local listings i.e., the longer you're up the better you will do... all other things equal.

As you can see, there can be serious repercussions when you remove a listing. Your rankings can drop and thus lose some business.

Forum discussion at Google Places Help.

Google Begins Calling Businesses To Confirm Map Information?

Posted: September 22nd, 2010, 3:07pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

A Google Places Help thread says one business owner received a phone call from someone claiming to be an employee at Google. The Googler said he is calling to verify that his business's address has not changed.

The number on the caller ID was 650-214-7958 and the 650 is in the Mountain View location, which is where Google is located. Also, whenever Google calls me from their Mountain View offices, the 650 area shows up on my caller ID.

The business owner is concerned, very concerned, this call was not from a Googler and it was a scam. He said:

I received a call from 650-214-7958, the caller identified himself as calling from "Google Maps." I asked him 3 times if he worked for Google, he said he did. He wanted to "verify my business address because they received a notice that it had changed." I assured him that the address on the listing was correct. Was this some kind of scam or legit? I'm not concerned since my business address is public information. I just wanted to be sure though. Please advise.

As long as you didn't hand over confidential information, such as your Google username and password, you should be fine.

As Barry Hunter pointed out in the thread, there were reports that Google hired hundreds of people to begin making "corrections to its maps." So maybe this is one of them? But the report said the jobs were based in the Seattle offices, which does not have a 650 area code. Or maybe they do, maybe the calls are over Google Voice, routed through the main Google offices?

Mike said this has to do with community edits. So maybe someone edited a listing and Google called the owner to verify?

I doubt this is a scam but always be careful and never hand over information that can give people access to modify your data.

If Google is validating addresses in question manually, this is a good thing.

Forum discussion at Google Places Help.

Sex Therapists, Good Luck Getting Into Google Maps

Posted: September 21st, 2010, 3:48pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

So we know that you do not want to use the word "google" in your Google Maps listing. Using google will lead to a manual review but so will using the word "sex."

A sex therapist is upset that his/her listing is still waiting for approval after "months" of sitting and waiting. The therapist said, "I am a sex therapist by profession - I have a PhD in human sexuality and I am 100% legitimate." The therapist goes on to explain he/she is dropping the AdWords campaign until something is done.

Well, I doubt the Google Maps team cares.

Mike Blumenthal, a Google Maps expert, shared one piece of advice. If your listing has been in review for 4 weeks, you can report it to Google using this form. I do suspect this one will get special attention but most in this situation will have to wait it out.

That is not to say Google does not include sex therapists on Google Maps, they do. But Google must review each and everyone manually, I believe.

Forum discussion at Google Maps Help.

Google May Not Be Evil But There Are Evil Googlers

Posted: September 17th, 2010, 3:06pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

Gawker broke a story named Google Engineer Stalked Teens, Spied on Chats. I'll quote the beginning...

David Barksdale, a 27-year-old former Google engineer, repeatedly took advantage of his position as a member of an elite technical group at the company to access users' accounts, violating the privacy of at least four minors during his employment, we've learned. Barksdale met the kids through a technology group in the Seattle area while working as a Site Reliability Engineer at Google's Kirkland, Wash. office. He was fired in July 2010 after his actions were reported to the company. [Update: Google has confirmed the security breach. An update appears below.]

I bet a lot of the Googlers who read this blog know David. Google of course fired him, but many are saying Google should have turned him over to the police.

In short, a company's founders, leaders, principles may not be "evil" or whatever Google claims they are not. But when you hire so many people, even with a very detailed hiring process, some will turn out to be evil. We all know, the people who make up the company define the company.

Forum discussion at Google Blogoscoped Forums.

Google Goggles & Dating

Posted: September 16th, 2010, 3:52pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

I found this too funny to pass up on. Via abstrusegoose.com:

Forum discussion at Google Blogoscoped Forums.

LASIK Surgeons No Longer Considered "Excessive" On Google Places

Posted: September 16th, 2010, 3:41pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

There was a recent bug reported at the Google Places Help forum where LASIK surgeons were unable to update their profile.

The error the LASIK surgeons were receiving from Google said, "excessive capitalization error." That means the word "LASIK" can't be capitalized in Google Places. Thing is, LASIK stands for laser-assisted in situ keratomileusis and most people who use the word do capitalize it.

Cecelia from the Google Maps team confirmed the bug and said she fixed it last night. She told this surgeon:

I've made a change that should help. Try adding LASIK again, and see what happens.

Forum discussion at Google Places Help.

YouTube Video Search Stops Working Temporarily

Posted: September 16th, 2010, 3:29pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

Last night, if you tried to do a YouTube search, you may have received nothing in return. YouTube is often concerned the second largest search engine due to it's immense popularity. A bug with the search feature prevented many from conducting basic search queries on YouTube.com.

YouTube's Liz confirmed the bug in a YouTube Help thread. Liz said:

Our team is aware of the reason for this bug and tonight the fix is going to be released. The fix will prevent the bug from occurring in the future- so you don't keep running into blank search results when trying to find a video.

I personally tried it this morning and it worked fine for me. If you are having trouble still, Liz offered tips on how to fix the problem.

I wonder how many searches were lost forever in the period of time when this bug existed?

Forum discussion at YouTube Help

Agatha Christie Google Logo & More Doodles For Today

Posted: September 15th, 2010, 3:17pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

Today Google has several special Google logos or Doodles. The logos are for Agatha Christie, shown on many European Google properties, a Bicentenario de la Independencia México in Google Mexico and dia de la independencia El Salvador in Google El Salvador and día de la independencia Costa Rica in Costa Rica.

Here are those logos...

First Agatha Christie 120th birthday:

Bicentenario de la Independencia México:

dia de la independencia El Salvador:

día de la independencia Costa Rica:

Forum discussion at Google Blogoscoped Forums.

Google Chrome's Deadly Skull & Crossbones Security Warning

Posted: September 14th, 2010, 3:08pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

With the latest version (version 6) of Google Chrome when you stumble upon an insecure web site, Google may show you a picture of a red skull and crossbones in the address bar. Here is a picture of what it may look like:

There is a thread at the Google Chrome Help forum with tons of complaints. One person said, "I wish they would change it back. The skull and crossbones looks way too serious."

The thing is, the security prompts comes up for security prompts such as the page being secure but also containing elements that are not secure. For example, if you have AdSense on an SSL page, it might show the red skull. Technically, the page itself is very secure and the contents of what is being passed on the page (minus some of the elements) are secure but Google is showing this very serious looking warning.

Brian from Google said:

We're experimenting with a new warning icon on the dev channel builds. The skull and crossbones icon means that some of the resources on the current page weren't loaded securely (using SSL). This is known to the nerds among us as a "mixed content warning." The old indicator for "mixed content" was less prominent, so even though the site you're seeing this on probably hasn't changed, the warning is now getting more attention.

Then after additional complaints, Tony from Google said they might swap it out:

However, we hear you that the skulls and crossbones are too alarming and we thank you for this feedback. We're currently looking into ways to address this concern and will keep everyone updated as soon as we have more information. In the meantime, I've also linked to a help article below that has some information on what the new icons mean in the interim.

Think this skull and crossbones is too severe? I think it depends on how insecure the page is.

Forum discussion at Google Chrome Help.

How To Get Matt Cutts To Answer Your Google Questions On Video?

Posted: September 8th, 2010, 3:16pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

Google's Matt Cutts has posted hundreds of videos on the Google Webmaster Help YouTube channel. The videos consistently get better, more details and useful.

Matt Cutts basically answers questions submitted by SEOs and Webmasters. But how do you get Matt to answer your question on video? It is a good question and it was asked at a Google Webmaster Help thread.

Every now and then, Matt will post on his blog that he is accepting questions. I believe the last time he announced it was in May 2010 and you basically had to submit your questions on a Google Moderator page. Typically the questions with the most votes were answered, plus some questions Matt found interesting.

Matt, how about a video on how you pick up the questions you will be answering?

I got lucky and Matt answered one of my questions:

Forum discussion at Google Webmaster Help.

Google Logo Colors Letters As You Type

Posted: September 8th, 2010, 2:48pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

Yesterday we had the fun and whacky Google Balls logo and today we have a logo that fills in the Google White Logo into a full colored logo, as you type. Note, typically the white logo represents a mourning state but this one is being used to hint at what changes are coming to Google later today.

First, here is a video of the logo:

Here are static pictures:

Google dropped a hint around midnight last night on this new logo:

.bbpBox23883179800 {background:url(http://a3.twimg.com/profile_background_images/6219441/bg-google-white-75.gif) #ffffff;padding:20px;} p.bbpTweet{background:#fff;padding:10px 12px 10px 12px;margin:0;min-height:48px;color:#000;font-size:18px !important;line-height:22px;-moz-border-radius:5px;-webkit-border-radius:5px} p.bbpTweet span.metadata{display:block;width:100%;clear:both;margin-top:8px;padding-top:12px;height:40px;border-top:1px solid #fff;border-top:1px solid #e6e6e6} p.bbpTweet span.metadata span.author{line-height:19px} p.bbpTweet span.metadata span.author img{float:left;margin:0 7px 0 0px;width:38px;height:38px} p.bbpTweet a:hover{text-decoration:underline}p.bbpTweet span.timestamp{font-size:12px;display:block}

Our doodle is dressing up in its brightest colors for something exciting coming very soon...less than a minute ago via Tap11 A Googler
google

Why as you type? As my prediction states, it seems Google may release a new version that updates the search results as you type. But it may be a lot more than that. I'll update this post a bit later to share those details.

Update: Here is the new Google Bypassing "Search" Button: More "Streaming" Search Results.

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

Today Is Not Google's Birthday, September 27th Is Google 12th Birthday

Posted: September 7th, 2010, 3:47pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

There are many rumors about today's Google Balls logo, but we know it is not birthday related. Google in the past have celebrated their birthday on September 7th but not anymore. Danny has good history on Google's Birthday over here.

Google celebrated their 11th birthday on the 27th, the 10th also, 9th, 8th but the 7th and 6th birthday logos were on the 7th.

This year, you can expect the 12th birthday logo to be live on the 27th at google.com/logos/12th_birthday.gif. In fact, when it goes live, you will see the logo below:

So you have 20 more days to wait for it. Until then, enjoy the Google Balls logo.

Forum discussion at Google Blogoscoped Forums.

Google Buckyball Logo / Doodle

Posted: September 3rd, 2010, 5:45pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

If you visit Google New Zealand today, you will see a special animated logo. The logo is a buckyball or fullerence. A fullerene is any molecule composed entirely of carbon, in the form of a hollow sphere, ellipsoid, or tube.

It might show up on other Google properties as the clock strikes midnight there. But right now, it seems to be live only New Zealand and Australia, where it is already Saturday.

The logo is unique for a Google logo in that you can twist and turn the ball with your mouse. Here is a video:

Give it a try on Google New Zealand or tomorrow for many places.

Forum discussion at Google Blogoscoped Forums.

How Do You Cancel Google Place $25 Tags?

Posted: September 3rd, 2010, 3:06pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

Google has been pushing the local maps Google Place tags. They have been giving them away for free for a month, but requiring users to enter their billing information and cancel within 30 days to not be charged.

The thing is, there are many business confused on how to cancel. I spotted several threads at Google Places Help, but I'll link to one, with people complaining they can't figure out how to cancel the ads and stop Google from charging them the $25 per month.

Again, to get the free Google Place tags trial you must enter in your billing information. I have screen shots on that process here and here. But during that process, Google does describe "Your credit card will be charged at the end of every month. The charge for this Tag is $25 per month. You can deactivate your Tag at any time from your dashboard. If you deactivate, you will be charged a prorated amount for the month. You can also reactivate at any time."

How do you deactivate your tag? Google says:

If you decide to stop running your tag for any reason, you can do so by viewing your tag in your Google Places account and clicking “Deactivate Tag”. We'll charge you a prorated amount for the portion of the month that the tag was running.

Google has not yet replied to any of the concerns in the Google Places Help thread.

Forum discussion at Google Places Help.

How Does Google Maps Decide To Show Labels (Points of Interest)?

Posted: September 2nd, 2010, 3:46pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

Yesterday I reported Google is testing "sponsored map icons" in the US. They are basically enhanced point of interest icons using the company's logo, instead of the basic POI (point of interest) icon Google uses on the map views.

Here you can see some POI icons, also known as "labels." They include a doctor icon, a bed and breakfast icon, a synagogue icon, a lawyer office icon and them some generic squares.

Clearly, when you define your business category in Google Places, Google knows which icon to show for your business. But why are only these businesses showing? There are literally dozens of businesses near mine, which is RustyBrick. I work in an office building, so why is RustyBrick shown and not the 100 or so other businesses here?

Google has a help document that explains:

The place labels shown on Google Maps are determined algorithmically based on a large number of factors, so there is no way to guarantee placement of your business on the map as a place label. One factor these algorithms consider is the accuracy of the business listing and the richness of the content associated with the listing, so you can improve the chances that your business will receive a place label if you claim it in Google Places.

Right, that doesn't say much, does it? But when I spoke with Google Product Manager, Matthew Leske yesterday, he dropped some hints as to how Google decides which icons to show at what level. He told me the following factors go into making this up:

Google looks at the listings:

Quantity of citations
Is there Wikipedia entry (he specifically mentioned that)
Search volume for business
and "other relevant information"

He explained it is more like a web search relevancy algorithm than anything else.

Forum discussion at Google Places Help.

Setting Google Geographic Target To "Unlisted"

Posted: September 1st, 2010, 3:06pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

Honestly, this is one topic I really don't know too much about. Google lets your Geographic target for your web site in Google Webmaster Tools. But what if you have a ccTLD, a country specific top level domain such as .fr (France), and you want to not target a specific country?

The Google help document on this topic says:

You can only use this feature for sites with a generic top-level domain, such as .com or .org. Sites with country-coded top-level domains (such as .ie) are already associated with a geographic region, in this case Ireland.

I checked one site I have in my Webmaster Tools account, the only site with a ccTLD and it didn't let me specify a different country. So I assume only certain ccTLDs or TLDs can set "unlisted" as an option to target all countries? Or am I missing something?

Google said, "If you want to ensure that your site is not associated with any country or region, select Unlisted."

It does appear that only certain ccTLDs let you change the geographic target, like a .co TLD. And you can change it to unlisted in order to not set a geographic target.

There are a couple threads asking how long does it take once you set the "unlisted" marker. The threads are at WebmasterWorld and Google Webmaster Help.

The WebmasterWorld thread has Tedster saying:

I've only heard one practical report about this and the recovery took many months for them, but they say it did happen eventually.

I am not sure if anyone else has experience here, but I'd love to know how quickly Google picks up the geographic target change, specifically for using "unlisted" as an option.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld and Google Webmaster Help.

Update: Google's JohnMu did point out a solid distinction between setting unlisted or not:

There's actually a subtle difference between not activating Webmaster Tools owner-specified geotargeting and selecting "Unlisted". Not selecting to do geotargeting through Webmaster Tools results in Google doing geotargeting automatically (generally based on the server location), activating geotargeting and selecting "Unlisted" in Webmaster Tools results in Google not doing geotargeting.

Taking Over a Business With Bad Google Maps Reviews?

Posted: September 1st, 2010, 2:35pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

A Google Places Help thread has a story of a person who bought a business from someone else.

The issue is, that business has pretty bad reviews in Google Maps and since there will be new management, he wants to know how to remove the bad reviews.

A fair question, that is why you often see the "under new management" signs outside of businesses. People want to know when new businesses have new owners and thus maybe better customer service (or maybe not).

The business owner said:

I am buying a local small buisness in a few weeks. The current owner has some pretty nasty reviews about him that currently come up when people search the biz name. I want to know if there is a way to have those reviews removed once I take ownership - I don't want people avoiding me because of his past mistakes.

Andrew in the forums suggested he request that the current owner to delete his Google Places account. Then the reviews should go as well. He also suggests renaming the business, just because of the possible bad karma associated with the business.

Do you agree?

Forum discussion at Google Places Help.

Google Places Image Upload Broken?

Posted: August 24th, 2010, 3:17pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

There are several users recently reporting that they are unable to upload photos to their business listing in Google Places. The reports come via the Google Places Help forum and there are dozens of complaints in the past week.

The first recent complaint said:

Image uploads are broken. I have tried valid JPG images both from the web and my computer and they all show up as broken links.

Then we have several, "me too" posts, such as:

I am having the same problem. I have tried uploading photos from my computer as well as from my flickr stream and they all show up as broken links.

The thing is, I personally just tried it and it worked fine. No errors:

Maybe all these users are uploading them wrong? There are specific format requirements for photos, but can this many people not be following those requirements? Maybe it is a browser specific issue?

Forum discussion at Google Places Help.

Google Lets You Verify Your Site in Webmaster Tools With Google Analytics Code

Posted: August 20th, 2010, 3:03pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

Google announced adding an additional method of verifying your site with Google Webmaster Tools. In addition to the HTML file, META tag inclusion, and DNS method of verification, you can now use Google Analytics code.

This specifically works with the new asynchronous Analytics JavaScript code but everyone should use that code anyway.

The process is simple. Set up the special code on the site, then go to Webmaster Tools and verify the site. You must be the administrator on the Google Analytics account associated with the JavaScript snippet for you to continue to see that site in your Google Webmaster Tools section.

Here is a screen capture of the current available methods of verification:

Forum discussion at Google Webmaster Help.

Police Raid Google South Korea Over Wireless Data Collection

Posted: August 10th, 2010, 3:15pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

Remember how Google got themselves in trouble over storing data collected via those Street View cars?

Well, there are reports via places like the New York Times and BBC that South Korean police raided Google and took files, hard drives and documents.

The police say, "we will investigate Google Korea officials and scrutinize the data we confiscated today." We intend to find out what kinds of data they have collected and how much. We will try to retrieve all the original data illegally collected and stored through domestic Wi-Fi networks from the Google headquarters."

Forum discussion at Google Blogoscoped Forums.

Why Google Reader May Be Slow

Posted: August 10th, 2010, 3:08pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

Roger from the Google Reader team has been replying to people about why Google Reader may take several hours to show updates from their blogs or web sites.

A Google Reader Help thread shows Roger giving two excuses for a slow Google Reader update. They include:

(1) A site with "few subscribers."

(2) A site using Google's FeedBurner.

The "few subscribers" excuse means that Google rather spend their resources crawling larger subscribed feeds more often than feeds with fewer subscribers. That makes a 100% sense. But site's that use Google's FeedBurner, a feed management tool, owned by Google, which so many sites use, would slow down Google Reader? Technically it makes sense, but practically, it sounds silly.

Let me quote Roger:

Sometimes Reader doesn't crawl blogs with few subscribers right away - if you only have a few subscribers, this could be the case. If you have more subscribers, are you by chance using Feedburner? Sometimes Feedburner doesn't update with your original feed's content right away, and thus Reader cannot detect new content until it is updated in Feedburner.

Most sites I subscribe to are visibile in Google Reader within minutes. Some takes a couple hours, but most are within minutes - including this one.

Forum discussion at Google Reader Help.

Google Custom Search Engine Layout Chrome Bug

Posted: August 9th, 2010, 3:29pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

A confirmed bug with the Google Custom Search Engine is being discussed at the Google Custom Search Help forum.

The bug appears when doing a search for a set promotion using a Google Custom Search Engine interface. What happens is the search results appear halfway down the page below the advertisements on the right.

This only occurs in Google Chrome, Google's browser.

Google said they are aware of the issue and they are working on a fix. Googler Prathap Reddy said:

We are aware of the issue. We are working on identifying a fix for this issue.

Forum discussion at Google Custom Search Help.

Word "Google" In Google Places Submission Put You In A Manual Review

Posted: August 6th, 2010, 3:19pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

I often see people complaining that it takes too long for their Google Places verified listing to show up or be approved on Google Maps. In some cases, Google will place certain submissions into a holding pattern so a Googler can manually review.

I believe one of those areas is the category of locksmith. For some reason, locksmiths try to abuse Google Maps.

Today, I learned a new, but in hindsight, obvious reason to be placed in a hold for manual review. Using the word "Google" anywhere in your listing will place your listing on hold for a manual review. What is funny is even using the the email address, google@mydomain.com would put you on hold.

Joel H from Google said in a Google Places Help thread:

If you're curious why you where flagged: using the term 'google' requires extra review. You added email address google@yourdomains.com which caused the listings to be flagged. I understand why people use these unique email addresses, but we do check up on its usage in listings. This can be a problem when folks put tracking parameters in URLs with 'google' in them too.
I hope you understand why it was flagged, but I want to be clear, we should have been more responsive, and I'm taking that feedback back to the team to help alleviate this issue for other users.

So, don't submit with a google@ email or stick google in your tracking parameters or elsewhere if you want faster approval.

Forum discussion at Google Places Help.

Can't Update Your Google Places Business Info Using Internet Explorer

Posted: August 6th, 2010, 3:04pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

If you try to update your Google Places (business listing) listing on Google Maps using Internet Explorer, you may run into an issue.

A Google Places Help thread has confirmed reports of an issue that prevents certain versions of Internet Explorer from updating their business listings in Google Places.

The first report came three days ago, and Joel from Google confirmed the bug saying:

Thanks for letting us know. This issue may be unique to Internet Explorer. We're currently looking into a fix now. You can consider it a known issue at this point. It may take us a bit to put a fix into the product. For now, the best work around mentioned is to use another browser (people have reported success with Chrome & Firefox).
I'm going to merge other threads with this one.

We already can reproduce the issue in Internet Explorer 7. If folks see it in other browsers, please let us know.

I personally tried it on Internet Explorer 8 and it worked fine for me. If that doesn't work, download Firefox or Chrome until Google fixes this issue.

Forum discussion at Google Places Help.

Fortune: "Google: The Search Party Is Over." Really?

Posted: August 2nd, 2010, 2:50pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

Google: The search party is over by Fortune Magazine wrote a large piece on Google and their business. In part, they wrote:

It looks a lot like the midday break at some elite college campus. But almost 12 years after it was launched by precocious Stanford grad students Larry Page and Sergey Brin, Google and its founders are grappling with a very grownup set of problems. Google's core business, online search, is slowing. That is partly due to Google's own success; it's hard to keep posting record growth rates when you dominate a business so thoroughly -- Google sites lead the U.S. market with 64% of all searches conducted. But more crucially, the web has changed significantly since Google became a verb. There is (at long last) fresh competition from Microsoft's Bing, and also a new wave of sites and services that offer alternatives for consumers' time and attention -- and the advertisers that follow them.

The web is changing and some believe Google isn't changing fast enough with the web.

A WebmasterWorld thread has discussion around this article. Some are floored by the article, one person said, "Wow that must be one of the most stupid articles I ever read." Moderator, incredibill wrote, "He lost me when he compared Apple and Google stock, apple's and oranges, pun not intended." Another member said, "I guess Fortune is more likely the one in trouble and just trying desperately to get some attention."

Eurydice said we currently live in a Google world, but before the Google world, no one saw Google coming. Now, Facebook is the big buzz, "Google can't change that, no more than the portals could force the attention to stay on portals," said the WebmasterWorld member. Eurydice added, "Social won't be the final stage. Facebook will have its day in the sun. And in 5-7 years, the next phase will come along."

What is your take?

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Searcher Concerned After Wired's Google / CIA Article

Posted: July 29th, 2010, 3:50pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

Wired published an article last night named Exclusive: Google, CIA Invest in 'Future' of Web Monitoring. Here is a snippet of that article:

The investment arms of the CIA and Google are both backing a company that monitors the web in real time - and says it uses that information to predict the future.
The company is called Recorded Future, and it scours tens of thousands of websites, blogs and Twitter accounts to find the relationships between people, organizations, actions and incidents - both present and still-to-come. In a white paper, the company says its temporal analytics engine "goes beyond search" by "looking at the 'invisible links' between documents that talk about the same, or related, entities and events."

The idea is to figure out for each incident who was involved, where it happened and when it might go down. Recorded Future then plots that chatter, showing online "momentum" for any given event.

There has always been speculation about Google "being in bed with the CIA" but this isn't exactly Google working with the CIA, not exactly.

In any event, people read Wired and people are searchers on Google. Some may stop using it, like this concerned young guy at Google Web Search Help.

Zac Jackle Reala has his username reads said:

Ok, I've been reading about the whole CIA/Google cracking down on the criminal race on the Interwebs. I've been using Google for a while. And I'm just a kid having fun on Google/Youtube. My privacy is a big deal... I don't like my "space" invaded. I'm sorry.

I find it interesting he took the time to set up a Google account and post his concern in a public Google forum.

Do you think we should be concerned?

Forum discussion at Google Web Search Help.

Google Checkout Fraud (Mostly Auto): Just Be Careful

Posted: July 28th, 2010, 3:24pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

Online scams is nothing new, we have all seen those emails from people offering us money or selling us stuff or buying stuff from us. In fact, I personally was contacted by someone who sent a fraudulent check to buy an old car of mine. I didn't end up falling for the scam, but so many people do.

Many people have recently been falling for scams that involve the Google Checkout name. There is an extremely long thread at Google Web Search Help with dozens of people who were scammed out of tens of thousands of dollars through Google Checkout. I should add that not always is the transaction done through Google Checkout, but sometimes it is done through a fake Google Checkout clone (spoofed site).

If someone asks you to pay them for something you do not have yet via Google Checkout, please - I beg you, read the stories in the thread and consider where they have gone wrong.

I also strongly recommend reviewing Google Checkout's security center to learn more about how to prevent being scammed through this service.

Don't fall prey to these people.

Forum discussion at Google Web Search Help.

Google Maps For Android Adds Google Places, aka Foursquare

Posted: July 27th, 2010, 3:40pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

Google announced an update to Google Maps for Android. The big update is a new "Places" feature that allows you to find places near you via Google Maps.

Places is a separate "App" that can be found self installed after you update your current Google Maps app on your Android device.

You click on places and it asks you what places near you do you want to find. Such as restaurants, coffee, bars, hotels, attractions, ATMs, gas stations and more. When you click on a place, you can pretty much check into the place via Google Buzz or read about it, get driving directions and so on.

This reminds me a lot of Foursquare, which let's you check into places. The only main difference is that you don't get badges for checking in. You do however get tips.

Forum discussion at Google Mobile Help.

YouTube Redesigns "My Videos" Management Page

Posted: July 22nd, 2010, 3:51pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

Google has been doing a lot of redesigning these days. Next up, is YouTube's My Videos page. The My Video's page is the primary page used by most of those who upload videos to YouTube on a regular basis. It is where you manage your videos.

Liz from YouTube said in a YouTube Help thread that they are rolling up a redesign for the page.

Personally, I currently see the old design and no one posted pictures of the new design. So as soon as I see the new design, I will update this post. Here are the changes:

*** New access to Insight (and Promoted Videos) info: To access Insight or Promoted Videos info, just click the Arrow on the right hand side of the "Edit" button, and you'll be able to access Insight or Promoted Video stats/campaigns.
*** We've centralized the way you can find the videos you've viewed over in the navigational column on the left-hand side of the page. Including...

* Uploads
* Viewed videos
* Purchased videos
* Liked videos
* Playlists
* Favorites
* Quicklist (Queue)

Additionally, please note that those of you who use the CVP Claims and Content ID matches options on the my_videos page may notice they're currently missing in the new layout. They are only temporarily missing from my_videos and will be added again in the coming weeks.

As you can imagine, some people aren't happy with the change.

Here is a picture of the current (old) My Videos page for reference:

Forum discussion at YouTube Help.

Google News Down Again

Posted: July 21st, 2010, 10:04pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

If you go to Google News right now, you may never get there. It is currently down and we have no idea when it will come back online.

This comes days after Google tweaked their redesign after the never ending user complaints. This tweak didn't really satisfy everyone, so I wonder if someone got angry and is doing a pretty big DoS attack, but Google show be good at preventing that. Maybe Google tweaked something else and it blew up on them?

Forum discussion at Google News Help.

Google Places (Maps) Reports Delayed

Posted: July 21st, 2010, 4:33pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

There are complaints at the Google Places Help forum that the reports are delayed and not updated since July 13th, over a week ago.

Google Places provides nice reports including impression, queries, actions and so on. But those reports have not been updated for over a week now. Here is a picture of my report:

Andrew Baker in the forum, not from Google, said:

The freeze on the Google Places dashboard stats does happen from time to time, in my experience it means Google are focusing their resources on new features and changes... I expect they will update in the near future.

That statement makes sense, since Google Maps did a OneBox redesign which also impacted map reviews. When will they come back? I have no idea.

Forum discussion at Google Places Help.

Google Street Views Of Netherlands Shows German Images

Posted: July 21st, 2010, 4:18pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

Sometimes you can find interesting things on Google Maps Street Views. Most recently, I spotted a street view cam falling down but not completely off the car. Now, Websonic noticed that a town in the Netherlands has street view imagery from a town in Germany!

He illustrated how a Dutch city Rijssen is showing images of a popular German city Marl. He posted screen shots of this mishap, notified Google and Google has begun removing the wrong images.

You can make out the German bus stops, German street signs and German car plates that should be Dutch.

Forum discussion at Google Blogoscoped Forums.

Mom & Google Save The Day: Finds Lost Keys

Posted: July 20th, 2010, 3:00pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

I spotted a cute story by a mom based in St. Louis where she saved the day by using Google. In short, one of her daughter's friends lost their car keys in Chicago. She figured, let me do a search in Google and see what I can come up with.

She searched for [Brandon Spells wallet] and spotted a Craigslist post with her daughter's friends keys. I kid you not.

The search result:

The Craigslist post:

Note, I am not sure how the PS is relevant, but it is there.

The mom then posted her story at Google Web Search Help forums for all to read.

I told her, she should make this into one of those Google Search Stories.

Forum discussion at Google Web Search Help.

Google Video Drops "Download" Button

Posted: July 19th, 2010, 3:55pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

As Google Video continues to scale back the features and options available, in exchange for YouTube, Google recently dropped the "download" button.

The download button, which can be seen here, was available on some Google Video hosted files. Now, it seems to be gone from all videos hosted on the Google Video platform.

Nelson from Google confirmed the change in a Google Web Search Help thread. He said:

We had discontinued the option of downloading videos, but during some internal house-cleaning, we removed it entirely.

Forum discussion at Google Web Search Help.

Bring Back The Old Google News Design

Posted: July 19th, 2010, 3:27pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

19 days ago, Google launched a redesign for Google News. Many many many users absolutely hated the design. Last week, Google finally responded with a tweak to the design, giving people a way to show a second column.

But many still miss the basic old layout that they have grown to love.

If you are one of those, and if you use Firefox, you can download a greasemonkey script to get the told design back.

A Google News Help thread discusses the script, which can be viewed here and downloaded here. Note, this is not something Google put together, it is written by a third-party.

Hopefully that helps some of you who really hate the redesign.

Forum discussion at Google News Help.

Picture of New Google Image Search Design

Posted: July 16th, 2010, 3:58pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

Two days ago, we reported some people noticing a new design for Google Images. More and more people began reporting it but no one was quick enough to snap a screen shot and post it.

I did some research and found one person on Twitter who posted a screen capture of the new design. So this looks legit and here are before and after shots.

The New Google Image Search Design:

The Old (current) Google Image Search Design:

What do you think?

Forum discussion at Google Web Search Help.

Update, we have more pictures from Bastiaan of Eduhub, these are very revealing:

Beware of Google Business Photos Scam

Posted: July 16th, 2010, 3:49pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

In April, Google relaunched the Google Local Business Center as Google Places and one part of that relaunch was the release of a FREE Google Business Photo program. The Business Photo program lets you include pictures of your business in Google Maps, done by Google.

The key points, as Google said are:

It's free! Just apply to have Google take photographs.

Show off your business to new customers around the world.

Enhance your Place Page to stand out above the competition.

But some people are trying to take advantage of those unaware of it being free. A Google Places Help thread has one business owner saying that he was contacted by someone saying they are with Google offering this as a paid service.

He said:

I got a call from Mr. Stephen Lezert with Google saying that they would like to come to our restaurant next week and take videos for the vertual tour on Google. He said that it would be a good way for our customers to see our restaurant and it will increase our business. He said that there would be one time fee of 489.00. Is it true that your company is actually asking your customers to pay that amount of money to provide the vertural tour of our business. We got this phone calls from two different men in two days. I am not sure if this is a scam that they will take our money and it would be never posted on Google. Please advise if this deal is actually offered by your company officially.

$489 for something that is free.

Cecelia from the Google Maps team replied saying:

Fumiko, Barry is right. Google does offer the business photo program, but it's free.
I'll see if I can find more info on this. Thanks.

Forum discussion at Google Places Help.

Google Changes Google News Design Based On Complaints

Posted: July 16th, 2010, 3:11pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

I am shocked, honestly shocked. Google recently redesigned Google News, and based on our poll, 85% hated the new design. I have been tracking complaints in the forums for weeks now and the complaints have no slowed. I really thought Google would not care, like with the complaints with the Google fade in and web search redesign but they did - they caved and they made changes to appease their users.

I assume enough users left Google for Google to announce Google News changes reflect your feedback:

At Google, we’re all about launching and iterating, so we've been making improvements to the design in response to your feedback. For example, we're now showing the entire cluster of articles for each story, rather than expanding the cluster when you hover your mouse over it. We've given you the ability to hide the weather forecast from your local news section. We made the option to switch between List view and Section view more obvious. And today we’re adding a third option in "News for you": Two-column view, which shows the three top stories from each section and looks like this:

So now, if you go to Google News, you will see a box in the middle letting you select the column type:

Here is the single column, which many disliked:

Here is the new double column view:

Fred from the Google News team posted a Google News Help thread about this update. He said, "We’ve been reading these forums and following all of your feedback closely. In large part because of the feedback we’ve received here and elsewhere, Google News has just launched a “Two-column” view in the News for you stream."

So far, it seems not everyone is happy yet. I really suspect this is the last major change based on complaints from Google.

New Poll, do you now like the new Google design?

Do You Like The New New Google News Design?online survey

Forum discussion at Google News Help.

Google's Josef Frank Logo

Posted: July 15th, 2010, 3:23pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

Visiting Google today on any Google property you will find a special Google logo for Josef Frank. It is Josef Frank's 125th birthday, he was born on July 15, 1885 and died on January 8, 1967 in Stockholm, Sweden. He is a well known Austrian/Swedish architect and textile designer.

Here is the Google Doodle for Josef Frank:

This may be the first person Google has placed a logo for with only a really small Wikipedia entry. The entry even talks about the Google Doodle:

Frank's designs were featured on Google's homepage on July 15, 2010. This is the anniversary of his birthday. Google picked Josef Frank's designs because they have similar objectives: innovation and love.

Forum discussion at Google Blogoscoped Forums.

Google Testing New Image Search Interface & Features?

Posted: July 14th, 2010, 3:45pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

I have no way of confirming this as of right now, but Google may be testing a new interface and feature set for Google Image Search.

A Google Web Search Help thread has one searcher talking as if he sees a completely new Google Image search user interface. When I asked for a screen shot, the user said it is no longer available but described what he has seen.

When I performed an image search it placed all the images side by side and grouped together. The groups were separated by bars that were titled Page1, Page 2, and so on.

It is often hard to decrypt these descriptions, but this interface sounds very unique to the basic interface we see today.

It wouldn't surprise me if Google was planning on trying out a new interface for image search. But I am surprised more people haven't seen or complained about it. Maybe this is a user bug or maybe this is a real test.

Have you seen anything like this? If so, send me a screen shot please.

Forum discussion at Google Web Search Help.

Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2010/07/14/Google_France_Celebrates_Bastille_Day__f_ecirc_te_nationale_du_14_juillet'

Google France Celebrates Bastille Day: fête nationale du 14 juillet

Posted: July 14th, 2010, 3:36pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

Today is Bastille Day and Google France is celebrating the day with a special Google Doodle (Google logo). Bastille day is commonly referred to as La Fête Nationale or National Celebration and is always on July 14th.

Here is this year's doodle:

When you click on it, you are taken to a search result for [fête nationale du 14 juillet].

Here are some past logos for 2009, 2008, 2007 and 2006, respectively.

To our French readers - Happy Bastille Day!

Forum discussion at Google Blogoscoped Forums.

YouTube Down : Major Outage

Posted: July 14th, 2010, 2:48pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

For the past three hours or so, YouTube, Google's very popular video portal, has been down. It goes up here and there, but then goes back offline.

The error many people are seeing seems to be database related. Here is what I see:

There are reports of the outage at YouTube Help and Google Blogoscoped Forums. The first report I have seen was at 5am (EST).

I don't believe this is routine maintenance, but I do suspect it will be something Google is franticly fixing as we speak.

Forum discussion at YouTube Help and Google Blogoscoped Forums.

Google Israel Wishes Naomi Shemer A Happy 80th Birthday

Posted: July 13th, 2010, 3:14pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

Google Israel has a beautiful logo up for the birthday of the late Naomi Shemer (נעמי שמר‎). Here is a picture of the Google Doodle:

Clicking on the logo takes you to a search result for [נעמי שמר] on Google Israel.

Naomi was born on July 13, 1930 and died at the age of 73 on June 26, 2004. She was known as the "first lady of Israeli song," writing very popular Israeli songs. You can see a full list of her works on Wikipedia and if you have good Hebrew skills you can the more detailed Hebrew Wikipedia page.

Forum discussion at Google Blogoscoped Forums.

Google Maps Reviews Removed? They'll Come Back

Posted: July 13th, 2010, 3:06pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

Dozens of businesses went to the Google forums to complain that their Google Maps reviews are missing. But a couple of days later, the reviews are now back.

To some business owners, this can be really upsetting. For example, one said "Last week i had 25 reviews. 22 great and 3 bad. Where did they all go? It has taken 2 years to get them. Can i get them back?"

There are dozens more like this.

Mike Blumenthal explained in one Google Places Help thread that typically with Google Maps updates, such as the one from yesterday, the reviews go missing for a bit of time and them come back. Mike explained:

Reviews for some reason often seem to disappear when Google does some sort of upgrade to their system. One assumes that for some reason their indices get misaligned.
You are not the only owner reporting this problem. There has been a recent upgrade and I assume that your reviews will likely return over time.

The issue is, Google is not good at communicating this to people. So we have dozens of threads with complaints.

Forum discussion at (didn't list all) Google Maps Help, Google Places Help & Google Webmaster Help.

Google Invests In Major Part of Facebook via Zynga For Games Or More?

Posted: July 12th, 2010, 3:33pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

TechCrunch reports Google has invested $100 million in Zynga. Zynga is a company that makes socially connected games and is incredibly popular on Facebook. They are the company behind Farmville.

Greg Sterling has his thoughts on how this may "fuel" a Google social networking site around gaming.

But folks at WebmasterWorld fear it is more than just a gaming pitch. By investing in Zynga Google can potentially use their influence to get data from within Facebook's iron gate, push Google ads within the games and even more.

One person said:

My concern is privacy, with Google now owning a piece of Zynga and Zynga being in nearly everyone's Facebook it seems the long tentacle of Google is extending into everything that can yield user data.

Whereas the folks at DigitalPoint Forums are confused and surprised by the investment. One person said, "Well I'm a little bit surprised... I mean there firstly was one one place where you could fond everything, now it's sorted in different topics. What is the purpose of all this?"

I doubt any of our readers are surprised by this move, at least not in hindsight.

Forum discussion at DigitalPoint Forums & WebmasterWorld.

Google Maps Car Did Not Flip Over As Street Views Suggests

Posted: July 8th, 2010, 3:39pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

Yesterday afternoon, I was using street views to research some locations around my office and I spotted something weird. I was driving up Route 202 and it then appeared that the Street Views camera on top of the Google Maps Car started falling off the car.

I quickly made a video of it happening and posted at Search Engine Land. Here is the video:

Here is a before and after picture:

Google sent us a statement later on that the camera did not strike the floor. Instead it either titled downwards or a screw or something got loose. But it did not hit the floor, nor did the car flip over (not that I thought the car flipped over). Here is Google's statement:

Our Street View cameras are built on a mast that is able to be raised/lowered/angled by our car drivers — for things like going under bridges/overpasses, to more easily do camera tweaking, or when storing overnight. So it looks like in this case, the mast may have tilted or come a bit loose – the camera did not actually “fall off”, and nobody was injured! (In fact, every few months a story will circulate about us “hitting an overpass” because the images show the camera suddenly at strange angles under a bridge, but it’s actually because the driver did his duty and lowered/tilted it, but may not have shut off the camera from still photographing).

Forum discussion at Google Maps Help.

1,257 Users Switch To Bing Due To Google News Change

Posted: July 7th, 2010, 3:50pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

On July 1st, Google News launched a redesign and to be frankly honest, it seems like it was a major failure. So many complaints, so much hate, so many switchers, all do to this single portal change.

I wanted to isolate a single complaint, amongst many, where an IT support guy from a medium size business chimed in. He posted his issue at the Google News Help forum:

thanks much for all the work the redesign has passed to our department. everyone's back from the 4th and since 8:00.01 am the phone wasn't stopped ringing. we're using Windows Server and everyone has google for their home page so everyone used google news. while news isn't a required(or supported) our company does allow employee's to browse during breaks. of course when anything changes we get the calls(blame). we have determined that there's no way we can support this change and don't want thousands of wasted employee hours as they try to set this mess up. our fix .... at 1:00 am cst 07/06/2010 new homepage for all users... bing.com. 1257 problems fixed.

You see that? Due to all the complaints he received from his co-workers, he flipped a switch and made them all ex-Googler users and now Bing users. It took him no time to make the switch and now there are 1,257 less Google users and 1,257 more Bing users.

Wow. One of many examples of people leaving Google over the Google News change.

Forum discussion at Google News Help.

Google's Favicon a Google Toilet?

Posted: July 7th, 2010, 3:40pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

Spotted via a Google Blogoscoped Forum thread, Wildammo.com put together a funny version of Google's favicon.

Let's show you their version and then the official one:

Look similar?

Think the Google designer was taking care of some business and thought up this idea while thinking? Anything is possible.

This Google favicon is from January 2009, which was updated from the all blue one in May 2008, and prior to that it was a multi-colored G.

Forum discussion at Google Blogoscoped Forum.

Google Maps Labels Oceans, Seas, Lakes & Other Bodies Of Water

Posted: July 7th, 2010, 3:27pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

A few days ago, a Google Maps user asked Google in a Google Maps Help forum if they can add labels or names to bodies of water. The person asked, why are no oceans, seas, lakes and so on labelled on Google Maps.

Google Maps representative, Dave, who is a Product Manager from Google's Seattle office said that it is coming soon. Dave said:

Thanks for your note, this is something we're working on and hopefully will be done soon!

I decided to take a look this morning and to my surprise, many bodies of water are labeled.

For example, you can see here Google labeled the Atlantic Ocean and Gulf of Mexico:

You can also see Google labeled Lake Erie:

Maybe when Google said "soon" they meant really soon or maybe I am confused and not understanding what is being discussed here?

Forum discussion at Google Maps Help.

Update: Seems like Google did have some bodies of water labeled already, so maybe many many more are coming any day now?

Google To Bring Banners To Gmail, Will Users Leave?

Posted: July 7th, 2010, 3:16pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

adAge reports Google may be bringing large banner display ads to Gmail.

Google properties such as Google Finance, YouTube and others have fairly large display ads already. Gmail, for the most part, has gone contextual ad based, as opposed to simply display ad based.

Not just Gmail, but also Google Maps, Google Books and so on may start seeing display ads. Would it ever come to Google Search. There was speculation Google would do this back in 2005, and they ran image based ads on Google Image Search. AdSense does offer image ads, flash ads and video ads as well. We have seen a form of query based video ads in the search results, but not basic display ads.

A Google Blogoscoped Forums thread has some users thinking of leaving or blocking any ads that appear that may be distracting.

Philipp Lenssen, the site owner said:

I once tried to use Yahoo Mail for a while, but the banner ads – which happened to reload when you clicked around – were one of the things that put me off. If they ever come to Gmail, and they'll be annoying, I might just switch to an ad blocker (I still don't use any).

What would you do?

Forum discussion at Google Blogoscoped Forums.

Frida Kahlo Google Logo

Posted: July 6th, 2010, 8:13pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

If you visit Google today, you will see a special logo or 'doodle' for Frida Kahlo. The logo looks like:

Frida Kahlo was a well-known Mexican painter. You can learn more about her at Wikipedia. And you can also see there where this doodle was inspired from.

Forum discussion at Google Webmaster Help.

Google Doodle For Antoine de Saint-Exupery's 110th Birthday

Posted: June 29th, 2010, 2:59pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

Google has a special logo, aka Doodle, on most of the Google properties today for the 100th birthday of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. For some reason, Google.com, Google USA does not have a doodle for Antoine de Saint-Exupéry.

Here is a picture of the doodle:

Antoine de Saint-Exupéry is a well-known for his short novel named The Little Prince, which is depicted in the Google Doodle above. Antoine was born 100 years ago today on June 29, 1900 and died in 1944. He was in the French Air Force during World War II. In 1944 he disappeared over the Mediterranean. You can learn more about him at Wikipedia.

Why did Google.com not show the logo? He spent two years of his life in New York City, writing. So why not at Google.com?

Forum discussion at Google Blogoscoped Forums.

Google Translate Now With Ads

Posted: June 28th, 2010, 3:10pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

Websonic reports that Google Translate is now testing display ads. I personally do not see them, but Michel took a picture.

This comes with no surprise, there is plenty of screen real estate to monetize there.

Do you see ads on Google Translate.

Forum discussion at Google Blogoscoped Forums.

Report: Google to Start iTunes Product

Posted: June 24th, 2010, 1:57pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

The Wall Street Journal reports that Google is working on their own iTunes like competitor. Here is part of what the Wall Street Journal is reporting:

Google Inc. is preparing to roll out a music download service tied to its search engine later this year, followed by an online subscription service in 2011, according to people familiar with the Internet giant's discussions with the music industry.
Google's proposals are still vague, say these people, and it's unclear whether it has struck any deals with record labels so far. But Google has been stepping up conversations about offering new music services tied to phones running its Android operating system along with the broader Web, said people who have been briefed on the talks. The launch of Google's download music store is still months away, these people said.

We know Google has a music search feature but this is clearly aimed at providing a way to download music directly to your computer or even beter, Android device. Of course,. the forums are having a field day with the news, how Google continues to dip into more and more services.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Google Places/Maps Custom Attributes Errors?

Posted: June 16th, 2010, 3:22pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

A Google Places Help thread reports that when adding custom attributes to your Google Maps listings you get an error that reads "Your attribute value is too long."

An attorney trying to add custom attributes said:

I tried to add some the recommended custom attributes listed at URL for an attorney's Web site I'm working on. For "Years Admitted", "Professional Affiliates" , and "Law School" I got an error that reads "Your attribute value is too long." I got that error no matter what I entered in the field (even a single character.)

I have not tried to reproduce it, but Google Maps Guide Cecelia said:

Thanks for sharing madigrammedia. We're looking into this.

So something is likely wrong.

Forum discussion at Google Places Help.

Google Wants $25 Per Business Per Month With Maps Tags

Posted: June 11th, 2010, 3:35pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

Last night, Google expanded their Google Maps Places "Tags" nationwide. Tags basically enhance your Google Maps listing and cost an additional $25 per month per listing.

Here are some pictures of how it looks on a browser and iPhone. The tags are the yellow highlighted listings.

Browser Listing:

Browser Coupon Page:

iPhone Listing:

iPhone Coupon Page:

Forum discussion at Cre8asite Forums.

Google Quietly Breaks & Fixes Starring In Google Dictionary

Posted: June 11th, 2010, 3:24pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

Google has a feature I never use named Google Dictionary. In the Google Dictionary, users can "star" words to be put in a special list for later.

Earlier this week, the starring feature stopped working. A thread was created at Google Web Search Help to report the issue. Days later, Googler Emmit confirmed the bug and said they will look into it. Emmit said:

Hi all, thanks for reporting this and sorry for being a little late to the party. This issue is being investigated, and I'll circle back when it's fixed.
It's great to be reminded how useful Dictionary and its features are to our users!

Hours after that message from Emmit, the bug was fixed.

Here are some pictures of the starring feature:

I should note that there is still a minor bug in this staring feature. The stars don't stay on when you go back to that word. By that I mean, if you star a word, and then search for that word again, the star is white, and not highlighted yellow.

Forum discussion at Google Web Search Help.

Google Maps Navigation Comes To 11 More Countries

Posted: June 10th, 2010, 3:03pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

Google Maps Navigation, a free navigation GPS device for Android devices is now available in 11 more countries. Besides for the U.S. it is available in Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, and Switzerland.

The requirements are that you are running Android OS 1.6 and have an internet plan for your device.

You can learn more about it over at google.com/mobile/navigation/.

Tom from Google Maps team posted a forum thread about it over at the Google Mobile Help forums. Tom said:

We welcome your feedback! In anticipation of questions that may come, let me reiterate that I'm unable to discuss when or if Navigation will be enabled for other countries; that said, rest assured - the Navigation team is working hard to make this feature available for as many locales as possible. Let us know what you think!

Forum discussion at Google Mobile Help & Google Blogoscoped Forums.

South Africa Gets Google Maps Street Views

Posted: June 9th, 2010, 3:45pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

Google released Street View imagery last night for South Africa. This seemed to have been a priority for the upcoming World Cup tournament.

South Africa's soccer stadiums got special attention, including Soccer City in Johannesburg, Peter Mokaba Stadium in Polokwane and Moses Mabhida Stadium in Durban.

Moses Mabdhiba Stadium:

View Larger Map

Soccer City Stadium:

View Larger Map

You can also explore South Africa via this link.

Forum discussion at Google Maps Help.

Google Merchant Center Looking For Feedback

Posted: June 8th, 2010, 4:07pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

Those that submit products through Google Merchant Center to be shown on Google Shopping/Google Product Search can now submit feedback to Google for issues and feature requests.

Ronald from the Google team posted a thread at the Google Merchant Help forum asking for feedback. He said:

Hello Google Merchant Center Users,
Beginning this week, we are initiating a new exercise to collect your opinion, feedback and suggestions to improve the Google Merchant Center. I will start a discussion thread on every Monday on a particular section of the Google Merchant Center. One of our team members will respond to the thread at the end of the week.

This week's topic is "Account settings." Please let us know what you like or dislike about the Google Merchant Center account settings, what else you would like to see in this section.

Please do take sometime and provide us with your valuable feedback.

Merchants have already taken the time to submit some feedback to Google, so why don't you do the same?

Also, Ronald noted in another thread that removing the file or metatag you added to your website as part of the verification process will result in losing your "verified" status and will need to go through the verification and claiming process again.

So submit your feedback!

Forum discussion at Google Merchant Help.

Google Buys Invite Media: Real Time Display Ad Bidding

Posted: June 4th, 2010, 3:21pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

This is not 100% search related but I figure it is important to note here, at least for future reference, when it ties into search later. Google acquired (or is trying ti acquire) a company named Invite Media.

Google said:

The team at Invite Media has developed technology that enables advertisers and agencies to use "real time bidding" to buy display ad space, and to optimize display ad campaigns, across multiple advertising exchanges, all in a single interface.

You can read more from Google over here.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

How To Move Your Company's Google Street View Image

Posted: June 3rd, 2010, 4:02pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

Back in March 2010, Google announced a feature that wasn't covered too much. What happens if you have a street view image for your business listing in Google Maps that you are not happy about?

For example, one user complained in the Google Maps Help forum that his street view image shows graffiti on his building. He blamed Google for showing that as his company face on Google Maps.

Here is a picture:

The solution is fairly straightforward:

You go to the business on Google Maps, click on "more" and then click on "move marker":

Then a split screen will come up where you can move the marker on the Street Views:

That is how you move your street views image on Google for your business.

Forum discussion at Google Maps Help.

Google Sued Over Maps Walking Directions: Hit & Run

Posted: June 2nd, 2010, 4:00pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

Ad Danny Sullivan explained in his amazing story, Woman Follows Google Maps "Walking" Directions, Gets Hit, Sues, Lauren Rosenberg was hit by a car as she walked between two locations in Park City, Utah. Using her BlackBerry phone, she'd used Google Maps and its "walking directions" feature to generate a route. Those directions sent her down "Deer Valley Drive," an alternative name for Utah State Route 224. She was struck on that highway.

Danny then had a follow up with Rosenberg's lawyer. I strongly recommend you read both stories when you have some free time. It is really an amazing story.

Then to follow up, not only was this woman hit by a car, and then decided to hit Google back - but Danny's story, like so many times, was stolen without credit by numerous news organizations. This happens often, but Danny finally complained. So Danny was also hit by this as well.

In any event, I really can't add much, but I wanted to make sure our readers saw this story.

Forum discussion at Cre8asite Forums and Google Blogoscoped Forums.

Google Maps New Direction Icons

Posted: June 2nd, 2010, 3:49pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

I am told this is about a week or so old, but I haven't really seen any posts on it yet. Google Maps has changed the way they let users pick the type of directions they want. Instead of showing a drop down, defaulted to car directions, they now show you icons above the directions box.

Here is a screen capture of the new design:

Here is the old design:

I posted this at the Google Maps Help forum and top contributor, Barry Hunter (nice first name, btw), confirmed that they are new. He said:

Yes definitely new. Last couple of weeks at most.
They used to be presented as a dropdown under the text entry boxes.

They definitely make the options stand out, which is a good thing.

Forum discussion at Google Maps Help.

Report: Google Dropping Windows OS Due To Security Issues

Posted: June 1st, 2010, 3:17pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

Let me start of by saying that although this post is not SEO related, I couldn't resist. I am a big Mac guy and pretty anti-Windows - I have been this way since I was under ten. So I can't pass this up.

The Financial Times reports Google is no longer allowing the Windows operating system on their computers. No desktops will have them and only laptops with special permission will have Windows installed on them. The article alludes to the Google being hacked by Chinese earlier as one of the reasons Google no longer wants Windows OS on their computers and network.

Anonymous Google employees told them:

We're not doing any more Windows. It is a security effort.
Many people have been moved away from [Windows] PCs, mostly towards Mac OS, following the China hacking attacks.

FT.com added, "in early January, some new hires were still being allowed to install Windows on their laptops, but it was not an option for their desktop computers. Google would not comment on its current policy."

This is currently the number one story on Techmeme and I have yet to see an official response from Google on this as of yet.

Forum discussion at DigitalPoint Forums.

Matt Cutts Outed Again As GoogleGuy?

Posted: May 27th, 2010, 4:21pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

Back in the earlier days of the SEO industry, there was a mystery Google representative who participated at WebmasterWorld forums under the alias of GoogleGuy. Back then, very few people knew the true identity of GoogleGuy, but yet many speculated his identity.

Then in August 2006, reports came out that Matt Cutts confessed to being GoogleGuy during a session at SES. Danny Sullivan said:

I moderated the panel, and the confession came out when a member of the audience flat out asked Matt if he was GoogleGuy. Matt hesitated just a moment, and I could swear I could almost hear the internal debate of "should I finally confess or not." And then he did, saying as Rand notes that he sort of backed into being the GoogleGuy who posts on forums and blogs. Matt then added that today, GoogleGuy might be one of many different people from Google commenting in public areas.

But if you look at the Wikipedia page for Matt Cutts, it links specifically to this post and Matt said he "was quoted out of context."

To this day, you will not find Matt admitting in writing that he was GoogleGuy. But a comment from WebmasterWorld's founder, Brett Tabke, a person who would know the true identity of GoogleGuy said:

When Matt was on wmw as GoogleGuy for all those years, that is what we had to deal with daily.

He is referring to Matt Cutts as being GoogleGuy. Back in 2006, Danny reported that Brett told him "Matt's been wearing a "Google Guy" name badge at PubCon for the past two years now, and Thomas Bindl notes this was the case last November at the show, as well."

So although Matt has been outed a few times as being GoogleGuy, Matt has never officially come out as the legendary GoogleGuy.

Forum discussion continued at, oh, GoogleGuy hasn't made a post at WebmasterWorld since July 24, 2008.

Google Maps New Documentation On Merging Duplicate Business Listings

Posted: May 27th, 2010, 3:22pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

There has always been a lot of confusion around how to handle duplicate listings in Google Maps. Recent Google Maps Help threads have been pushing Google to give us a clear guide on what to do in this situation.

Brianna from the Google Maps team announced in a thread that they have released a brand new help document on how to handle these situations.

You can find the help document over here. It breaks the duplicate issues into two categories.

(1) Do multiple results for your business appear in Google Maps search results?
(2) Are there multiple listings in your Google Places account for the same business location?

The answers on what you should do depend on the above.

(1) Do multiple results for your business appear in Google Maps search results?

Make sure you've claimed one of the listings in Google Places. Verify that there’s only one active listing in your account by logging in to your Google Places account.
If there's more than one listing in your account for the same business, you’ll first need to fix that problem by following the steps in the section below.
If you don't have a listing for it at all, you should claim your business. For every extra result for your business, go to its Place Page, click the Report A Problem link, and select "Place has another listing". If you can, include a link to your claimed place page in the comments section.
Google will review these reports and fix duplicate business listings.

(2) Are there multiple listings in your Google Places account for the same business location?

Choose the listing that you'd prefer to keep in your account.

Make sure that you have all your enhanced content (photos, business hours, description) attached to this listing.
Make sure that its status is "active".

Delete all other listings for the same business from your account. Choose the "Remove this listing from my Google Places account" option
These changes can take several weeks to appear in search results
If there are multiple results for your business in Google’s search results, follow the instructions above.

Let me know if this doesn't solve the issues out there.

Forum discussion at Google Maps Help.

Google TV: A Clicker Killer?

Posted: May 21st, 2010, 3:02pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

Google announced their TV search appliance the other day. Most everyone knows about this news by now, but if you haven't, see the video below and read all the stories (everyone) on Techmeme.

Of course, this seems to be a version of Clicker, a TV search engine run by Jim Lanzone. Clicker is very cool, but can it stand up to Google, even if Google TV has less features and a poorer user interface? I suspect not. Honestly, I have not done much research on both being that I have been offline for two days and still digging out. But you can read all the news above and see a short summary of Google TV in the video above.

Some fun quotes from the forum threads at WebmasterWorld, Google Blogoscoped Forums and DigitalPoint Forums:

this looks amazing, yet scary at the same time

Google TV socks :-)

So far TV's an the internet haven't really mixed well. I think there are some great benefits but for the most part I like my Internet separate from my TV.

And the best:

"Developers can start optimizing their websites for Google TV today." Sigh, here we go again.

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

75% of SEOs Say Googlers Hypocritical on Facebook

Posted: May 20th, 2010, 2:42pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

A few weeks ago, many Googlers deactivated their Facebook accounts to make a statement about the lack of privacy and "openness" of the social networking site. I figured it would be fun to see how SEOs feel about that decision.

I ran a poll asking if you feel that in light of Google Buzz, do you think the Googlers who deactivated their accounts are being hypocritical? Personally, I don't really think so, but here is what you all think.

75% of you think Googlers are being hypocritical, here is the pie chart:

Forum discussion continued at WebmasterWorld.

This was scheduled to be posted today. I am offline today and scheduled several polls for the days I am offline. I am back Friday, May 21st.

YouTube 5 Years Old & Adds Hash Tag Search

Posted: May 18th, 2010, 3:02pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

It is hard to imagine that YouTube is only five years old (as of Sunday) but it is. I wanted to share with you a neat new search feature that YouTube seems to be playing with, a form of tag search.

I spotted this via Google Blogoscoped Forums, where you can search YouTube for specific hash tags. For example, a search for [#fail] currently returns these results for me:

As you can see, it searches the comments on YouTube videos for the hashtag fail (i.e. #fail). Supposedly only a handful of hash tags actually are searchable now, including #FAIL, #OMG, #LOL, #FTW.

Meanwhile, there is a bug on YouTube comments that prevents some comments from being deleted.

Finally, I produce a weekly video that I publish on YouTube as well as other places like iTunes and on this blog. If you love search and YouTube, you can subscribe to my YouTube Channel over here.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld, Google Blogoscoped & YouTube Help.

Google Maps Street View Bug Takes You Through NYC Building

Posted: May 11th, 2010, 3:24pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

A Google Maps Help thread reports a humorous bug with Google Maps Street Views. The street view seems to take you through a NYC building on 5th avenue and 31st street. FYI, I'll be there this week, so maybe I'll give it a try.

Here is a picture of the buggy street view directions:

As you can see, 5th avenue appears to go right through that building.

I know Google is testing store views but I doubt it works this way.

Forum discussion at Google Maps Help.

Google Maps Get Directions, My Maps & Transit Directions Failing For Some

Posted: May 11th, 2010, 3:01pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

A Google Maps Help forum has confirmed reports that for some users, on some browsers, the Get Directions, My Maps & Transit Directions features and links are not working on Google Maps.

Brian B from the Google Maps Team said:

1 - The "Get Directions" and "My Maps" buttons simply do not work for users.

I have tried to reproduce this error on a few machines and on a bunch of browsers, but haven't been able to successfully reproduce. Are users still seeing this error? I know some of you mentioned having gone through troubleshooting steps found on our Help Center, and that's a great first step. Please let me know if this problem is still ongoing.

2 - Transit directions don't work where they used to.

Some of you have mentioned Salt Lake City as one area that is affected. What other areas are folks having issues with? Keep in mind public transit information isn't yet available everywhere.

I've escalated both of these issues to the appropriate folks. Keep the details coming if you're still experiencing these.

So if you are having issues with the items mentioned above, please go to the Google Maps Help help forum and chime in about your browser and PC type.

Forum discussion at Google Maps Help.

Google Maps Reviews Go Missing Again

Posted: May 10th, 2010, 3:18pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

A Google Maps Help thread has several business owners complaining that their reviews listed on their Google Maps listing have mysteriously disappeared. Some reported all of their reviews are missing, whereas others reported only a portion of their reviews are missing.

Googler, Brianna said:

I'm looking into this. I'll follow up once I have more information.

Google Maps & Local guru, Mike Blumenthal, gave a bit more insight from outside of the official Google cloud. Mike expalined:

This has occurred several times over the past several years and inevitably the reviews will return. It takes time.
Google has been doing a great deal of updating of late, new features, etc etc.

Google never looses information but they do tend to misplace it on occasion. In the past, the reviews became "disassociated" from the "cluster" of information about a given business but if the business hasn't changed critical information in their Google listing like phone number or business name, they usally are reunited with the business listing over time (2,4,6, or even 8 weeks).

I know this is not much consolation and it is annoying but in the past, these reviews, after having gone missing, have all returned sooner or later.

Are you missing your Google Maps reviews recently?

Forum discussion at Google Maps Help.

Update: This should have been resolved later on this day.

Google Maps Hijacking Getting Out of Control?

Posted: May 7th, 2010, 3:46pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

A Google Places Help thread reports some business owners complaining that their business listings on Google Maps continually gets hijacked by competitors. One person said, "on almost a daily basis my client's listing gets hijacked."

Google Maps hijacking is nothing new, we saw it back in 2007 and 2008, but it does routinely happen. In fact, Google is aware of it and is looking for a way to prevent it from happening.

Linda from the Google Maps team said in the thread:

Sorry for the trouble you're experiencing. Thanks for notifying us of this issue. We are looking into this.
For others that are experiencing similar issues, please post your business listings URL from Google Maps.

So if you have experienced this, join the Google Places Help.

Forum discussion at Google Places Help.

Google Places Statistics Off, Google To Investigate

Posted: May 5th, 2010, 3:39pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

Reportedly, since Google Places replaced the Google Local Business Center, the statistics within Google Places have been off. A Google Places Help thread has reports from local businesses that the stats are off.

Joel H. from Google did confirm an issue, he said:

The disparity between impressions and actions is being looked at by our team.

So clearly something is not right. One business owner said, "They used to say i got 150 clicks/month on one listing and now it says 0."

Do you see issues in your stats?

Forum discussion at Google Places Help.

Google Adds Earth View To Google Maps, Terrain View Moved

Posted: April 27th, 2010, 3:32pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

Yesterday, Google added an Earth View layer to Google Maps. That means you can interact with Google Maps as you would in Google Earth, the desktop application. It is actually pretty neat, here is Niagara Falls in Earth View (you may have to minimize the left side pane).

In any event, it doesn't seem to work too well on a Mac, specifically Chrome for Mac - so this picture was taken using IE on a PC.

But with any new addition to Google Maps, you have some users who are not happy. Many thought Google removed the Terrain View. It has not been removed, it was moved into the "More" menu.

Even though it is still there, some are still upset:

Unacceptable! I like to flip back & forth between views - Terrain being one of the most important. Sticking it in "More" makes this much more cumbersome. Why not just replace Satellite with Earth? (And put Terrain back where it belongs!)

Forum discussion at Google Maps Help Forums.

Googlers Leave Facebook, Is It Hypocritical?

Posted: April 26th, 2010, 3:44pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

Last week Facebook announced the Open Graph program that essentially allows web sites to embed code on their pages that allows Facebook users to 'like' content on third-party web sites and automatically be included in Facebook. The issue is that technically, if this code is on web sites, Facebook is following you around the web unless you specifically opt out of this or sign out of Facebook. It gets more detailed, so read it over at Search Engine Land.

Due to this implementation, amongst other things, Googlers, including Matt Cutts deactivated their accounts. Matt explained:

I just deactivated my Facebook account using the guide at [goo.gl] Not hard to do & you can still revive it later.

Danny commented on the Search Engine Land post saying:

If it is a protest over privacy, will Matt close his Buzz account now?
[www.google.com]

I think they’ve have a few issues, as well :)

So do you think Googlers are being hypocritical here or they are deactivating their accounts for other reasons? Here is a poll:

Googlers On Facebook Deactivation:customer surveys

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Google Doodle 3D Sculpture Art

Posted: April 26th, 2010, 3:17pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

David Masse (masse.org) has been collecting Google Doodles since 1998. He has been printing and cutting them out and creating 3D sculptures of them over time.

David shared his art in the Google Web Search Help forums the other day. I wanted to make sure everyone got a chance to see them. Here they are:

Even one of them contains a picture of Dennis Hwang, Google's doodle artist.

Forum discussion at Google Web Search Help.

Hubble Telescope Launch Remembered By Google

Posted: April 23rd, 2010, 9:38pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

Saturday marks the 20th birthday of the Hubble Telescope launch. Specifically, April 24, 1990 was the launch date and to remember the date, Google posted a special logo on their home page. The logo is now live at Google Australia where it is already Saturday.

Here is a picture:

The neat part is that if you click on the planets, it takes you to Google Sky. I should note that NASA and Google teamed up to make Google Sky - so this does make logical sense.

Forum discussion at Google Web Search Help and Google Blogoscoped Forums with a hat tip to Michel Wester.

Google's St. George's Day In UK & Children's Day In Turkey Logos

Posted: April 23rd, 2010, 3:30pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

Google has two new logos up today, one on Google UK and another on Google Turkey. In the UK, they are celebrating St. George's Day and in Turkey they are celebrating Children's Day.

Here are the doodles:

Google's St. George's Day Doodle:

Google's Children's Day Doodle:

Both very neat logos. Of course, we have at least one complaint.

Forum discussion at Google Webmaster Help & Google Blogoscoped Forums.

Google Can't Drive From London To Nottingham

Posted: April 23rd, 2010, 3:15pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

If you try to use Google Maps UK to get driving directions from London to Nottingham, you will be out of luck. According to Google Maps there is no way to get from one city to the next. Try it, go to Google Maps, click on driving directions, enter in London to Nottingham and click go. You will be presented with an error that reads, "We could not calculate directions between London and Nottingham."

Here is a picture:

Google confirmed the issue in a Google Maps Help thread saying:

I've also been able to reproduce the problem and have escalated the issue to the proper folks.
Hopefully will get this resolved soon.

You can always use Bing or Yahoo Maps, heck or even MapQuest to get driving directions.

Forum discussion at Google Maps Help.

Google Maps Adds Smooth Scrolling

Posted: April 23rd, 2010, 3:06pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

Google Operating System spotted that Google Maps added "kinetic scrolling," which is a form of smooth fluid scrolling, on Google Maps. Basically, as you pane through the mouse with your mouse, the map will slowly continue to scroll and slow as you let go. A video best describes it:

I like this addition to Google Maps, do you?

Other additions include BlackBerry Storm 2 upgrade for Google Maps for mobile and a new Google Maps for mobile v4.1 is available.

Forum discussion at Google Blogoscoped Forums.

Google Israel Gets Independence Day Doodle

Posted: April 20th, 2010, 3:50pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

I often cover how different people are upset that a specific logo was not designed and placed on Google for an event. The complaints range from missing an important country's holiday or missing someone's birthday, amongst others. So when I was testing Google's virtual keyboard in the search results, I noticed that today, Google Israel has a special doodle.

Today is Israel's Independence Day, which technically happens every year on 5 Iyar (jewish month). It is also known as Yom Ha'atzmaut (יום העצמאות‎) and it happened on May 14, 1948. The hebrew date was 5 Iyar, 5708. Today is actually 6 of Iyar but Google is not wrong. In 2004 Israel changed the rule of when this day is celebrated and if 5th of Iyar is on a Monday, the festival is postponed to Tuesday.

Pretty good that Google got it right, despite the change.

Forum discussion at Google Web Search Help.

Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2010/04/19/Guy_Wants_To_Propose_To_Fianc%c3%a9_On_Google_Home_Page'

Guy Wants To Propose To Fiancé On Google Home Page

Posted: April 19th, 2010, 2:58pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

When proposing to your fiancé, some people want to go big. What is bigger than placing an ad in the super bowl, being on the Google home page might be. That is exactly what one guy wants to do.

A Google Web Search Help thread has a guy named Stanislav Ponomarev from Natchitoches, LA, who is a student at Northwestern State University, who wants to propose to his girl friend via Google. He said:

um... Is there any way to put "%name%, will you marry me?" for a day on the front page of google web search? Maybe for a price?

Google really won't do that for anyone, trust me, I tried. Some of you may remember, the Ask Jeeves team helped me propose to my wife via a search engine. It was one of the first, if not the first, proposal via a search query. It made some pretty big news, but I didn't do it for that - I did it because I am all about search and it just seemed right.

Google doesn't change their search queries, so the only way to make that happen would be to:

(1) Use Google AdWords
(2) Use a browser that is hacked to show a special search result.

Or I guess you can rank a web page for the search phrase you want to come up for. But I think more people should try to use search for stuff like this, it is neat!

Forum discussion at Google Web Search Help.

YouTube Videos May Get "Operation Aborted" Error in Internet Explorer

Posted: April 19th, 2010, 2:44pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

We know Google (& YouTube) is not a fan of Internet Explorer but now some Internet Explorer users are reporting that videos aren't playing in IE. Some users are getting an error message that says "Operation Aborted" and are then being redirected to a page on Microsoft.com with more details.

Liz from YouTube support started a thread at YouTube Help confirming the issue and saying they are working on a fix. Liz did say there may be a way for the videos to play. She said:

In the meantime, here's what I suggest as a quick work around so you're able to play videos without issues:
1. Try refreshing your browser a couple times. This should actually make videos play normally again without issues in Internet Explorer.

2. If the tip above didn't help, you could try temporarily switching to another browser (for example Firefox or Chrome) until the team has fixed the bug with Internet Explorer.

Thank you for your patience while the team's working on this issue. We hope to have everything back to normal soon!

So if you do get an error, try one of those tips above.

Forum discussion at YouTube Help.

Google Has $26.5 Billion In Cash (GOOG)

Posted: April 16th, 2010, 3:08pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

Google released their first quarter 2010 earnings report last night and they reported another great quarter. Revenue was up 23% and net income was up even more, at 37%. These numbers beat analysts expectations, but yet in the pre-market, GOOG stock is down $27 or almost 5%.

The pretty amazing figure is that Google has more fluid money than many countries, with $26.5 billion sitting in cash, cash equivalents, and short-term marketable securities. In any event, here are some key metrics, including some interesting ones from a SEM's perspective:

Google-owned sites generated revenues of $4.44 billion, or 66% of total revenues
Network revenue or AdSense programs, earned of $2.04 billion, or 30% of total revenues
Paid clicks increased approximately 15% over the first quarter of 2009 and increased approximately 5% over the fourth quarter of 2009
Cost per click prices also increased approximately 7% over the first quarter of 2009 and decreased approximately 4% over the fourth quarter of 2009
Google has $26.5 billion cash on hand
Google employed 20,621 full-time employees as of March 31, 2010, up from 19,835 full-time employees as of December 31, 2009

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

How To Download Your Google My Maps Saved Locations

Posted: April 15th, 2010, 3:21pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

Google removed the ability to use a "saved locations" within Google Maps. Google changed how that worked a while back and gave people a way to download their locations. The way to download saved locations has now changed.

In an updated Google Maps Help thread, Cecelia from the Google Maps team wrote:

I want to update the link for downloading your Saved Locations to a KML. Please use the link below.
[https:]

If you want to download those saved locations to a KML file which can open them up in Google Earth, then use that link.

Forum discussion at Google Maps Help.

Google Maps May Bring Back 3D Street Views

Posted: April 14th, 2010, 3:31pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

On April 1st, April Fools day, Google released 3D Street Views and it stayed up for about a week after the 1st. Then suddenly the feature dropped off the map and it was gone.

Users started to complain and Google has heard their voices.

Alvin from the Google Maps team updated a Google Maps Help said:

Thanks for everyone's thoughts in this thread. I passed on all the feedback to the Street View engineering team. They know how much everyone wants the feature back (I want to use this also!), so hopefully Street View 3D will make its return soon.

3D Google Maps street views may indeed return!

Forum discussion at Google Maps Help.

Google Maps Embed Bug Causes Issues With Zooming

Posted: April 12th, 2010, 2:57pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

Google finally admitted to a Google Maps bug that disabled the capability of zooming in or out of the map. A Google Maps Help thread explains that the issue happens when you try to embed a map using the iframe feature and that the street views man overlays on top of the zoom buttons, making the zoom buttons inactive.

Here is a picture from someone in the forums:

As you can see, the street views peg man lays almost on top of the zoom buttons. That is the issue.

Google, after about a week of complaints, finally chimed in saying:

Apologies for not hopping in here earlier in the week. I escalated this issue and it has since been resolved, as some of you have noticed. Thank you all for your persistent reports, and sorry for any convenience this temporary problem may have caused!

I personally tried to replicate this and when I did, I noticed the street views man was gone from the embed feature - so maybe this is a temporary solution?

Forum discussion at Google Maps Help.

Google Maps Drops 3D Street Views, Was It a Prank?

Posted: April 9th, 2010, 3:13pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

On April Fools day, Google Maps announced street views in 3D. Basically, when you went to Google Maps, activated the street view version, you would get a Street Views 3D man that looked like the icon at the top right of this post. Here is how it looked on the Street View page:

The thing is, the 3D feature stuck around a until yesterday, seven days after April Fools Day. So many thought it was not an April Fools prank, but today, it is gone. So people don't know what to believe.

We have two Google Maps Help threads with complaints. One said that they went out, spent money on 3D glasses and it is no longer there.

Top contributor, treebles, in the Google Maps forum is not convinced it is gone forever, he said:

I do not think it was an April's fools joke, but there were lots of complaints because apparently broke the functionality of the zoom bar on web sites hosting Google maps using the maps API. Hopefully it will be brought back when the problem is fixed.

Honestly, I am not sure. What do you think?

Forum discussion at Google Maps Help.

Google Video Drops "Playable on Google" Feature

Posted: April 9th, 2010, 3:08pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

There are complaints and a statement from Google over the fact that Google removed the search filter "Playable on Google" on Google Video. The complaints can be seen in this Google Web Search Help thread.

Less than a year ago, we captured a picture of Google Video that showed the "Playable on Google" option. It basically allows you to filter videos to only display videos that can be viewed directly in Google Video, as opposed to going to the video's web site. Here is a picture of what the link looked like:

Now, it is no longer there and will not come back any time soon.

Sara H. from Google said:

We appreciate your thoughts on the old "Playable on Google" feature.

We have no plans to restore it at this time, but your feedback means a lot to us and we will keep it in mind as we develop new features for Google Video Search.

So there you have it - it is gone.

Forum discussion at Google Web Search Help.

Google Reminds Users How To Blur or Remove Maps Details

Posted: April 8th, 2010, 3:02pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

Ever want to remove something from Google Maps, such as a street view image of your car or you walking down the street? Google allows you to do so. Alvin from the Google Maps teams posted a thread at the Google Maps Help forum explaining how.

I'll quote Alvin:

Have you found your house on Street View and prefer it isn't show for privacy reasons? Have you found a face or license plate that hasn't been automatically blurred? If so, reporting an image for review is simple. All you have to do is:
1. Locate the image in Street View
2. Click "Report a problem" in the bottom-left of the Street View image window
3. Complete the form, and click "Submit".

We definitely understand the privacy concerns users may have, so once you submit your report, we will review your request promptly. You can find more information regarding this process at the following help-center topic:

[maps.google.com]

- Maps Guide Alvin

I have been looking for my car or face on Google Maps but so far I have not found it. Maybe it is because I never go outdoors? Just kidding.

Forum discussion at Google Maps Help.

YouTube Promises Changes After Redesign

Posted: April 7th, 2010, 3:42pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

YouTube redesigned their video page about a week ago and there have been lots and lots of feedback on the design. Many die hard YouTubers dislike many of the changes and thus YouTube is promising changes.

Liz from YouTube posted a thread in the YouTube Help forums. She said that we can expect changes in the upcoming months, those changes include:

Better separation of comments
Improvement to comment fonts and indentation
Number of comments and comment timestamps to be shown
"View all" not hidden on page 2 -- this was a bug and not the intended design
% Like available instead of the average rating only (as currently the case). We'll soon be updating the Insights summary to show % Liked instead of average rating.
Pop-out player to return eventually
Shows and Movies (remove the flagging button on Shows, replace the season/episode number with the show title -- and link back to Shows page, add the season and episode number to the description area).

YouTube even has a survey they want you to fill out with your feedback on the current design.

Forum discussion at YouTube Help.

Google Maps Replacement Decals Still Not Sent Out

Posted: April 7th, 2010, 3:35pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

In mid-February we reported a way to get Google Maps replacement decals in case you lost or received a damaged decal. This was a popular request, since many were upset that either the decal did not work or that it was lost or damaged in the mail.

In short, the way to request a new decal was to use this form. And many did use that form but no one has yet to receive a replacement decal from Google.

Today, I spotted an update to the Google Maps Help thread where Google Maps Guide, Cecelia, said that they have not yet been processed. Cecelia said:

I've checked with the teams on this. We're working on a timeline for this. It's likely that we'll follow up offline with all users who submitted the form.

I decided to personally fill out the form, so I can see when these are mailed out. I will keep you all posted.

Forum discussion at Google Maps Help.

Google Local Business Center SMS Verification Issue

Posted: April 7th, 2010, 3:19pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

A Google Maps Help thread has continued reports of the SMS based Google Local Business Center verification not working correctly.

When someone receives an SMS pin and enters it in the Google Local Business Center, they are hit with an "Incomplete" response. Google Maps Guide Linda confirmed the issue in the thread and said:

Is this occurring only for SMS request for PIN? Please let me know if this is what you're experiencing.

The work around this is to request PIN by mail which may take 1-2 weeks. There should be a pin box where you can enter the PIN. Once you do this your listing should appear on Maps within 24 hours.

Linda added:

If you have this issue, please post it here. This is a known issue and we are working to resolve it.

Forum discussion at Google Maps Help.

Speculation: Google To Disallow Search Partners From Changing User's Default Settings

Posted: March 26th, 2010, 2:10pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

Before I even start, I want to say this is high on the speculation meter. A single post at WebmasterWorld said he heard via an investor, Bill Burnham, that Google is changing their policies for traffic partners. The specific policy they are changing, as said in the thread, is that Google is considering changing their policies to prevent search traffic partners from changing users' home page & default search settings.

That means, if you are a partner with Google, such as Dell, and you want to change the users' home page or default search settings when they install something (I guess, it is not clear) then Google will consider this a violation of their new policy?

Let me quote the whole post:

I read an interesting report by Google watcher Bill Burnham this morning, discussing a publicly-traded firm called Incredimail who derives virtually all their ~$27M in annual revenues from Google. Incredimail offers free email add-ons (emoticons, backgrounds, animations, 3D effects, etc) to the consumer, and makes its money by resetting users' home page and default search to Google.
What's news is that Incredimail said today that they're aware Google is considering changing their policies to prevent search traffic partners from changing users' home page & default search settings. Despite strong revenues, Incredimail's stock dropped 15% today on this disclosure.

Do you think this is true? Clearly this had an impact on one of their partner's stock. But what is really going on here?

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

A Publisher Testing YouTube Rentals

Posted: March 22nd, 2010, 2:17pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

For an SEO blogger, I am a pretty heavy publisher of YouTube videos. 99% of my weekly recaps contain a video that is 10 minutes or longer of me talking. If you have not subscribed specifically to the video, you can do so over here. You can listen to it on iTunes as a podcast or just watch the video on YouTube or on the web site - totally up to you.

So when YouTube comes out with new ways to monetize the videos, I listen up. The enable revenue sharing feature that places AdSense video ads in your videos and pays you out via AdSense has been nice. But now I spotted a new button in my videos list, "Enable Rental." Here is how that works.

The second check box let's you select rental as a earnings option, the first one relates to normal ads in your videos. Here is a screen shot:

As you can see, you can then select the amount and duration of the rental. Here are screen captures:

Pricing Options for YouTube Rentals:

Duration Options for YouTube Rentals:

When I submitted my junky test video, it then labelled the video as "Video submitted for rental consideration." So it is currently free, but I do wonder how it will work if, that is a big if, they accept this video into their rental program.

Here is the video:

100% worth the $2.99. :) If not, then don't worry, it is my birthday - so I appreciate the $3. :)

Forum discussion at YouTube Help.

Google & Viacom Go At It In Court Over YouTube

Posted: March 19th, 2010, 2:17pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

About two years ago, Viacom sued Google over videos being uploaded and kept on YouTube. It was a big stink then because of the value of the lawsuit and the technology to follow to help copyright owners locate and remove content either manually or automatically from YouTube.

Now, the court documents have been released and things are looking nasty between the two companies. Here is a PDF of the documents on Google.

Google blogged their two cents on the case, saying:

Yet YouTube and sites like it will cease to exist in their current form if Viacom and others have their way in their lawsuits against YouTube.
For years, Viacom continuously and secretly uploaded its content to YouTube, even while publicly complaining about its presence there. It hired no fewer than 18 different marketing agencies to upload its content to the site. It deliberately "roughed up" the videos to make them look stolen or leaked. It opened YouTube accounts using phony email addresses. It even sent employees to Kinko's to upload clips from computers that couldn't be traced to Viacom. And in an effort to promote its own shows, as a matter of company policy Viacom routinely left up clips from shows that had been uploaded to YouTube by ordinary users. Executives as high up as the president of Comedy Central and the head of MTV Networks felt "very strongly" that clips from shows like The Daily Show and The Colbert Report should remain on YouTube.

Viacom's efforts to disguise its promotional use of YouTube worked so well that even its own employees could not keep track of everything it was posting or leaving up on the site. As a result, on countless occasions Viacom demanded the removal of clips that it had uploaded to YouTube, only to return later to sheepishly ask for their reinstatement. In fact, some of the very clips that Viacom is suing us over were actually uploaded by Viacom itself.

Given Viacom’s own actions, there is no way YouTube could ever have known which Viacom content was and was not authorized to be on the site. But Viacom thinks YouTube should somehow have figured it out. The legal rule that Viacom seeks would require YouTube -- and every Web platform -- to investigate and police all content users upload, and would subject those web sites to crushing liability if they get it wrong.

So Viacom responds later with their own post, saying:

YouTube was intentionally built on infringement and there are countless internal YouTube communications demonstrating that YouTube’s founders and its employees intended to profit from that infringement. By their own admission, the site contained “truckloads” of infringing content and founder Steve Chen explained that YouTube needed to “steal” videos because those videos make “our traffic soar.”

This is all pretty serious claims on both sides.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Gaps In Roads on Google Maps, Don't Drive Off Virtual Cliff

Posted: March 19th, 2010, 1:56pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

A Google Maps Help thread reports that although there is a road that completely connects to each other, Google thinks the road has a gap in it. Since Google thinks there is a gap or ending to the road, the driving directions will not take someone all the way around.

Here is a screen shot of the virtual gap:

As you can see, the satellite imagery shows the road continues on, but Google seems to end at the arrow (which I added to the image). You can see the full driving directions laid out on Google Maps over here and you can zoom in to the gap over here. What is interesting is that if you do switch to walking directions, the gap is noticeable, but the directions continue.

Since this is an issue in the UK, Google's mapping provider will have to fix the issue.

But I do not believe I have seen an example of this before.

Forum discussion at Google Maps Help.

YouTube Sets Thousand of Videos as Private

Posted: March 18th, 2010, 2:17pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

Hundreds of YouTubers are complaining that their videos that they are uploading are being set from the public status to private status. Obviously, if you set a video to private, most people won't be able to see the videos and thus the video views that YouTubers really seek out, will be way down.

Liz from YouTube support confirmed the bug in a YouTube Help thread. She said:

We've seen your posts about recently uploaded videos being converted to private (and not appearing as public as intended).
This situation has been reported to our engineering team and they're currently working on a fix for the bug. Rest assured that the team is aware of the issue and that the bug should be resolved soon.

Thank you for your understanding, and for reporting this situation to us!

There are literally dozens of threads on the issue, some of those threads, like this one has about a hundred posts or complaints in them.

As a side note, another YouTube bug is also impacting video views. There is confirmed issues with the AutoShare feature with Facebook. Liz explained:

Just a quick update from YouTube that there is currently a bug with AutoShare and Facebook. Our engineering team here is aware of the issue, and is working on getting AutoShare between YouTube & Facebook back up and running as usual again soon. In the meantime, thank you for your patience, we really appreciate it.

Forum discussion at YouTube Help.

Pi Day Logo from Google, DogPile Does Day Light Savings Time

Posted: March 14th, 2010, 2:12pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

Today is one of my favorite holidays, Pi Day. Yes, today is March (3), 14th and Pi is 3.1415926. This year, unlike last, Google has a logo. Here is the special Google Doodle for Pi Day:

Bing, Yahoo, and the other search engines don't seem to have a logo for the day. We took the time to change our complete theme for the day, here is a picture:

I should note, that although Google did not have a logo last year, they did mention it in a blog post and they did tweet it.

DogPile also has a special message on their web site, but they reserved it for the clock change. Here is their spring forward logo:

Forum discussion at Search Engine Roundtable Forums & Google Web Search Help.

Update: As per the comments, it is also Mother's Day in the UK with the following logo at google.co.uk:

And the anniversary of Félix Rodríguez de la Fuente, which is represented at google.es today:

Three New Bugs With YouTube

Posted: March 11th, 2010, 2:46pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

There are three known and confirmed bugs with YouTube. They include not being able to save changes being made to videos, and issues playing and sharing videos in YouTube Groups and Orkut. Here are the three threads created by Liz from the YouTube team:

(1) Known Issue: "Save changes" button doesn't appear on "Edit video" page:

We've seen a lot of reports from you indicating that on the "Save changes" button isn't appearing for you on the edit video page for your uploads (my_videos).
I've reported this situation to our team and they're working on a fix so that you're able to save the edits you make to your videos again without running into this issue.

(2) Known Issue: bug playing videos in YouTube Groups:

We've seen many of you report that videos you've submitted to a YouTube Group are not playing on the page. A grey box appears in place of where the video should appear in the player and sometimes an error message is displayed stating that the video is no longer available. The video is in fact still available (from the uploader's channel and in search), but its just showing as unavailalbe in the Group setting.
This situation has been reported to our Team here in San Bruno, and our engineers are currently investigating the issue and working on a fix.

(3) Known Issue: issues with YouTube videos on Orkut:

Just wanted to let you know that our Team is aware of the issue with sharing YouTube videos to Orkut. Many of you have reported here in the forum that when sharing one of your uploads to YouTube on Orkut, Orkut produces an error message saying that your video doesn't exist / isn't found. Ah!
I've reported this to our engineers and they're currently working with the folks over at Orkut to try and resolve the situation. A big thanks to you all for letting us know about this issue, and we really appreciate your patience as we're working on a fix. Hopefully you should be able to enjoy YouTube videos on Orkut soon.

So those are the three issues.

Forum discussion at YouTube Help Forums.

Google Help Forum Search Adds 3rd Party Content

Posted: March 11th, 2010, 2:26pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

All of the content published on this site is sourced via discussion forums, that is what makes this site unique from the thousands of other SEO blogs out there. Much of that content is sourced from the Google help forums. So when Google changes something in their help forums, I typically notice.

One thing Google recently changes was the help forum search feature. Now, Google is including content in the help forum search that is from external web sites, not owned or maintained by Google. For example, a search at the Google Analytics Help forum returns several results that are from third party web sites. Here is a screen capture:

Each web site that is not maintained by Google is clearly labeled as such, with a message that reads:

The site you are about to visit is not maintained by Google Inc., but its content might be helpful.

There is then a way to "Report Abuse" on a site listed here.

What I find interesting is that Google labels their own blogs as "not maintained by Google," when indeed, it is maintained by Google. But it does differentiate between what is "user content" versus Google content - so I find that interesting.

A hat tip goes to PizzaSEO.com for letting me know about this new feature.

Chuck Norris Turns 70 Today, No Google Doodle?

Posted: March 10th, 2010, 3:14pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

Google and Chuck Norris have a long history. If you go to Google.com and search for [find chuck norris] and hit, "I'm feeling lucky" button you will be taken to this result that reads:

Google won't search for Chuck Norris because it knows you don't find Chuck Norris, he finds you.

So it is surprising to see that on the 70th birthday of Chuck Norris, Google doesn't have a special Google Doodle up. Chuck Norris was born on March 10, 1940 and 70 years later, I would have thought he would deserve a special Google logo.

I am not the only one who feels he deserves a logo. There is a large Google Web Search Help thread with complaints from Chuck Norris fans. In all honesty, I find this all very humorous.

Happy 70th Chuck!

Forum discussion at Google Web Search Help.

Googlers Testing TV Search Android Enabled Devices With Dish Network

Posted: March 10th, 2010, 2:40pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

Android powered TV search boxes are being tested by Googlers, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Google Inc. is testing a new television-programming search service with Dish Network Corp., according to people familiar with the matter, the latest development in a fast-moving race to combine Internet content with conventional TV.
The service, which runs on TV set-top boxes containing Google software, allows users to find shows on the satellite-TV service as well as video from Web sites like Google's YouTube, according to these people. It also lets users to personalize a lineup of shows, these people said.

Greg Sterling at Search Engine Land has some analysis around the news. A WebmasterWorld thread has some feedback from webmasters.

Might be fun if "on demand" but not all that fun if just a list of "what's on". Meanwhile several tv schedule sites give me the same thing.

I predict the TV will be just another web-providing device, and people will watch as much web-content as cable-content. Point in hand, the RSS agregator built in the latest TiVo. Basically, you can make your custom RSS-fed TV channel with that.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Google Maps Adds Bike Directions & Route Layers

Posted: March 10th, 2010, 2:35pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

A long time requested feature, bike directions, have been added to Google Maps. Both the Google Blog and Google Lat Long Blog have details about the addition.

First, here is a video demo:

Dark green indicates a trail;
Light green indicates a dedicated bike lane along a road;
Dotted green indicates roads without bike lanes but are more appropriate for biking, based on factors such as terrain, traffic, and intersections.

To try it out, go to [maps.google.com] and to submit more biking routes or report issues, go here.

Forum discussion at Google Maps Help.

Google Public Data Explorer, Private Data Soon?

Posted: March 9th, 2010, 1:52pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

Google announced a new feature named Google Public Data Explorer. What it does is allow you to mash up data from the public sectors into neat charts and graphs.

Google explains:

With the Data Explorer, you can mash up data using line graphs, bar graphs, maps and bubble charts. The visualizations are dynamic, so you can watch them move over time, change topics, highlight different entries and change the scale. Once you have a chart ready, you can easily share it with friends or even embed it on your own website or blog.

A WebmasterWorld thread mocks the announcement, where one member said:

Next up, Google unveils "Private Data Recorder" which makes large datasets of private information easy to explore, visualize and communicate.
Google CEO Eric Schmidt: "If you have something that you don't want anyone to know, maybe you shouldn't be doing it in the first place." ... "But if you really need that kind of privacy, the reality is that search engines, including Google, do retain this information for some time. And [...] we're all subject, in the US, to the Patriot Act, and it is possible that that information could be made available to the authorities."

Kind of funny - but heck, this isn't too far off, we have Google sourcing traffic data from your mobile device for use on Google Maps traffic layer.

In any event, this is neat stuff.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Google Maps Avoid Tolls Feature May Cost You

Posted: March 5th, 2010, 12:48pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

There are some reports at the Google Maps Help forum that the "avoid tolls" feature for Google Maps driving directions does not always work right.

The issue spans as far as Australia and as close as Pennsylvania.

Brian B., a Googler, from the Google Maps help forum said:

Just wanted to give an update here that there are folks looking into this "avoid tolls" issue, and I'll post an update here when there's a resolution.

I am not sure when or if it has been fixed, but at least Google is aware of it.

Forum discussion at Google Maps Help.

How Does One Remove Info From Google's Chile Earthquake Person Finder

Posted: March 1st, 2010, 10:37am CET by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

A few days ago, there was a tremendous tragedy in Chile, a massive earthquake. Google put together a tool to help family and friends locate missing people due to this earthquake. The tool is located at [chilepersonfinder.appspot.com].

At this tool, you can either submit a case of a missing person or search for a case of a missing person. There are currently about 35,700 records, or missing people in the database, some accounted for and some not.

Two people asked how they can remove a person they added to the list, after that person has been found? The thread of these questions are at a Google Webmaster Help thread. The people ask:

I would also like to know how to delete my personal information now that my person has been found, even if the profile remains up.

John from Google said you can update the status in the application under "Status of this person" and set it to perhaps "I have received information that this person is alive" and provide the information that you have. But that is not exactly what these people want to do, they want to delete their personal information, as the person who submitted the information.

John said:

I'll check with the team to see what can be done in a situation like that.

So far, there is not update on how to do that.

Forum discussion at Google Webmaster Help.

Google 302 Redirects Secure iGoogle To Unsecure iGoogle

Posted: February 26th, 2010, 9:29am CET by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

If you visit https://www.google.com/ig, it will redirect you to [www.google.com], without the https for secure. Yes, Google is making sure no one can access the secure version of iGoogle.

Here is a server header check from SEO Consultants:

#1 Server Response: https://www.google.com/ig
HTTP Status Code: HTTP/1.1 302 Found
Location: http://www.google.com/ig
Cache-Control: private
Content-Type: text/html; charset=UTF-8
X-Content-Type-Options: nosniff
Date: Fri, 26 Feb 2010 08:29:08 GMT
Server: igfe
Content-Length: 221
X-XSS-Protection: 0
Redirect Target: http://www.google.com/ig

There are several complaints about not being able to access the secure version of iGoogle at the Google Web Search Help forums. Paul from Google explained why this is the case. In short, the gadgets on the secure iGoogle were not always secure, which led to confusion. Here is the detailed explanation:

As you noticed, we've recently started redirecting any users who attempt to visit an iGoogle page using "https" to an "http" page. The "https" on the iGoogle page that some users visited may have caused these users to believe that any activity performed on their page was protected by https, when in fact only gadgets that are built to support https provide the corresponding encryption protection to users. We made this change to clarify that only activity using gadgets that support https is transmitted over a secured https connection on iGoogle.
For example if you're using Google's official iGoogle gadget for our free email service, Gmail, you can continue to use it with https protection unless you have turned off the default setting on your Gmail settings page.

Valid excuse, but what would be nice (I know it is more work) would be to give gadget developers a way to create https enabled apps. If they are enabled, they work on the secure iGoogle, if not, Google explains why they are not working on the secure iGoogle.

Forum discussion at Google Web Search Help.

Xerox Wants To Copy Some of Google's Money

Posted: February 24th, 2010, 12:09pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

I covered the news that Xerox is suing Google & Yahoo over an alleged patent infringement. In short, Xerox has two patents they feel Google and Yahoo is using, in some form, and they want money.

Xerox is known for their copy machines, by the way and that business, as I understand it, is not doing too well. For more about the law suit, see my article linked to above.

Here are comments from WebmasterWorld on the lawsuit:

There are two sides to every side of the story.

Wreaks of Xerox trying to do a cash grab.

xerox ... isn't that a printer company?! ;-)

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Note: I just landed in Jerusalem, after an 11 hour flight. I am typing as fast as I can, so please excuse typos, grammar and any non-sense.

YouTube Update: Bulk Uploader Discontinued & Misc Bugs

Posted: February 23rd, 2010, 2:11pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

There are several new things going on with YouTube and since I am a big time YouTube director (kidding), they interest me.

(1) The YouTube Bulk Uploader tool will be taken down shortly. Liz from the YouTube team explained that Google is improving their normal updated to support Google Gears. She said:

In order to consolidate engineering efforts, the team has decided to retire the bulk-uploader and concentrate on improving the regular uploader moving forward. Please note that the regular uploader also lets you upload up to 10 files at the same time.
We suggest that you use the following link to upload your video files:
http://upload.youtube.com/my_videos_upload?restrict=gears

Make sure that you have Google Gears installed - you can get Google Gears by visiting: gears.google.com

(2) AudioSwap feature is causing a black screen in the videos. This is a known issue that should be resolved now, if not, let them know.

(3) Some YouTubers that are trying to upload are not succeeding. There is another known issues thread that is discussing just that. Liz said:

Some of you may have experienced recent upload processing delays, and then the file you're trying to upload eventually fails. This is a known issue and our engineering team have been working on resolving the situation. For those of you who were impacted and the video failed to upload to the site, we recommend re-uploading your file.

The team is working on a fix so that the files will not fail in the future and you should also receive clearer messaging explaining what occurred.

(4) If your account was hijacked or compromised in some way, Liz announced there is a new way to report the issue. A new document details the steps on how to contact Google/YouTube about hijacked accounts. Liz said:

The information you provide in the form will go directly to the Team here and we will investigate the matter. Once we've looked into the case, you will receive an email update letting you know your options and whether we were able to help you retrieve the account.

There you have it, four quick YouTube bytes for you.

DoubleClick for Publishers (DFP) To Replace Google Ad Manager

Posted: February 23rd, 2010, 2:03pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

Google announced a new product named DoubleClick for Publishers. In short, this is ultimately going to replace Google Ad Manager, a product we use here to manage and deliver our ads.

More tools is nice - but we will see when I get migrated over to it, how smooth that is and how much I, the publisher, benefits from it.

This is from the announcement:

DFP comes in two flavors, tailored for different publishers' needs: DoubleClick for Publishers, for the largest online publishers, and DFP Small Business, a simple, free version designed for growing online publishers. We'll be upgrading current DART for Publishers publishers to DoubleClick for Publishers over the next year as we continue to add features and modules, and we'll be moving Google Ad Manager customers to DFP Small Business in the coming weeks.
To reflect our continued investment in DoubleClick's products, as well as the central role of DoubleClick's technology products within Google's display advertising business, we're also today unveiling some changes to the DoubleClick logos — including typeset changes, incorporating a new "by Google" theme and retiring the "DART" brand.

A WebmasterWorld thread has some comments from publishers:

Yet another way to track what you do when you do it and ... .dare I say it who you do it with....

They cater to the advertiser, ignoring the User's privacy. Period. Due to the fact they own Doubleclick. Try watching major TV stations over the NET without coooooooockie/URI of Doubleclick.NET blocked...

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Are You "Google Pagerank Certification"? I Hope Not

Posted: February 18th, 2010, 2:33pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

A WebmasterWorld thread reports that one person spotted a product that is being sold under the claim that it is "Powered by Google PageRank Certification" of "PR=6." You say what? Yes, a product is claiming it has PageRank certification from Google with a PR of 6.

The product is on a site called ExamSoon.com and here is a screen capture:

How funny for those who know this is a joke or just there to fool some one. But to those unaware - there is no such thing as Google PageRank certification.

Forum discussion at Google Webmaster Help.

Google Open Sources "Living Stories" Concept

Posted: February 18th, 2010, 2:18pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

Google is open sourcing the Living Stories news article concept at Google Code. What is a living story? Well, instead of writing an article for each new event that happens on a certain topic, you update an existing story with the latest information. If you think about it, there are tons of articles out there on the web, that are stale, outdated and often useless. Having a single, constantly updated story, makes more sense, at least for web consumption - according to Google.

Google ran this experiment with some papers and decided to make it available to all. First, here is a video explaining it:

They are even incorporating it more in the new Google News design.

Fred from Google wrote in the Google News Help thread about it. He said:

The Living Stories project was originally the result of a one-time collaboration between Google, the New York Times, and the Washington Post. Our goal was to innovate on existing presentations of journalism that take greater advantage of technological capabilities on the Web.
The general response was excellent. Since we launched this proof-of-concept test on Google Labs in December, 75% of people who filled out our feedback form said they preferred the Living Stories format to the traditional online news article. Users also spent a significant amount of time exploring stories. That tells us that there's a strong appetite for great journalism displayed in a compelling way.

In addition to the positive input from users, we've also heard from publishers interested in telling their own stories through the format. That's why we released Living Stories to the public to see what you can do with it. In February 2010, we open-sourced the code so all developers can build their own Living Story pages. (You can also use this Help Forum to ask and answer general support questions.) In coming months we're going to look into creating software tools that make Living Stories even easier to use for news organizations. Until then, we can't wait to see what fascinating works of journalism developers, reporters and editors, working together, create using the open-sourced Living Stories code.

You can get the Living Stories code here:
http://code.google.com/p/living-stories/

Forum discussion at Google News Help.

YouTube Warning IE6 Users To Upgrade Browsers

Posted: February 18th, 2010, 2:09pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

We knew Google was dropping support for IE6 and other older browsers, starting in March for some of their software. But what I did not know was that this would impact YouTube.

A YouTube Help thread reports that some users are receiving warnings that their browsers will no longer be supported by March 13th.

The YouTube help document linked to explains which browsers will be impacted. Yes, Internet Explorer version 6, IE6, will be on the chopping block. Google's YouTube says the following browsers will no longer be supported:

Any browser older than Microsoft Internet Explorer 7.0
Any browser older than Mozilla Firefox 3.0
Any browser older than Google Chrome 4.0
Any browser older than Safari 3.0+

Ready or not, IE6 is dying - so just upgrade already to a new browser. Of course, Google would like you to use Google Chrome, but there are plenty of alternatives.

Forum discussion at YouTube Help.

Google, The Internet Service Provider

Posted: February 11th, 2010, 2:27pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

Google announced they are going to try to become an ISP, a fast ISP, with gigabit fiber routing directly to your home. Greg Sterling has a lot of history on how and why this is happening.

I was asked why this is happening by some real reporters and I will link to their story later, when it goes live. In short, it is about getting more people to click on more Google ads.

We have threads on the topic at WebmasterWorld and Google Web Search Help. Probably my favorite comment is the first one at WebmasterWorld:

What's next with Google? Change your muffler?

Outside of that, there are some serious concerns about this project. Concerns on the business side, infrastructure side, privacy side and webmaster side. If I had more time, I'd write up a five page document on those concerns, but most of you are bright and can read my mind by now.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld and Google Web Search Help.

Update: Here is that USA Today piece with some quotes from me.

Google Buzz...

Posted: February 10th, 2010, 3:16pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

So Google launched Google Buzz yesterday at buzz.google.com. It is being rolled out now, I am some limited access now, but it is fun to play with. I will not write about what it does, there is exhaustive coverage about Buzz already, read it at Techmeme.

I did start a buzz topic which has a number of comments already, so check that out. Also, my buzz conversations should be linked up on my Google Profile - and you may be able to follow me there as well. So go do it.

Here is a short video explaining Google Buzz:

One thing that they said at least twice in yesterday's press conference about this service is that Google Buzz content will be "indexed immediately," in real time and available in Google web search results.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld, DigitalPoint Forums, Google Mobile Help & Google Webmaster Help.

Google Maps Accidentally Removes Send to Garmin GPS Feature

Posted: February 4th, 2010, 2:55pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

A Google Maps Help thread reports that Google accidentally removed the send feature to Garmin GPS. Here is an old video that shows how that worked:

The bug was first reported on January 31st and a Googler replied a day or so ago, saying:

I wanted to let you all know that the Maps team is aware of this issue and is working to fix the feature soon. I know this is an important feature for several users and I can assure you that it's not our intention to remove it from Google Maps.
I'll post an udpate here when I hear more news!

It is still not fixed, as far as I can tell. In any event, Google will likely be adding it back soon.

Forum discussion at Google Maps Help.

YouTube Video Uploading Delay

Posted: February 4th, 2010, 2:48pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

Yesterday, there were several reports on You Tube Help forums that uploading videos to YouTube would have a delay.

Liz from YouTube support posted a notification about the issue. She said:

We're seeing many of you reporting that you're having trouble with uploads- your uploads are not processing completely and are getting stuck before going to live.
Our team is aware of the issue and has a fix in the works. Uploads should return to normal soon.

In the meantime, please be aware that trying to re-upload your video will not resolve the situation. Your original upload will go through and complete processing, its just somewhat delayed and will take longer than usual to go live (as you've noticed).

We appreciate your understanding, and as always, thank you all for your reports alerting us of this situation.

So, upload the video as you would, but don't worry, the videos will be published eventually. There is no need to reupload your videos.

Forum discussion at You Tube Help.

Blue Pale Stars on Google News Confuses Users?

Posted: February 2nd, 2010, 3:02pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

Yesterday, Google announced a new feature for Google News. The feature lets users "star" news items. You can "star" news clusters by clicking on the blue pale stars.

Here is a picture:

What does starring news items do?

(1) It lets Google know that you're interested in that subject.

(2) When there are significant updates, Google will alert you by putting the headline in bold so you can get more information.

(3) You can also follow your 20 most recent starred stories in the "Starred" section of Google News.

It also confuses some people. A Google News Help thread had one person ask:

Why are there pale blue stars in front of main stories?
Nothing is wrong: I'm just puzzled.

Forum discussion at Google News Help.

Google Drops Aboriginal Flag from Doodle Winner Due To Copyright

Posted: January 28th, 2010, 3:18pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

Google ran a Doodle4Google competition in Australia and Jessie won with this Doodle:

When they posted the Doodle on the Google.com.au web site, it was missing the Aboriginal Flag. Here is a picture:

I mentioned this in passing in Google's Kuwait Doodle mistake. But now, Google came to the Google Web Search Help forums explaining the issue. Jaime from Google said:

Thanks for voicing your concern here in the forum. Just to make sure everyone is aware of what took place I wanted to explain here that due to the Aboriginal Flag having copyright, we requested permission from the Aboriginal Copyright owners to display the original doodle with the flag on the Google homepage. They declined the permission and as such, in consultation with Jessie, we had to gently alter the doodle so we could proudly display her wonderful artwork - of which we are very proud.

It is a shame Google was unable to get rights to show the flag there. But Jessie seemed like a good sport!

Forum discussion at Google Web Search Help.

Google A Month Early On Kuwait's National Day

Posted: January 26th, 2010, 2:37pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

Google had a Doodle slip up this morning, as first reported by Michel. Google posted the National Day logo on Google Kuwait this morning. It was live for over five hours before anyone reported it. The issue is, it was posted a month prior to the official National Day of Kuwait, which takes place February 26th.

Here is the logo:

Google took down the logo about 15 minutes after TechCrunch posted the story.

There were a couple Google Web Search Help threads complaining about Google posting this logo on the wrong day.

Speaking of Google logos, there are some complaints about the Google Australia doodle at Google Web Search Help as well.

In any event, can anyone speculate what Google Kuwait's National Day logo will be this year? :)

Forum discussion Google Web Search Help.

Google Maps Can't Handle Two Plus Businesses With Same Phone Number

Posted: January 22nd, 2010, 2:32pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

Remember, a few months ago, I wrote how some Google Maps reviews were being posted on competitors Google Local Business listings? In summary, a Doctor was complaining that his competitors were obtaining his reviews, even though his business has a different name.

What I did not see then was that his competitor(s) have the same phone number as he does. Yes, there are many doctors share an office and the office staff with their competitors to cut costs. I honestly see this all the time in New York, where I live. You call a Doctors office and the same person who answers the phone for your doctor, would answer the phone for another doctor.

So these doctors are at the same location, offer the same medical expertise, compete with each other and even share a phone number. I honestly did not know the doctors don't have their own numbers. But I guess in some cases (possibly many cases) this is the fact, competing doctors share a phone number.

Because of this issue, Google is placing the reviews from one doctor to an other. Google's Joel explained:

It's a difficult problem to solve. I'm not saying we're doing the right thing in every case, but I am trying to give you guidance on how to satisfactorily resolve the issue on your end. If this is a distinct competitor, it seems to make sense to have a separate phone line. Even if the front office is shared.

In response to that, the doctor replied:

I appreciate your help up to this point, but I hardly think suggesting your paying advertisers change their business practices to accommodate your company's inability to fix a problem is appropriate. I hope this is not a signal that Google is changing into just another corporate giant, stepping on the heads of small businesses.
Sorry to be harsh, but these reviews were entered under my name in your system and then changed to a different name. I find it hard to believe that this is unfixable.

From a technology point of view, I see the issue but from a users point of view, this is serious.

Forum discussion at Google Maps Help.

Google Continues The Cash Drive: Revenue Up, Profits Up, Everything up (GOOG)

Posted: January 22nd, 2010, 2:03pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

Last night, Google announced their 4th quarter earnings. Guess what? They beat expectations and overall, everything was up. Greg Sterling posted the key highlights and nice graphs:

Revenues – Google reported revenues of $6.67 billion in the fourth quarter of 2009, representing a 17% increase over fourth quarter 2008 revenues of $5.70 billion.
Google Sites Revenues – Google-owned sites generated revenues of $4.42 billion, or 66% of total revenues, in the fourth quarter of 2009. This represents a 16% increase over fourth quarter 2008 revenues of $3.81 billion.
Google Network Revenues – Google’s partner sites generated revenues, through AdSense programs, of $2.04 billion, or 31% of total revenues, in the fourth quarter of 2009. This represents a 21% increase from fourth quarter 2008 network revenues of $1.69 billion.
International Revenues – Revenues from outside of the United States totaled $3.52 billion, representing 53% of total revenues in the fourth quarter of 2009, compared to 53% in the third quarter of 2009 and 50% in the fourth quarter of 2008... Revenues from the United Kingdom totaled $772 million, representing 12% of revenues in the fourth quarter of 2009, compared to 12% in the fourth quarter of 2008.
Paid Clicks – Aggregate paid clicks, which include clicks related to ads served on Google sites and the sites of our AdSense partners, increased approximately 13% over the fourth quarter of 2008 and increased approximately 9% over the third quarter of 2009.

You can watch the investors call on YouTube.

Here are some comments from members of WebmasterWorld on this financial news:

Hah, mere pocket change.

That's about 300-400 million net profit off Adsense. Not bad for a program that serves ads.

There is more analysis of the announcement in the thread.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

iGoogle Porn: Still An Issue?

Posted: January 19th, 2010, 2:19pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

Back in May 2009, we first reported of issues with pornography on iGoogle. Ever since then, there have been issues that popped up here and there. That is the overall issue with having user generated content (i.e. user generated gadgets).

The latest batch is in the form of "live cams" and the issue was submitted to Google Web Search Help forums recently, in an older thread. This batch comes up for a search on to do list in the iGoogle Directory. They were also submitted by the same user, Mandy. Here are some safe pictures:

There are several more and they all seem to be in the form of cams. I have a good blocking system here for this type of stuff, so the videos won't render on my computer. Here is a safe picture, what I find funny is that it is being monetized by Google ads.

In any event, Google was notified about this issue. Paul from Google said:

Thanks for letting us know -- we're investigating this now. I really appreciate your taking the time to bring these to our attention.

Forum discussion at Google Web Search Help.

Google Maps Street Views Embed Broken For Some

Posted: January 18th, 2010, 2:53pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

A Google Maps Help thread has reports of some map developers having issues embedding the street view versions of Google Maps on their web site.

The issue was first reported 9 days ago by a guy who runs StreetViewing.com. The old embeds are no longer working for him, so now he has to go in and replace all of those with the new code. That can take a lot of time.

Brian from the Google Maps team actually confirmed the issue on Friday and said he notified the team. Brain B from Google said:

Just wanted to hop in here and assure everyone that the team is looking into this issue. When I have information to share, I'll post it here.

Thanks for all of the detailed reports.

Forum discussion at Google Maps Help.

Add Real Time Content to Your Google Maps Listing

Posted: January 18th, 2010, 2:32pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

The Google Lat Long Blog announced businesses can now add real time information to their business listings. How does it work? It is honestly a bit tricky.

You would think you would "Edit" your business listing in Google Local Business Center. But no, instead you click on the "View report" link under the statistics section of that page. Then you are presented with a box to add a quick real-time message to your business listing (Places Page) on Google Maps.

On the top right of the statistics page is this box where owners can add information:

Here is me adding some info that may expire soon:

And here is that information showing up on my business listing in minutes:

Clearly, if you have a very active Google Maps listing, this can come in handy.

Forum discussion at DigitalPoint Forums.

Google China's Office Becomes a Shrine

Posted: January 14th, 2010, 2:04pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

If you happen to visit Google China, you may notice that there are people who are placing flowers and candles by their Google sign outside the building. There are actually a ton of pictures of this being done inside and outside of the Google China office on Flickr.

Here is one picture taken from DigitalPoint Forums.

This is clearly the reaction by some Chinese searchers on Google's decision to back out of China if China continues to censor them.

Forum discussion at DigitalPoint Forums.

Google SafeSearch May Block Graphic Dental & Surgery Images

Posted: January 12th, 2010, 2:32pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

A Google Webmaster Help thread has the owner of NYCDentist.com (great domain by the way) complaining his images are being blocked by Google's SafeSearch filter.

He said:

I personally write and publish NYCdentist.com, which offers over 2,500 pages of free content in academic dentistry. The content shows dental procedures including surgery in detail based upon visitor choices. There is NO sexual content in all 2,500 pages

I didn't know this, but it does make sense, Google may block "particularly graphic or violent" images. And if you look at some of the images on that site, I think some of you may get a bit queazy in the stomach. But what is interesting to me, is that the dentists don't see it that way. I have a dentist right next to me in my office building. He borrowed my camera once to take before and after pictures. I had to email those pictures to him afterwards and let me tell you, they were extremely graphic!

In any event, Googler, Susan Moskwa said:

I'll pass this along, but FYI SafeSearch filters non just sexually-related content, but also stuff that's particularly graphic or violent. Some of your surgery photos may be graphic enough that they fall under our filtering criteria. I'll try to get some more feedback on this from the Image Search team. Thanks for reporting this here.

So technically, I am not sure where this would fall - but personally, I would not like to see these images come up for a search on [teeth].

Forum discussion at Google Webmaster Help.

Google Webmaster Tools Sends Out Google Ad Planner Ad?

Posted: January 12th, 2010, 1:55pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

Back in 2007, Google released a message center in Google Webmaster Tools. It was used for penalty notifications, hacks, exploits, bandwidth issues, and many other webmaster oriented technical issues.

Today, I log into my Google Webmaster Tools account to find, what appears to me, as Google Ad Planner advertisements. Now, I am a big fan of Ad Planner, it is a really neat, free tool. But it just didn't seem incredibly webmaster related, on the technical side. I received about six of these "messages", each for a different site.

Here is what they said:

Increase Your Website's Visibility with AdvertisersJanuary 7, 2010
Dear Webmaster Tools User,

If your website accepts advertising, we invite you to increase your site's visibility with advertisers in Google Ad Planner, a free media planning tool used by tens of thousands of media planners and buyers. This is done through the Google Ad Planner Publisher Center, a section within Ad Planner that lets you take charge of your site profile.

THREE STEPS TO VIEW YOUR SITE PROFILE

To see how your site profile looks in Google Ad Planner, follow these steps:
1. Visit www.google.com/adplanner
2. Type your site's URL into the blue box that says "View a site listing"
3. Hit "enter" to get to your site's profile
If your site profile is not complete, don't worry, we have lots of ways for you to add information to the profile.

EIGHT WAYS TO UPDATE YOUR SITE PROFILE

Use the Google Ad Planner Publisher Center at www.google.com/adplanner/publisher to make your profile more complete. For example, you can claim your domains or subdomains, write a site description, provide a URL for advertising, and update your site's content categories and ad specifications.

You can also opt-in your site's Google Analytics data, invite additional users to edit and maintain your site, and promote your profile with a Google Ad Planner Site Badge.

GET STARTED

Sign in with your Google Account today at www.google.com/adplanner/publisher to get started.

-- The Google Ad Planner Team

I have some pictures here and here.

Again, this is likely useful information, but just doesn't seem all that technically relevant to the Google Webmaster Tools area.

Forum discussion at Google Webmaster Tools.

Google Flooding Web With Nexus One Ads?

Posted: January 11th, 2010, 3:00pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

A WebmasterWorld thread has both publishers, advertisers and searchers complaining about the number of ads they see for the Google Nexus One phone on the internet. Yes, it is no surprise the Nexus One ads are shown on the Google home page. But they are all over every AdSense spot I can find. Of course, not 100% of the time, but extremely often.

Here are two pictures of the ads:

Incredibill, the moderator of the AdSense WebmasterWorld forum said:

I couldn't believe I was actually adding "google.com" into my competitive ad filter.

Have you gone to that extreme?

I wonder if I put a Google AdSense unit below this line, if it will show a Nexus One ad? It is contextual relevant, no?

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Playboy on Google News Fast Flip

Posted: January 11th, 2010, 2:40pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

Google just recently added the Fast Flip feature to the News home page. Some love it and some hate it, but should Google be showing topless women from Playboy in the Fast Flip news feature? That is what someone asked at a Google News Help thread.

If you go to Google News Fast Flip and click on "most viewed" and scroll a bit, you will see Iga/Eva topless. Here is a picture:

Should that come up on the Google News home page? Should it come up in Fast flip?

The searcher in the thread said:

New feature 'fastflip' started last week and front page of playboy showed up, topless woman in underwear. How do we disable fast flip? Parental control software is not catching it yet. Thanks

I assume as Google gets their feet wet with Fast Flip they will get better at censoring out adult-oriented news items.

Forum discussion at Google News Help.

Google Adds News Flip to Google News Home Page

Posted: January 11th, 2010, 2:12pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

Google has added the news fast flip feature of Google News to the bottom of the Google News home page.

If you go to Google News and scroll to the bottom of the page, you will see this just added to the bottom:

A WebmasterWorld thread has discussion around this feature. One person liked it so much, they want it on the Google web results, not just news results. Another person said he hated it, so he hit the "X" to remove it right away.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Google Sends Me & Others Wrong Local Business Center Reports

Posted: January 7th, 2010, 2:59pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

This is a pretty bad slip up by Google. The Google Maps and Local team seemed to have sent out a batch of updates on how well a business's Google Maps listings are doing, but to the wrong businesses.

Last night, just before 10pm (EST), I received an email from Google about how well my local business listing is doing in Google. The issue was, it was not for my business! It was for a place called Polk Mechanical based in Texas. That is exactly 1,576 miles away from my business's location and would take me a full day to drive to, according to Google Maps.

Here is how well Polk Mechanical is doing in Google Maps:

I am not the only one who saw this. There is a report of it in Google Maps Help forum, David Dalka got one, so did Mike Blumenthal and Danya Henninger.

I emailed Google about this and I hope to get an understanding of why this happened.

The data shared by Google here is not all that sensitive, but it is still data.

Forum discussion at Google Maps Help.

Update: Google sent me a statement, it reads as follows:

As you're aware, we send a monthly newsletter to our Local Business Center users, featuring product news and a glimpse at the Dashboard statistics which show the traffic Google properties drive to their listing. Shortly after sending the newsletter to a small portion of our users last night, we discovered that some emails included incorrect business listing information. We promptly stopped sending any further emails and investigated the cause, which we found to be a human error while pulling together the newsletter content. We'd like to sincerely apologize to all the business owners impacted and assure all our users that we're working hard to ensure that nothing similar will happen again.

Update #2: Google sent an automated apology to those who received other companies information:

Google Maps To Allow Businesses To Request Replacement Decals

Posted: January 7th, 2010, 2:17pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

Google Maps Guide, Cecelia wrote in a Google Maps Help thread that Google will be enabling Google Local Business Favorite places to reorder lost or damaged Google QR code decals.

Ever since Google has been sending these out, I have seen threads from business owners asking how they can get replacement decals. For one reason or another, these people have lost or damaged the decals, and had no way to replace them.

Cecelia said in the thread:

We're working to create a way for you to request a new Favorite Places decal if something happened to the original one. In the meantime, please hold tight and know we're working on this.

Seems like it is coming soon, probably within the Google Local Business Center. When it does go live, we will let you know.

She also answered a frequently asked question:

Can a business which didn't receive a decal request one?
No, it is not possible for a business to request becoming a Favorite Place. Businesses can sign up for Local Business Center to become eligible and if they meet our criteria, they may receive a decal in the next wave.

Forum discussion at Google Maps Help

Yep, Googlers Working on January 1st, New Years Day

Posted: January 4th, 2010, 1:51pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

Many of those in the SEO, SEM, Web Design and related businesses find themselves working on holidays such as New Years and Christmas. I think it is more about the self-employed mentality versus it being computer related. Of course, computer related jobs tend to be good to work at any time. In any event, it is nice to know that you are not the only one working on these days. That is why we have Twitter and such. :)

I tend to report every year that I spot Googlers working on these holidays. Googlers were working on this past Christmas and they, JohnMu, was working on New Years day.

I spotted John posting not in just the Happy New Year thread but also in a couple webmaster related threads.

This is not new to John or Googlers, they did it New Years 2009 New Years 2008. Also Christmas 2009, 2008, 2007 and 2006.

Happy New Year all!

Forum discussion at Google Webmaster Help.

Reporting Google Maps Business Listing Spam to Google

Posted: December 30th, 2009, 2:20pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

Mike reported how Google likes you to report Google Maps business listing spam to them. Google Maps, especially the local business center, has been a target for spammers in the past couple years. Google has tried numerous ways to have people report spam to them.

I guess recently, Google changed it to ask people to report a problem with the business listing via the "report a problem" link either on the map itself or on the business's place page. As Mike said, Maps Guide Cecelia noted that the "time frame [for spam removal] most likely varies based on the number of reports we receive."

To report spam on a business's places page, you go to the "more info" link on the search results of that listing and then click on the "more" link. The more link will open up options, such as "report a problem":

After you click the "report a problem" link, a form pops up asking for more information:

Forum discussion at Sphinn.

Google Movie Search Returns Weird 9-11 Message

Posted: December 29th, 2009, 2:48pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

A search in Google for [movie: nine nyc] directs you to a Google Movie results page. It shows you the typical movie theaters in that area and movie times, as you would expect. However, it also shows "Showtimes for September 11 attacks" in the blue bar under the search box.

That, to me, is incredibly weird. Here is a picture:

Also, others are reporting a search in Google for [movie: nine ny] directs you to a Google Movie results page. It shows you the typical movie theaters in that area and movie times, as you would expect. However, it also shows "Showtimes for US Airways Flight 1549" in the blue bar under the search box.

The US Airways Flight was the one that safely emergency landed in the Hudson River in New York.

I am not sure why these weird, cryptic messages are coming up in Google Movie search.

Forum discussion at Google Web Search Help.

60% of U.S. Government's Data on Google Servers? Nope

Posted: December 28th, 2009, 2:25pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

Sherri Davidoff posted an article named Our Google Government after seeing one of those Google Docs ads on a site. The ad reads, "Over 60% of the U.S. state governments have gone Google." Here is a picture of it:

Of course this worries many, including myself. But you have to understand that while maybe 60% of the U.S state government has "gone Google" it doesn't mean that the U.S.'s most sensitive data is on Google's servers. It is possible that some small government offices have switched to Google Apps for email or document management. But to house sensitive intelligence on a hosted Google owned server? That has not happened.

How am I so sure? Well, I am not. But I recently watched a 60 minute show (or something like it, I forget, it was a few months back), which was about how countries are hacking into other countries to steal intel and money from each other. One of the concerns was using Google to host the information. A top government official said that while many governments use Google for everyday use, the most sensitive information is stored on government built and maintained hardware and software.

In fact, the official said that they cannot trust hardware or chips made in some countries because they have seen cases where those chips actually are programmed to secretly send over data from the computer to a remote location. So to trust Google with that information, simply doesn't make sense. And that is what the official said. It costs the government a lot more than it would if they outsourced it to Google, but in some cases, it is not about saving money.

Of course, some U.S. offices might receive sensitive information in their Google hosted applications. And the risk of that increases daily as more data is sent back and forth and more offices "go Google." But this all needs to be kept in perspective.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Did Google Pull Back on Webmaster & Advertiser Support in 2009?

Posted: December 24th, 2009, 2:41pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

As a continuation of Brett Tabke calling out Google for stiffing webmasters over the Christmas gift this year, Brett explains more of why he is a bit upset with Google in 2009. Brett lays out what he believes Google is moving towards and it seems to really upset him and other webmasters. Brett explained:

Google retracts almost every webmasters/siteowner outreach program it had in 2009.
They left the trade show circut. Other than what they had contracted a year earlier, they eliminated their participation in trade shows.
Left their own speakers to pay for their own way to industry conferences. (denying expense receipts).
Eliminated AdWords account support.
Layed off hundreds (thousands according to some reports) temp advertising support reps.
Canceled the Google customer support party (Google dance).
Eliminated the vendor appreciation programs for AdSense and Adwords.

Brett said "Everything Google has done in the last year has screamed, 'AdSense and AdWords markets are maximized or tapped out. Put it into maintenance mode and lets go see where else we can make money.'"

Is it true? Well, Google only held one Webmaster Chat session this year, which was last month, before that, in 2008 and 2007, they held tons of these. It seems like Google limited their sponsorship of conferences in 2009, including not sponsoring PubCon and did limited sponsorships for SMX and SES events this past year (i.e. sponsored sessions) I believe. I also know they cut back on sending representatives to shows, but I do not know the extent of that. They have cut AdWords rep support, laid off temp workers, did not hold the annual Google Dance, cut gifts in exchange of the donations they give anyway, and so on.

However, I did notice a step up in the support forums. They upgraded the support forum software (slowly) and added representatives to them. They added features to Webmaster Tools, posted a ton on the Webmaster Blog, Matt produced tons of support videos and so on. So it does seem like overall, they may have spent a lot less money on webmaster/advertiser relations and focused on the less expensive routes. 2009 was a recession for many businesses, but was Google recession proof? Should they have not made these cuts? I am not really to judge.

I do believe Google will be sending more reps to conferences this year, and that they are less concerned about the economy in 2010 then they were in 2009. Maybe sponsorship of events will grow in 2010? Maybe the Google Dance will come back? Maybe?

I hate to judge how other companies use their money. 2009 was an extremely tough year for many businesses. It seemed to us that Google sailed through the year with no problems at all. But who knows what decisions they made early on to help with that? This is a very sensitive topic but being that Google is a public company, I guess these questions can be asked.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Google Offends the Dreadlocks Hairstyle

Posted: December 24th, 2009, 2:31pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

A search for [dreadlocks] sports one of those Google definitions links at the top right of the page that leads to an 'offensive' categorization of those who have dreadlocks as their hairstyle. The Google Definition of dreadlocks uses it in a sentence as, "He was turned down for a driving job when he refused to cut his dreadlocks."

Now one person takes offense to this and posted his dissatisfaction in a Google Web Search Help forum. He wrote:

While it's true that this kind of thing (unfortunately) does happen, is it crazy to anyone else to be in a dictionary? It'd be like having the definition for Asian American being "He was turned down for the driving job because he was Asian American."

Here is a picture of the definition:

If Google stayed with Answers.com as their definitions provider, they might not be taking flack for this.

Personally, I find these types of posts funny - which is why I am highlighting this one.

Forum discussion at Google Web Search Help.

QuickMark iPhone Update Fixes Google Favorite Places QR Code Decals

Posted: December 23rd, 2009, 2:55pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

A few weeks ago, I was the first to report about Google decals going to wrong places and then we saw a flood of people complaining about the issue.

It turns out that the primary iPhone app recommended by Google for scanning these decals was made by QuickMark. QuickMark had a bug that was introduced just about the time these decals came out. The bug impacted where users were taken after they scanned a QR code.

The bug was fixed yesterday and it now works perfectly for me. The bug fixes included:

Fix incorrect URL bug
Allow Move & Scale for Take Photo method

Forum discussion at Google Maps Help.

Christians Upset Google Logo Doesn't Say "Merry Christmas"

Posted: December 22nd, 2009, 2:33pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

There are dozens of complaints from Christian Google users with their dissatisfaction over the wording of the Google Holiday logo. In short, the complaint is that Google is saying "Happy Holidays" instead of "Merry Christmas." Christians are asking why Google is saying "Happy Holidays" when no other holiday overlaps with Christmas this year. Chanukah was earlier this month and the other holidays don't seem to fall out during Christmas, so why not say it as it is?

Here are pictures that illustrate the 'politically correct' holiday message from Google:

You can see the logos at google.com/logos/holidays-2009.html.

Here is one of the many complaints in the forum:

For the entirety of Google's history (including this year) they put up a variety of Christmas-themed logos between approximately December 22 and December 25, but they say "happy holidays" and not "Merry Christmas"!!
What other holiday occurs between Dec. 22 and 25?? Why must Google be so politically correct? "Merry Christmas" is one of the most popular greetings in the world! This is ridiculous, why is Google forcing me out of the Christmas spirit?

Forum discussion at several Google Web Search Help threads.

Google Sends Out $20 Million Worth of Holiday Presents in 2009

Posted: December 22nd, 2009, 2:07pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

We thought Google was notgoing to give out holiday gifts, and in exchange, inviting publishers to lunch. But starting yesterday, Google began sending out a holiday e-mail card to both advertisers and publishers. The card basically said Google is doing something a bit different this year and instead of giving out presents, they are giving $20 million to charity on our behalf.

Here is a picture of the e-card which leads to google.com/advertising/holiday2009:

Here is a picture of the landing page:

Overall, people are happy with this as their gift this year. We have thread at DigitalPoint Forums & WebmasterWorld.

Want to see the previous years gifts? See 2008, 2007, 2006, and 2005.

Forum discussion at DigitalPoint Forums & WebmasterWorld.

Introducing The Google Mapping Tool Availability Matrix

Posted: December 21st, 2009, 2:50pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

Google Maps has tons of features, but some of those features are not available in all regions due to many reasons. In order to help document what is and what is not available in certain regions, Google created a page named the Mapping Tool Availability to help you see which Google tools are available for mapping your area.

Google breaks the page down by several regions including Africa, Asia, Caribbean, Central America, Europe, Middle East, North America, Oceania and South America. When you open a region, Google shows you a matrix of what features are available in that area, features such as the Local Business Center, Community Edits, My Maps, Map Maker or Building Maker. Here is a screen capture of the North America matrix:

This will come in handy for the folks in the Google Maps forum and for local business consultants.

Forum discussion at Google Maps Help.

Removing A Competitor's Google Maps Listing

Posted: December 21st, 2009, 2:22pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

A local mover reported in a Google Maps Help thread that his competitor has successfully removed his listing from Google Maps by having hundreds of people report his address as "inaccurate" in the Google search results.

Back in October, Google added a link to the map results found in the results to enable users to mark a business listing as accurate or not and this person is claiming that his competitor was able to use that to remove his listing in Google Maps. He said:

He has now used those same fake user accounts to report my addresses as invalid - probably hundreds of times with the number of ID's that he has. The likely automated trigger at Google goes off and the map spammer with the 40 fake address and hundreds, if not thousands, of fake reviews from from bogus accounts wins the day. It's easy to report a bogus address.

Now, I am not sure if this is indeed possible. You can always try to reproduce it, but that might be a bad thing to try to reproduce.

A Google Maps representative, Maps Guide Linda, did reply to this thread saying:

Thanks for reporting this instance of spam to us. We will effectively deal with this user since they are violating our Business Listing Quality Guidelines. Please take a look at our guidelines yourself to make sure your listings comply.

I am not sure if she is referencing the abuse of the "inaccurate" reporting feature or the abuse of this mover posting dozens of duplicate companies in Google Maps.

So can you use the "is this accurate" link to remove competitors from Google?

Forum discussion at Google Maps Help.

Google Favorite Places QR Codes Taking Many Customers to Wrong Location

Posted: December 17th, 2009, 2:44pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

On Friday afternoon, I reported My Google Favorite Place Decal Was Hijacked. In short, it turned out the QR code was indeed correct, but if the QR code scanner reads it wrong, it can take you to a different business. Which is what happens when I use certain scanners or if the lighting is poor when I scan using certain apps.

Here is a quick video of how this went down on Friday afternoon:

Now, I am not the only one experiencing these problems. I have spotted at least four threads (I know there are more) with complaints about their QR codes not working.

Let me pull out the various complaints from the four Google Maps Help threads I found:

The card I received in the mail from Google indicating we are a "Favorite Place" takes the user to the wrong business. Hundreds of miles away.

My card takes users to the generic google mobile home page?!?!?!

Same issue, mine goes to the generic google home page.

I got someone with an iPhone to test it out and it goes to info on some store in New York City, not my store, Epic Biking (www.epicbiking.com), in Saratoga Springs UTAH.

Once our Favorite Place decal is scanned it directs to the Double Tree Marriot in Palm Beach Gardens, FL as opposed to our listing Land Rover Palm Beach.

We're having the same exact issue. Except, ours is Starwood Hotels in New York when it should link to OK4WD. I scanned the thing probably a good five or six times too

When I had my issue, Ryan Hayward from Google contacted me immediately. I learned from him that in my case, it was not a data issue on Google's side, but rather an issue with the scanner reading the code incorrectly or missing pieces of the code. From what I understand, the code itself stores data in it, such as addresses, URLs, names and so on. So technically, I do not think Google printed these codes with a specific unique identifier in them for your business to match up in the Google Local Business Center. I think Google printed these codes to have address information and that is all. I can be wrong, but I think this is how it is working.

The overall issue here is that the codes are not working for many many businesses and searchers. It doesn't matter if it is a Google bug or a scanner bug, it is not working for a lot of people and lot of the time.

Forum discussion at Google Maps Help threads.

Google Invites AdSense Publishers For Christmas Lunch

Posted: December 17th, 2009, 2:21pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

It appears that Google is not giving out holiday gifts this year, as expected. But in a surprise twist, AdSenseAdvisor in a WebmasterWorld thread basically invited all 'good standing' AdSense publishers out for lunch at Google.

First, AdSenseAdvisor explained that she/he doesn't "know about gifts this year," and added that she/he "haven't heard anything" about it. AdSenseAdvisor then goes on to invite AdSense publishers out for Christmas lunch!

AdSenseAdvisor said:

If you're a publisher in good standing with AdSense and you're ever in the Bay Area, shoot me a private message and I'd be happy to invite you to lunch at Google.

So, if you are upset you didn't get a holiday gift from Google and want to go out for lunch with AdSenseAdvisor, you know what to do. Go to the WebmasterWorld and send AdSenseAdvisor a private message.

In related news, WebmasterWorld moderator, martinibuster, said he sent Google a thank you Christmas card. He explained in a WebmasterWorld thread:

I sent the AdSense Team a Christmas Card to thank them for hanging out in this forum, for listening to our feedback, for acting on our feedback. 2009 is the year that the AdSense Team kicked butt on a number of fronts, including rolling out new ways for us to block unwanted ads, decreasing the time for ads to stop showing once we add them to our filters, for being responsive during the several glitches we have experienced and correcting them swiftly.

So if you want to mail holiday cheer to Google, you can send it to:

AdSense Advisor
c/o The AdSense Team
1600 Amphitheater Pkwy
Mountain View, CA 94043

How nice!

Forum discussion at Webmaster World.

Google Doodle Remembers L. L. Zamenhof, Inventor of Esperanto

Posted: December 15th, 2009, 2:42pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

If you visit Google today, you will see a special logo that celebrates L. L. Zamenhof's 150th birthday. Zamenhof was born on December 15, 1859 and died on April 14, 1917. He is known as the inventor of Esperanto, a constructed language designed for international communication.

Here is Google's special Doodle for his birthday:

Google has a special page just searching for this language at google.com/intl/eo.

Zamenhof was Jewish and died in Warsaw, Poland. You can read his full bio at Wikipedia.

With almost all Google Doodles, there are always complaints. We have two Google Web Search Help threads. One is thanking Google for commemorating L. L. Zamenhof life, while the other is upset Google picked L. L. Zamenhof over the ratification of the U.S. Bill of Rights, which happened on December 15, 1791 (218 years ago).

Forum discussion at Google Web Search Help.

Google Does URL Shortening: goo.gl

Posted: December 15th, 2009, 2:30pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

The big Google shock from last night was that they are launching a URL shortener using goo.gl. Currently, it only works by using the Google Toolbar or within FeedBurner. You cannot simply create a short URL by going to goo.gl, you need to do so via the Google Toolbar or FeedBurner.

Why is Google doing this? They want to make it easier to share within the Toolbar and FeedBurner. Why not use Bit.ly or Tiny URL? Google said they have an infrastructure that they trust is stable, secure and speedy.

I see why SEOs are a bit skeptical. But flip it around. SEOs have been recommending that we build our own URL shorteners ourselves. Heck, I did for RustyBrick, for example we use rb.tc, so rb.tc/barry goes to www.rustybrick.com/barry.

Google hasn't yet opened it up for use outside of the Toolbar or FeedBurner, but trust me, it will be used plenty that way and shared tremendously. Google said, "if the service proves useful, we may eventually make it available for a wider audience in the future." So, how long do you give it? A month, two?

Many just feel bad for the url shortening services out there.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld & DigitalPoint Forums.

Google To Build Phone

Posted: December 15th, 2009, 2:17pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

If you are living under a rock, you might not have heard this yet, but then why would you be reading this site? The buzz over the weekend was that Google confirmed they will be building and distributing a real Google phone. Right now, Google has Android which is the Operating System for many of the "Google phones" currently out there. But the hardware is developed by someone else.

It appears that Google is designing their own device on the hardware level. Which, I guess, would compete directly with the iPhone - which is what is currently happening with the HTC, Droid and comparable devices.

Anyway, that is all I have to say about this. You can read the news stories on Techmeme and then join the forum discussions.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld and DigitalPoint Forums.

Bug When Updating Google Maps Local Listing

Posted: December 14th, 2009, 2:48pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

Starting over the weekend, if you tried to update a Google Maps business listing in the Google Local Business Center, you would get a weird error. We have many reports in the Google Maps forums, many.

The error sometimes looks like this:

System Error

We're sorry, but we are unable to serve your request at this time. Please try back in a few minutes.

Try again document.write("|nx3ca hrefx3dx22/local/add/businessCenter?hlx3den-USx26amp;glx3dUSx22 onclickx3dx22history.go(-1); return false;x22x3e

Return to previous pagex3c/ax3e"); | Return to previous page

Google Maps Guide Linda replied to many of the threads with the same message, it read:

Hi,
We're aware of this system error issue and we hope to have this fixed by next week. Please check your account again next week to verify your business listing.

Thanks for your patience.

Best,
Maps Guide Linda

The Google Maps threads include these four help threads, but I believe there are many more.

Forum discussion at Google Maps Help Discussions.

You Can Now Block Your YouTube Subscribers

Posted: December 14th, 2009, 2:40pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

Liz from YouTube Support announced in a YouTube Help thread that a long requested feature is now available - the ability to block subscribers from your channel.

Why would you want to block specific subscribers? Maybe you got 'pervs' watching your videos? Maybe you don't like certain commentators on your videos? Maybe you are anti-social?

How do you do it?

1. Sign into your YouTube account
2. Go to http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=[YOURUSERNAME]&view=subscribers
3. On this page you'll be able to see the users who are subscribed to your channel and the thumbnail icon from their channel. Below the thumbnail image you'll see a "Block" button.
4. If you click the "Block" button you'll remove the user's subscription to you, and you'll also block them if their account is active on YouTube.

After that, Liz explains:

You'll receive a confirmation asking you whether or not you want to remove the user from your subscribers list first before you actually remove the user. This is just in case you accidentally click the "Block" button. We all know accidents happen.

Here is a picture of the block button:

I won't block you, so feel free to subscribe to the RustyBrick YouTube Channel which is what I use to do my weekly search videos, amongst other videos. I still need to make that page look better, one day - one day.

Forum discussion at YouTube Help.

My Google Favorite Place Decal Was Hijacked

Posted: December 11th, 2009, 7:31pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

Update: Google reached out to me and asked me to try a new app to scan it, such as Barcode Scanner for Android of QuickMark for iPhone. I tried it and both QuickMark and Barcode Scanner return my business. So a poor quality QR scanner will return a bad listing. I guess technically, this is not a Google bug.

We are aware of Google Maps listings being hijacked, that is nothing new. But remember Google is sending out favorite places decals? Well, I got mine today and I decided to try it out.

Guess what? When you scan the QR bar code it takes you to a different business!

RustyBrick is my company and here is my Google Place:

Here is a video with proof:

Here is a link to the Citrus Grille which is what comes up after you scan my code.

Here is a video of me "unboxing" the decal today:

I am not sure how Google can fix this? Either:

(1) Send me a new decal with new bar code?
(2) Update their database so they do not have to send me a new decal?

The thing is, I just hope I don't get calls from the Citrus Grille, that would be annoying!

Forum discussion at Google Maps Help.

Vote For The Doodle 4 Google UK Winner

Posted: December 10th, 2009, 2:35pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

Voting is open for the UK's edition of the Doodle 4 Google competition. Google has run this competition in both the US and UK for four years now.

This years competition:

We're asking young people aged 5–16 from across the UK to design their own doodle. This year's theme is 'My Hero'. We'd love to see the figures young people look up to represented in their doodles, whether family, friends, people in the community, or world figures. We're interested in the people considered heroes for the 21st century and how entrants represent them using images.

To vote, go to this page. You can vote for each of the four brackets, 5-7 years old, 7-11 years old, 11-14 years old and 14-16 years olds.

Forum discussion at Google Webmaster Help.

Google Images "See Full Size Image" Frame Missing For Some?

Posted: December 10th, 2009, 2:18pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

A Google Web Search Help thread reports several users not being able to see the frame at the top of the Google Image searches. I initially thought it had to do with frame busters of some sort, but it seems more wide spread than that. Maybe Google is dropping the framed image feature? I am not sure.

I personally see the frame with the "see full size image" option link:

It really seems to be that this is a frame buster type of thing going on. Frame busting is code that prevents other sites from framing you site in their site, like Google Images does after you initially click on an image result.

Forum discussion at Google Web Search Help.

Google Barcodes The Map With QR Labels

Posted: December 8th, 2009, 3:32pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

Google also announced that they are sending out stickers to be placed in shop windows that have QR barcodes. The goal is to allow people to scan the sticker and look up more information about that place.

You can see some samples of these businesses in LA over here. How do you get one of these stickers for your business? Well, make sure you are a verified business on Google Local Business Center. Make sure to complete your profile to the T. Then, it is up to Google. TechCrunch reports Google has "PlaceRank" algorithm to determine in which order do businesses get these decals.

Google will be adding these businesses incrementally. "They are selected based on their PlaceRank," says John Hanke, VP of Google Earth, Maps, and Local. PlaceRank is like PageRank for places It tries to figure out how prominent a place is based on factors such as "references on the Web, reviews, photos," says Hanke, "how many people know about it, how long its been around."

Bill from SEO By The Sea covered this PlaceRank algorithm years ago.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Google Goggles & Other Mobile Announcements

Posted: December 8th, 2009, 3:05pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

Part of Google's blitz of announcements yesterday were several mobile announcements including a really neat feature named Google Goggles.

Google Goggles basically lets you snap pictures on your Android mobile device and Google will return search results based on that picture. It works best with landmarks, books, contact information, artwork, places, wines and logos. Here is a video on how it works:

Other announcements include Search by Voice in other languages, such as Japanese, English and Mandarin. Search by Location on Android, and Search by Sight which is Google Goggles.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld and Google Mobile Help.

Google Popeye Logo For E. C. Segar's 115th Birthday

Posted: December 8th, 2009, 2:33pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

If you visit Google today, you will see a logo of Popeye. The logo is to celebrate Popeye's creator, E. C. Segar's 115th birthday. E. C. Segar was born on December 8, 1894. Popeye, the character, was first introduced on January 17, 1929 in a comic strip Thimble Theatre, which was renamed to Popeye later (I believe).

In any event, the logo on the Google.com home page looks like this:

Google typically only shows Google Doodles for light hearted events, such as this. Which is why there was no Doodle for Pearl Harbor yesterday, December 7th. But it did not stop dozens of complaints in the Google Web Search Help Forums.

Forum discussion on Popeye at Google Webmaster Help and DigitalPoint Forums.

Webmasters Wary of Google Public DNS

Posted: December 4th, 2009, 1:53pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

Google announced the launch of the Google Public DNS service, which is a free public domain name system. It is a lot like OpenDNS, but without any of the administrative controls for blocking sites or redirecting mismatched domains to a special landing page (which is where OpenDNS makes their money).

Google's DNS IPs are pretty sweet, they are 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4. If you want to use it, here are the configuration instructions.

Google said they are doing this for one reason and one reason alone. To make the web faster. Google knows which sites are the most popular out there and they will precache those pages so it doesn't have to be done at the time of the DNS request. Most DNS servers cache sites based on the last time a user of theirs accessed it, Google will anticipate that without usage - at this point. Google likes speed, as we discussed time and time again over here.

Google is convinced you will like their DNS server because it will speed things up, make things more secure and they won't do any type of redirection at all.

You think Google will use the data to track you? Well, Google very specifically detailed what they will be tracking and for how long. The "temporary logs" contain IP level information, but Google will destroy "temporary logs within 24 to 48 hours." However, Google will be storing specific information on an aggregate level, those details can be found here.

As I said, webmasters are wary and there is a long WebmasterWorld thread with comments:

With it being such an easy way to track who goes where, I'm surprised Google is just getting into this now.

Would this really benefit anyone besides Google?
Reading their gumph, they claim that having a large, common caching database will mean faster performance for all, but is it really worth the slight boost in performance in exchange for giving Google even more of your data?

Google claim that their service will attempt to send users to their geographically closest data centre.
But I still reckon it's wisest to just stick with your own ISP's DNS offering, unless you know what you're doing.

Personally, I use OpenDNS because of the security and the ability to block access to specific sites on the DNS level - which is nice. Would I switch? Who knows. But I do like how the OpenDNS blog responded to this Google news, "to think that Google’s DNS service is for the benefit of the Internet would be naive." Now that is classic!

Forum discussion WebmasterWorld.

Where the Google Holiday Gifts for 2009?

Posted: December 4th, 2009, 1:47pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

Every year Google gives some of their AdWords advertisers and AdSense publishers holiday gifts. Typically, the gifts are delivered by now - but not one advertiser or publisher have posted in a forum or on a blog about receiving a holiday gift from Google this year.

A WebmasterWorld thread wonders if there will be any gifts this year or not. This year was the "great recession," but Google is clearly back in spend mode (if you watch their business activities closely, you would notice this).

In the past four years, the gifts were typically received by this week. Last year, the gifts were received by December 3, 2008, then by December 4, 2007, in November 2006, the latest was the second week of December 2005, but typically, we get them by this week in December.

Do you think there will be holiday gifts from Google?

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Disputed Territory? Google Maps Localizes Borders Based on Local Laws

Posted: December 1st, 2009, 2:08pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

Did you know that there are countries out there that have a dispute on where their border begins and ends? Yea, you know that. But did you know that Google will show different borders depending on how and where you access Google Maps?

A Google Maps Help thread has a post from Brian from the Google Maps team who explains how this works. He said:

It is Google's standard practice to show all disputed regions around the world on its global properties, such as on maps.google.com. It has been Google’s consistent and global policy to depict disputed regions as per the claims made by the disputing/claiming nations on its global properties. This does not in any way endorse or affirm the position taken by any side but merely provides complete information on the prevailing geo-political situation to our users of global properties in a dispassionate and accurate manner. Products that have been localized to the local domain of a region such as maps.google.co.in may depict that country’s position as per the mandate of their local laws.

For example, compare Google India Maps to Google Maps and you will see the border lines look a bit different. Here are screen captures:

Google Maps India, The Border:

Google Maps US, The Border:

Notice the dotted lines in the US map, how it doesn't seem sure.

Forum discussion at Google Maps Help.

Google Maps Bug Disables Searching My Maps for User Created Content

Posted: November 27th, 2009, 3:04pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

A Google Maps Help thread has confirmed reports that searching for user generated content via My Maps seems to no longer be returning results.

ehg, a helpful Google Maps forum member helped debug this. He said, all of my maps of MyMaps created until 20 Oct 2009 are still to search. Here a sample map "GRZG" which is still to search [1] when searching "related maps" and "GRZG". Here searching for a user- created content ("ghghgh5656") of the same map [2] I created the map 10 Oct 2009. And here a search for the last map I can search & find (created 20 Oct 2009 - the second map is a copy of the first one I created at this date) [3].

Googler, Brian B, said, "I'm looking into this and will give an update here. Thanks for escalating."

Forum discussion at Google Maps Help.

Google Tracking Phones & Devices For Traffic Data: Crowdsouring Traffic

Posted: November 27th, 2009, 2:43pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

This is old news, back in August Google told us they are now crowdsourcing traffic data in order to provide better and more accurate traffic reports on Google Maps. Let me quote Google:

When you choose to enable Google Maps with My Location, your phone sends anonymous bits of data back to Google describing how fast you're moving. When we combine your speed with the speed of other phones on the road, across thousands of phones moving around a city at any given time, we can get a pretty good picture of live traffic conditions. We continuously combine this data and send it back to you for free in the Google Maps traffic layers.

Yep, Google Navigation for Android 1.6 or 2.0 I am sure does this as well.

Why do I bring this up now? Well, a Google Maps Help thread has one Google Maps user asking how Google has traffic data for local streets? He said, "Just curious as to how google maps aggregates the data for traffic conditions of local surface streets, not freeways. Is it through the sensors in the streetlights?"

Useful, but a tad scary. I tested it on some of my local roads that I know are always congested and it does indeed work.

Forum discussion at Google Maps Help.

Snagging Google Maps Reviews From Your Competitors

Posted: November 25th, 2009, 3:15pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

A Google Maps Help thread has an interesting report of one business having the reviews of another. If you look at the Thomas French, DC, Chiropractor reviews, they look great, but when you look at Dr Keith Overland, it seems like he has reviews for Dr. French.

Here are the reviews on Dr. Keith Overland's page, which all reference Dr. French:

Two things could of happened here:

(1) It could be a technical glitch with Google Maps where reviews moved from one business listing to another.

(2) The people who left reviews accidentally put it on the wrong business listing?

Both businesses are in Norwalk, Connecticut - so who knows.

Forum discussion at Google Maps Help.

Google Updates iPhone & Android Gmail & Calendar Interface

Posted: November 20th, 2009, 2:25pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

Gone mostly unnoticed, Google has updated their Gmail and Google Calendar interface on iPhone and Android mobile devices. Google did announce a new mobile news look for these devices, but no word on the Gmail interface.

I spotted this update via the Google Mobile Help forums, where Googler, Ethan, confirmed the update. He said:

Gmail updated its look & feel in the browser on Android and iPhone devices today. Some of Google's other mobile apps, like Calendar, have also gotten the new look. Other than the 're-skinning,' features are unchanged for now.

Here is what the new 'skin' looks like on the iPhone:

Here is the old one:

Small difference, but someone noticed.

Forum discussion at Google Mobile Help.

Google Maps Satellite Images Being Posterized?

Posted: November 19th, 2009, 3:02pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

A Google Maps Help thread reports that at least one satellite image in South Africa has a weird posterization effect to it.

You can see it yourself at 33°55'7.79"S, 25°35'2.40"E, or Port Elizabeth, South Africa. Here is a picture:

This looks like a heavily posterized image to me, but I doubt that was the case. There must have been some type of interference when the image was captured?

Forum discussion at Google Maps Help.

Google Reader URLs a Target for Email Spammers

Posted: November 19th, 2009, 2:41pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

For years, email spammers have been looking for ways to encourage people to click on their links. And for years, Google has been a target. Why? Well, when someone sees a link that has google.com in it, people trust it. So over the years, Google URLs that redirect to other sites have been a target by spammers.

The most recent Google property targeted by such attacks is Google Reader.

A Google Reader Help thread has reports of such cases, with a Googler confirming it is an issue. Several people are reporting receiving email spam with URLs that look some thing like:

http://www.google.com/reader/item/tag:google.com,2005:reader/item/3c49b76cf8cb8ba0

Clicking on that URL would have redirected you to a non-Google site.

Googler, Roger said:

It looks like some spammers have taken a liking to Google Reader - we're currently trying to find the best way to limit this kind of automated abuse without impacting the experience of real users such as yourselves. Hopefully we'll have a solution that works for everyone soon. Thanks for your patience and understanding in the meantime-

So be on the look out.

Forum discussion at Google Reader Help.

Google Translate Gets Major Upgrade

Posted: November 17th, 2009, 2:40pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

Google announced a major upgrade for Google Translate. I am personally very impressed.

The new features include:

New layout
Instant translation
Shows reading phonetically in English
Speaks English translation for you (i.e. text to speech)
Type phonetically also

Here is a video demonstrating the new features:

There are both compliments and anger about the change in the Google Translate Group.

Forum discussion at DigitalPoint Forums and Google Translate Group.

Google Earth 2.0 for iPhone

Posted: November 17th, 2009, 2:21pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

The Google LatLong blog announced an upgrade that is currently now available in the iTunes App store for the iPhone. Google Earth 2.0 is out and it has new features, including:

My Maps Integration
Performance Improvements
Improved "Icon" Selection
Added 13 languages, now 31 languages in total

With iPhone App updates, when they are available in the iTunes App Store, they might not be available for all users. Kind of like when a Google update is out, some people see it and some don't, early on. Why? Cause of multiple servers and the syncing of those servers can take time.

Forum discussion at Google Mobile Help.

Google Storage Upgrade Does Not Upgrade

Posted: November 13th, 2009, 1:20pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

Like many, when Google announced you can now buy more storage for less, I decide to buy more storage. So I went through the purchase storage process, paid the bill, got the order receipt and waited.

3 days later, I am still waiting to receive that upgrade. I ordered an additional 20GB of storage, here is my email receipt:

But when I log in to check my storage available, it still shows the old amount.

Gmail View:

Admin Account Management View:

So I follow all the Gmail Storage Troubleshooting tips and get no where. I then click on the "If you are still unable to access your Google paid storage, please contact us" link. The link is to google.com/support/contact/bin/request.py?contact_type=contact_storage but when you click it, it redirects you to the generic Google help with no way to get real help.

I am not the only person with this issue, there are a couple complaining at the Gmail Help forum.

It is only $5, so I don't mind donating the money but I do really want the extra storage.

Forum discussion at Gmail Help.

Google's Safe Browsing Site: sb.google.com

Posted: November 13th, 2009, 12:53pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

A Google Webmaster Help thread had one webmaster who received an email from Google warning of a phishing attempt on this person's site. The webmaster asked if it was real. The email said he/she should "submit a safebrowsing report at http://sb.google.com/safebrowsing/report_error/."

JohnMu from Google replied that if you want to make sure the email is real, that you should login to the Google Webmaster Tools and see if there is a message there about it. If yes, then it is legit, if not - not.

In addition, John explained that "the sb.google.com URL you mentioned is the correct one to submit feedback on the safebrowsing status of the flagged URL on your site."

Give sb.google.com a try. :)

Forum discussion at Google Webmaster Help.

Google Releases New Google Mobilizer

Posted: October 28th, 2009, 2:22pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

An ongoing Google Mobile Help thread with complaints on the Google Mobilizer feature has an update on that feature. In short, Google Mobilizer will convert a web page to make it render better on mobile devices. Google has updated it to include a "new mobilizer engine, which is faster, cleaner, closer to the look of the unadapted page," said Zeke from the Google Mobile team.

Zeke explained how to access this one devices:

On most devices:
1. Go to www.google.com
2. Go to Settings, turn "Format pages for your phone" to On, and be sure to Save.
3. Do a search. Clicking on search results will take you to the Google Mobilizer

On some smartphones:
- Go to www.google.com
- Do a search. Click on Options (next to each search result) and select "Mobile formatted". You should get a mobilized page.

Here is a sample of how it works on my iPhone:

Here is how the mobilized page looks like:

You can actually see it yourself on any browser, via this URL.

Forum discussion at Google Mobile Help.

Israel on Google Maps, Now in Hebrew

Posted: October 27th, 2009, 3:16pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

There have been some recent complaints in the Google Maps Help forum from English speaking people who live in Israel. In short, Google seems to have recently changes the Israel data to show street and city names in Hebrew (עברית).

Here is one complaint:

I too am having the same problem, in Israel for a month and it worked perfectly in English till two days ago then poof it changed to Hebrew which makes it very difficult for us English speakers.

Yes, Google Maps in Israel was in English and now is in Hebrew. Here are pictures:

Do keep in mind, embedding maps, maps on mobile devices or via the API for Israel show basically nothing due to licensing rights. The only way to see this level of detail is accessing maps.google.com on your desktop. But that is an other complaint.

Forum discussions at Google Maps Help.

Google Maps Drops Tele Atlas For Google Data in US

Posted: October 13th, 2009, 3:23pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

Since we are on a Google Maps coverage roll today, how about we keep it going. Google Maps recently announced changes to their map data, which Mike somewhat called out. In short, for many locations in the US, Google is now their own provider of data for their maps.

About a year ago, Google switched their map data to Tele Atlas. Now, Google seems to be moving off them. For example, look at the copyright on the old Google Map versus the current one:

Old shows Tele Atlas:

New shows Google:

There are a few threads in the Google Maps Help forum where Googlers are replying to this question, as follows:

Please use the 'Report a Problem' link (see reference below) to tell Google about the problems in your area (or anywhere else in the US). We hope to be able to fix the reported problems within about a month.

Here is a video explaining the new process to report map issues:

Forum discussion at Google Maps Help.

When Google Maps Satellite & Map Detail Don't Line Up

Posted: October 13th, 2009, 3:19pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

What happens when you have Google Satellite view and map street data not lining up? Well, I can show you. If you look at Cairo, Egypt you will see that the Satellite detail is shifted about 90 meters west of the street detail.

Here is a picture showing the box in the map detail not overlaying on the box of the streets in the Satellite view:

I believe this is not that unusual, and it happened every now and then. Google has been informed and Howard from Google said:

Thanks for noticing this. The appropriate team in Google has the bug report now and the problem will be fixed.

Are you aware of other places in Google Maps like this?

Forum discussion at Google Maps Help.

Foggy Google Maps Satellite Pictures?

Posted: October 1st, 2009, 3:38pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

If you check out New Delhi on Google Maps, you will see a big fog hovering over the location. Why is that?

Here is a current picture:

A Google Maps Help thread reported this issue this morning. A few hours later, Howard from the Google Maps team replied, "Thanks for the report. We will look into this."

Have you see major clouds or fog in Google Maps before?

Forum discussion at Google Maps Help.

Google Sync Goes Down: Gmail Push for iPhone Fails For Many

Posted: October 1st, 2009, 3:21pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

A couple weeks ago, Google brought push Gmail to the iPhone via an expanded version of Google Sync. People were incredibly happy about this and they signed up right away.

Yesterday, people started reporting in a Google Mobile Help thread that Google Sync was down for them. The first reports came Tuesday late night or Wednesday early morning. Later on yesterday, Googler Bing, replied to the thread with a short heads up, "Thanks guys, we're looking into it!"

Soon after it began working again, for some. Others had issues getting things back in sync. Calendars, contacts and emails seemed to be missing or misinterpreted.

The thread is ongoing with complaints and issues, but I think, overall, Google has fixed the Google Sync issue by now.

Forum discussion at Google Mobile Help.

Porn Spammers Targets Holocaust Terms in Google

Posted: September 30th, 2009, 4:11pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

A Google Web Search Help thread reports that Google has been the target of spammers who are trying to push their pornographic videos into Google. This is nothing new, but the terms these spammers are using now include Holocaust related terms.

A search in Google for a popular Holocaust film, Witnessing History - a Teen Second Life Exhibit returns a Google Video result in the web results (universal search). Here is a picture:

Googler, Skylar said in the thread:

This porn video should not be masquerading as an educational video. I've passed your detailed feedback to the rest of the team so we can take the steps necessary to address this issue. For the future, if you can tell from the video thumbnail that the video is explicitly inappropriate and abuses content that is clearly meant to be educational or informative, please click on the “Report problem” link next to the video and mark the video with the category that closely matches the issue.

That was yesterday, it was first reported on Friday. I really can't blame Google for this anymore. I mean, it is a bit over the top (to say the least) to target Holocaust terms with porn videos, as well as children terms. As of right now, I still see the video in the Google web search results.

This is not the first and won't be the last time, Google Video is used as a target to spam Google with porn. In August it was used to show a porn video of Rambha, a famous Indian actress. Early on, with Universal Search's launch, Google had issues with nude images and explicit porn in the web search results. Google has been much better at filtering these out.

Forum discussion at Google Web Search Help.

YouTube Uploads Might Get Stuck "In Processing"

Posted: September 30th, 2009, 4:03pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

One of the worst parts of uploading to YouTube, especially large and long HD quality videos, is waiting for YouTube to finish processing the video so people can watch it. I normally create a 15 minute or so video, in HD quality, upload it sometime before 11am to YouTube and it often won't be available until after 6pm. The upload process takes an hour or so and the processing can take several more hours.

On very limited occasions, those videos never make it out of the "in processing" status and then you have to reupload all over again. Never fun.

This time, Liz from the YouTube support team has confirmed a bug in the upload process. She posted a thread at YouTube Help the other day saying:

Some of you have mentioned here in the Help Forum and on Twitter that your uploads are stuck processing. This is a bug with the uploading process and our team here is currently working on a fix. Once the team's fixed the bug, uploads which are currently stuck processing will be re-processed again.
For those of you who need to upload a video immediately, try uploading a second time if your original upload attempt is stuck.

Thanks for informing us of this situation, and we appreciate your patience while we're working on resolving the matter!

It is nice to know YouTube is looking into the fix.

Forum discussion at YouTube Help.

Sidewiki Defeat Helps Block Only Google SideWiki Comments, Not Toolbar Users

Posted: September 30th, 2009, 3:57pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

The other week, we wrote about how to block Sidewiki users from commenting on your site. The issue was, it basically blocked all Google Toolbar users from accessing your site.

There is a new script that reportedly blocks only those who try to use Sidewiki to comment on your site, without blocking all Google Toolbar users. It named the Sidewiki Defeat and can be viewed at code.google.com/p/sidewiki-defeat.

I spotted this via a Google Webmaster Help thread. Warning, I personally did not try this, so be careful.

Forum discussion at Google Webmaster Help.

It's Froogle, No It's Google Products, No It's Google Base, No It's Google Merchant Center

Posted: September 30th, 2009, 3:16pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

Yesterday, Google announced the launch of the new Google Merchant Center. The Google Merchant Center will replace Google Base for those who submit products through Google Base.

Confused? Google Base is sticking around, but Google has added a new Google Merchant Center, which is focused around merchants who submit product data to Google. Before the other day, all products submitted to Google, to be displayed in Google Product Search, was submitted (mostly) through Google Base. Now, Google wants you to submit that data though the new Google Merchant Center.

So what is Google Base for? Well, anything else that you want to submit data to Google. Other data includes upload real estate, jobs and vehicles. Yes, you can pretty much submit whatever you want and Google will figure out how to deal with it.

Google tried to make the migration from Google Base to Google Merchant Center as smooth as possible. Google said:

For the vast majority of users, existing settings, data feeds or items will not be affected. You will find everything in your account as you expect it to be.
However, a small percentage of users who have been uploading to Google Base both Product listings and other item types will need to sign in to Google Base and create new FTP settings. Otherwise, they will not be able to upload any non-Product feeds via FTP. Their existing FTP settings will work normally for Product feeds, and can be accessed in Google Merchant Center. We apologize for this unavoidable inconvenience. These users have been already notified directly by email. You can find instructions on how to change your FTP settings in Google Base here.

For more details about this change see the FAQs.

If you are confused by the title, just look back at the history of this product. It all started out as Froogle, yes Google named their product search feature Froogle. Then it was changed to Google Shopping and then to Google Products and then Google flipped back between Shopping and Products. Then Google Base came out, but the consumer side remained Google Shopping. And now we have yet another tool to manage, Google Merchant Center. Got all of that? I may have missed some.

Forum discussion at Google Merchant Center Help (formerly Google Base Help) and WebmasterWorld.

Screen Shots & Videos of Google Monopoly City Streets

Posted: September 10th, 2009, 3:47pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

Hasbro has created a virtual Monopoly game at www.monopolycitystreets.com that allows people to buy property, using Google Maps. It is pretty neat - but the big issue is that it is incredibly slow. It took me two days to get in and I finally have some screen captures and videos to show you.

Here is the quick video:

Here are some screen captures:

Forum discussion at DigitalPoint Forums.

Google's 09/09/09 Logo (Doodle)

Posted: September 9th, 2009, 5:21pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

At 09:09:09 today on 09/09/09, Google posted a special logo for the special occurrence.

Here is the logo, not sure how much longer it will be live:

The official logo is also at google.com/logos/090909.gif.

Forum discussion at Google Web Search Help.

Will Google Send Christmas (Holiday) Gifts This Year (2009)?

Posted: August 27th, 2009, 3:51pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

I found it a bit funny that a WebmasterWorld thread is already discussing if and what Google would be sending out as a holiday gift this year. Yea, four months prior to the holiday season, Google advertisers and publishers are talking about the gift they may or may not send out this year.

Google historically has sent some really nice gifts to both AdSense and AdWords (amongst others) customers. In 2005 they sent a how mobile gadget kit with mobile mouse, mini hub, usb drive, and so on (I wish I took a picture of it). In 2006 they sent us a digital picture frame, in 2007 they sent a USB memory card and 2008 a bunch of shwag (mug, tshirt, pen, etc).

But due to the economy, people think the gifts will be cut this year. I am not too sure - I guess we will find out in a few months. It is just funny that people are already talking about it and eager to know if and what it will be this year.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Google Maps Live Traffic Changes Based on Zoom Level?

Posted: August 27th, 2009, 3:45pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

Over the past few months, there have been random complaints from Google Maps users about the live traffic data. In short, people are saying that when they zoom into see more detail on the red colored traffic indicators, the color changes to another color.

A Google Maps Help has posts from three different Google Maps users over the course of three months. Clearly, this cannot be a wide spread issue, because of the very few posts. So either this is a user generated error, where the user is zooming into the wrong location or the traffic data has actually changed on the zoom refresh -- or Google has some sort of bug.

Have you ever noticed this as an issue? I tried to replicate this issue, but failed.

Forum discussion at Google Maps Help.

Google Latitude Comes to iPhone (Kinda) & Map Layers For Windows Mobile & Symbian

Posted: July 24th, 2009, 3:07pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

The other day, Google Mobile launched two new features (amongst others). One feature has been asked for ever since Google Latitude launched. The ability to use this program on your iPhone. Well, now it is here, well, kind of.

Apple wouldn't allow Google to build a native iPhone app for Latitude because (I think) apps cannot run in the background and constantly pull your location. Instead, Google made it work over the mobile browser at http://m.google.com/latitude. The new iPhone browser supports geolocation services, so Google uses that to pull the location of the individual and then plots it on the map. Here are some pictures:

Also, for you who don't have iPhones (seriously, no iPhone yet?), Google released map layers for Windows Mobile & Symbian devices. More on that over here.

Forum discussion at Google Mobile Help Forums.

Google Should Allow Multiple Google Accounts To "Own" A Local Listing

Posted: July 24th, 2009, 3:01pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

A Google Maps Help thread has a few business owners and consultants suggesting that Google should allow multiple Google accounts to gain access to a single business listing.

I cannot agree more. This is a feature that is currently supported in Google Webmaster Tools, but is likely needed more in the Google Local Business Listing Center. Giving businesses a way to have more than one person with access to such a listing, just makes (um) business sense. In addition, there are many search agencies that handle local listings for their clients. These agencies would love to give access to their clients, if the client needs to make changes as well.

I was going to create a poll asking if you agree, but honestly, I doubt anyone would disagree that this feature would not be useful.

Forum discussion at Google Maps Help.

Google Maps Won't Take Pictures of George Washington Bridge

Posted: July 23rd, 2009, 3:41pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

I spotted a thread at the Google Maps Help forum asking why Google doesn't allow people to walk across the George Washington Bridge. Specifically, why doesn't Google let people plot the directions as walking directions when traveling across the bridge. Any New Yorker knows, the bridge is filled with people walking or biking back and forth. It is a good question.

But when I was scoping out the bridge on Google Maps, using street views, I noticed that you can only get street views at the lip of the bridge. Any blue area shows where the street views are available, the plain yellow, is not available:

That reminded me that there is a law where you cannot take pictures of anything on the bridge. In fact, one day, I took a picture of the no taking pictures sign on the George Washington Bridge. I guess Google listens to those rules.

So why can't we get walking directions on the bridge? And why no directions to the moon?

Forum discussion at Google Maps Help.

Google Webmaster Tools Won't Load For Some Users

Posted: July 23rd, 2009, 3:21pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

There are some reports of Google Webmaster Tools not loading for some users. Some of these reports are coming from WebmasterWorld and I also personally have this issue.

When I try to access the tool, the URL redirects back and forth between the Google Account authentication system and the webmaster tools home page. If I try a different browser, it lets me in, so it seems to be a cookie issue for some users.

Firefox Error:

The page isn't redirecting properly
Firefox has detected that the server is redirecting the request for this address in a way that will never complete.

* This problem can sometimes be caused by disabling or refusing to accept cookies.

Safari Error:

Safari can’t open the page.
Too many redirects occurred trying to open “https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/home?hl=en”. This might occur if you open a page that is redirected to open another page which then is redirected to open the original page.

I can login to all other Google properties without an issue, I am just having this issue with Google Webmaster Tools. I rather not delete my Google cookies, cause that will stop them from tracking me for the past 15 years. :)

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Google Maps Bubble Info For Longitude & Latitude Coordinates Workaround

Posted: July 15th, 2009, 3:15pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

Starting a few weeks ago the Google Maps Help forum reports that when you want to display text in the bubble of a Google Map pin mark, using the longitude and latitude of the location, it would no longer work.

For example, you can see it live at this link but here is a screen copy.

The issue is, the only way to get this to work is by appending [&iwloc=A&hl=en] to the end of the URL, if you remove it, the info bubble disappears. It works fine without that extra parameter in the URL for a standard address match, i.e. here but not sure why it doesn't work for the longitude and latitude version.

Forum discussion at Google Maps Help.

Google Enhanced 404 Feature Gone?

Posted: July 8th, 2009, 4:03pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

In August 2008, Google released what was called the enhanced 404 widget that allowed webmasters to easily create custom 404 pages. In fact, we still have a sample of this in action at advertize.html.

But for some reason, I think Google removed the feature from the Google Webmaster Tools section. As a Google Webmaster Help thread discusses, he can't find it in the Webmaster Tools section. I looked for several minutes and I also cannot find it anywhere.

Did Google move it and I can't find it? Did they drop the feature with the launch of the new design?

Forum discussion at Google Webmaster Help.

Google Chrome, The Operating System

Posted: July 8th, 2009, 3:20pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

Rumors of Google building an operating system has been nothing new, but confirmation that they are building an operating system is something new. Google confirmed that a Google OS named Google Chrome OS, is coming in the second half of 2010.

The OS will be first a light weight OS designed for Netbooks, not it is not Android. You can read about it at the Google Blog and all the billions of news items at Techmeme.

One thing I will highlight from the blog post:

Speed, simplicity and security are the key aspects of Google Chrome OS. We're designing the OS to be fast and lightweight, to start up and get you onto the web in a few seconds. ... and completely redesigning the underlying security architecture of the OS so that users don't have to deal with viruses, malware and security updates. It should just work.

As you can imagine, this has people talking about things like Google going after Microsoft directly, Google owning not only our web lives but our desktop lives as well and Google getting into a business they should stay out of. Yes, there are tons of opinions on this news and the best place to discuss them and share your own opinions is in the forums.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld and DigitalPoint Forums.

Push Gmail Coming to Blackberry in July, iPhone Unknown

Posted: June 23rd, 2009, 3:11pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

For the first time, I have seen Google comment on when they will be bringing push Gmail to any device. In a Google Mobile Help thread, Googler Ethan responded to a request about push and the iPhone, adding that it is supported on Android devices and in July, it is coming to Blackberry devices.

The only catch is that push will only be supported for Google Apps Premier Edition and Education Edition users. That means, you have to pay for it. I personally think that is fair and I know many people willing to pay a few bucks for giving them push Gmail. Again, this is only for Blackberry devices and it is coming next month, in July 2009.

Let me quote Ethan:

As a reminder, push email support is currently available with the Gmail app on Android devices and will be available for Google Apps Premier Edition and Education Edition users with BlackBerry devices in July.

So what about the iPhone? Well, no comment from Google on that yet. It is currently the 7th most wanted feature in the feature request list. But Google has yet to comment about if or when it will be available. I suspect that when it does become available, it will be only available to the Google Apps Premier Edition and Education Edition users, similar to how it is launching for Blackberry devices.

Forum discussion at Google Mobile Help.

Google's iPhone Voice Search Breaks with iPhone 3.0

Posted: June 22nd, 2009, 4:07pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

Google Voice Search for iPhone no longer works exactly like it did in the past. If you installed iPhone 3.0 operating system, you may notice that lifting the receiver to your ear and speaking your command will no longer function with the current Google Mobile app for the iPhone.

This is a bit funny, in that Google admittedly broke Apple's rules by releasing such a feature. Specifically, moving the phone to your ear and having the application change to listen for you to speak, is not a supported developer feature in the iPhone SDK.

So when iPhone 3.0 OS came out, it seemed to have broke that neat feature.

Bret at Google posted in the Google Mobile Help discussion area that Google is aware of the issue and working on a fix. The iPhone application still works, but the feature where you put the phone to your ear no longer functions.

In fact, Bret said they submitted a new version to Apple, which is waiting for Apple's approval. Will Apple let this one slide through also?

Forum discussion at Google Mobile Help.

Google's Top Search Quality Supports Question Google's Team

Posted: June 18th, 2009, 2:13pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

I have been watching a Google Webmaster Help thread for about a week now. The thread was started by a 3rd party individual who volunteers a lot of his time helping webmasters in the Google Webmaster Help forum. He was even promoted (no pay of course) to the position of "Webmaster Help Bionic Poster" as a top contributor.

Autocrat, the name this person goes by, questioned Google's search quality team, to give them more insight in how to help Google. He said:

It would be nice to know; * What sort of "activities" we should be reporting * What hte chances are of seeing any form of action on a report * What sort of "crimes" could we expect to see action on * Whether you have to make multiple reports - or have multiple reports made against you before action is taken * how is it that some of the most blatant stuff gets to stay on line and escape the "algorythm"
I hate to ask - but I'm tired of seeing some of the * in the SERPs - and I now fail t osee why I should bother reporting some of hte cheating * * when I know that I have a less than 1 in 20 chance of seeing them get punished!

So please - would the Spam Team please step forward and have a chat with us?

We all waited, and waited for a response from an official Google representative. But a week later we have yet to see a response.

It is tough when your top volunteers ask tough questions, but it is even tougher when your top volunteers have to ask some of these questions.

Forum discussion at Google Webmaster Help.

Voice Search Enabled On Google Maps For Android

Posted: June 17th, 2009, 2:27pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

This almost wants me to switch to an Android device, even though I am getting the new iPhone 3GS on Friday. Google announced that you can now search Google Maps on an Android device by your voice, a lot like how you use the Google Mobile Search app on your iPhone.

Christopher from the Google Maps team said in a Google Mobile Help forum that the new features include

Search by voice
Transit and walking directions
Business details and reviews
Latitude Updates

Plus, Google fixed the latitude background location updates will continue to update. Previously, a bug was causing background updating to periodically stop for some users.

Here are additional notes left by Christopher:

The "Google Maps" update in Android Market will only appear for users with system updates for "Cupcake" and above (or SDK 1.5+; see Settings> About phone > Firmware version). If your device does not yet have Cupcake (v1.5), please be patient until it is available in your locale.
If you experience the "Installation error - package file was not signed correctly" error, this is because your device is not on a user build identified as kila-user, opal-user, etc. (Settings > About phone > Build number). If your device is on a "userdebug" build, this update will not be able to be installed from Market at this time.
Known issue: Traffic data use may cause some memory issues and turn Traffic off with an error message indicating this. We are aware of this issue and investigating possible fixes.
Street View was not removed but is now available contextually within Maps instead of as its own map mode. For example, search for an address or business (or use the new long-press the map feature) to pick a location on the map. If Street View data is available, you'll have the option of seeing the imagery along with the rest of the options for that location (Show on map, Get directions, Search nearby, etc.).

Forum discussion at Google Mobile Help.

Google News Releases Much Needed Publisher FAQ

Posted: June 17th, 2009, 2:20pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

Good news for those looking to get included in Google News. Google finally released a much needed Google News Publisher FAQ to answer those common questions.

The FAQ is focused on publishers looking to get in to Google News, and also to help them with issues and technical requirements. The article is broken down into the following categories:

Getting accepted in Google News
Including my content in Google News
Sitemaps questions
Help! Something's broken!

Google News was a very mysterious beast back in the day. The Google News team has recently done an excellent job communicating with publishers and webmasters on various inclusion and technical issues.

Forum discussion at Google News Help.

Google News Releases Much Needed Publisher FAQ

Posted: June 17th, 2009, 2:20pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

Good news for those looking to get included in Google News. Google finally released a much needed Google News Publisher FAQ to answer those common questions.

The FAQ is focused on publishers looking to get in to Google News, and also to help them with issues and technical requirements. The article is broken down into the following categories:

Getting accepted in Google News
Including my content in Google News
Sitemaps questions
Help! Something's broken!

Forum discussion at Google News Help.

NY Post "Fear Grips Google" Mocked By SEOs

Posted: June 15th, 2009, 3:37pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

The NY Post, in NY Post style, went with an over the top title for their latest article about Google, which read Fear Grips Google. Here is the introductory paragraph:

You'd think nothing would get under the skin of search giant Google.
But co-founder Sergey Brin is so rattled by the launch of Microsoft's rival search engine that he has assembled a team of top engineers to work on urgent upgrades to his Web service, The Post has learned.

The NY Post has a history of going a bit (to say the least) over the top with their reporting. Mashable said, "the Post has a knack for spin, and while Google may not be gripped by fear, we’d think it only prudent for the search leader to consider what threat, if any, Bing poses to its dominant market position... The bottom line: we’d be more concerned if Google was not paying attention to new competitors."

It doesn't appear that SEOs and Webmasters are fooled by the title either.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Mobile YouTube Experts: Share Your Skills With Others on Google

Posted: May 22nd, 2009, 3:49pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

If you are a maven at YouTube and videos in the mobile space, you might be interested in a new Google Mobile Help thread.

Googler, Robin, said he and Google is looking for mobile YouTube experts to make help videos to be syndicated on the YouTube Help Channel for others to learn from. Robin said:

Help others out by making fun, creative, and informative videos that we can add to the YouTube mobile help center articles. Making videos of tips, instructions, and shortcuts makes everything easier to understand!
Check out more info here if you're interested: http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=YouTubeHelp

So if you have the mobile video skill set, and want to help others, give it a try!

Forum discussion at Google Mobile Help.

Funny SEM Thread: Google's Fault I Got Scammed

Posted: May 21st, 2009, 3:07pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

I rarely share funny threads, but I seriously need to lighten things up today, due to the lack of sleep I have been getting. A Google AdWords Help thread has a sad story of someone who was scammed for 1,000 rupees. The funny part is that this was done in person, by someone claiming to be a Google advertising representative.

What appears to have happened was that a person claimed to be an authorized agent of Google. The person said, give me 1,000 rupees as a starter balance and I will get your ads going. It turns out, this guy took the money and ran off.

Clearly, the person who was scammed is upset. But who does he blame? Google! Since this guy claimed to be an authorized Google agent, Google is responsible for the loss. Seriously.

The person then goes off cursing at everyone for telling him that Google is not responsible and that he has been scammed. Google has seriously modified the thread to keep it somewhat clean. But it still is a funny read.

Personally, I am willing to repay this guy his 1,000 rupees, which is $27. In fact, I'll make the offer to him, since I did use his story for this site.

Lessons learned:

(1) Don't fall for scams, do your homework before giving anyone your money
(2) Don't blame others for your own problems

Forum discussion at Google AdWords Help.

Major Latency With Google Web Search & Gmail

Posted: May 14th, 2009, 6:31pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

It seems like many people around the world are complaining that Google's properties, including Google Search and Gmail are both either down for them or incredibly slow. For me, it is working well, but I had people call, email and IM me about the issue.

Plus, if you look at a Twitter Search for google, you will see many are saying it is slow or down, at the moment.

We do have a few threads in the Google forums, here is one from the Google Web Search Help discussion forums.

I assume there are some server or network issues with the major backbones causing the slowness or downtime. I also assume things will return to normal soon.

Google has updated the App Status page to say there is service disruption today for Gmail users:

We're aware of a problem with Google Mail affecting a small subset of users. The affected users are unable to access Google Mail. We will provide an update by May 14, 2009 11:23:00 AM UTC-4 detailing when we expect to resolve the problem. Please note that this resolution time is an estimate and may change.
*This may also be affecting other services

Forum discussion at Google Web Search Help.

More Nudity & Pornography Found in Google Gadgets

Posted: May 14th, 2009, 3:33pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

Last week, we reported for the first time of Google Gadget porn becoming an issue. Well, it is now more widespread then I have ever seen.

A new Google AdSense Help thread reports seeing porn in home page of the Google Gadgets directory. Here is a screen capture:

Both Google Gadgets contain full nudity and also include sex photos. This is a clear violation of the Google Gadget terms. This was first reported two days ago, and they have been on the home page of the directory for at least two days and they still remain there. Hopefully Google will remove these soon.

Forum discussion at Google AdSense Help.

Yahoo Shuts Down History: GeoCities To Be Closed

Posted: April 24th, 2009, 3:34pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Other Yahoo Topics

Shouldn't there be some laws about removing historic landmarks from the Internet? I mean, we have laws about physical historic landmarks in the U.S. but not on the Internet?

If you visit GeoCities, you will notice a message that reads:

Sorry, new GeoCities accounts are no longer available.

After careful consideration, we have decided to close GeoCities later this year. We'll share more details this summer. For now, please sign in or visit the help center for more information.

In short, Yahoo is shutting it down and current GeoCity customers have to find a new hosting solution. Yahoo is of course pushing their paid small business hosting service.

Clearly, Yahoo has to turn their business around but to close down history? Maybe Obama has something in his budget to take over the historic GeoCities? ;-)

Personally, I have never used GeoCities - but it was incredibly popular. Googler, JohnMu, Tweeted "Surprised at how many serious sites are hosted on GeoCities: get a domain name and move your stuff out NOW!" Now he would know the value of some of these GeoCities sites.

Forum discussion at DigitalPoint Forums.

Google Maps Bug Prevents Certain Locations From Loading in Internet Explorer

Posted: April 23rd, 2009, 3:39pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

There are two large threads at Google Maps Help Forums with reports from Internet Explorer users receiving errors when trying to view and link to Google Maps.

The error some of these IE users are seeing is:

Webpage error details User Agent: Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 8.0; Windows NT 5.1; Trident/4.0; GTB5; .NET CLR 1.1.4322; .NET CLR 2.0.50727) Timestamp: Sat, 18 Apr 2009 15:26:06 UTC
Message: 'elem' is null or not an object
Line: 5
Char: 372
Code: 0
URI: http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?hl=en&tab=wl

Google has confirmed the issue in the threads. Mike CH from Google said:

I wanted to update you on the "elem is null or not an object" error that some of you have been seeing. This is a recently introduced bug which only occurs on Internet Explorer when loading certain locations. Thanks to your (very!) helpful reports, we were able to quickly locate the problem. It's being treated as a priority fix and will hopefully be live shortly.
Workarounds for now include:

- Not using Internet Explorer
- Using the link I provided above to open Maps

I assume a bug like this will be fixed pretty soon. I personally tried to replicate the issue on my PC, but was unable to.

Forum discussion at Google Maps Help Forums.

Google's Clock Is Wrong in Pakistan

Posted: April 23rd, 2009, 3:20pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

A Google search for time in pakistan should give you the current time in Pakistan, but it doesn't. On April 15th, Pakistan advanced their clocks by one hour, but Google did not. So instead of it showing me 6:19pm, it is showing me 5:19pm.

Big deal? Yes, it is. This is not just impacting people looking for the current time in Pakistan. Is is reportedly also impacting Pakistan users of Gmail, Orkut, AdWords and other Google properties. A Google Web Search Help thread reports that it is showing emails as being received and sent an hour earlier then it is suppose to show.

I hope Google fixes this soon. It has already been a week since it has been first reported as an issue.

Forum discussion at Google Web Search Help.

Google Releases Stable Toolbar for Internet Explorer

Posted: April 16th, 2009, 2:10pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

If you have been like me and been tracking the Google Toolbar Help discussion area, you may have noticed complaint after complaint on how buggy the Google Toolbar was in Internet Explorer.

Google announced they have released a stable version of the Google Toolbar 6 for IE. Version 6.1.1518.856 is the stable release, which removes the beta tag from this toolbar.

Internet explorer users can download it at [toolbar.google.com]. Improvements include:

Find bar is no longer a separate toolbar that overrides IE's Find feature
Word find and Highlight buttons are back
AutoFill works on most login pages, like the Gmail homepage

Forum discussion at Google Toolbar Help.

This article was written earlier this week and scheduled to go live April 16th.

A Video of Google's Data Center

Posted: April 15th, 2009, 1:58pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

Google is pretty off limits to showing off their data centers and engineering floors. But Google created a presentation on April 1st for the Google Efficient Data Centers Summit to show off their data centers. Here is that video:

The video is extremely interesting in how they try to squeeze as much out of every CPU they have, including how they maximize the energy they use to power them.

This is a rare look inside of Google's data centers.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

This article was written earlier this week and scheduled to go live April 15th.

Google Creates Local Business Center User Guide

Posted: April 14th, 2009, 3:07pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

Google has created a comprehensive user guide for the local business center. You can via the user guide over here.

It is broken down in seven sections:

Getting started
Adding a listing
Adding more than 10 listings
Verifying a listing
Your Local Business Center homepage
Editing or removing a listing
Other features

Here is the user guide's introductory video:

Forum discussion at Google Maps Help.

Google Releases Maps for Mobile Update to Resolve Bugs

Posted: April 13th, 2009, 3:41pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

Google has announced a Google Maps for Mobile update in the Google Mobile Help discussions area that fixes the bugs with version 3.0 for Symbian and Windows Mobile devices.

Googler, Christopher, said:

A new version of Maps for mobile is available to download. This update includes many fixes and updates for both Maps and Google Latitude based on your feedback here in the Help Forum.
Please see the following Release Notes for more details about what's been changed in this version or go directly to m.google.com/maps in your mobile browser to download it now: [www.google.com]

It seems like early feedback on this release shows that some users of these applications on the devices are still having some issues. If you are having any issues with Google Maps for Mobile on Symbian and Windows Mobile devices this is the place to be.

Forum discussion at Google Mobile Help.

Google Docs Fixes Unpublished Bug

Posted: April 3rd, 2009, 3:13pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

Christine from the Google Docs team posted an announcement in the Google Docs Help discussion area that two bugs have been fixed.

The first bug was that published Google spreadsheets were becoming unpublished by themselves. This should now be resolved.
The second bug was that 'Share with the world'/''Let anyone view without signing in' did not work, now it does.

Google Docs is very often plagued with bugs, some minor and some serious. The last major security bug shared private documents with others. Yet, Google and the US Government wants you to use Google Health to share your private medical history with others.

Forum discussion at Google Docs Help.

Google Local Business Center Not Functioning For Many

Posted: April 2nd, 2009, 3:11pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

It appears that the Google Local Business Center is not working for many businesses interested in updating their Google Maps/Local business listing. A Google Maps Help thread (well, there are a few) reports the issues from several users.

In short, it seems like when some try to access their local business listing they are presented with the following error:

System Error
We're sorry, but we are unable to serve your request at this time. Please try back in a few minutes.

This has been plaguing some business owners for over three days. There is no word from Google on the issue yet.

Forum discussion at Google Maps Help.

How Long Should It Take To Rank Well in Google?

Posted: April 1st, 2009, 3:23pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

A WebmasterWorld thread asks how long does it take to rank well in Google? A good question, but typically, a new site might rank well in the short term and then drop off the radar until it begins ranking again. This is sometimes known as a temporary PageRank feature of some sort.

So let me poll our audience, you tell me how long you think it takes to rank well in Google?

How Long Should It Take To Rank In Google?
( surveys)

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Google Maps Incredibly Slow? Troubleshoot Issues With Google

Posted: April 1st, 2009, 3:08pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

There are several people who are complaining that Google Maps is incredibly slow for them. If you have slowness issues with Google Maps, you may be in luck. A Google Maps Help thread has a Googler helping these users by troubleshooting issues with them.

Googler, Mike CH, believes there are certain firewalls that may be causing the issue. There seem to be two issues, the first is loading the map tiles and the second is trouble loading the JavaScript "brain" of the site.

Mike is asking these users to run traceroutes and disable their firewalls. If you are also having issues with Google Maps, you may want to participate in the thread.

Forum discussion at Google Maps Help.

iGoogle Custom Themes Not Working For All

Posted: March 31st, 2009, 2:49pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

There are several complaints in a Google Web Search Help thread that users cannot upload their own iGoogle custom themes. iGoogle allows users to pick a theme from a set of pre-made templates or upload their own theme for their iGoogle home page.

It seems like several people are having issues uploading their own theme.

Google employee, Jem, has been trying to help these users figure out the issue. But for a few days now, Jem seems to be at a loss.

For now, people are sharing the images they want to use for their custom theme and hopefully, Jem will be able to figure it out.

Forum discussion at Google Web Search Help.

Google Offering Hosting Companies Packaged Google Pack

Posted: March 27th, 2009, 7:01am CET by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

Google announced they are now offering access providers, such as hosting companies, the ability to easily give their customers access to Google's Webmaster Tools, AdSense, Custom Search, and Site Search. These access providers can sign up at [www.google.com].

Today, we're releasing Google Services for Websites, a few more tools that your hosting company can now enable to help you improve your website. This expanded program includes Webmaster Tools, AdSense, Custom Search, and Site Search, making it easier to drive traffic to your site, monetize your site through the Google ad network, and add various search capabilities to help your visitors find information on your site faster.

We have some discussion around this announcement at WebmasterWorld. WebmasterWorld admin, tedster, said:

Seems like a savvy, and potentially revenue-increasing move. Note that the web host needs to participate for this program to be available: "...a few more tools that your hosting company can now enable to help you improve your website."
The Custom Search Engine is one service that might be a real boon. A CSE is not all that easy for the non-technical site owner to set up right now, and if this service makes it easier, that's a good thing.

Google has been piloting this type of services to some web hosts in the past. Expanding it to any web host and access provider is a no brainer for Google.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

iGoogle Signing You Out?

Posted: March 23rd, 2009, 1:08pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

Personalized search and personalized home pages can be great for most users. The only issue is that you need to be signed in, most of the time, to get personalized results from Google. And if you love those personalized results and home page from iGoogle, being automatically signed out without requesting to be signed out, can be a bit frustrating.

Over the past week, I have seen dozens of threads pop out in several Google forums on the topic of Google automatically signing them out of iGoogle. I ignored it as being a recent security patch that deleted cookies and thought it would be resolved soon.

Google recently posted an announcement on this exact issue, saying:

Several users have reported that they're getting signed out of iGoogle several times each day. This is not the way it's supposed to work, and we're investigating the issue on our end.
If you're affected by this problem, please first check to make sure this isn't a problem with your computer or network; instructions for checking are located in this Help Center article. Once you've eliminated those possibilities, if you'd like to discuss this further please post in this thread.

So if you are also being signed out from Google, don't feel left alone.

Forum discussion at Google Web Search Help.

New Yorkers Upset Google Label's World Trade Center Site as Ground Zero

Posted: March 10th, 2009, 2:43pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

If you go to Google Maps and zoom into the World Trade Center Site, you will see that Google has labeled the area, "Ground Zero."

Ground Zero was what many people started calling the World Trade Center after the terrible attack on September 11, 2001. I think most of us still remember the day vividly. But some New Yorkers (and I am a New Yorker) are upset that Google still labels the area Ground Zero.

Here is the complaint from at least one New Yorker found in Google Maps Help discussion area:

Please remove the "Ground Zero" label from the World Trade Center site in lower Manhattan. I realize that anyone not from New York City comes here expecting to visit the site and that this is a common reference, but that is not its real name and it should not be used. It is equivalent to awarding the attackers a marksmanship medal, and we should not be doing that, nor frankly should we be equating what happened here with a nuclear bombing reference. All NY'ers refer to the site as 'the World Trade Center site', and that's what it still is to us, and will be again, if they ever get the construction completed. Finally, as a born-and-raised New Yorker who was here htat day I find the label 'ground zero' just plain despicable, and I really wish people wouldn't use it, and people I know here feel the same way. Please stop encouraging its use.

I can totally understand this person's frustration and rational here. But from a searcher's perspective, people still search for worlds like "ground zero" and "september 11" on Google Maps. Google still wants to return those results. I guess technically, Google can hide the label on the map itself and just return this area for the search, but maybe searchers find it useful.

Tough call here. As many people know, maps and borders and what you call places can become a very touchy and sensitive topic.

Forum discussion at Google Maps Help.

Google Docs Security Breach Should Encourage People Not to Use Google Health

Posted: March 9th, 2009, 2:18pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

Late last week, I saw dozens and dozens of threads in the Google Docs Help discussion forum, where Googlers were saying that they would contact these individuals directly, via email. Now, I saw a bunch of these, but didn't really look into them, simply because the issue was handled off the public forum.

Over the weekend, Google posted the details of the issue, which seemed to me to be a major security breach. Let me quote it:

We wanted to let you know about a bug (now fixed) that affected a small percentage of users who may have shared permissions between some documents in their account without their knowledge. This inadvertent sharing happened only when the document owner, or a collaborator with sharing rights, selected multiple documents and presentations from the documents list and changed the sharing permissions. (This issue didn't affect spreadsheets.) As part of the fix, we used an automated process to remove collaborators and viewers from the documents that we identified as being affected. We apologize for the inconvenience of having to re-share your docs. We have sent notifications to the owners of impacted docs, informing them of this fix and posted this information to the Apps Status Dashboard: http://www.google.com/appsstatus

Can you imagine if you were sharing financial information or personal medical information with someone and some how, it was shared with strangers? And Google wants you to use Google Health to share your most confidential and personal details with your doctor and family? I am all for sharing in exchange for convenience but what is stopping a security bug like this from happening on Google Health?

Forum discussion at Google Docs Help.

"Place Closed" In Google Maps: Close Your Competitors Down on Google

Posted: March 6th, 2009, 2:25pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

A few weeks ago, I wrote a story named Google Maps Closes Down Business When it is Still in Operation. In short, Google labelled a business in Google Maps as being closed, when it was actually in business and servicing companies. Back then, I thought it was an issue with a user not correctly setting his or her Google Local Business Center information. But I was wrong. It seems to be a bug with Google's Local Business Center.

We have several threads in the Google Maps forum and one longer one in the Google Maps Help discussion area.

Googler, Joel H described how this can work. But let me show you how you can do the reverse, i.e. close down a business on Google Maps without having access to that business.

Let's go to Microsoft's listing in Google Maps.

Then click on the "Edit" link on the left bottom side of the map bubble:

Then click on "Remove Place:"

Then check off, "it is permanently closed" and add a comment:

My request went through and it likely will be rejected:

Like I said, it will likely be rejected, because it is Microsoft. That is why I picked Microsoft. But for some smaller businesses, removing them, might slip through the cracks, like they did for these businesses.

If your business is verified with Google's Local Business Center, I don't think there is a way for anyone to make this request. But for the majority of business in Google Maps that are not "verified," this can easily be done and potentially hurt sales for those businesses.

"Community Edits," aren't they great? FYI, this is nothing that new. I am illustrating this not to have a bunch of people start removing businesses, but rather to make it harder for these things to happen. Clearly, this has turned into a bigger mess then one expected.

Forum discussion at Google Maps Help.

Google Joins Twitter, The Online World Goes Haywire

Posted: February 27th, 2009, 2:28pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

I cover Google a lot here, because that is what people talk about in the forums - mostly. But yesterday, Google joined Twitter at [twitter.com] and the online world went berserk. Google has 26,093 right now and it is growing. Yahoo [twitter.com] only has 4,709 and they have been on Twitter for a while, and Live Search [twitter.com] only has 1,434 followers. Let's not forget Ask.com [twitter.com] with a whopping 94 followers.

Google joins and gets 25,000 in 24 hours. What brand power!

FYI, if you want to follow me on Twitter, I am at [twitter.com]. I only have 3,400 followers right now.

Forum discussion at DigitalPoint Forums and Sphinn.

Google's Phone (Android) Paid Apps Won't Update

Posted: February 23rd, 2009, 2:28pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

There is so much love for Google's new mobile phone, the G1 or Android phone. A week or two ago, Google announced that they are now accepting paid apps to the app marketplace. But now, we are seeing reports that paid apps cannot be updated.

A Google Mobile Help thread has confirmed reports from a Googler that there is indeed a bug. A G1 paid app user said, "after you purchase a paid and and then try to update it, it doesn't update. It just says downloading and nothing happens." This user said that the free apps update fine, but not the paid apps.

Google employee, Alden confirmed the issue saying:

Thanks for reporting this to us - just wanted to let you know we're looking into it.

In the iTunes App store, if you purchase an app, all updates to the specific app are free. Currently, there is no way for iPhone App users to be charged for a major or even minor update, without releasing a new app. I assume the same model works for the G1.

Forum discussion at Google Mobile Help.

Google News Gadget Breaks iGoogle Page

Posted: February 20th, 2009, 2:57pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

Last night, the Google News iGoogle Gadget was having issues. The gadget did not show any news at all. Here is the first report I saw from Google Web Search Help.

Suddenly last night when I went to my home page, the Google News section was blank - not stories or headlines - only the Tabs were present. If I expanded Google News I could get all the content, but not the summary. I changed some settings, tried restore to the last backup, and even removed, rebooted and reinstalled Google News. No Happiness with my Google News.

Paul from Google replied thanking users for reporting the issue and said they will work on a fix. In the meantime, he asked users to go to news.google.com to get their news fix.

This morning it was fixed and working properly.

In addition to this Google News bug, it seems like Google News was not properly sorting by date yesterday. A Google News Help thread has a report from a user informing Google of this issue. Google replied with a thank you and that they are looking into it.

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

Small Dot Annoying Firefox 3 Users in Google Search

Posted: February 12th, 2009, 3:52pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

A Google Web Search Help thread has a group of searchers complaining about a single pixel that shows up when you click the next or previous buttons in Google Search. This only seems to show up for a second, when you click the next or previous button, but it also only shows up in Firefox 3.

Here are pictures:

As you can see, I circled in red, the pixel that seems to be really bugging some searchers.

Funny how the smallest little thing can really get on your nerves.

Forum discussion at Google Web Search Help.

Google Maps Showing Adult Images From Panoramio

Posted: February 12th, 2009, 3:37pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

Yesterday, we reported that Google's Local Business Center was injected by escort services in the Google Maps results (by the way, it is still there). Today, I spotted a thread in Google Maps Help thread with a complaint from a person who lives in Ave Maria, Florida that an adult-like image shows up in the "Explore this area" section of Google Maps for a search on Ave Maria, Florida.

Here is a screen shot:

When you click on that image, it shows up larger in the map:

It is here where you see that it is from Panoramio and the quick solution is to report that image as inappropriate in Panoramio.

So a proud city member is upset that this woman's underpants shows up for her city in Google Maps. I can understand that.

Forum discussion at Google Maps Help.

The Colorblind Want To Use Google Maps Traffic Data

Posted: January 30th, 2009, 8:12am CET by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

Google Maps has very useful traffic data but it plots that traffic data using colors. For example, here is a screen capture of traffic new NYC:

But those that are severely colorblind are not able to see traffic data. One such person posted a complaint in Google Help Groups asking for an "alternative way" of displaying such data on Google Maps for those that are colorblind.

Interesting point, making Google Maps more accessible for the colorblind.

Forum discussion at Google Help Groups.

Google Reader Recommendation Lists Stops Updating

Posted: January 30th, 2009, 8:01am CET by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

We have confirmed reports that Google Reader's recommendation list feature stopped updating some time over the past day or so. The recommendation list is suppose to show you other blogs or feeds that you might be interested in, based on your current feed subscriptions at Google Reader.

In a Google Groups thread, one Google Reader user noticed that he/she stopped receiving recommendations. So he/she reported the issue, and Google confirmed the bug. Google said they hope to fix it in a day or so.

Roger from the Google Reader team said:

Thanks for reporting this. After a bit of investigating, we think we've found something that might be keeping some recommendations from updating. We're hoping to have this fixed by the end of the day. Please let us know if you're still having trouble after a few days.

Forum discussion at Google Groups.

How To Use Google To Recover a Lost Web Site

Posted: January 23rd, 2009, 12:18pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

A Google Webmaster Help discussion thread shows a good way to recover lost web pages using Google.

First, Googler, JohnMu, recommends you take down your website down immediately. He said, "do not let the server respond to any requests. This is important because otherwise the cached pages will be overwritten by whatever content you have online now."

Second, use the Warrick Tool, which will look at Internet Archive, Google, Live Search, and Yahoo for caches of your pages. John said, it typically takes a day or two to get your content.

Finally, when you have these files, you can restore with them.

Forum discussion at Google Webmaster Help

Google Won't Bring Back the iPhone Version of iGoogle

Posted: January 22nd, 2009, 11:41am CET by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

On Monday, we broke the news that Google dropped the iPhone version of iGoogle and it really really really update iPhone users. That being the case, I really thought Google would bring back the iPhone interface. It seems like I was wrong.

Google updated the Google Web Search Help thread saying that they want to keep one version of iGoogle mobile so they can concentrate "on a single version is that not all mobile browsers can handle the same content that the iPhone and Android can."

Here is the full post:

I want to let you know that the teams involved in this decision are aware of this thread and following along on the feedback. I'd like to address a few concerns I've seen posted:
The mobile version doesn't provide the same experience as the iPhone/Android version
We know there are some differences between the two versions -- in fact I've been using iGoogle on the iPhone since the day it launched. One of the trade offs we know we're making with concentrating on a single version is that not all mobile browsers can handle the same content that the iPhone and Android can. The mobile team does want to hear any ideas you've got for mobile features; you can submit them to their ideas page:
http://productideas.appspot.com/#16/e=cf

iGoogle on iPhone and Android
The Android users who've popped in here are right; we're also redirecting Android phones to the mobile interface. The goal here is to provide an iGoogle page that's optimized for speed and reliability; this change wasn't made to cater to Android users.

The iPhone/Android version is still available from a desktop computer
That's currently true; redirecting iPhone and Android users to the mobile iGoogle page was the first step in standardizing the experience. We're working on taking down the iPhone/Android version.

Some content has disappeared
If some of your content isn't there now, that's probably because it isn't compatible with the mobile interface (for you technical folks, that's anything in an IFRAME). You can learn about what content from your list does work from this article in our Help Center:
http://www.google.com/support/websearch/bin/answer.py?answer=96016

Finally, if there's a Google service that you used to access on the iPhone version of iGoogle that isn't offered in the mobile version, we may have an optimized version available. To see the list of optimized services, visit Google.com on your iPhone or Android phone and tap the 'More' link at the top of the page.

This response clearly doesn't sit well with most iPhone users.

Forum discussion continued at Google Web Search Help.

Google Apps is Safe For Video Uploads Despite Google Video Upload Cuts

Posted: January 19th, 2009, 2:28pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

The other day, we reported that Google began cutting jobs, offices and services. Part of that, was cutting the ability to do video uploads at Google Video.

A concerned Google Apps user asked a valid question. He asked in a Google Video Help thread, does this impact Google App Premium users. The answer was no, Google Apps Premier users still can upload videos, as part of the service. In fact, Google had to update their FAQs to clarify this.

A Google representative, Sapna, said:

Good question! We just added it to the FAQ page as well.
This move is not going to affect the video service of Google Apps - you will still be able to upload & share videos.

Hope that alleviates some confusion!

The FAQs have now been updated to say:

Does this change apply to Google Video for business, used by companies for private, secure video sharing?
No, it doesn't. Google Video for business is part of Google Apps Premier Edition, and it lets employees share video content with each other, like team updates and recordings of training sessions and guest speakers. Business users can continue to upload and share videos, and the service is actively being developed.

Forum discussion at Google Video Help.

How Did Tele Atlas Improve Google Maps?

Posted: January 15th, 2009, 2:30pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

Maps Guide Adam created a new thread in the new Google Maps Help discussion forum clarifying how Google's Tele Atlas maps distribution deal has helped improve Google Maps.

The two main points Adam made were:

(1) You can see blocks of addresses, notice in the embed map below around Baruch College, that there are numbers on the streets that show you the house numbers. So if you need to go to 153 East 25th street, you know where to go. Zoom in to see:

View Larger Map

(2) Roof top markers, so you now which building you are looking for. Zoom in to see:

View Larger Map

(4) Easier getting updates and sending update due to their shared data agreement.

Finally, you can submit feedback about the data to mapinsight.teleatlas.com/.

Forum discussion at Google Maps Help.

Google Starts Cutting Projects, Employees & Offices

Posted: January 15th, 2009, 2:19pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

Seems like the economy is getting to everyone, including the all mighty and recession proof Google. In summary, Google has begun cutting out services they provide, they have cut 100 recruiters (i.e. less hiring) and they are closing offices, which might lead to 70 engineers losing their jobs.

Danny has a great article summing up the Google product and services slashes, which include Google dropping Google Video uploads, Google Catalog Search, Google Notebook, Jaiku and Dodgeball. Danny concludes, "neither products nor engineers seem to have a protected status, as Google goes into the grim economic times predicted for 2009."

On the job front, Google has laid off a 100 recruiters and is closing three offices; the ones in Austin, Texas; Trondheim, Norway; and Lulea, Sweden. That may lead to 70 engineers losing their jobs but Google promises to refill those positions, if those engineers cannot relocate to Google's headquarters. But clearly, dropping 100 internal recruiters will mean less hiring in 2009.

Forum discussion at Cre8asite Forums, DigitalPoint Forums and Sphinn.

How Many Grams Of CO2 Does a Google Search Require?

Posted: January 12th, 2009, 1:57pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

How many grams of CO2 does the average Google search consume? That was the hot topic of debate over the weekend. The UK's Times Online reported that scientists said a typical Google search consumes about 7g of CO2, which is equivalent to the "amount of carbon dioxide as boiling a kettle for a cup of tea."

But Google downright denies this. They said in a recent blog response named Powering a Google Search that the average query only consumes about 0.2 grams of CO2. Clearly, Google is not agreeing with these scientists, because those numbers are way different.

Google then takes the time to explain how Google is very proactive in green causes and explains how a Google search is very green.

The folks in the forums are not happy about this study, not happy at all. Even before Google's response, member lgn1 said, "Also, I suspect those numbers, 7 grams of CO2 per search are way out to lunch. Without power comsumption numbers from google, that physicist is just urinating in the wind."

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Poll: Do You Like Google's 2009 Fav (Browser) Icon?

Posted: January 9th, 2009, 10:12pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

Let us know in the poll bellow if you like Google's new favorite icon, the icon found in the browser bar on the left hand side of the domain name. The image below shows the three icons used, the one on the left most is the newest. The one in the middle is the one introduced in May 2008 and the one on the right is the original one.

Here is the poll, let us know which one you like the best of the three:

Which Google Fav Icon Do You Like The Best?
( surveys)

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

Update: Official word from Google Blog says this redesign was based on a contest they ran.

Gmail Mobile Bug Allowing Security Breaches Of Other Google Email Users?

Posted: January 8th, 2009, 2:29pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

In the past few hours, I have seen two threads from the Google Mobile Help Forums reporting that these people were able to login with their password to Gmail, but for some reason, were taken to someone else's Gmail account.

Both reports came on the fourth of January, the first said:

There are times when I enter the gmail site on my cell phone, and before the sign-in page even appears, I have found myself to be automatically redirected to the inbox of a complete stranger, and I have access to their account. This has happened to me twice.

The second said:

I've experienced a problem lately: on occasion, I will open up my WAP browser and realise that it's not my email I'm viewing at all! It is the email of some random person. Sometimes, I can see the emails when I click on them and sometimes - seemingly randomly - I click on something (say, inbox) and it takes me right back to my own inbox.

A Google representative, Ethan from the mobile team, replied to both saying that they will touch base with these folks offline.

Thanks for letting us know. Someone on the team has contacted you via email to get some account-specific details.
As for your concerns about your own account, Gmail offers HTTPS -- an additional layer of security that will ensure your mail remains encrypted when it travels between your web browser and our servers.

I have not seen any other reports of this, outside of these two. But this does seem a bit scary to me. I hope they figure out the issue soon and fix it as soon as possible.

Forum discussion at Google Mobile Help.

Have a Question For Google? Using Google's New Discussion Area Might Not Help

Posted: January 5th, 2009, 1:44pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

A few months ago, Google opened up new interactive discussion areas to help improve Google's communication between Google and the people who use Google's products and services. In fact, the Google Webmaster Help area moved over a month ago today.

Everyone was excited to see a quicker, more efficient and more responsive area to get answers to their questions. The only issue is that many folks are posting questions and their questions are not being seen. A Google Webmaster Help post shares this issue, in short, if you post a question, you need to reply to your post, to make sure it is visible to others. It seems like a temporary bug, but even if it is, who in their right mind will post a question and then reply to their question - it just isn't a logical thing to do.

Googler, JohnMu, said "FWIW You can also just add an update to your question -- that works without having to post a reply to yourself. The team is aware of this issue and I assume it will be addressed with the next update."

They have actually posted an announcement:

Due to an issue in the forum software, some posts here may not show up for everyone until a reply has been posted. To be sure that your thread is visible, feel free to post an empty reply to your own thread.

I hope they get this fixed soon.

Forum discussion at Google Webmaster Help.

Google Recommends Product Ideas for Your Google Mobile Suggestions

Posted: December 31st, 2008, 2:46pm CET by Tamar Weinberg

Tags: Other Google Topics

Want Google to implement a new feature for Google Mobile? You no longer need to venture to Google Groups to make the request. Simply hop on over to [productideas.appspot.com] and submit your product ideas. So far, according to the stats, "805 people have submitted 313 ideas and cast 9,772 votes."

These include:
* "An native iPhone App of Google Reader (include a mini browser), more fast and no problem of reloading page after open a link"
* "Google Talk with multiprotocol capabilities."
* "A "Google Product Ideas" for all google services."
* "i want to be able to see my friends on maps on my phone"

If you have your own suggestions for your mobile device, go to the site and start contributing. You never know!

Forum discussion continues at Google Groups.

Googlers Working on Christmas in 2008

Posted: December 26th, 2008, 1:53pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

Like last year and the year before that, this year, we have Googlers responding to questions in the help forums.

Googler, JohnMu, like last year, came in and responded to at least one thread, likely more. In a Google Webmaster Help thread John tried to help a webmaster deal with temporary down time. He gave the following advice:

Instead of returning a default website when an error occurs, it's much better to let us know that it's a temporary issue (result code 503). That way, we'll know not to look at the content and to try again later.

In addition, Matt Cutts also joined in on a Merry Xmas thread, late last night saying, "luzie, thanks for the welcome. :)"

There were plenty of other Googlers, and likely other search reps at other companies working or participating in company events, on Christmas. I just wanted to document a few.

Summary of Multiple Google Docs Bugs Reports

Posted: December 24th, 2008, 2:59pm CET by Tamar Weinberg

Tags: Other Google Topics

Over the past few weeks, there have been a number of bugs reported within Google Docs. Some of these have been fixed and others are still pending. Here's the lowdown of what we've found in the forums:

* A Google Employee says in a Google Groups thread that the bug that made folders visible on the left hand side of the Google Docs pane has been fixed.

* There's still an open bug (but Google is aware of it) with regards to some spreadsheets not being viewable. The error encountered is "Sorry we are experiencing technical difficulties and cannot show all of your documents." (Google Groups).

* Related to the report above, some users cannot see any of their documents with the same error. Google is also aware of this. (Google Groups)

* When Google Docs documents are being emailed, some senders choose to CC themselves to confirm receipt. However, Gmail automatically assumes that these are spam. The Google Docs team is aware of this as well. (Google Groups)

* Google is also aware that some people can only see the first 50 folders and they are working on a fix (Google Groups)

If you're affected by any of these issues, please go to the forum discussion referred to in the bullet point for more information and related discussion.

Google's Malware Warnings Can Be Subdomain or Subfolder Specific

Posted: December 23rd, 2008, 1:35pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

No one likes it when they get malware on their computers due to an infected site. So that is why Google tries to warn searchers when a site may have malware on it. But Google tries to be as specific as possible, when it comes to malware warnings.

In fact, when possible, Google will report malware issues on subdomains or subfolders only and leave the root domain alone. JohnMu of Google said in a Google Webmaster Help discussion thread:

We try to keep malware labels as specific as possible based on our data. If we can see that it's limited to a specific subdomain, we'll do that. If we can recognize that it's limited to a specific subdirectory, even better. The general problem is that it's often not trivial to find the most specific part of a site that is affected by malware - and with CMSs as they are there's often no clear folder-type structure that we can work with.

That is why a specific blogspot.com blog can be reported as having malware, whereas the main domain will be safe.

Safe Browsing Diagnostic page for blogspot.com
What is the current listing status for blogspot.com?
This site is not currently listed as suspicious.

Part of this site was listed for suspicious activity 227 time(s) over the past 90 days.

Forum discussion at Google Webmaster Help.

Google Image Search Enhancement: Search By Style

Posted: December 22nd, 2008, 3:46pm CET by Tamar Weinberg

Tags: Other Google Topics

The Official Google Blog announced on Friday that a new option is available for searchers: the ability to search for images by a specific style. For example, line art is obviously not the same as a photograph -- and now Google can distinguish this for you.

Here's a screenshot. Click for a larger size:

As you can tell, you can now drill down to news content, faces, clip art, line art, and photo content.

I like. Do you?

Forum discussion continues at DigitalPoint Forums.

Does Google Throttle Domain Traffic?

Posted: December 19th, 2008, 3:26pm CET by Tamar Weinberg

Tags: Other Google Topics

If you get a really high ranking on Google, should you see less traffic? A WebmasterWorld user says that he's getting much higher rankings than before (increases to the first page from page 11) and he's still not getting a traffic boost ("I'm now getting traffic from hundreds more great keyphrases -- but the total traffic at the end of the day is the same as it has been for the past three months.") The thought is that Google is not giving him that boost (but why?)

Some say that this is because even great rankings for very popular keywords do not necessarily bring great traffic. The user argues that his popular keywords ARE bringing him traffic (and they are GREAT keywords), but he's still not sure. The suspicion lies in a correlation between Google AdWords and organic results, but there's absolutely no relationship between the two.

It's still an open ended question. My thought would be to have a good look at analytics and compare the before-after results of the rankings change.

Forum discussion continues at WebmasterWorld.

Google AdSense Sending Out Scary Christmas E-Cards?

Posted: December 19th, 2008, 1:58pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

So, we all know Google AdSense is cutting off holiday gifts this year. There were many insulted publishers. So, I figured Google would at least send out e-cards before the holidays. And some are now receiving these e-cards.

But those receiving the e-cards are afraid they are sent by spammers. In fact, one AdSense publisher said, "it looks like spam, what are they thinking?" Another said that he will "just delete instead of download" the email. Here is what the email said, and it came from the Google Sydney team:

Dear {this bit was blank},
You have just received a message from Google AdSense Team at Visual Jazz.

To view your message, please visit the following address: {redacted, but the domain included a subdomain 'marketing' and a domain appropriate to the company name above, followed by a long alphanumeric pagename}

To unsubscribe, reply to this email and change the subject to be: unsubscribe

E-cards can be done very nicely or they can be done not so nicely. It is sad to see the beloved Google getting so much bad karma towards them over the holiday season.

I did receive an e-card from a good PR person at Yahoo, it looked like this and led to here.

Hope to hear more happy news next week.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Only Whitelisted Sites Can Display Videos Within Google Reader

Posted: December 18th, 2008, 3:27pm CET by Tamar Weinberg

Tags: Other Google Topics

If you're hosting your blog on wordpress.com and are embedding video in your blog post, don't expect for it to show up in Google Reader.

That's what Google employees confirm in a Google Groups thread. According to Mihai, a Google rep, there's a whitelist that sites need to be added to in order for their embedded videos to actually play within Google Reader.

So in case you were wondering, apparently you need to request to be whitelisted. The policy isn't exactly clear on how you get your site added to the whitelist, nor is it indicated whether this whitelist is publicly accessible. I suppose that just means that you need to be on top of Google Groups (for now) in order for Google to consider your site whitelisted.

(Surely, there's got to be a better way...)

Forum discussion continues at Google Groups.

Yahoo VP Qi Lu Replaces Kevin Johnson's Vacancy at Microsoft

Posted: December 5th, 2008, 3:56pm CET by Tamar Weinberg

Tags: Other Yahoo Topics

Since the end of July, there's been a vacancy at Microsoft as Kevin Johnson moved on from the company. The New York Times reports that Johnson's vacancy is finally filled: Qi Lu, a former Yahoo executive, has taken the position.

In selecting Mr. Lu, who will become president of the money-losing online services group in January, Microsoft chose an executive with deep technical knowledge over others with more advertising and media experience. He will be leading the company’s challenge to Google, which dominates the search and online advertising businesses.

Suspicions with hiring technologist Lu have to do with Microsoft wanting to be more like Google. Maybe they're right.

Forum discussion continues at WebmasterWorld.

Google and Yahoo's Ad Deal Ended Because of Anti-Trust Concerns?

Posted: December 5th, 2008, 3:31pm CET by Tamar Weinberg

Tags: Other Google Topics

We reported on November 5th that Google and Yahoo ended their ad agreement. We only knew what the Google Blog (and other news outlets) told us: the government didn't seem too happy about the agreement and advertisers were concerned.

In the past 24 hours, though, it's come to light that there was a lot more than just a "governmental concern." The truth of the matter is that the United States Department of Justice was "three hours away" from filing an antitrust lawsuit against Google, according to CNET.

Now what? Well, Google's decision to pull away was "shrewd." And they think it's smart that Google pulled out, whereas Microsoft's past history shows that they wouldn't back down.

MS rarely back down. Thats why they got such a bad reputation- they were swallowing a multi-million (dollar/pound/euro- take your pick) DAILY fine about publishing "complete and accurate technical specifications" and still fighting.
G still enjoys public affection. It would be seriously bad for them to lose this publically annointed halo. MS never cared what people thought of them- as long as people BOUGHT their product, by hook or by crook

At the same time, though, some wonder why there was a concern about monopolies anyhow. After all, Google and Yahoo are considered competitors.

At the same time, there's a problem with the government's approach, according to one individual.

If the government knew anything about running a business, they wouldn't be operating with a close to $1 trillion annual deficit.

(In comparison, Google is doing a lot better.)

Forum discussion continues at WebmasterWorld and Sphinn.

Webmasters Report December 2008 Google SERP Changes

Posted: December 4th, 2008, 3:36pm CET by Tamar Weinberg

Tags: Other Google Topics

It's December, the last year of 2008, and webmasters have started guessing what's up with Google this month once again.

New sites are fluctuating with their rankings; one webmaster reports that his new sites (2 months old or less) are showing up in the top 10 and then 12 hours later, they're not even in the top 1000. It seems that this is a cycle. Some say it's just a sandbox.

Another observation relates to sitelinks. It seems that there are questions regarding sites that have sitelinks in Google's results. Do those mean that those pages are refreshed more often? Crawled more often? Not necessarily; getting sitelinks means you're a more "popular" site (you have more attention), but having sitelinks isn't a factor. The former brought upon the latter, after all.

A third observation relates to a "disconnect" between index pages and inner pages of sites. These pages were never linked together in the SERPs. Tedster expounds upon this idea and says that he observed that the second results from a domain aren't always indented. Sometimes, though, they're indented too much.

Forum discussion continues at WebmasterWorld.

Google Mobile Maps Asking English Users to Accept Swedish TOS

Posted: December 4th, 2008, 2:25pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

There are confirmed reports at Google Maps Help that users downloading the new Google Maps 2.3.2 to their phones are being asked to accept the terms of service before using it. The only issue is that the terms of service (TOS), in some cases, are coming up in a different language then the language the user knows.

For example, an English user said he opened it and the terms of service look to be in Swedish and thus he cannot understand it to agree to it. He asked if there was a way to switch to an English version of the terms of service?

Google Maps representative, Tom, confirmed the issue, saying:

Thanks for letting us know about this. I saw a similar instance earlier today (German text though) and it's currently being investigated. I'll let you know the outcome when I have more information.

Forum discussion at Google Maps Help.

Video: Google Launches Mobile iPhone Voice Application

Posted: November 18th, 2008, 4:13pm CET by Tamar Weinberg

Tags: Other Google Topics

Guess what, iPhone owners? The Google Mobile Blog has some great news for you. Google has released an iPhone application with voice recognition that will return searches formatted for your phone. This eliminates the need for you to have to type any queries.

Barry has illustrated how this works:

Cool, isn't it? Most people do think so. One defines this move as "cutting edge technology," though I'd have to attribute that to Apple's superior iPhone rather than Google. Jill Whalen is looking for an iPhone application that does voice recognition dialing; you'd think Google would have thought of that!

All in all, the application has been very well-received.

Forum discussion continues at Sphinn and WebmasterWorld.

Google Maps for Mobile Working On Preloading Maps

Posted: November 18th, 2008, 2:12pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

Google Maps for Mobile has become an essential tool for maybe mobile warriors. I have spotted a Google Groups thread that asks Google if they would be willing to allow users to download maps to the application and then use those maps while being offline or not connected to the Internet.

This comes in handy when you:

Don't have a data plan but have wifi
Your internet connection is in a dead zone
When you are on an airplane with airplane mode on

Google Maps Tom, an official Google Maps representative has almost confirmed Google is working on it. He said:

There have been a number of posts in this group specifically requesting this functionality, and we're working to meet your needs - but for now, Google Maps for mobile requires a data connection for use.

How soon? Who knows, but it does seem like Google is working on this.

Forum discussion at Google Groups.

Jerry Does What Is Best For Yahoo By Stepping Down From CEO Role

Posted: November 18th, 2008, 1:59pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Other Yahoo Topics

Jerry Yang, from what I hear about him, is a kind, gentle, caring and giving person. To see the news that he is stepping down form the CEO role, for the betterment of the company, is sad but yet necessary. It is sad, cause he is a good guy, but if it was anyone else, I don't think I would be upset about it. Don't get me wrong, Yahoo needs a new CEO to step in and get the company back on track.

Between all the back and forth with Microsoft and Google, all leading to failure, it is a necessary step. Jerry Yang replaced Terry Semel as CEO in June 2007.

I like Mack's take at the WebmasterWorld thread, where he said, "I think Jerry's main problem was he was to attatched. In business you realy need to think with the head, not the heart. Yahoo! was clearly his "baby"."

Overall, I don't think anyone is surprised. Most wonder what took so long and many are not too confident about Yahoo's future.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld, Sphinn and DigitalPoint Forums.

Gmail Adds Video and Voice Chat

Posted: November 14th, 2008, 2:56pm CET by Tamar Weinberg

Tags: Other Google Topics

Want to see who you're talking to over your IM? You may want to use iChat or Skype, but now, Google Talk can support voice and IM chat. You can find out more.

For those who are dependent on Skype (and perhaps 3-5% of my friends actually use the service consistently), it's nice to know that Gmail will probably fill the void for the remaining 95-97%. Many forum members found that Skype's functionality was limited (you needed XP SP2, for example), so the Gmail solution should work pretty well.

That said, the actual integration of these new features hasn't come without its criticisms. One person expressed his disappointment that Google has not installed a folders system and he considers that important. (I see the point and I agree that Labels alone are NOT the suitable replacement. A future Gmail Labs feature, perhaps?) Other tweaks have been requested within Gmail that would make the *mail* experience a more productive one.

Forum discussion continues at WebmasterWorld, Search Engine Watch Forums, and DigitalPoint Forums

IM Broadcast is a YouTube for Internet Marketers

Posted: October 24th, 2008, 5:03pm CEST by Tamar Weinberg

Tags: Other Search Topics

Loren Baker of Search Engine Journal teamed up with two great guys, Jordan Kasteler and David Snyder of Search and Social to launch IMBroadcast, which is advertised as the "first ever UGC video site dedicated to the Internet Marketing industry."

If you've taken a look at the site already, it really appears to be one of those sites with a ton of potential. Since as you know, Barry loves Video Recaps, I bet this is right up his alley too. At Cre8asite Forums, forum member Barry Welford also sees the potential. Many forum members think there are still opportunities to add text to the video, and that's still true. But there are opportunities to enjoy video as-is too--and we're not talking about from the perspective of search (not yet, at least).

Forum discussion continues at Cre8asite Forums and Sphinn.

Google Labs Adds Canned Responses to Gmail -- and Emoticon Support is Now Here!

Posted: October 24th, 2008, 4:46pm CEST by Tamar Weinberg

Tags: Other Google Topics

Google's Gmail is getting more and more interesting features. First, I heard via Mashable that Gmail Labs has added support for canned responses. The Official Gmail Blog writes:

If you're sick of typing out the same reply every time someone emails you with a common question, now you can compose your reply once and save the message text with the "Canned responses" button. Later, you can open that same message and send it again and again.

As I mentioned in the subject of this post, Canned Responses is only available if you actually turn on the feature in Gmail Labs. Head on over to Settings on the top right hand corner of your Gmail account, click on the Labs tab, and then Enable Canned Responses. Then, whenever you reply to a message, you'll see your Canned Responses; you can add as many as you want.

Given that I use Lifehacker's Texter to help me with canned responses, it's nice to know that Gmail cares and I could do without Texter -- which is helpful when I'm composing a message on a computer that doesn't have Texter installed. This is a much welcome change.

But that's not all Gmail has whipped up for us this week. A day later, we found out that Gmail now supports humor and emoticons, as seen below:

The Official Gmail Blog explains more. To be frank, I'm surprised it took this long. Still, it's nice that they finally included emoticons. Now how about converting my :) to an actual smiley face?

Forum discussion continues at Search Engine Roundtable Forums.

And Yesterday's Google Feedburner Subscriber Drop Was Brought to You By...

Posted: October 24th, 2008, 4:18pm CEST by Tamar Weinberg

Tags: Other Google Topics

Cynthia at Google Groups must be a new FeedBurner user. After all, Feedburner has seen regular drops in subscriber count (maybe once or twice a month) and even ran into a zero subscriber count issue with some users earlier.

But Cynthia dropped 300 subscribers yesterday, according to her FeedBurner count (which makes her lucky, because I dropped 700+). What could have possibly been wrong?

From Google FeedBurner's team, Matt S. informed us that there were issues with FeedBurner and Google Feedfetcher. Naturally, when you get a drastic drop in subscribers, it's no reason to be alarmed; it happens way more often than it should.

Personally, I think asking my peers on Twitter is a great way to be kept abreast of the situation. :)

Forum discussion continues at Google Groups.

Google Webmaster Team Sending Letters To Sitemaps Users?

Posted: October 24th, 2008, 3:10pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

I am not sure about this, but it seems that Google's webmaster trends team is sending out snail mail letters to some Sitemap users in the Google Webmaster Help forums. I believe the letters read:

<url>
<loc>
http://www.google.com/webmasters
</loc>
<created>
2006-08-04
</created>
<priority>
Help webmasters create great sites.
</priority>
</url>

I think this is a gesture of appreciation to some of the more active members in the Google Groups support forum. Again, I am not 100% sure about this, because I do not have a picture to prove it and the language used in the Google Groups thread is a bit cryptic, but I think I am right about this.

Forum discussion at Google Groups.

Update: I have been informed that these are not letters, but rather T-Shirts that have the XML above written on the back of the shirt. I hope to acquire a picture of this T-Shirt. And here is a picture provided by John:

Yahoo's Q3 2008 Earnings Announced

Posted: October 23rd, 2008, 4:58pm CEST by Tamar Weinberg

Tags: Other Yahoo Topics

Yahoo has released its Q3 earnings report with some interesting observations. First, the earnings this quarter are $1,786 million, which is a a 1 percent increase compared to $1,768 million for the same period of 2007.

Currently, fifteen thousand employees work for Yahoo (though layoffs are being reported), and some forum members wonder why. Most importantly, they wonder why Yahoo's CEO is still in play especially given the huge missed opportunity with the Microsoft deal. Here's one statement about the poor direction of Yahoo:

Yahoo, IMHO is terribly mismanaged to the point that it no longer is credible as a search engine or directory as search results are severely lacking.

There's still hope, though, as some people say. Yahoo needs to be a lot more innovative. The question, probably, is: how?

Forum discussion continues at WebmasterWorld.

On Columbus Day, Google Remembers Paddington Bear's 50th Birthday

Posted: October 13th, 2008, 12:50pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

Today is Columbus Day and we have a special theme up for the day. It looks like this:

But if you visit Google, you will see a Paddington Bear 50th birthday logo up for today. The logo looks like this:

Boy does that bring back memories. Of course, the logo links to a Google search result for paddington bear.

Happy birthday Paddington Bear and happy Columbus Day also!

Forum discussion at Search Engine Roundtable Forums.

Google Local Business Center Access Issues

Posted: October 6th, 2008, 2:44pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

A Google Groups thread reports many business owners having difficulty accessing the Google Local Business Center.

The error people are getting is:

System Error
We're sorry, but we are unable to serve your request at this time.

Please try back in a few minutes.

Personally, I have no problem accessing it, but it seems like many are having issues.

The issue has been reported back on September 24th and it still is an issue for many, even today. On October 1st, Google Maps Guide Jen said, "Thanks for bringing this to our attention; we're looking in to it right now." But even since then, many still are reporting issues accessing the Google Local Business Center.

There is no ETA on when the issue will be resolved for these users. Nor did Google explain what the issue may be.

Forum discussion at Google Groups.

Google Scholar Citations Cannot Be Removed

Posted: October 6th, 2008, 2:38pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

Google Scholar has citations for many the results it provides. Those citations are hyperlinked under the search result, and list out sources across the web the cite the resource.

A Google Groups thread asked how he can get his site removed as a link from a Google Scholar citation. This particular webmaster removed the page but the citation is still listed in Google Scholar.

Googler, Susan Moskwa explained that citations cannot be removed. Why? Susan explains:

In Google Scholar, a citation is generated basically whenever we learn that a particular item (book, article, etc.) exists. As soon as we learn that "Book A" exists--and we may learn of it because we find a link to it, because some other work cites it, or through some other means--we generate a citation for it. The citation doesn't necessarily link to Book A, or provide anything more than a title and author name (although it may); it just indicates that Book A exists, or existed, somewhere in the world. It also doesn't necessarily link to works that reference Book A, or provide any web results, because just because we know a work exists doesn't mean we have any references or web results for it.

This is why you see some citations in Google Scholar that are not hyperlinked.

Forum discussion at Google Groups.

Google Moderator Goes Live

Posted: September 26th, 2008, 4:35pm CEST by Tamar Weinberg

Tags: Other Google Topics

Yesterday, I went through a bunch of my feeds and saw Matt Cutts announce a new toy from Google, Google Moderator.

The idea behind Google Moderator is that questions are asked to a group of participants and these people can vote upon the question. Sounds like a social site to me. ;)

Barry suggests over at Search Engine Land that this is a bit like Yahoo Suggestions, and he may be right. But Barry also mentions that Yahoo Suggestions is specific to Yahoo feedback, and users can go crazy with Google Moderator -- it's not limited to anything.

Pretty cool tool. Check it out.

Forum discussion continues at DigitalPoint Forums.

Google Reader Keyboard Shortcuts Changed Without Warning?

Posted: September 25th, 2008, 5:48pm CEST by Tamar Weinberg

Tags: Other Google Topics

People using Google Reader who rely heavily on keyword shortcuts aren't happy. A Google Groups thread has a few forum members baffled. The documented behavior follows:

I noticed that the "n" and "p" keys, used to scan down and up through the posts in list view, now causes the selected post to move to the top of the view's window whenever pressed. Prior to this, the displayed posts did not move, allowing movement through the displayed posts.

Many forum members echoed this sentiment. Roger of the Google Reader group says that the keyboard shortcuts will be replaced. I'm a bit curious myself as to why the behavior changed, especially since so many people are dependent on keyword shortcuts and are used to status quo, but I'm glad that the Google Reader team has opted to make the changes and listen to the feedback.

Forum discussion continues at Google Groups.

Is There a Third Google Co-Founder?

Posted: September 25th, 2008, 3:01pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

A couple days ago TechCrunch reported that a man named Hubert Chang claimed to be the third co-founder of Google. Yes, not just Larry and Sergey, but now, Larry, Sergey and Hubert (has a ring to it).

Here is Hubert's video:

Google truth, the truth of Google's birth from googletruth on Vimeo.

Both Google and Stanford professor Rajeev Motwani has denied that he founded Google. Here is Google's statement:

There is no substance to Hubert Chang’s claims - he had no involvement in the creation of Google. Neither Larry or Sergey have any recollection of meeting him - however, given the number of people they’ve met in the last decade it’s impossible to say categorically that they never have. Rajeev Motwani, the Professor and Director of Graduate Studies at Stanford, believes he may have shared some emails from Mr. Chang with Larry and Sergey in 1997 or 1998. But in any case PageRank had already been developed by that time, and Larry and Sergey had already decided to start Google.

Here is Rajeev Motwani's statement:

To the best of my knowledge, his claims about being a founder of Google, coming up with the name and/or the business plan etc, are completely unfounded in reality. I am sure I would have noticed a third founder, if one existed, since I was working closely with Larry and Sergey at Stanford the time.

I do recall receiving a couple of emails from Hubert Chang in 1997 or 1998. Its been such a long time that I don’t have any recollection of their contents but it’s probable I shared those emails with Larry and Sergey. In any case, by that time the basic idea of PageRank was already in place and there was a clear intent of building a company around this. I am pretty certain that none of the three of us actually met with Hubert Chang during that time period.

So, do you believe Hubert is a co-founder of Google? Take our poll:

Forum discussion at Cre8asite Forums.

Google Maps Now Exclusive To Tele Atlas Data

Posted: September 22nd, 2008, 1:29pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

Google has primary used two sources of data for their Google Maps product. Google announced in a Google Groups thread, that they are going to be sticking with just one source for the foreseeable future. That source is Tele Atlas.

Maps Guide Adam explained that Tele Atlas powered Google Maps API and Google Maps for Mobile fully and will now power Google Maps fully. Adam explains that you should see many improvements, but there may be some issues with some locations.

While most of the map will look the same, and in many areas it will improve, there may also be some cases where the data may not be optimal.

If you find issues, Google recommends two things to help improve the map tool:

(1) Use the community edit feature.
(2) Tell Tele Atlas of bugs or mistakes over here

Forum discussion at Google Groups.

Google Maps Adds Streets to Israel & Mobile Coming Soon

Posted: September 19th, 2008, 2:46pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

Recently, maybe a few weeks or months ago, Google Maps added street data for Israel. Before, they only had limited Satellite data for the country. But now, you can get street outlines with very limited street names in the map product.

Here is an static image of the map of the "Old City" in Jerusalem. The blue markers represent where I stayed and learned for about 4 months of my life. The green patch at the bottom was a place we played soccer. The outline with the square box and circle in the middle, is the Western Wall and Temple Mount.

Notice the interactive version still has no street data. Here is a live embedded map, which will likely change to show streets in the future:

View Larger Map

In any event, a Google Groups thread asks when the street outlines will be coming to the mobile version. Google Maps Tom hinted that it would be soon, he said:

Map data that appear on the desktop version Google Maps generally makes its way over to the mobile version. I don't have an exact timeframe for when roads in Israel will be updated, but you can expect that they'll appear eventually :)

Forum discussion at Google Groups.

Google Mobile Maps New Street Views & Walking Directions Not 100%

Posted: September 18th, 2008, 5:37pm CEST by Tamar Weinberg

Tags: Other Google Topics

Are you a heavy user of Google Maps for Mobile? Google has announced that both Street View and Walking Directions have been added to the handheld application. If you want to see it in action, go to google.com/gmm from your mobile browser and then download the application for your phone.

While this is promising and I'd love to see it myself, some forum members are reporting issues with street view. There are three separate reports that street view is not available on the new version for Windows (2.2.0.19). I just downloaded 2.0.2.0 for my Palm OS (yeah, sorry Google, I'm that old school) and I, too, don't see it.

Forum discussion continues at Google Groups.

Marissa Mayer of Google Speaks about the Future of Search

Posted: September 12th, 2008, 3:43pm CEST by Tamar Weinberg

Tags: Other Google Topics

On the Official Google Blog, Marissa Mayer has spoken about her role at Google and the future of search. She explains that search will be becoming more mobile, that voice and natural language search will probably be more emphasized, and that other advances will be made as well. Additionally, Mayer talks about the impact of universal search and personalization. Finally, Google will likely emphasize language using machine translation.

Mayer concludes her insightful blog post letting us know that search will be forever improved and that it is "a science that will develop and advance over hundreds of years."

Forum discussion continues at WebmasterWorld.

"The SEO Squares" - Are SEO's Squares?

Posted: September 11th, 2008, 4:10pm CEST by Tamar Weinberg

Tags: Other Search Topics

Want to see some industry figures dressed up in comics as ... erm, squares? Well, if you do, go to the Ranked Hard blog and check it out. You'll find a nude Vanessa fox, a Jim Boykin ninja, a guy named Brad Smart who I've never heard of (and who Ranked Hard says is a fictional character anyway, so I guess I'm not totally out of the loop), and more.

Check it out for your morning laugh :)

For old time's sake, this should remind you of that US game show, Hollywood Squares.

Forum discussion continues at Sphinn.

Google Says Private Registration Won't Hurt Your Search Rankings

Posted: September 5th, 2008, 5:10pm CEST by Tamar Weinberg

Tags: Other Google Topics

With the number of scammers who try to usurp ownership of domain increasing (I got 2 letters for 3 domains last week), it's a surprise that few people really take advantage of private registration for their domain names. However, many people don't know about WhoisGuard or Domains By Proxy and instead leave their domain names exposed with all identifying information intact. It's no wonder I even got a call yesterday about my domain name. In a way, it's nice to know when people are checking on you. In another way, it's something that can be easily abused.

The obvious SEO question still hasn't been addressed though. If you have a private registration, will your rankings be impacted?

According to JohnMu, it typically doesn't impact rankings, so you need not worry if you are already implementing it.

However, if you're a business, why would you hide your identifying information? What does that say about your company? What happens if your web site gets hacked and there's no obvious or working contact form on your site? It'll be hard to get reached by Google or someone else who stumbles upon your site in that case. Thus, while it's a hassle at times to have to worry about your identifying information, losing your rankings altogether due to intrusions can be a lot more costly to your business.

Also, JohnMu suggests that you list valid contact information in your domain. This is actually required by the ICANN, not by Google. I spent a good chunk of last night updating my new address in the 40something domains I own and it was a hassle, but at the end of the day, it's better to do this than risk losing your domain altogether.

Forum discussion continues at Google Groups.

Search Community Shares Chrome Browser Stats

Posted: September 5th, 2008, 4:19pm CEST by Tamar Weinberg

Tags: Other Google Topics

It's only been less than a week and a large percentage of internet folks are using the new Google Chrome Browser. (As for me, I haven't had time to give it a spin yet, but moving on...) Over at Search Engine Land, an extremely large early adopter crowd has surfaced. Barry has compiled all of the stats of the Google Analytics users and Chrome is emerging in an impressive third place position (on average).

Of the three sites sampled in the Search Engine Land post, 6.42% of site visitors are using Chrome. Barry solicits statistical feedback on Sphinn and a number of users are also seeing substantial Chrome representation. Matt Cutts, for example, finds that a whopping 19.44% of his visitors are using Google Chrome.

Here's the Search Engine Roundtable representation:

The average percentage of Chrome users among the Sphinn readership for September 3rd is approximately 3.87%. This includes a tally of 17 different responses in the Sphinn thread and includes some sites that had not reported any Chrome usage.

Forum discussion continues at Sphinn.

44% of SEO/SEMs Say Google's Chrome Won't Win the Browser War

Posted: September 5th, 2008, 2:51pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

A few days ago, I asked you guys if you think Google Chrome will win the browser wars.

The responses were pretty much all over the place. We had a total of 162 responses, with 72 people saying no, 55 saying yes and 35 saying they have no idea.

Here is the break down:
:: No said 72 respondents or 44%
:: Yes said 55 respondents or 34%
:: No Idea said 35 respondents or 22%

Forum discussion continued at:

Google Chrome, Google's Browser Project, Google Blogoscoped
Google Chrome - Google's Browser Project, WebmasterWorld
Google Chrome, Google's Browser, Google Blogoscoped
Google Chrome, Google's Web Browser: Is it Real?, Sphinn
Google Chrome, HighRankings Forums
Google Chrome, Google's Browser Project, Sphinn
Will Chrome kill IE , DigitalPoint Forums

Submit Your Google Chrome Feedback Over Here

Posted: September 3rd, 2008, 4:16pm CEST by Tamar Weinberg

Tags: Other Google Topics

Yesterday, we covered the launch of Google Chrome, its new web browser. Just a day later, we have already spotted a Google Group dedicated to Google Chrome Help issues with a few Google employees working to solve problems (Google Chrome Guide 1, Google Chrome Guide 2, Google Chrome Help Owner).

So far the group is pretty active. It's a great place to visit to get help on Google Chrome. That said, I get a ton of emails about me helping random webmasters about specific issues, and well, the best recommendation (and only one) is that you all should check out Google Groups. It really is a great asset.

Check out the discussions on Google Chrome Help for more information.

Google Maps Finally Brings Back Reordering Destinations & More

Posted: September 3rd, 2008, 3:33pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

When Google Maps redesigned a couple months back, many users became extremely upset. Why? Because Google pulled a few features that users felt were critical to the mapping product. Those features included the ability to reorder the your destinations and also the time it takes to go between point A, B, C and so on.

Google's Maps Guide Brian has announced in a Google Groups thread that those features are back.

Here is a quick video of the new design and how reordering works:

As Brian explained and as you can see from the video above, "you can control everything in the box displaying all of your locations at the top of the left panel. When you scroll over the green circles, you'll notice that you can click and drag locations to rearrange them." Plus, Google added back the "driving times between segments of a multi-way trip."

Forum discussion at Google Groups.

Can Google Win The Browser Wars With Google Chrome?

Posted: September 2nd, 2008, 2:44pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

I am sure many, if not all, of you have heard the news about Google Chrome, Google's open source web browser that is launching today. Techmeme is plastered with blog posts on the topic, it is seriously amazing! In any event, Google accidently sent out the email notification about this new browser they are beta testing to Google Blogoscoped. Google Blogoscoped posted the details based on the email from Google and then the news got going. Google quickly posted the explanation about it and said, to check back tomorrow (which is today) for how you can download the Windows based beta browser. Again, there are hundreds of articles on Techmeme on the story and many of these sites have videos, screen shots and opinions on the new browser.

I won't go through it all, you can read the information from the links above. Oh, for kicks, you can check out my old old post named The Google Browser from 2004.

We know Microsoft has been trying to stomp on Google's web search turf and has, so far, been unsuccessful. We know that Microsoft successfully beat Netscape in the browser wars. We know that Mozilla, with Google's help, has been gaining share in the browser market share game. Now, with Google developing their own browser, do you think Google can win the browser wars? Do you think Google can dominate IE and Firefox? Here is a poll:

Personally, I think it will be hard for Google to beat Microsoft in this space. I do think that Mozilla has a lot to worry about, as do the other browser companies like Opera. Safari, should be somewhat safe, just like I think Internet Explorer is somewhat safe. Why? They come preinstalled. Of course, Google can make deals with Dell and other manufacturers, like they have done with Google desktop, search applications and more.

Forum discussion at:

Google Chrome, Google's Browser Project, Google Blogoscoped
Google Chrome - Google's Browser Project, WebmasterWorld
Google Chrome, Google's Browser, Google Blogoscoped
Google Chrome, Google's Web Browser: Is it Real?, Sphinn
Google Chrome, HighRankings Forums
Google Chrome, Google's Browser Project, Sphinn
Will Chrome kill IE , DigitalPoint Forums

Webmasters Discuss Google Base and Shopping SERPs

Posted: August 22nd, 2008, 5:18pm CEST by Tamar Weinberg

Tags: Other Google Topics

A week ago, we blogged about the effectiveness of Google Base and the shopping SERPs. To reiterate, webmasters have wondered whether Google Base would help them achieve better traffic or if there was no change when utilizing this other Google product.

In a blog comment, an anonymous retailer says that using Google Base has helped him/her get an increase in traffic and the person encourages others to try it out.

On WebmasterWorld, many people say that it has helped them as well. Netmeg, for example, says that "everyone we've submitted a feed for is doing surprisingly well with it."

"What if you don't have reviews?" one member asks. A useful tip is provided:

Reviews are hard to get. We find that only 3% of the people who buy actually leave a review.
What you have to do is to break out the adwords budget a bit, get that nice badge and start driving traffic to your top 10 selling items. If you use two or three check out methods, offer some kind of discount for people to use Google check out for payment. We used a 5% off your order type of coupon we made in our Google Checkout panel if you placed your order online.

From there, service your customer and wait for the reviews.

As another forum member says that you don't have to focus your energy *all* on Google. "[T]he more shopping engines you advertise on the more reviews Google will pick up, assuming you get reviews on those other shopping sites."

Google Base program policies are here if you want to try it out.

Forum discussion continues at WebmasterWorld.

Google Map Maker Now Available in 57 Countries

Posted: August 22nd, 2008, 4:51pm CEST by Tamar Weinberg

Tags: Other Google Topics

At the end of June, we announced the launch of Google Map Maker. Now, two months later, Google has its own update. From a Google Groups thread, we're told that Google Map Maker is now available in 57 countries.

Again, here are some features available to you when you utilize the Map Maker:

There's a Map Maker User Help document for more ways to use this tool and a Google Map Maker Group as well.

Forum discussion continues at Google Groups.

Yahoo! Site Explorer Gets a Facelift

Posted: August 22nd, 2008, 4:22pm CEST by Tamar Weinberg

Tags: Other Yahoo Topics

The Yahoo Search Blog tells us that Yahoo! Site Explorer has a new interface with more dynamic features. Additionally, the redesign boasts a new Site Summary page that provides interesting statistics for sites that have been authenticated with Yahoo! Site Explorer. You can see this and more at [https:]. (The blog post already has some nice comments, including a bunch of spam comments that I hope Yahoo deletes, like this: "Hi, This new tool is ok, though i haven't checked it but just uploaded my new website on low cost health insurance..." Enough said.)

Barry has already blogged about the new features on Search Engine Land and explains that the new Site Summary page gives you a nice bit of information as seen below:

+ Site URL
+ Number of pages known
+ Number of pages crawled
+ Number of host on this domain
+ Number of inlinks
+ Number of inlink domains
+ Number of outlinks
+ Number of outlink domains

Here's an image of the new interface as well:

It looks good. Thanks for the update, Yahoo!

Forum discussion continues at DigitalPoint Forums and WebmasterWorld.

Google and Yahoo Share Details About Ad Deal

Posted: August 11th, 2008, 5:04pm CEST by Tamar Weinberg

Tags: Other Google Topics

Reuters has reported that Google and Yahoo have disclosed parts of their ad pact. The details, which were filed with SEC, "take the unusual step of disclosing the contract governing the partnership, but leave out any financial terms, such as the revenue split on their deal."

The article states that a number of people are upset by the possible partnership, especially since this will give the Google empire control of 90% of the search market. However, the article later states that Google and Yahoo wants to emphasize that this is a non-exclusive agreement "in which Yahoo is effectively contracting with Google to sell ads alongside a portion of its search results." This positions Yahoo to focus on its stronger suits.

Forum discussion continues at WebmasterWorld.

Google Maps Users Cannot View Maps Created by Others

Posted: August 11th, 2008, 4:46pm CEST by Tamar Weinberg

Tags: Other Google Topics

In a Google Groups thread, users are reporting that they are not able to share or view maps that are created by others. This error has been reported since July 29th and a number of users are impacted (but others are not).

After heated discussions on the thread and 56 messages with a number of members trying to illustrate the problem, Maps Guide Mike says that this is a bug that was indeed fixed and that they will push the fix externally soon.

Forum discussion continues at Google Groups. Additional coverage is at Google Personalizes Maps by Adding "My Maps" Feature and Google Maps Supports User Generated Reviews.

Does Google Index Flex Content?

Posted: August 7th, 2008, 5:01pm CEST by Tamar Weinberg

Tags: Other Google Topics

Web pages that are designed with Flex Content, that is, using "a module that allows for flexible display of introductory text, title, and an image from any content item," are not spidered by Google, from reports in Google Groups.

What are the options, then, if you're a Flex content developer? Just like Flash content, it seems, you should make the same content available in standard HTML for the search engine spiders. This would also help those users visiting your site using a browser that is not Flex compliant.

Forum discussion continues at Google Groups.

Performics Dropped by Google, Acquired by Publicis

Posted: August 7th, 2008, 4:47pm CEST by Tamar Weinberg

Tags: Other Google Topics

The Washington Post reports that Google has sold Performics, its search marketing division of DoubleClick. Because of the conflict of interest, this was promised, as stated by Barry both here and over at Search Engine Land.

Is there surprise in the industry? Not so much. Most people consider this "fairly expected" and that Google really only needed an affiliate network.

Nobody seems particularly moved by the news reports, and they're happy that Google has ridden itself of the conflict.

Blog discussion can be read at Techmeme, our past coverage is here, and forum discussion continues at WebmasterWorld.

Google and Microsoft's Second Quarter Results Revealed

Posted: July 18th, 2008, 4:16pm CEST by Tamar Weinberg

Tags: Other Google Topics

Techmeme has the big buzz about Google's second quarter earnings. Google claimed this was a strong quarter with 35% in profits ($3.92 per share), but their earnings still didn't meet analysts' expectations.

Meanwhile, Microsoft's earnings also rose. The company's fiscal fourth quarter ended on June 30th, with an approximate profit of $0.46 a share. While this is better than their earnings the previous year ($0.31/share), analysts were hoping for just a bit more ($0.47/share). Much of its failure, according to the report, is that Microsoft still has a weak online presence. Its profits are related to their operating systems and applications.

Forum discussion continues at WebmasterWorld (Google) and WebmasterWorld (Microsoft).

What are the Technologies Behind the Google Ranking?

Posted: July 17th, 2008, 4:42pm CEST by Tamar Weinberg

Tags: Other Google Topics

The official Google Blog had a post yesterday about the technologies that are behind the Google ranking, following up from a post about how Google ranks results. Amit Singhal is at it again and he talks about the importance of information retrieval (IR). He goes on to say that Google crawls and indexes pages to understand them and associates important concepts to a page when they're not actually obvious on the page itself.

But what about what the users are looking for? Amit says that to understand queries, Google has incorporated a "best-in-class spelling suggestion system, an advanced synonyms system, and a very strong concept analysis system." Google often can read the typos and give you better options when you misspell words. It is a little more difficult, however, to work with synonyms. Also, Google tries to derive the main concepts from a query.

Finally, Google needs to understand users. Google's motto here is that the "best locally relevant results [are] served globally." Google also utilizes personalization and universal search in this area.

Google also has developed something called Cross Language Information Retrieval (CLIR). According to Singhal:

CLIR allows users to first discover information that is not in their language, and then using Google's translation technology, we make this information accessible. I call this advance: give me what I want in any language.

WebmasterWorld members are suggesting that a lot of what Google is saying here is reflected in many of their SERP changes reports. Specifically, there are changes in "relational term weight," probably as a result of the weight on concepts.

Some people think that Google used this to brag about how far they've come. Yet others are upset that Google didn't even really mention the "technologies" as stated in the title (instead, the article is more focused on results). Also, this article doesn't seem to be particularly groundbreaking.

Still, it's an interesting read.

Forum discussion continues at WebmasterWorld and DigitalPoint Forums.

Viacom Lays Off Demands for YouTube Viewing Records

Posted: July 16th, 2008, 4:50pm CEST by Tamar Weinberg

Tags: Other Google Topics

Earlier this month, we reported that Viacom ordered Google to turn over YouTube records. Google will now have to give Viacom the records, but in a compromise, without data that will identify users, according to BBC News.

Many people are now breathing sighs of relief. But others think that this is Google trying to forge for itself a victory that was already assured and think it was just a public relations play:

But: (1) Viacom is still getting the data it wanted. (2) While Google will anonymize user names and IP addresses of YouTube users, Viacom has has said it never wanted the identities of YouTube users anyway. So it's just Google PR that claims victory. Hoorah!

Some people think that the way Google played this card is "sickening."

There really have been no opposing statements--they think this was the motive of Google all along.

As an aside, Danny Sullivan writes at Search Engine Land that anonymizing the data in Google's suggested way may still lead Viacom to actual video watchers based on personalized behavior. What comes to mind? Thelma Arnold.

Forum discussion continues at WebmasterWorld.

Google Improves Flash Indexing Again

Posted: July 15th, 2008, 4:47pm CEST by Tamar Weinberg

Tags: Other Google Topics

On the first day of this month, we reported that Google and Yahoo were to begin indexing Flash files. According to the pertinent Google Webmaster Central blog post, Google is able to crawl the contextual elements in these blog posts. The post itself has been updated with Google mentioning that it rolled out even more features:

For our July 1st launch, we didn't enable Flash indexing for Flash files embedded via SWFObject. We're now rolling out an update that enables support for common JavaScript techniques for embedding Flash, including SWFObject and SWFObject2.

Those using SWFObject should appreciate this new functionality. But there's one concern expressed by tedster. Hopefully, the spiders won't ignore HTML content on those pages that also utilize SWFObject.

I use SWFObject to serve alternate HTML content to user agents that are not flash enabled. So I certainly hope this change doesn't mean Google starts to ignore the actual HTML! I can't imagine that happening, at least not intentionally.

Forum discussion continues at WebmasterWorld.

Google Fridges Begin To Melt Down

Posted: July 15th, 2008, 2:34pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

Back in April of 2006, Google began sending out Google Fridges to some of their larger advertisers as a thank you. Well, I am now seeing reports via WebmasterWorld that those fridges are beginning to break.

WebmasterWorld's Hubie said:

I got the Google Fridge about 1.5 years ago, and the damn thing stopped working! the power cord still works, but my fridge aint getting cold anymore. I love this thing...how do I fix it? I'm assuming sending it back to google for repair is not an option:)

He is not the only one. Senior Member, Poster_Boy said, "of the 5+ fridges that I know of via various colleagues... all have broken."

I guess that is what you can expect from schwag that is a fridge. To be fair, Google did send out more Fridges last year and if you really need a new one, you may be able to buy one on eBay. We bought RustyBrick Fridges for clients last December and they are currently still operational - I wonder when they will blow up.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

comScore: Google Search Share is at 61.6%

Posted: May 26th, 2008, 4:11pm CEST by Tamar Weinberg

Tags: Other Google Topics

comScore released its April 2008 rankings last week, and it appears that Google has increased its search share to 61.6% up from 59.8% the previous month.

Even though this is an overall view of search traffic, forum members wonder if the quality will improve in certain niches (especially Ask, now that it may target women -- of course, women would have to actually realize this and search Ask in order for this new arrangement to work for them). It all depends on the users, according to a forum member. Google performs very well in certain areas.

Looking at this data, another forum member wonders why Google, the "search giant baby," is worried about the Yahoo-Microsoft merger. That's one specific issue that will affect a lot of people for some time.

On a related note, Danny Sullivan at Search Engine Land has graphed out the search shares of Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft. The graph shows that Google search shares have increased, whereas Yahoo and Microsoft search has decreased for the most part.

Forum discussion continues at WebmasterWorld.

Love Google Maps? Help Improve It With Your Suggestions

Posted: May 23rd, 2008, 1:55pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

Google Maps has really come a long way since it originally launched, a really long way. The mapping tools offered by Google are not only informative but very fun to use. From street views, directions, plotting your own points, user images, wikipedia data, data overlays and much more - it is really a great tool for users.

But it can be better and Google is looking for suggestions from us.

Google Maps Guide Brian posted a thread at Google Groups asking for our feedback and suggestions. He said:

We're always interested in hearing your feedback and feature suggestions. Use this group to share your thoughts, and I, along with the rest of the Google Maps Guides, will make sure that your comments shared with the rest of the team.

If there is any feature you want, this is your time to let Google know about it. Just go to the thread, join the forum and post your two cents.

Forum discussion at Google Groups.

Is Google Perfect? Not Always. Here are 10 Flops.

Posted: May 22nd, 2008, 4:28pm CEST by Tamar Weinberg

Tags: Other Google Topics

While everyone talks about Google's market dominance and how it's taken over the world (naturally, because it's good at what it does), most forget that like any business, Google has made erroneous decisions as a company from time to time. PC World explores these flubs, flops, and failures in an article that proves to be a very informative read.

Some examples of Google mishaps include Google X (a homage to Mac OS X which mysteriously disappeared after a single day of being public), Google Video Player, Google Catalog, Google Web Accelerator, Google Answers, Google Coupons, Google Voice Search, Google Viewer, Google Checkout (especially related to a party-crashing incident), and Orkut (at least in the US).

The question is: do you guys really remember most of these? Probably not. With success will ultimately come failure, but you can certainly gain from learning what works and what doesn't.

Forum discussion continues at DigitalPoint Forums.

Chark Added To Google Search Quality Support Team

Posted: May 21st, 2008, 3:37pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

First spotted by John, a new Googler has been added to the Google Webmaster team, to help webmasters in Google.

The Googler's name is Chark, he goes by Char, and he is part of the Search Quality team. He promises to help put in the Google Webmaster Help Group.

In a post, introducing himself at Google Groups, he shared some of his personal stuff:

My foray into webmastering began with a personal photo gallery site I created years ago, which looks like it is perpetually stuck in the nineties. To redeem myself, I helped my last company bring its website out of the nineties. Currently, I co-author a personal blog and am working on setting up a personal website to host my own music fluff (domain name TBD).
In addition to creating music fluff, I also like listening to all sorts of music, trying different kinds of food, wandering around in general, and learning about people.

Welcome Char, it is great to have you part of the SEM family.

Forum discussion at Google Groups.

The Next Five Years of Search

Posted: May 20th, 2008, 3:33pm CEST by Tamar Weinberg

Tags: Other Search Topics

Mike Grehan wrote an article on the future of SEO and shared his thoughts on Search Engine Watch Forums. Perhaps most importantly, Mike talks about the personalization of search among different verticals and how social search will have a predominant impact on the future of search in the next five years. He notes in the forum discussion that there's an advantage (perhaps an unfair one at that) because of some people having access to the web over others and poses the following question:

Should search engine ranking algorithms continue to be based only on the data they have about people who happen to have web sites and therefore have text pages and can link to others. Or is the voice and opinion of the end user now being heard much more clearly?

It's an interesting dilemma, but I think having a website means that you have a vested interest in the growth of the Internet (whereas if you didn't maintain/own a website, your motives are different). But that's just me. What about you?

Forum discussion continues at Search Engine Watch Forums.

Google Health Launches Amid Privacy Concerns

Posted: May 20th, 2008, 3:15pm CEST by Tamar Weinberg

Tags: Other Google Topics

Yesterday's big news was about the launch of Google Health which right now is likened to a "notebook" of your medical records (gender, age, medications, doctors, etc.)

Here's a screenshot of the portal once you're logged in:

Of course, the issue of privacy has come up in several forum discussions. It's enough that Google has other information about so many millions of users, but health is a step too far.

beu at Search Engine Watch Forums points out something interesting, though:

Some residents of New Orleans have no medical records as a result of Katrina! I'd love to know the adoption rate of Google Health in the State of Louisiana as compared to the rest of the US.

It'd be nifty to see if Louisiana adopted this system and made it mainstream.

Additional blog discussion is at Techmeme and forum discussion continues at Cre8asite Forums, Search Engine Watch Forums, and DigitalPoint Forums.

Yahoo Opens SearchMonkey Doors to Everyone

Posted: May 16th, 2008, 4:45pm CEST by Tamar Weinberg

Tags: Other Yahoo Topics

Are you a developer? You may be interested in SearchMonkey, Yahoo's new open developer platform, which was released to all developers yesterday.

The concept behind SearchMonkey is to empower developers to build applications that increase relevancy of search results. Developers can build Enhanced Results or Infobars under the Search Monkey API which can pull data from CitySearch, StumbleUpon, eBay, Epicurious, and more. According to the announcement, "Enhanced Results replace the current standard results with a richer display. All the links in the Enhanced Results must point to the site to which the result refers. Infobars are appended below search results and can include metadata about the result, related links or content, or links for user actions (such as adding a movie to a Netflix queue)."

Yahoo is also holding a contest that enables developers to create their own tools using the new API. Winners can receive up to $10,000.

Forum discussion continues at DigitalPoint Forums.

Google Strives to Help Myanmar Cyclone Victims

Posted: May 8th, 2008, 4:45pm CEST by Tamar Weinberg

Tags: Other Google Topics

After a deathly cyclone ravaged the Myanmar (Burma) region, thousands of people are still hoping for aid while the death toll rises into the six digits. Fortunately, if you go to Google.com today, you'll see that they're looking to help. A screenshot of what my homepage appears as is included:

The link takes you to the Myanmar disaster relief page which allows you to donate through UNICEF or through Direct Relief International.

Forum members believe that the poignancy of this link is a great gesture and are happy that Google is taking a proactive stance to help out the victims and their families.

More disaster relief resources from other search properties are described in Greg Sterling's very useful Search Engine Land post.

Discussion continues at DigitalPoint Forums.

Yahoo and McAfee Partner to Give Users SearchScan

Posted: May 7th, 2008, 2:10pm CEST by Tamar Weinberg

Tags: Other Yahoo Topics

Yahoo has announced on its blog that since security is so important, together with McAfee, Yahoo has launched SearchScan to protect web surfers from sites that contain malicious software such as viruses or software and spam.

If you do a search for a phrase like "screensaver," you'll see the tool in action:

While the solution is great for security, forum members wonder why the questionable results have to be indexed at all. There are a few possible answers to this scenario, including the possibility that the site can be mistakingly flagged as dangerous if there are enough reports about it. This solution instead lets the web owner see it before it's taken off the results completely and gives some information into what could be causing the warning.

Malware reviews aren't new. Google has had the feature since the beginning of 2007. It's very good for Yahoo surfers that they get the added security as well.

Forum discussion continues at DigitalPoint Forums and WebmasterWorld.

Google Reader Adds "Share With Note" Feature

Posted: May 6th, 2008, 4:46pm CEST by Tamar Weinberg

Tags: Other Google Topics

Want to share something you found particularly useful on Google Reader with some more information? You now can, thanks to a new feature called "Share with Note" that looks just like this:

On the bottom of any feed item, click on "Share with Note" and the screen above pops up. You can then give some feedback into why you're sharing the particular blog post or news story. In other words, it's a feature that Google Reader users have been waiting for.

On your sidebar, now you can click on "Notes" (under "Your Stuff" to see your friends' shared notes. Since the feature is brand new, none of my friends are using the notes yet, but I expect that to change in the near future.

Overall, the response has been overwhelmingly positive, but a lot of people who are testing the feature out are unable to find a "Delete Note" button (or even an option to edit the note), so be careful when adding notes -- for now, they appear permanent!

Forum discussion continues at Google Groups.

Google Combines Street View and Driving Directions

Posted: May 2nd, 2008, 5:28pm CEST by Tamar Weinberg

Tags: Other Google Topics

In order to make it easier to get driving directions and see an intersection or area before you actually get to your desired location, the Google Maps team has integrated driving directions with Street View.

For example, take a look at this:

When you first click on the map, you get the driving directions.

More specifically, in this new update, click on the camera next to the driving directions to see the specific place where you'll need to make a turn:

Cool stuff. :)

Forum discussion continues at Google Groups.

Update by Barry: More specifically, you can click from directly within street views to your next turn. Plus it shows you what turn to make from within the street views overlay:

Google's CEO Eric Schmidt Interviewed by CNBC

Posted: May 2nd, 2008, 4:42pm CEST by Tamar Weinberg

Tags: Other Google Topics

CNBC interviewed Google's CEO Eric Schmidt earlier this week and the informative interview is now live for everyone to read. Video is available in three parts: part 1, part 2, and part 3.

In a nutshell (thanks to engine and nomis5), Eric Schmidt says that he is not aware of the specifics of the Microsoft-Yahoo deal. We know what he knows -- whatever the press people are telling us.

Additionally, Schmidt mentions the difficulty Google is facing when looking to monetize on social media. On the other hand, mobile growth looks promising. The scariest challenge for Schmidt in the future is language translation.

Finally, he says that there's dramatic market growth in the Japanese, Chinese, and European markets, and that Google is a very strong brand in Europe.

In other words, really good stuff. Sit down and give it a listen or read the 6-page interview that I found that nobody posted on WebmasterWorld. ;)

Forum discussion continues at Sphinn and WebmasterWorld.

Google's Vending Machine - Verdict: Cool

Posted: May 1st, 2008, 5:05pm CEST by Tamar Weinberg

Tags: Other Google Topics

Search Engine Journal has a very cool photo of a vending machine in Google's Japan office.

Since I'm not sure who took this photograph (update: it was Loren Baker!), I'm showing you a small size image here:

More photos of Loren's cool Google Japan journey are on Search Engine Journal.

Are you really surprised at such a welcoming vending machine? ;) Google, after all, is the best company to work for!

Forum discussion continues at DigitalPoint Forums.

Google Promotes iGoogle Artist Themes

Posted: April 30th, 2008, 2:52pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

Google is making a major promotional push for iGoogle (Google's personalized home page), with the new artist themes section. If you go to the Google home page, you will notice a special logo that looks like the logo on the right of this post, and a line that reads:

What happens when great art mixes with your homepage? iGoogle Artist Themes

Clicking on the logo or the link will take you to that special iGoogle Artist Themes page, for you to select from about 70 iGoogle personalized themes made specifically by artists. Here are a few sample themes:

This promotion is not just based in the US, Gabs notes Google is pushing it in the UK as well.

Forum discussion at Search Engine Roundtable Forums and DigitalPoint Forums.

Google Announces Software for VisualRank, Precision Image Search

Posted: April 29th, 2008, 6:06pm CEST by Tamar Weinberg

Tags: Other Google Topics

The New York Times reports that "Google researchers say they have a software technology intended to do for digital images on the Web what the company’s original PageRank software did for searches of Web pages." The algorithm, dubbed VisualRank, weighs and ranks images that look most similar.

WebmasterWorld members fear that this could be a problem for spammers -- just like folks aim to build links for PageRank, so too this may happen in the image arena.

However, it may build traffic to images too, which some individuals are hoping for.

Perhaps this is the beginning of greater software technologies that will "index audio spoken in videos" and podcasts. Those transcription services would be super cool.

Forum discussion continues at WebmasterWorld and DigitalPoint Forums.

Google Maps Stickers Gone Missing

Posted: April 29th, 2008, 2:49pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

Remember the Google Maps stickers spotted throughout the UK? They looked like the image on the right of this post.

Well, a while back, probably a year or so ago, I convinced Google to send me one. It never actually made it to my office. I didn't really think about it until now, when I spotted a Google Groups thread that has word from Google that the stickers are forever gone!

Google Maps representative, Jen, said:

I've been trying to track down these stickers for months for some other people in this group but sadly it looks like they've disappeared into the abyss of aged promotional materials. If we ever make more, I'll be sure to follow-up with you. I don't know if we're planning to do that though ever, so... :o(

Say it ain't so! Can those stickers become collector items? Did I miss out on my opportunity on receiving one of these collectables?

Maybe a neat tip for Google would be to start a map game, to find the missing Google Maps stickers. Or maybe not.

Forum discussion at Google Groups.

Weekend Reading: Academic Papers by Googlers

Posted: April 25th, 2008, 4:54pm CEST by Tamar Weinberg

Tags: Other Google Topics

Have you ever wanted to see what interests Google employees? Now you can. Google has combined research written by Googlers in Papers Written by Googlers. Currently, there are a variety of sections that are broken down into the following:

Algorithms and Theory
Artificial Intelligence and Data Mining
Audio, Video, and Image Processing
Distributed Systems and Parallel Computing
Education
Human-Computer Interaction
Hypertext and the Web
Information Retrieval
Machine Learning
Natural Language Processing
Operating Systems
Science
Security, Cryptography, and Privacy
Software Engineering

Pretty heavy duty stuff and very computer-science oriented.

For search enthusiasts, tedster has found two really great papers entitled Finding Near-Duplicate Web Pages: A Large-Scale Evaluation of Algorithms by Monika Henzinger and Structured Models for Fine-to-Coarse Sentiment Analysis by Ryan McDonald et al. Ted believes that these two papers can shape the future of search, especially the latter one which deals with semantic processing.

Forum discussion continues at WebmasterWorld.

Google Introduces Image Advertisements on Cellular Phones

Posted: April 25th, 2008, 4:25pm CEST by Tamar Weinberg

Tags: Other Google Topics

Earlier this week, Reuters said that Google has announced technology to provide brand images on cell phones. In other words, based on a user's query, they'll be provided with some sort of image advertisement that has been scaled to fit on the screen of a mobile phone.

The ads work on a CPC basis and must link to a mobile-phone optimized website, according to the article. They are also currently available in 13 national markets (Australia, China, France, Germany, India, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, Russia, Spain, the UK, and the United States).

Beyond the initial suspicion, people are worried that mobile ads will penetrate even further beyond web surfing. One forum member says that he is dreading the day when his phone will ring with an ad instead of with his selected ringtone. You never know.

Forum discussion continues at WebmasterWorld.

Most Our Readers Want To Work at Google

Posted: April 25th, 2008, 3:24pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

A little over a month ago, I ran a poll asking Would You Want to Work at Google? The results were a bit surprising, 69% of the 143 responses said they would like to work at Google.

98 respondents or 69% of our readers said they would like to work at Google, while only 45 respondents or 31% said they do not want to work at Google. Here is the cute pie chart:

The pie chart, is almost pacman like, sorry Matt.

Continued forum discussion at DigitalPoint Forums.

Google Spidering Encoded HTML in Urls?

Posted: April 24th, 2008, 9:13pm CEST by Phoenix

Tags: Other Google Topics

Maybe so, just a spidering glitch, weird links, or sitemap error? I was searching this morning in Google doing some tests on Google's new Whois feature. When I plugged in a domain what popped up in the first page of the results was a weird URL including encoded ampersand and other characters in front of the shown URL for the website (aboutus.org). Once I clicked on the link I got a 404 error.

Screenshot:

Link to Result.

Thoughts? Comments?

Google (GOOG) Stock Surges Overnight After Awesome Q1 Announcement

Posted: April 18th, 2008, 2:11pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

Can Google disappoint? I am personally don't get it, but I did help cover the announcement last night at Search Engine Land with Google Beats Forecasts With 30% Increase In Profit. The news is still dominating Techmeme, here is the overview:

Google's reported revenues of $5.19 billion for the quarter ended March 31, 2008 and a net income of $1.31 billion. Previous quarter revenues was $4.83 billion in Q4 and $3.66 billion in Q1 2007. Previous quarter income was 1.21 billion in Q4 2007. Google's shares are currently up over 12% in after market conditions, now at $506.87.

In short, they totally beat expectations and now their stock has climbed $77, 17% plus, overnight in after-market conditions.

The forums are buzzing about the news. Many are saying things like, "wow" and Google is making too much profit on their dime, and so on.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld,Search Engine Watch Forums and DigitalPoint Forums.

Buy A Google-Plex Tour on eBay

Posted: April 17th, 2008, 2:43pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

Beu posted a Search Engine Watch Forums thread on a new eBay listing to bid on getting a VIP tour of Google's Mountain View office, aka the Googleplex.

The private tour is for two individuals to get an "insider's look at the "best place to work." In fact, this is being organized by Foundation for the Future, an organization that "raises private funds that allow Menlo-Atherton High School to address the real-time needs of its diverse and high-performing students." Note that the winning bid will go in its entirety to the foundation.

If you win, you get to pick a date on the weekdays only for a two and a half hour tour, which includes lunch. Only catch is you need to pick a date before July 31, 2008.

The eBay auction runs until Apr-20-08 21:00:00 PDT and the current bid is only $265.00, with 15 bids already. So, if this is for you or if you just want to give a nice donation, go to the eBay listing and bid away.

Forum discussion at Search Engine Watch Forums.

How Do You Get Less Search Traffic?

Posted: April 15th, 2008, 6:07pm CEST by Tamar Weinberg

Tags: Other Search Topics

A Webmaster Talk forums member is trying to reduce the amount of search traffic he's getting.

Allow me to explain. Basically, he's looking to even out his traffic because other sources are yielding overall traffic success. Search alone hasn't been cutting it.

What can be done to reduce the emphasis on getting traffic through search engines? The usual: link building, tools and services, community involvement, a forum, a newsletter, advertising, word of mouth, and contests.

Or you can go the extreme measure and disallow search spiders by updating your robots.txt. Still, some search traffic would be nice, right?!

The idea here is a good one. Don't put all your eggs in one basket. Focus on getting traffic from a variety of sources.

Forum discussion continues at Webmaster Talk.

Are 80% of Searches Really Informational, As Penn Study Says?

Posted: April 14th, 2008, 4:55pm CEST by Tamar Weinberg

Tags: Other Search Topics

A study performed out of Penn State College found with reasonable accuracy that "about 80 percent of queries are informational and about 10 percent each are for navigational and transactional purposes." At Search Engine Land, Barry breaks down the behaviors and says that the informational queries include searching for a fact or topic, navigational searches include looking for a specific website, and transactional queries address buying products or services.

According to Bill Slawski on Sphinn, this data was obtained from Dogpile. It appears, then, that the information may not be accurate if accounting for searcher behavior on Google. Indeed, as forum member evan420 points out, navigational searches make up for 5-7x what they cite in the study. He says that if the same study would come out on Google, you'd see different results.

Google has a nearly ubiquitous toolbar and is the "navigational gateway" for so many who bypass the browser address bar, so I have to think a new study using the major SE's search logs, while improbable, would yield far different results.

It makes a good deal of sense. Is anyone up for doing research on searcher behavior on Google? :)

Forum discussion continues at Sphinn.

Yahoo Does Exclamation Point Yodeling Again

Posted: April 11th, 2008, 2:37pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Other Yahoo Topics

I covered this years ago, with Yahoo!'s Logo Surprise (Yahoo! Easter Egg). Basically, if you go to Yahoo.com and click on the exclamation point in the logo at the top, it will Yodel for you. The Yahoooooo yodel.

I am pretty sure Yahoo took this down for a while and probably recently added it when they launched the new logo placement a couple weeks ago. Here is a video of it in action:

In light of all the Yahoo news, this bit fun is always welcoming.

Forum discussion at DigitalPoint Forums.

Flickr Now Supports Video

Posted: April 10th, 2008, 5:00pm CEST by Tamar Weinberg

Tags: Other Yahoo Topics

Flickr has announced that it is supporting video in addition to the standard digital photograph or image. Videos are limited to 90 seconds in length and 150MB in size and will still inherit other Flickr features, including geotagging, comments, captions, and privacy restrictions.

Want to see it in action? Here's a video that Barry took:

The biggest gripe for many people is the 90 second restriction. Personally, since I'm not too keen on video, the 90 second limit is a breath of fresh air. Maybe this will actually get me to be more interested in video content knowing that I won't be confined to my chair for all the much longer. Some other video services have unpredictable lengths, and it's nice to know that I won't have to sit through video that long on Flickr. Additionally, some people don't have the attention span for it. I'm not saying I don't, but I'm always busy reading and video requires my undivided attention. ;)

Forum discussion continues at WebmasterWorld.

Yahoo to Acquire IndexTools Web Analytics

Posted: April 10th, 2008, 4:44pm CEST by Tamar Weinberg

Tags: Other Yahoo Topics

Yesterday, we learned that Yahoo will be acquiring analytics package IndexTools.

Forum members overall think it's an interesting move. While some gripe about past customer service issues with the analytics company, others have had better experience. They hope that the acquisition will improve things for everyone.

Why now? Yahoo is going to continue to improve their offerings. You can't really blame them. Maybe IndexTools will be available for free in the future. ;)

Forum discussion continues at WebmasterWorld and DigitalPoint Forums.

Can You Imagine a World Where Search Engines Banning Sites Would Become Illegal?

Posted: April 9th, 2008, 4:48pm CEST by Tamar Weinberg

Tags: Other Search Topics

If you're like me, you live on the internet for a big chunk of your day. You thrive on the internet. The internet is a big key player of your being, and if there's no internet, you can hardly imagine your existence without it.

This feeling is only going to grow with time. We become increasingly dependent on our online activities. We become increasingly dependent on search. Whereas 20 years ago, we had to do research in, uh, libraries, we can now do it at the tip of our fingertips at any time of day (wearing nothing or everything).

So what would happen in a world where, if you got banned by a search engine, you had some recourse? Imagine that if you got banned from Google, it would actually be illegal? In other words, search engines were not allowed to ban sites without a reason (assuming there is no reason already).

Search Engine Watch Forums members are discussing the possibility of exactly that. And forum members believe that it would be a great idea to take legal action against those search engines who ban you or who lower your position in the SERPs.

But more than that, search engines are becoming viewed as commodities and this can't necessarily be as far fetched as some folks imagine. Could they eventually be regulated by government entities? Probably -- or probably not. In a "probably" scenario, there would be rules on who would rank, where they'd rank, and the like.

I foresee that to be an incredible undertaking and waste of tax dollars if implemented. Right now, there may be a few unhappy webmasters, but overall, the state of search is pretty good. Bringing in a big player (like the US government) would be a mistake.

There's more to this really interesting discussion. Worth envisioning or not? I still think not. But if you want to read more about what forum members are saying, check out Search Engine Watch Forums.

Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2008/04/09/Individual_Files_Trademark_for__quot_SEO_quot_'

Individual Files Trademark for "SEO"

Posted: April 9th, 2008, 4:26pm CEST by Tamar Weinberg

Tags: Other Search Topics

I remember working as a private investigator and visiting the United States Patent and Trademark Office way too often as part of my job. And when I read Sarah Bird's post on SEOmoz about an individual named Jason Gambert who is looking to file a trademark for the term SEO, I knew exactly where to go.

The background: an individual named "Mr. Gambert" is trying extremely hard to get his "process" of SEO (or so that's what he claims it is) to be trademarked. He's been rejected but he's been narrowing his scope every so often so that he can persevere and succeed with the trademark filing.

This will hurt the industry heavily if such a thing actually pans out as any SEO could be held accountable (and have to pay) if the trademark goes through.

I encourage anyone interested in pursuing this further to speak with a lawyer (particularly one involved in trademark litigation) to dispute this filing.

Forum discussion continues at Sphinn and Search Engine Watch Forums.

Google Local Showing Twice As Many Reviews

Posted: April 9th, 2008, 2:58pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

If you take a look at virtually any Google Local listing with reviews, you might notice that Google is showing twice as many reviews, as the company really has. For example, my company listing shows a review count of 4, but in reality, I only have two reviews.

Here is a picture:

Yes, Google shows the number 4 but only really has two reviews listed.

A Google Groups thread has confirmation from Google that this is an issue that they are looking to address:

It's a known issue that we're working to resolve. Sorry about that. For now, it's best to just assume that you only have 4 reviews.

Forum discussion at Google Groups.

Hitwise Reports that Google has 67% of All US Searches

Posted: April 8th, 2008, 5:14pm CEST by Tamar Weinberg

Tags: Other Google Topics

Google is dominating the search share once again with over two-thirds of searches, according to CNN Money (which cites Hitwise). In March of 2007, Google only dominated 64% of the market. That number has jumped 3% in a year.

Surprised? Not so much. Forum members are used to hearing the news. One points out, however, that Baidu has 70% of the Chinese search share.

Forum discussion continues at WebmasterWorld.

Google Sued for Posting Pictures of Private House

Posted: April 7th, 2008, 5:20pm CEST by Tamar Weinberg

Tags: Other Google Topics

This weekend, there have been numerous reports about a couple in Western Pennsylvania that has sued Google for taking photographs of their home and displaying it on Google Street View. Aaron and Christine Boring are suing Google for violating their privacy and causing them mental distress.

Some photos of the boring house include the following three photos:

The claim is that the photograph was taken from a driveway that was labeled "Private Road" and that Google did not acknowledge the Boring's right to privacy.

I've read reports about this all weekend, and a number of people have not found any signs that indicate that the drive is private. One person suspects that the sign was put up after the fact. A forum member echoes this sentiment:

If you look at the map and street views in question, it can be confusing as to where the road ends and where the private drive, if any, begins.

Further, members are a bit annoyed that the Borings never actually requested that Google take it down. Their first stop, it seems, was litigation.

As many folks say, what was the damage here? Google Street View shows images from thousands upon thousands of homes. Why does one family decide that their privacy is violated by starting a lawsuit against Google? Is this the way to handle private matters?

Forum discussion continues at WebmasterWorld.

Google Analytics Adds Beta Graph View

Posted: April 7th, 2008, 4:09pm CEST by Tamar Weinberg

Tags: Other Google Topics

Forum members are noticing a new feature to Google Analytics that allows you to select certain views (by day, week, or month).

The day view is what you're used to. On the other hand, the week and month views are entirely different.

Here's the week view:

Here's the month view:

On each of these, you can hover over the end points and get the statistics you're looking for (views per week or per month). Obviously, since it's only the beginning of April, you're expected to see a decline in your view for the month as it only calculates visits for the month of April.

Forum discussion continues at DigitalPoint Forums.

A Look at Google Ad Manager Reports

Posted: April 7th, 2008, 2:38pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

There has been a lot of discussion over the reporting features in Google Ad Manager. Here are some threads, both praising and hating the reporting tools in Google's new Ad Manager, a free ad delivery system. We have two threads at WebmasterWorld, one loving it and another WebmasterWorld thread hating it. So I figured I show you some of my reports:

Order report

Creative Report

Sales Person Report

Advertiser Report

Targeting Report

Placement Report

Ad Slot Report

Whole Network Report

Those are all the reports within the reporting section. Of course, most working screens are reports, in themselves. But these are the standalone reports, as an admin of the reports.

If you are really wanting an invite, Google's Ad Manager Pro, in the Google Groups thread said they are working on processing applications as quickly as possible:

As you may be aware, there has been a tremendous response to the release of Google Ad Manager. We're working to process all of the applications as quickly as we can, and we're still working through a few kinks.

Reminder, I also a detailed tutorial on Google Ad Manager, if you are already using it.

Forum discussion at Webmaster World.

Google Search Results are Now Dated in Different Languages

Posted: April 3rd, 2008, 4:10pm CEST by Tamar Weinberg

Tags: Other Google Topics

Barry Welford spotted dated results on a variety of Google localized search engines.

For example, if you performed a search on Google French, you'd see this:

The same result occurs on Google Finnish:

Of particular note is the fact that Google is showing the date in your mother tongue.

Will adding dates become normal in the future? We can only keep watching.

Forum discussion continues at Sphinn.

Is an SEM Ranking System a Bad Idea?

Posted: April 1st, 2008, 4:09pm CEST by Tamar Weinberg

Tags: Topics Search Other

Kalena Jordan writes a blog about her concern over an SEM rating site called SEMCompare. She tells us that the Search Marketing Standard magazine has started this site to allow people to write reviews about the search marketing agencies they've worked on, whether it's positive or negative.

After doing an interview with one of the people behind the site, she was alarmed by a comment from said individual: "At the end of the day we can’t really endorse or condone reviews on the site.” Does it make sense to create a site if you can't vouch for its content?

The discussion moves over to Sphinn where sentiment is similar. Here are some reactions:

U gotta be kidding me right? So I can hire a gang of offshore monkeys to go by (spoofed IPs) and whack attack all the competition? I Love It.....

And another:

One of my concerns, which you didn't mention, was whether SEM/SEO firms would be able to buy their way to the top or to good reviews? To me, the site looks like one of those kind.

Finally, another valid point:

Another concern that I have that I don't think has been discussed is the conflict of interest in asking a client to review your agency and knowing that SEMCompare exists.
A positive review is great, but exposure to your compeitiion is not so.

Boris Mordkovich of SEMCompare responds to these concerns and says that the concept arose from several inquiries about SEM agency recommendations. They created a site driven by user generated content to do this. There are some safeguards they've put in place, including contacting people whose reviews don't match up. This should prevent the system from being abused. Users need to have a valid email and website and if their reviews are specious, the SEMCompare staff will ask the user directly.

Does it have promise? Perhaps. I still think that the service can be easily gamed. Also, it's interesting that a lot of marketing companies I haven't heard of have a solid 5.0 score whereas the more known companies have lower scores (between 1.7 and 4.9). Something about that just doesn't feel right.

The ongoing discussion (oh yes, there's a lot more) continues on Sphinn.

Google Goes Dark Saturday Night at 8 O'Clock

Posted: March 31st, 2008, 2:35pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Topics Google Other

The world was abuzz about Google.com going black around the world at 8pm local time. It happened a bit earlier at Google Israel, and then Saturday night it went black again:

Why? For Earth Hour.

Google users in the United States will notice today that we "turned the lights out" on the Google.com homepage as a gesture to raise awareness of a worldwide energy conservation effort called Earth Hour. As to why we don't do this permanently - it saves no energy; modern displays use the same amount of power regardless of what they display. However, you can do something to reduce the energy consumption of your home PC by joining the Climate Savers Computing Initiative.
On Saturday, March 29, 2008, Earth Hour invites people around the world to turn off their lights for one hour – from 8:00pm to 9:00pm in their local time zone. On this day, cities around the world, including Copenhagen, Chicago, Melbourne, Dubai, and Tel Aviv, will hold events to acknowledge their commitment to energy conservation.

Ironically, for me to take that screen capture, I had to have my lights on to power my computer. In any event, we have lots of forum reaction to Google going dark.

Forum discussion at Search Engine Roundtable Forums, WebmasterWorld, DigitalPoint Forums, and Cre8asite Forums.

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Fetched: August 10th, 2011, 5:12pm CEST by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Other Google Topics

Fetched: August 8th, 2011, 2:57pm CEST by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Other Google Topics

Fetched: August 6th, 2011, 2:21am CEST by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Other Google Topics

Fetched: August 5th, 2011, 2:07am CEST by Barry Schwartz