Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today, through the eyes of the Search Engine Roundtable and other search forums on the web.
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Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today, through the eyes of the Search Engine Roundtable and other search forums on the web.
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on
Search Engine Land and from other
places across the web.
From Search Engine Land:
-
Search Biz: Diller Keeps IAC Control; Googlers To Facebook; Google Earnings Downgraded & More
IAC stays in Barry Diller’s control. US government agencies look to Google’s search hardware to find information. Google’s hotel-industrial complex that’s coming to Mountain View. Those darn declining paid clicks — will they hurt Google’s bottom line? Yahoo breaks out golden handcuffs to retain employees, while Google loses another… -
Will You Be Sued Over Your Ad Copy Usage?
Storus Corp just successfully sued another advertiser for use of a trademarked term in the ad copy. This is the first time that I have seen a company sue another advertiser directly without relying on Google as the intermediary for filing trademark exceptions. As PPC advertisers, this affects us… -
Yahoo Takes A “Shine” To Women 25 To 54
Perhaps the perfection of Yahoo’s vertical strategy is its new blog-inspired site Shine. It’s a broad mix of content from publisher partners such as Hearst Communications, Rodale and CondĂ© Nast. It also aggregates and links to third party content and is encouraging users to blog on the site. Unlike Yahoo… -
SEO Company, Fathom Online, Acquired By Geary Interactive
Geary Interactive have announced acquiring Fathom Online, an SEO company. Fathom was formed in 2002 and is based in San Francisco. The terms of the acquisition were not disclosed. Geary is a full service digital marketing agency based in San Diego. Some of Fathom’s employees are now working out of… -
Google Dance Is Back? Plus Google’s First Live Chat Recap & Hyperactive Yahoo Slurp
Is the Google Dance back? Well, not really, but I am noticing Google Dance-like behavior from Google based on reading some of the feedback at a WebmasterWorld thread. The Google Dance refers to how years ago, a change to Google’s ranking algorithm often began showing up slowly across data centers,… -
Local Store And Inventory Data Poised To Transform “Online Shopping”
The neglected part of the local story is about products. Often local search is discussed exclusively in terms of finding service businesses or small businesses in one’s own area. But an equally important, if less obvious, part of the “local search” phenomenon is shopping in the more traditional sense….
Search News From Around The Web:
Applications & Portal Features
- Google Calendar outages anger users, Computer World
- Tips for importing old email to Gmail, Official Gmail Blog
- 10 Millionth Article Written on Wikipedia, TechCrunch
- Bringing the cloud with you, Official Google Docs Blog
Business Issues
Local, Maps & Mobile
- Does Local need to be held to a higher standard? Danny Sullivan and Chris Silver Smith Respond, Mike Blumenthal
- Entropist: Google Maps of Science Fiction, Wired
- Good data drives transit directions, Google LatLong
- Google Street View Within A Gadget, SEOish
- Boston.com Offers Local Search Model, Screenwerk
- Does Local need to be held to a higher standard? Ahmed Farooq Responds, Mike Blumenthal
Link Building
- Looking Cool Can Look Link Stupid, The Link Spiel
- Use What’s In Front Of You To Attract Links, Search Engine Guide
- Ask Yourself… Do You Feel Lucky (about getting those links)? Well Do You?, SEOmoz
Paid Search & Contextual
- Your adCenter Questions Answered: Part 2 - Demographic Targeting - adCenter Advertiser, adcentercommunity.com
- How to Check the Status of an Ad Group in PHP (V5) - adCenter API, adcentercommunity.com
- Worth a Look: Google Uses Massive Amounts of Data to Combat Fraud, Traffick
- Study: Web Users Dislike Being Tracked, Even Anonymously, MediaPost
- Content Ad Campaign Keyword Strategy Revisited, Search Engine Watch
- Using Clickbooth as an AdSense alternative, JenSense
- Yahoo! Search Marketing Announces New Customer Support Hours, Search Engine Roundtable
Searching
- Dutch Health Search Engine MediGO, altsearchengines.com
- Google’s Asian Homepages, Google Operating System
- Search Hoops: Exercising Technology to Meeting User Needs : Beyond Search, arnoldit.com
- Semantic Search and Semantic Web, Two Different Things, Hakia Blog
- UK Shopping Search Engine Twenga.co.uk, altsearchengines.com
- Social search approaches and algorithm-based search engines in comparison, altsearchengines.com
- Not Your Ordinary Google Interface, Google Operating System
- Google 404 Error Pages Become Intelligent and More Useful, Digital Inspiration
- APRIL 1st IS THE ANNUAL DAY WITHOUT GOOGLE!, altsearchengines.com
- Google Code Snippets Onebox, Google Blogoscoped
- Google Still Doesn’t Know Where to Place Related Searches, Google Operating System
- Mahalo Updates: Now a Research Engine, Want Pay? Write More Words, SEO Critical, CenterNetworks
- Windows Search 4.0 vs. Google Desktop 5.5, Download Squad
SEM Industry
- Search Standards, Part 1, McAnerin Muse
- Eric Enge interviews Kevin Lee About SEM, Stone Temple
- First to 300 Sphinns: Thank You Bionic Sphinners, John Andrews
SEO & SEM
- From Search Results to Content Creation, Google Operating System
- Free Firefox Rank Checker - Check Your Google, Yahoo!, and Microsoft Search Engine Rankings, SEO Book
- Is Google Seeing index.html the Same as the Root Domain?, Search Engine Roundtable
Social Media
- 10 Features I Wish Twitter Would Implement, Jason Bartholme
- LinkedIn Now Offering Network RSS Feeds, TechCrunch
- How to Deal with Negative Social Network Groups, ViperChill
- Facebook friends not real friends: judge, The Sydney Morning Herald
- Stumbling to Success Part I, endlessplain.com
Video, Music & Image Search
- Google inks Japan copyright pact for YouTube, HollywoodReporter.com
- Google Risks Muslim Backlash By Hosting Fitna, TechCrunch
Web Analytics
- Will Woopra Whip Google Analytics’ Butt?, Marketing Pilgrim
Other Items
- Content owners should drop Yahoo for Google, Calacanis
- Daily SearchCast, March 27, 2008: YouTube Stats, SEO Standards , Daily SearchCast
- Google Ad in Beijing, Google Blogoscoped
- Google launches Dajare in Japan, Googling Google
- Google’s April Fool’s Joke for Japan (Probably), Google Blogoscoped
Recent Hot Items From Sphinn, Our Social News Sharing Site:
- The Power of Support on Twitter
- Seven Deadly Sins of SEO
- Search Engine Ranking Checking Tool From SEObook
- Free Firefox Rank Checker from SEOBook.com
- SEO Rapper Chuck: The ‘Poetic Viral Marketer’Âť
- IM-NY & BOTW Rally the Search Industry to Raise More Than $16K for the Leukemia Society
- Enterprise SEO: 8 Ways To Stay Sane
- Another Sphinn Spam Rant
- 10 Features I Wish Twitter Would Implement
- Looking Cool Can Look Link Stupid
- We Don’t Need No Stinkin’ Standards. Do We?
- Google Snippet Rules Re Blogs Change
- New SEM Firm Rating Site: Tempting Fate?
- Baiting and Beseeching: Obtaining the right mix of chasing links and getting them to chase you
- Google Bombs, Jew Watch News & the Hypocritical Linking Universe
- The Internet Marketing Unlist: 49 Things You Probably Are Doing But Shouldn’t
- Debauchery, Douchebaggary, & Drunkenness: Being A Twit
- Microsoft adCenter - Where’s The Revenue?
- 96 Women Bloggers to Watch for Spring 2008
- In Praise of Sphinn’s One-Hit Wonder
- What If You Could Take Your Robots.txt File To The Bar?
- Google Offers Robots.txt Generator
- Googles Great Wall of SERP defense
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on
Search Engine Land and from other
places across the web.
From Search Engine Land:
-
Search Biz: Diller Keeps IAC Control; Googlers To Facebook; Google Earnings Downgraded & More
IAC stays in Barry Diller’s control. US government agencies look to Google’s search hardware to find information. Google’s hotel-industrial complex that’s coming to Mountain View. Those darn declining paid clicks — will they hurt Google’s bottom line? Yahoo breaks out golden handcuffs to retain employees, while Google loses another… -
Will You Be Sued Over Your Ad Copy Usage?
Storus Corp just successfully sued another advertiser for use of a trademarked term in the ad copy. This is the first time that I have seen a company sue another advertiser directly without relying on Google as the intermediary for filing trademark exceptions. As PPC advertisers, this affects us… -
Yahoo Takes A “Shine” To Women 25 To 54
Perhaps the perfection of Yahoo’s vertical strategy is its new blog-inspired site Shine. It’s a broad mix of content from publisher partners such as Hearst Communications, Rodale and CondĂ© Nast. It also aggregates and links to third party content and is encouraging users to blog on the site. Unlike Yahoo… -
SEO Company, Fathom Online, Acquired By Geary Interactive
Geary Interactive have announced acquiring Fathom Online, an SEO company. Fathom was formed in 2002 and is based in San Francisco. The terms of the acquisition were not disclosed. Geary is a full service digital marketing agency based in San Diego. Some of Fathom’s employees are now working out of… -
Google Dance Is Back? Plus Google’s First Live Chat Recap & Hyperactive Yahoo Slurp
Is the Google Dance back? Well, not really, but I am noticing Google Dance-like behavior from Google based on reading some of the feedback at a WebmasterWorld thread. The Google Dance refers to how years ago, a change to Google’s ranking algorithm often began showing up slowly across data centers,… -
Local Store And Inventory Data Poised To Transform “Online Shopping”
The neglected part of the local story is about products. Often local search is discussed exclusively in terms of finding service businesses or small businesses in one’s own area. But an equally important, if less obvious, part of the “local search” phenomenon is shopping in the more traditional sense….
Search News From Around The Web:
Applications & Portal Features
- Google Calendar outages anger users, Computer World
- Tips for importing old email to Gmail, Official Gmail Blog
- 10 Millionth Article Written on Wikipedia, TechCrunch
- Bringing the cloud with you, Official Google Docs Blog
Business Issues
Local, Maps & Mobile
- Does Local need to be held to a higher standard? Danny Sullivan and Chris Silver Smith Respond, Mike Blumenthal
- Entropist: Google Maps of Science Fiction, Wired
- Good data drives transit directions, Google LatLong
- Google Street View Within A Gadget, SEOish
- Boston.com Offers Local Search Model, Screenwerk
- Does Local need to be held to a higher standard? Ahmed Farooq Responds, Mike Blumenthal
Link Building
- Looking Cool Can Look Link Stupid, The Link Spiel
- Use What’s In Front Of You To Attract Links, Search Engine Guide
- Ask Yourself… Do You Feel Lucky (about getting those links)? Well Do You?, SEOmoz
Paid Search & Contextual
- Your adCenter Questions Answered: Part 2 - Demographic Targeting - adCenter Advertiser, adcentercommunity.com
- How to Check the Status of an Ad Group in PHP (V5) - adCenter API, adcentercommunity.com
- Worth a Look: Google Uses Massive Amounts of Data to Combat Fraud, Traffick
- Study: Web Users Dislike Being Tracked, Even Anonymously, MediaPost
- Content Ad Campaign Keyword Strategy Revisited, Search Engine Watch
- Using Clickbooth as an AdSense alternative, JenSense
- Yahoo! Search Marketing Announces New Customer Support Hours, Search Engine Roundtable
Searching
- Dutch Health Search Engine MediGO, altsearchengines.com
- Google’s Asian Homepages, Google Operating System
- Search Hoops: Exercising Technology to Meeting User Needs : Beyond Search, arnoldit.com
- Semantic Search and Semantic Web, Two Different Things, Hakia Blog
- UK Shopping Search Engine Twenga.co.uk, altsearchengines.com
- Social search approaches and algorithm-based search engines in comparison, altsearchengines.com
- Not Your Ordinary Google Interface, Google Operating System
- Google 404 Error Pages Become Intelligent and More Useful, Digital Inspiration
- APRIL 1st IS THE ANNUAL DAY WITHOUT GOOGLE!, altsearchengines.com
- Google Code Snippets Onebox, Google Blogoscoped
- Google Still Doesn’t Know Where to Place Related Searches, Google Operating System
- Mahalo Updates: Now a Research Engine, Want Pay? Write More Words, SEO Critical, CenterNetworks
- Windows Search 4.0 vs. Google Desktop 5.5, Download Squad
SEM Industry
- Search Standards, Part 1, McAnerin Muse
- Eric Enge interviews Kevin Lee About SEM, Stone Temple
- First to 300 Sphinns: Thank You Bionic Sphinners, John Andrews
SEO & SEM
- From Search Results to Content Creation, Google Operating System
- Free Firefox Rank Checker - Check Your Google, Yahoo!, and Microsoft Search Engine Rankings, SEO Book
- Is Google Seeing index.html the Same as the Root Domain?, Search Engine Roundtable
Social Media
- 10 Features I Wish Twitter Would Implement, Jason Bartholme
- LinkedIn Now Offering Network RSS Feeds, TechCrunch
- How to Deal with Negative Social Network Groups, ViperChill
- Facebook friends not real friends: judge, The Sydney Morning Herald
- Stumbling to Success Part I, endlessplain.com
Video, Music & Image Search
- Google inks Japan copyright pact for YouTube, HollywoodReporter.com
- Google Risks Muslim Backlash By Hosting Fitna, TechCrunch
Web Analytics
- Will Woopra Whip Google Analytics’ Butt?, Marketing Pilgrim
Other Items
- Content owners should drop Yahoo for Google, Calacanis
- Daily SearchCast, March 27, 2008: YouTube Stats, SEO Standards , Daily SearchCast
- Google Ad in Beijing, Google Blogoscoped
- Google launches Dajare in Japan, Googling Google
- Google’s April Fool’s Joke for Japan (Probably), Google Blogoscoped
Recent Hot Items From Sphinn, Our Social News Sharing Site:
- The Power of Support on Twitter
- Seven Deadly Sins of SEO
- Search Engine Ranking Checking Tool From SEObook
- Free Firefox Rank Checker from SEOBook.com
- SEO Rapper Chuck: The ‘Poetic Viral Marketer’Âť
- IM-NY & BOTW Rally the Search Industry to Raise More Than $16K for the Leukemia Society
- Enterprise SEO: 8 Ways To Stay Sane
- Another Sphinn Spam Rant
- 10 Features I Wish Twitter Would Implement
- Looking Cool Can Look Link Stupid
- We Don’t Need No Stinkin’ Standards. Do We?
- Google Snippet Rules Re Blogs Change
- New SEM Firm Rating Site: Tempting Fate?
- Baiting and Beseeching: Obtaining the right mix of chasing links and getting them to chase you
- Google Bombs, Jew Watch News & the Hypocritical Linking Universe
- The Internet Marketing Unlist: 49 Things You Probably Are Doing But Shouldn’t
- Debauchery, Douchebaggary, & Drunkenness: Being A Twit
- Microsoft adCenter - Where’s The Revenue?
- 96 Women Bloggers to Watch for Spring 2008
- In Praise of Sphinn’s One-Hit Wonder
- What If You Could Take Your Robots.txt File To The Bar?
- Google Offers Robots.txt Generator
- Googles Great Wall of SERP defense
IAC
stays in Barry Diller’s control. US government agencies look to Google’s search
hardware to find information. Google’s hotel-industrial complex that’s coming to
Mountain View. Those darn declining paid clicks — will they hurt Google’s
bottom line? Yahoo breaks out golden handcuffs to retain employees, while Google
loses another one to Facebook. And more in today’s Search Biz!
IAC
stays in Barry Diller’s control. US government agencies look to Google’s search
hardware to find information. Google’s hotel-industrial complex that’s coming to
Mountain View. Those darn declining paid clicks — will they hurt Google’s
bottom line? Yahoo breaks out golden handcuffs to retain employees, while Google
loses another one to Facebook. And more in today’s Search Biz!
If a recession does come, search marketers will need to defend their budgets, and even their jobs. Defining past value to the company, and future contributions, can be a straightforward process.
Storus Corp just successfully sued another advertiser for use of a trademarked term in the ad copy. This is the first time that I have seen a company sue another advertiser directly without relying on Google as the intermediary for filing trademark exceptions.
As PPC advertisers, this affects us dramatically.
Storus Corp just successfully sued another advertiser for use of a trademarked term in the ad copy. This is the first time that I have seen a company sue another advertiser directly without relying on Google as the intermediary for filing trademark exceptions.
As PPC advertisers, this affects us dramatically.
Adam Audette wrote a brilliant piece on the fundamentals of link building on his blog, and he’s right on the money. His core message is that links reflect value, so your linking strategy should focus on finding that valuable link and seeking out the appropriate neighborhoods for gathering such links. The higher the quality of the link, the better it is for you.
I’d summarize the entire post, but it really deserves its own read, your social media bookmarking, and your links too. Seriously. Adam did a great job. He divides his post into how link building has evolved, the components of a quality link, the importance of link neighborhoods, where to begin, and how to perform strategic link building.
Forum discussion continues at Sphinn.
What would you consider a better scenario? Would you rather be below the fold on page one or above the fold on page two of the search results? If so, why?
The answer may depend on your wants and needs. On DigitalPoint Forums, a forum member is saying that he’s getting a lot less traffic in the #10 ranking than in the #11th position.
While few don’t see a difference between page 1 and page 2, many say that page one is obviously better. It gives you incentive to work towards ranking even higher on page one. And that should be a goal you shouldn’t sit on — it’s a consistent work in progress.
Forum discussion continues at DigitalPoint Forums.
Perhaps the perfection of Yahoo’s vertical strategy is its new blog-inspired site Shine. It’s a broad mix of content from publisher partners such as Hearst Communications, Rodale and CondĂ© Nast. It also aggregates and links to third party content and is encouraging users to blog on the site. Unlike Yahoo content-specific sites like Food, Shine is a kind of meta-vertical and focuses on a key Internet audience: women aged 25 to 54.
Perhaps the perfection of Yahoo’s vertical strategy is its new blog-inspired site Shine. It’s a broad mix of content from publisher partners such as Hearst Communications, Rodale and CondĂ© Nast. It also aggregates and links to third party content and is encouraging users to blog on the site. Unlike Yahoo content-specific sites like Food, Shine is a kind of meta-vertical and focuses on a key Internet audience: women aged 25 to 54. Yahoo is also cross-promoting other Yahoo verticals (Food, Green, Health, Tech) on the site. If it succeeds, Shine will be a dream come true for brand marketers.
Jill Whalen discovered through several site audits that Google appears to have merged the index page with the root page of the domain. In other words, if your www.domain.com was the same as www.domain.com/index.html and you still linked to www.domain.com/index.html, Google is now seeing these pages as one and the same versus in the past where they would treat them as two separate pages and even split toolbar PageRank.
It may be an issue of the duplicate content filter on Google finally kicking in, which can take awhile, according to forum member Ron Carnell.
However, Jill has noticed it on the last five site audits she performed, so it’s possible that it’s something that Google is now putting into effect — at least for now. Ron mentions that Google has once merged www.domain.com and domain.com but then unmerged it, so it may only be a temporary change.
Forum discussion continues at High Rankings Forum.
Jill Whalen discovered through several site audits that Google appears to have merged the index page with the root page of the domain. In other words, if your www.domain.com was the same as www.domain.com/index.html and you still linked to www.domain.com/index.html, Google is now seeing these pages as one and the same versus in the past where they would treat them as two separate pages and even split toolbar PageRank.
It may be an issue of the duplicate content filter on Google finally kicking in, which can take awhile, according to forum member Ron Carnell.
However, Jill has noticed it on the last five site audits she performed, so it’s possible that it’s something that Google is now putting into effect — at least for now. Ron mentions that Google has once merged www.domain.com and domain.com but then unmerged it, so it may only be a temporary change.
Forum discussion continues at High Rankings Forum.
YahooPete has visited the forums over the weekend and has announced that Yahoo! Search Marketing’s customer support hours have changed. The new hours are:
Monday – Friday: 6:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. Pacific Time
Saturday: 7:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Pacific Time
Sunday: Closed
The number for the support team is (866) 924-6676.
Forum discussion continues at DigitalPoint Forums, Search Engine Watch Forums, and WebmasterWorld.
Geary Interactive have announced acquiring Fathom Online, an SEO company.
Fathom was formed in 2002 and is based in San Francisco. The terms of the acquisition were not disclosed. Geary is a full service digital marketing agency based in San Diego. Some of Fathom’s employees are now working out of the San Diego office.
Is the Google Dance back? Well, not really, but I am noticing Google Dance-like behavior from Google based on reading some of the feedback at a WebmasterWorld thread.
The Google Dance refers to how years ago, a change to Google’s ranking algorithm often began showing up slowly across data centers, as they reflected different results, a sign of coming changes. These days Google’s data centers are typically always showing small changes and differences, but the differences between this data center and this one seem to be more like the extremes of the past Google Dances.
So either Google is preparing for a massive update or just messing around with our heads. As of now, these results have not yet moved over to the main Google.com results.
