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Google AdWords API advisor writes at Google Groups that the Java client library (version 2.0.0) has been released at [code.google.com].
Version 2.0.0 has some major fixes. It removes support from v11 and updates the default version to v12, and there's also a document fix to remove the reference to "clientEmail" from AdWordsUser.
If you encounter any issues, you can always make updates to the list here.
Forum discussion continues at Google Groups.
Yesterday, we talked about the Google code to enhance the 404 experience. A number of issues were reported with the code in the Google Groups announcement thread, and Google has fortunately made tweaks to fix the issues.
Google representative JohnMu says that you should be returning a 404 error when using this widget (though it will now work if the page returns a 200 status too!) That's great, because in the example in yesterday's blog post, it wasn't working because a 404 wasn't being returned. Try the advertize.html page now and let us know what you think.
Forum discussion continues at Google Groups.
Publishers really really really want to have their sites accepted into the news search engines. The major ones are Google News and Yahoo News, but there are plenty of others. We have covered a few times, how to get into Google News and I actually have updated those articles in the past. Here they are:
Now that you know how to get into Google News, what does it look like when you submit your application to Google News but do not get accepted? I personally received this in the past, but now we are thankfully accepted. A DigitalPoint Forums thread has a copy of a rejection email notice from the Google News team, which seems to be accurate. Here it is:
Hi,
Thank you for your note. We reviewed your site and are unable to include it in Google News at this time. We currently only include articles from sources that could be considered organizations, generally characterized by multiple writers and editors, availability of organizational information, and accessible contact information. When we reviewed your site we weren't able to find this evidence of an organization.
We appreciate your willingness to provide your articles to us, and we'll log your site for future consideration.
Thank you for your interest in Google News.
The good thing is that you can address these issues, reply to this email and hopefully they will review your publication again, and include you in the index.
The rejection email is one step closer to getting your site included in Google News.
Forum discussion at DigitalPoint Forums.
Is it beneficial for you to submit the products you have for sale on Google Base? What about utilizing Google Checkout? How does this fare for your product sales? This is the question posed by a seller on WebmasterWorld.
There are mixed results -- some say that their sales have increased exponentially. Others said that they didn't see their products listed anywhere.
Now the question is pointed at you. Have you used Google Base to list your products? Has it been successful?
Please let us know your thoughts in the comments or leave your feedback on WebmasterWorld.
A WebmasterWorld thread reports that Google is testing placing black borders around AdSense ads without the consent of the publishers.
First reports of this came in at about 1pm (EST) yesterday, where the publisher expressed his distaste.
I really can't stand it when Google try new things with adsense. I am seeing Black borders around some of my ads every now and again. First with the various fonts, now with this. So much for nicely integrated subtle ads - eck so ugly.
I'm using the same ad code on the page and after refreshing about 1 in 20 have this black border.
Many other publishers started to notice this happening on their ads as well.
Google pulled a similar stunt a few months back, testing a new font without the consent of the publisher. The publishers complained about the comic sans font and finally Google removed the AdSense font from those test ads.
The thread is now too long pages long and filled with many complaints. Maybe Google should have people opt in to be their genie pigs from now on?
Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.
We are hearing reports that Google has opened up the AdSense for Feeds Google product to more AdSense publishers. A Google Blogoscoped Forums thread and a WebmasterWorld thread has several publishers noticing the new option.
Personally, I thought AdSense for Feeds was open to all by now, but I guess I was wrong. We were one of the first sites to ever deploy AdSense in our feeds. Back in May 2005 Google announced the beta of AdSense for Feeds. We were approved for the beta the same day and started to immediately experiment with those AdSense for Feeds option.
Yahoo has been beta testing publisher network ads in feeds since September 2005, we gave them a try in November of that year and then removed them in January 2006. Since then I have been using FeedBurner's ads. But now that FeedBurner stopped accepting new publishers and income is down, I might pursue other ad models.
If you want to see a screen capture of the current options for setting up AdSense for Feeds in Google, click here.
Forum discussion at Google Blogoscoped Forums and WebmasterWorld.
Michael Gray writes an interesting post about that teaching advanced link building and PageRank will never die. In the article, he explains that everyone who learns about optimization techniques are at different levels; some are more advanced and may consider topics to be basic. Now what happens if you recommend link building tactics from an "authoritative" site? By whose metric? If you apply this to authority as determined by "PageRank," Michael has a problem with this. Google's toolbar PR is simply used for "entertainment" purposes, as he says quite eloquently:
Since google has admitted that they will adjust/manipulate page rank of sites they believe are selling links, and those adjustments will trickle down/out, page rank is really just for entertainment purposes.
Therefore, Michael explains that establishing authority must occur by looking at the other available metrics together.
His post is discussed on Sphinn where Michael is forced to justify that PageRank is used now because " people need the ability to explain/understand things quickly, especially those who aren't entrenched in the field." And for that, PageRank is the current metric that delivers.
But some people have a problem with Michael's suggestion that one should refer to authoritative sites. Instead, the emphasis should be on relevant sites, be them authoritative or not. However, one points out that "relevance is a red herring," especially if the links to "relevant" pages are pornographic or questionable in nature.
Forum discussion continues at Sphinn.
Google has announced a new Google Reader feature that lets you share your blog posts with friends -- separate from your Gtalk contacts. Here's an example screenshot of what it looks like:
Google is really excited about this, and so are users. They are even ready for more -- sharing specific folders with specific friends, having a conversation with their friends, etc.
One big concern, however, is the fact that Google has pushed this too hard without giving users the ability to close the window. The screenshot explains:
(Photo from jaymeydad)
In subsequent threads (like this Google Groups one), forum members call the push a bit too much and consider that bubble a "pesky" one that won't go away -- there's no "close" button, as illustrated. Google Reader Guide has acknowledged the problem and said that the best way to remove the bubble (for now, until they fix it) is to hit "Edit" and then "Cancel."
Thanks for your feedback on this. Just to let you know, we now recognize that this is a potentially annoying way to introduce our new enhanced sharing features. We're working on making the decision to share items, if and when you're ready, easier and less intrusive.
Update 08/15: Google has listened. A Google Groups thread announces that you can now easily close that box.
Forum discussion continues at Google Groups (#1) and Google Groups (#2).
With the variety of penalty discussions we read about, one who starts following the forum discussion is bound to get paranoid. At least, that's the case for one WebmasterWorld member who considers himself "white hat," but still is worried about the variety of penalties that he keeps reading about.
Another person chimes in on the discussion and says that most penalties did not impact the white hats. He says that if you're "truly white hat as I am, then continue on that way. Take time out to examine the posts from some of those who have been penalised. Most, admittedly not all, claim to be white hat but in fact have been using some incredibly stupid SEO techniques."
The question, though, is that the definition of "white hat" seems to change. People are getting confused on what is wrong and what isn't. This is understandable. When in doubt, check the guidelines for what is right and what isn't. If you're still not sure, ask.
So the question to the Search Engine Roundtable readers: does the discussion cause you to be paranoid? Answer in the poll:
Forum discussion continues at WebmasterWorld.
Over the past couple weeks, we reported about two issues:
(1) Did Google Stop Crawling Blogger Blogs on Personalized Domains?
(2) Google Bloggers Having Sitemap File & Continued Crawling Issues?
Google seems to have resolved both issues.
The Google Groups thread has a response specifically about both issues, where JohnMu of Google said:
It looks like this issue should be resolved now. It might take some time for things to catch up across the board, so you might still need to be a bit patient :).
John added a personal note about the first issue:
Sunil, I noticed that we just picked up a blog post from yesterday (I don't know which timezone you're in :-)) from your site, I think that's a good sign! Remember that it will generally take some time for the charts in Webmaster Tools to catch up as well but from what I can see it looks pretty much on-target.
So it appears that what we thought the issue was, might have not been on the webmaster side. It seems like Google fixed the issues on their side and now everyone should be happy going forward, at least for the time being.
Forum discussion at Google Groups.
A Google Groups member recounts one of the worst Google AdWords experiences: finding out that there were fraudulent charges on his card due to a new campaign that was created and incurred over $2000 in false clicks.
It seems that this is becoming more of a trend lately, as other forum members can relate. Another forum member, for example, suffered nearly $3000 in fraudulent charges. Yet another person saw a $5200 charge. On a note closer to home, a close friend of mine saw charges of $9000 over a single 24-hour period -- until Google stepped in and discontinued the campaign.
The concern, obviously, is "how did they get in there? Are you clicking on links that are from phishing scams?" My thought is that these are more savvy users who are not, but somehow the accounts are being hacked regardless. Perhaps it's related to signing into a Google account from a public computer; perhaps it's related to signing in to a Google account on an unsecured WiFi connection. One doesn't really know at this point. (Update: Or perhaps it's related to Google providing the wrong account details to users when they log in, thereby making it easier for people to easily set up fraudulent campaigns!)
However, AdWordsPro assures those who have been impacted that they won't be charged for the fraudulent charges. You're also suggested to contact your bank and Google's AdWords team so that they can perform a thorough investigation.
Forum discussion continues at Google Groups.
A Google Groups thread reports a possible bug in Google Maps. In March, Google launched the ability to add videos to your Google Local Business listing. But it seems that if you add a video to your business listing, then it will remove a photo from showing up in the Google Maps search results. Let me illustrate.
A search for haircuts 60641 returns several listings, some with photos and some without. Here is a screen capture:
The first result actually does have a photo, but it is not being displayed. Why? Well, the theory is because the listing also have a video result. Take a look at the photos and videos of that listing, it has both photos and videos. While all the others listed with photos, only have photos added, but no videos.
So why is my listing for web 10901 coming up with a photo when I added videos back in March? If you take a look at my photos and videos, no videos are displayed currently. Why? I am not sure, they are in my Local Business Center area when I log in. But they are still not being displayed in my Google Maps listing, which does then show a photo in my listing, because there is no video results for my listing being displayed.
An interesting bug, which Google's Map Guide Tom said they are looking into.
Forum discussion at Google Groups.
There have been reports with Google's Blogger tool and Sitemaps not working well together. A Google Groups thread notes that those submitting a Sitemap file to Google Webmaster Tools, and using Google's Blogger service, are having issues.
Many who have submitted a Sitemap notice their Sitemaps are still pending as of August 1st.
Interestingly enough, we covered a similar topic last week, which seems to be very related. Can it be the Sitemap causing the issue or something else. Why has Google stopped crawling these Blogger or Blogspot blogs?
Googler, JohnMu, replied to the thread saying they are looking into it:
I just wanted to mention that we have been looking into this. As soon as I have more information, I'll let you know. It's great to see you all using Sitemaps!
At this point in time, the Google Groups area for Blogger Help is having issues and I cannot seem to access specific threads to learn more.
Until we know what is up, I really do not know where to answer the question. I promise to keep watching and either update this post or write a new piece on this weird Google/Blogger issue.
Forum discussion at Google Groups.
Update: At 6:30pm (EST), over one hour after the first reports of Gmail going down, A Google rep announced that Google has finally figured out the issue and it should be fixed shortly. For more information, see the update below.
Gmail has been offline for thousands, if not millions, of users since about 5:10pm (EST). It is now 50 minutes later and the system-wide outage is still impacting most Gmail users.
A Google Groups thread has official word from Google that they are working on it. But from the Google representatives updates, it seems like this rep really has no idea how widespread the issue may be. 20 minutes after the outage began, 5:31 pm, Google said they are away of 502 errors. Then at 5:47 pm, that Google rep said they are still "investigating" the issues but some people may be able to "access their accounts via IMAP, POP access, and iGoogle." Some are but most are not, in fact, those some are likely just caching that email data. At 6:01pm, I received an email via Google Apps, but my Gmail account on the web interface is still offline. I suspect one just trickled in.
Looking at Twitter Search returns hundreds of "Gmail is down" messages from Twitter users every few seconds. Looking at one section of the Gmail Help Group returns hundreds of posts from disgruntled and concerned Gmail users. TechCrunch has reported on the issue, and I also posted a story at Search Engine Land.
I was not going to post it here, but the system outage seems like it is truly impacting all Gmail users and it has almost been a full hour.
In any event, I suspect it will be fixed soon. Gmail, I am sure, has backups of emails and I suspect all those emails will begin to trickle in slowly, once it gets back up.
Forum discussion at Gmail Help Group.
Update: At 6:10pm (EST), the Google representative posted an update:
Update - we have confirmed that affected users may also be able to access their account with Gmail's basic HTML view. You can access this via: [mail.google.com]
Summary - users are receiving 502 errors when attempting to access their accounts via the web interface. There are a few ways that you may still be able access your account:
1. basic HTML view (http://mail.google.com/mail/?ui=html)
1. IMAP access
2. POP access
3. iGoogle
I really think the issue is much larger then a display issue.
Update 6:30pm (EST): The Google rep said Google has finally "pinpointed" the issue.
Update - engineers have pinpointed the issue causing the 502 errors and it looks as if users should start to regain normal functioning of their account. Thanks for being patient while we worked to sort out this problem.
One of my accounts is now working, but another is not. But now, at 6:38pm (EST), all my Gmail accounts (web, imap, etc.) are now working.
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.
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.
A WebmasterWorld member points out that Google has been a little more open with regards to personalized search results. For example, when you do a search, you might see something like this, where Google says that these are searches based on your web history:
When you click on "More details," Google gives you more information about personalization:
Google announced this transparency at the end of July, and it's been relatively welcome addition. They fear that the results could still be personalized if you're not logged into your account, however.
On a similar note, Pierre Far has written that you can now opt out of this behavioral tracking, and he directs you to the forms you need to fill out on Google and Yahoo (in addition to NAI).
Forum discussion continues at WebmasterWorld and Cre8asite Forums.
A WebmasterWorld thread has discussion around the topic of title tags. Now this title tag discussion is not a typical boring thread. In this thread, some webmasters and SEOs have been observing that longer title tags are returning higher rankings in Google, when compared to their counterparts.
The example given by the thread creator, is a generic one. Search for Ie: [blue used widgets] will more likely return a number one result with a title tag that looks like "blue used widget bla bla widget," while a number five result might be "blue used widget."
Of course, there are more factors, many more factors, that come into play in which page ranks better for a search term, then just a title tag. But there is some good discussion around this thread.
Senior member, CainIV, said:
I would agree. I am finding that prominence in the title, as well as a combination of semantics is playing a big role now. Longer titles with closely related themed works are working very well.
Do you think longer titles make an impact?
Forum discussion WebmasterWorld.
A WebmasterWorld thread reports that Google is now placing product results, for some searches, in the middle of the search results. For example, a search on ipod nano returns the Google Shopping results in the fourth listing, as opposed to above the web search results.
Yes, this is Google Universal Search at it's best, but it is confusing some users. A WebmasterWorld member asked why Google was placing AdWords listings within the search results. Yes, you and I know they are not AdWords listings, but does the average searcher? In that case, does the average searcher care if there are product results in the 4th listing, mixed into the search results? Maybe not, maybe that is what Google is testing.
For you, the advertiser, if you have product and you are not in Google Shopping/Product Search, then maybe it is time you submit your products to Google.
Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.
After hearing rumors of the ability to create video ads within the Google AdWords API Sandbox, and then hearing that the launch of that feature would be delayed, it is now officially here.
Jeff Posnick, AdWords API Team said at a Google Groups thread that this feature is finally here:
After a few false starts it does now look like video ad creation in the Sandbox environment is enabled for all users. I tested it today and my request that previously failed now goes through.
Apologies for the length of time it took to get this resolved.
Forum discussion at Google Groups.
Yesterday, AdSenseAdvisor posted on WebmasterWorld that there would be an outage for Google AdSense tomorrow, August 9th, between 10AM and 2PM PDT. Ad serving isn't affected but AdSense addicts won't be able to check their accounts.
Usually, these announcement threads go unanswered. This time, though, someone asked the details behind such a maintenance procedure. At first, AdSenseAdvisor gave the generic answer: "our engineers carry out all the tasks required to keep our systems running as they should."
Did the political answer suffice? Not so much. Forum members started speculating what would happen. A good explanation (though purely speculation) was offered by Hobbs, who said:
During maintenance, raw data is redirected from processing into storage mode, this includes all the traffic and clicks logs plus every thing else Google collects, think of it as a huge bucket filling up.
Post maintenance: First a raw data sample is processed and analyzed for consistency, click fraud, earnings .., if all is well the data processing tap is opened and reports start to trickling in till the bucket is empty.
So why can't you access your data? A few reasons are proposed: it may be on hold until this is complete, or if there are any problems, the reports would be inaccurate anyway so Google tries to avoid displaying it until everything looks good again.
Forum discussion continues at WebmasterWorld.
In March, Google released AdWords API v12 and is finally discontinuing version 11. This will occur on August 26, 2008.
Migration from API v11 to v12 should be relatively straightforward. Jeffrey Posnick of the AdWords API team recommends that you read the documentation for any questions. Of course, Google Groups is available should you have any additional follow-up inquiries.
Forum discussion continues at Google Groups.
Yesterday Google announced that they will utilizing the DoubleClick cookie-based tracking technology to bring more targeted ads and better targeting features to adveristers. You can read most the blog and news commentary via Techmeme.
The features are simple:
So, there are many good features here for advertisers. But it also scares many people.
DoubleClick is huge, they run a huge portion of the ads across the web. In fact, some of the ads on this site are powered through DoubleClick. But then, look at the number of sites with AdSense on them. Now combine them. Google will be tracking individual computers from all sites containing a DoubleClick served ad and a Google AdSense served ad. Of course, Google the opt out details.
Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.
There are several threads at DigitalPoint Forums around the topic of seeing the "new" AdSense Ad Review Center. The thing is, the Ad Review Center is not new, at least not to me and many others. I assume that maybe it was a US roll-out until now and now Google has been rolling out this feature more globally.
Google began testing this feature back in December of 2007, we then received confirmation that this feature is real. So I demonstrated how you can block advertisers with the tool.
On August 4th, we reported that on an Ad Review Center bug, which was resolved a day or so ago. AdSenseAdvisor wrote at WebmasterWorld:
we understand that some publishers, who have set their placement-targeted ads to be automatically approved, have noticed that these ads are not appearing under the Allowed tab in the Ad Review Center.
This issue has now been resolved, and you should be able to see your ads should appear under the Allowed tab as normal.
If you encounter this issue again, please let me know and I will escalate to our engineers.
Forum discussion at DigitalPoint Forums & WebmasterWorld.
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.
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.
The Searchlight Digital Blog has an interesting post that illustrates the percentage of click-throughs you'd get based on a specific Google ranking. The analysis performed by Searchlight covers over 36 million queries and more than 19 million clicks.
The interesting data comes from the explanation from Pete, the blog post's author:
Where this gets really interesting though is when you look at what can happen if you own most of the real estate on a good SERP. The top four results put together account for over two thirds of all clicks that will happen (68.69% in total). The top ten taken as a whole will give nearly nine tenths! (Actual total figure - 89.69%).
Drop onto page two, and you’re basically stuffed. Unless the term gets huge traffic, you’re not going to.
In a way, this information is troubling, however. The discussion on Sphinn concerns individuals. NickWilsdon, for example, is quoted as saying: "That shows the effect of Google pushing up these authority sites into top positions. Eventually they will just leave scraps for everyone else."
I guess we're all hoping that day never comes.
Forum discussion continues at Sphinn.
There are threads at Google Groups and DigitalPoint Forums with multiple reports of Google not crawling Blogger hosted blogs, that are on custom or private domains (i.e. not on blogspot.com domains). Many have reported that the Googlebot crawling has stopped as of July 30th.
I asked Branko to help me see any pattern to the issue and we found a couple things. Both domains listed in the thread have similar patterns.
(1) They both have a robots.txt file that blocks a Google crawer, Mediapartners-Google. Now, we know that Google uses multiple crawlers to index content and they all work together. Branko theorized that maybe that "reduced frequency due to reducing the number of spiders that visit his site." I agree, that is a possibility.
(2) This is more striking to us, is that if you view the source code of both of the reported blogs, you will notice a widget from a script named SetSystemMarkup. I am not sure what that widget does, but in the widget, it has NOINDEX,NOFOLLOW in it. Maybe Google is misinterpreting that as a META tag? I do see that these blogs are both in the Google index, but maybe this is impacting any recent crawl activity for these sites.
I do not think this is a Blogger or Blogspot.com wide issue.
Forum discussion at Google Groups and DigitalPoint Forums.
At Search Engine Land, Barry talks about a brand new tool -- Google Insights for Search. The tool is intended to give advertisers and marketers some metrics of user behavior. In the screenshot below, you can see these metrics, which include geographic distribution, time trending, and news headlines. What you don't see (but is also included) are related search terms and rising trends. (Click for larger image)
Interestingly enough, the map is interactive and is quite similar to the display on Google Analytics. You can click on the regions and zoom in to cities to get an exact idea of where people are searching, like so:
At the same time, the table on the left hand side also gives you specifics (which cities are performing the search.
All in all, this tool like really fascinating and should definitely become a useful aid.
Forum discussion continues at Sphinn.
Google AdWords will be unavailable on August 9th between 10AM and 2PM PDT on Saturday, August 9th, we've learned, while system maintenance is performed.
Ads will continue to run, but you won't be able to access the AdWords interface to make any changes. The API will also be unavailable.
Forum discussion continues at Google Groups.
About a month ago, Google's external keyword tool began to show search volume numbers. Last night, there were reports via WebmasterWorld that the tool stopped showing these estimated search volume numbers, all together.
The reports were sending back error messages that read, "Insufficient Data." This happened for any and all keywords searches between the times of about 5pm (EST) and 10pm (EST) last night, August 5th.
I personally tested the tool this morning and most popular keyword phrases are showing search volume data. I suspect it might have something to do with the launch of Google Insights for Search, which Tamar will have a post on later and which I wrote about at Search Engine Land just about 8 hours ago.
All seems to be good now with the Google Keyword Tool.
Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.
A Google Reader user reports in Google Groups that folder management was previously an issue and that he was unable to change folders for any feed. Yesterday, Google acknowledged the problem, and about a half hour after that, Google said that they released a fix for the problem.
Yesterday, another bug was reported by the Google Reader Guide, and this one hasn't yet been fixed. Google reports that "the ability to add tags and the ability to add a subscription to a folder from your Settings page is currently broken." They're aware of the situation and will update the Google Groups thread when it is resolved.
Forum discussion continues at Google Groups (#1) and Google Groups (#2).
In a WebmasterWorld thread, the effects of 301 redirects are discussed. Can you be penalized?
Apparently, the answer is yes. Tedster notes that a number of webmasters, when they discovered the potential of 301 redirects, "started throwing [them] around like confetti." The penalties were harsh and now he advises against using it.
How bad are the penalties? Tedster says that they can be so bad that your domain could lose trust in Google's eyes -- forever. He does acknowledge that reinclusion requests can be filed in the event of mistakes.
What about using 404s instead? Tedster advises against that:
It would be a sign of good faith, I'd say, to abandon attempts to hold on to any link juice the previous domain tried to transfer and let the new domain stand on its own.
Forum discussion continues at WebmasterWorld.
The National Legal and Policy Center released a compelling report about how Google is not respecting privacy. In one statement, Google said that they take privacy concerns very seriously. The NLPC was troubled when Google “Evangelist” Vint Cerf said "nothing you do ever goes away, and nothing you do ever escapes notice… There isn’t any privacy, get over it.”
Is that true? The National Legal and Policy Center sought out to find the answer. According to reports, they "violated" the privacy of Google executive Larry Page:
[They] released a document demonstrating the threat to personal privacy posed by Google and Google products. Simply using Google Street View and Google Earth, the Center compiled a startlingly comprehensive amount of personal information on a top Google executive in less than 30 minutes, including the license plates of cars outside the executive’s home, the landscaping company the executive uses and even the name of the next door neighbor’s home security company.
One forum member calls Google's arsenal the "stalker's tool kit." On the other hand, forum members think that it's a bit of a stretch, given that you can get the same information if you were standing outside the person's house. (The chances of that, though, are a lot lower and now are a lot more accessible due to the beauty of the Internet.)
But Google Street View still worries people, especially parents who have to see pictures of children playing in the yard. One member can see his kid playing at his parents' house and wonders "if a big NOINDEX NOCACHE sign in the front yard would work." (My guess: the Google Street View driver doesn't know what that would even mean.)
Forum discussion continues at WebmasterWorld.
There is a world of SEOs who continually search Google to track how their keyword phrases are ranking. But they do not just search the main Google.com page, they search each and every Google data center by IP address.
A WebmasterWorld thread reports that Google is now redirecting some of these searches from the IP address to Google.com. I have confirmed this to be true, by following these steps:
This does not mean you can't search specific data centers. Now you need to replace www.google.com with the IP address, so in this case, http://64.233.161.147/search?q=search+engine+roundtable.
Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.
A Google Groups thread reports some users noticing that Google News is testing a new look. The look is showing news formatted in a one column view, as opposed to two columns.
One Google News user said:
All of a sudden, the screen appearance of my Google page changed from 2 subjects across to one. This appears to be only on one computer. I can't figure out what theheck happened or how to fix it.
Abe from Google said this is a controlled test. "We're currently conducting a few small experiments," Google said. Google did give us the heads up on these possible t