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Search Engine Roundtable

Daily Search Forum Recap: March 11, 2010

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

Tags: Search Forum Recap

Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today, through the eyes of the Search Engine Roundtable and other search forums on the web.
Yahoo Search Update: March 2010

Posted: March 11th, 2010, 3:27pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Optimization Search Yahoo

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

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

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

I did spot two threads discussing an update with Yahoo Site Explorer. One thread was at the Site Explorer Suggestion Board and the other at DigitalPoint Forums.
Daily Search Forum Recap: March 10, 2010

Posted: March 10th, 2010, 10:00pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Search Forum Recap

Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today, through the eyes of the Search Engine Roundtable and other search forums on the web.
The UK Bing Ads : Here Is a Video

Posted: March 10th, 2010, 3:02pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Microsoft Search MSN

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

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

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

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.
MSN's New Portal Now Live

Posted: March 10th, 2010, 2:57pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Microsoft Search MSN

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

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

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.
Google Directing You To Wrong Country? Report The Issue

Posted: March 10th, 2010, 2:47pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Google Search Engine

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

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

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

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

Forum discussion at Google Web Search Help.
Daily Search Forum Recap: March 9, 2010

Posted: March 10th, 2010, 2:29am CET by rustybrick

Tags: Search Forum Recap

Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today, through the eyes of the Search Engine Roundtable and other search forums on the web.
Microsoft Aims To Capture UK Search Market Share with Ads

Posted: March 9th, 2010, 1:55pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Microsoft Search MSN

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

Here is the news:

Microsoft is to launch a multimillion-pound TV ad campaign for its search engine Bing, as part of a major marketing push designed to challenge Google's dominance of the UK search market, MediaGuardian.co.uk can reveal.
Microsoft will certainly have its work cut out winning over consumers – it currently holds about a 3% share of the search market while Google controls about 90%.

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

A WebmasterWorld thread has some comments, here is one:

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

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.
Google's International Women's Day Logo at Google Russia Only?

Posted: March 9th, 2010, 6:34am CET by rustybrick

Tags: Google Search Engine

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

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

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

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

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

Forum discussion at Google Web Search Help and Google Webmaster Help.
Daily Search Forum Recap: March 8, 2010

Posted: March 8th, 2010, 10:00pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Search Forum Recap

Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today, through the eyes of the Search Engine Roundtable and other search forums on the web.
Bing: We Know About Your Images & Choose Not To Show Them

Posted: March 8th, 2010, 1:46pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Microsoft Search MSN

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

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

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

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

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

Forum discussion at Bing Community.
Yahoo Releases Search Marketing Desktop Just In Time To Kill It

Posted: March 8th, 2010, 12:34pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Search Yahoo Marketing

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

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

Just wanted to make you aware that our desktop editing tool, Search Marketing Desktop, is now available to most of our advertisers (eligibility is based on minimum monthly spend and a few other factors). Using SMD, it takes just a few clicks to modify multiple campaigns, ad groups, keywords and ads at the same time.
For more details, please visit our blog [ysmblog.com] or the SMD sign-up page [advertising.yahoo.com]. We're also hosting a free webinar about SMD this coming Thursday--you can sign up through the link in the blog post.

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

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

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld & Search Engine Watch Forums.
SMX's SphinnCon Israel 2010 Recap

Posted: March 8th, 2010, 11:49am CET by rustybrick

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

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

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

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

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

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

I would also like to thank all the speakers. I heard some great, unique and fun presentations yesterday. This was event definitely lived up to the quality of the SMX name. Here is a list of our speakers for SphinnCon Israel 2010:
- Adir Regev, CEO, GO Internet Marketing
- Ariel Ozick, WiredRhino
- Ariel Sumeruk, Head of Business intelligence & CTO, Clicks2Customers
- Barry Schwartz, RustyBrick, Inc.
- Branko Rihtman, Whiteweb
- Charlie Kalech, Director, J-Town Productions
- Dan Gerstenfeld, Lecturer at JCT & CEO of Interteam
- Dan Perach, Co-Founder, PPCPROZ
- Daniel Waisberg, Head of Analytics, Easynet
- Debra Askanase, Owner, Community Organizer 2.0
- Dixon Jones, Managing Director of Receptional Ltd.
- Eli Feldblum, CTO & Founder, RankAbove
- Gab Goldenberg, SEO ROI
- Gil Reich, Answers.com
- Gilad Sasson, Search Marketing Analyst at nekuda.co.il
- Itay Paz, ItayPaz.net
- Menachem Rosenbaum, TENS-Technology
- Michal Neufeld, Account Strategist, Google Israel
- Miriam Schwab, CEO, illuminea
- Naomi Sela, Media Director, Compucall Web Marketing
- Olivier Amar, WhiteWeb
- Ophir Cohen, CEO Compucall Web Marketing
- Oren Shatz, Chairman, SEO Israel Technologies Ltd.
- Pavel Israelsky, blogger & SEO expert, AskPavel SEO Blog
- Roi Carthy, Writer, TechCrunch
- Sam Michaelson, Five Blocks
- Shira Abel, Abel Communications
- Shlomi Aizenberg, Director of SEM, Easynet Search Marketing
- Tomer Honen, Search Quality Strategist, Google
- Uri Breitman, TBWADIGITAL
- Vanessa Fox, Nine By Blue
- Yuli Dasiatnikov, SEO, Compucall Web Marketing
After the presentations, some of the attendees travelled up to Tel Aviv to hit the party at the Dancing Camel. The party was sponsored by 888.com and Gammon Empire. Here is one of my favorite pictures from that event:

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

Update: The Jerusalem Post did a write up on the event, which you can read over here and here is a picture:
Daily Search Forum Recap: March 5, 2010

Posted: March 5th, 2010, 10:00pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Search Forum Recap

Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today, through the eyes of the Search Engine Roundtable and other search forums on the web.
(Text) Recap of Weekly Search Buzz :: March 5, 2010

Posted: March 5th, 2010, 1:40pm CET by rustybrick

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

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

Select Topics For This Past Week:

Google Search:
- Good, Google Killed SearchWiki, Adds Stars
Yahoo News:
- Yahoo's 15th Birthday Logo : March 1, 2010
Google SEO:
Bing SEO:
- Bing Recommends W3C Compliant Code For Better Indexing
- Bing Doesn't Like Redirect Chains, No One Does Really
Google AdWords:
- Picture: Google "Related Commercial Searches"
Google AdSense:
- Brazilian Google AdSense Publishers May Not Be Paid This Month
Google Maps:
- Google Maps Avoid Tolls Feature May Cost You
Google Doodles:
- Google's St Davids Day Logo Insults Welsh
- Vivaldi Gets A Google Doodle
SEM Industry:
- SMX West 2010 Live Blogging Recap
Please do subscribe via iTunes or on your favorite RSS reader. Don't forget to comment below with the right answer and good luck!
SMX West 2010 Live Blogging Recap

Posted: March 5th, 2010, 12:14pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Search Marketing Expo West 2010
The past three days was three days filled with great SEO and SEM related content from the SMX West show. I am happy to say we had two outstanding and giving volunteer bloggers to help bring a piece of the show to you via this site.

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

Here is a recap of the sessions we covered. I believe one of the sessions had a technical quirk where all the notes were some how lost, so I apologize.
Thanks Keri and Brain! See you at the next one!
Daily Search Forum Recap: March 4, 2010

Posted: March 5th, 2010, 12:24am CET by rustybrick

Tags: Search Forum Recap

Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today, through the eyes of the Search Engine Roundtable and other search forums on the web.
SMX West: Conversion Ninja Toolbox

Posted: March 4th, 2010, 11:30pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Search Marketing Expo West 2010

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

This coverage is provided by Keri Morgret of Strike Models.

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

Conversion Ninja Toolbox
SMX West: Ask The SEOs

Posted: March 4th, 2010, 10:15pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Search Marketing Expo West 2010

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

This coverage is provided by Brian Ussery of Beu Blog.

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

Ask The SEOs
SMX West: Analytics Action Plans

Posted: March 4th, 2010, 10:15pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Search Marketing Expo West 2010

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

This coverage is provided by Keri Morgret of Strike Models.

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

Analytics Action Plans
SMX West: Ask The Search Engines

Posted: March 4th, 2010, 8:15pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Search Marketing Expo West 2010

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

This coverage is provided by Brian Ussery of Beu Blog.

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

Ask The Search Engines
SMX West: PPC Tune Up Clinic

Posted: March 4th, 2010, 8:15pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Search Marketing Expo West 2010

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

This coverage is provided by Keri Morgret of Strike Models.

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

PPC Tune Up Clinic
SMX West: Bringing SEO In House

Posted: March 4th, 2010, 6:45pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Search Marketing Expo West 2010

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

This coverage is provided by Keri Morgret of Strike Models.

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

Bringing SEO In House
Bing Doesn't Like Redirect Chains, No One Does Really

Posted: March 4th, 2010, 1:15pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Microsoft Search MSN

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

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

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

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

Forum discussion at Bing Community.
Good, Google Killed SearchWiki, Adds Stars

Posted: March 4th, 2010, 1:09pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Google Search Engine

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

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

Here is my picture:

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

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

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

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.
Vivaldi Gets A Google Doodle

Posted: March 4th, 2010, 10:20am CET by rustybrick

Tags: Google Search Engine

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

Here is the Google Doodle for Vivaldi:

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

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

Forum discussion at Google Web Search Help.
SMX West: Optimizing Your Content on YouTube

Posted: March 4th, 2010, 1:30am CET by rustybrick

Tags: Search Marketing Expo West 2010

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

This coverage is provided by Keri Morgret of Strike Models.

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

Optimizing Your Content on YouTube
SMX West: Free Ways to Market on Facebook

Posted: March 3rd, 2010, 10:15pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Search Marketing Expo West 2010

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

This coverage is provided by Keri Morgret of Strike Models.

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

Free Ways to Market on Facebook
Daily Search Forum Recap: March 3, 2010

Posted: March 3rd, 2010, 9:02pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Search Forum Recap

Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today, through the eyes of the Search Engine Roundtable and other search forums on the web.
SMX West: Paid Search Bullseye

Posted: March 3rd, 2010, 7:30pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Search Marketing Expo West 2010

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

This coverage is provided by Keri Morgret of Strike Models.

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

Paid Search Bullseye
Bing Recommends W3C Compliant Code For Better Indexing

Posted: March 3rd, 2010, 12:46pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Microsoft Search MSN

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

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

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

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

This is at least according to Bing.

Forum discussion at Bing Community.
Why Might You Be Redirected To A Localized Version of Bing?

Posted: March 3rd, 2010, 12:22pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Microsoft Search MSN

On occasions, I hear in the forums complaints that people are going to Google.com or Bing.com and are being redirected to a localized version, outside of their local. For example, a Bing Community thread reports one user in the US being redirected to Bing France and a Google Web Search Help thread has another user from Brooklyn, New York complaining about being redirected to Google Puerto Rico.

Why might this happen? Brett Yount from the Bing Webmaster team ventured a guess. Of course, he can not talk for Google, but he is paid to talk for Bing. Brett said:

I'll preface this by saying I don't know the exact answer. However, it is probable that some servers were down for upgrades, etc. and you got routed to the next available server which happened to be France for a short period.

Interesting, so if servers are offline or overloaded, they may redirect you to a different server outside of your region. I never heard this explanation but it does seem somewhat logical. I am not sure if this is a good thing for usability and confusion, but technically, it does make some sense.

Forum discussion at Bing Community.
SMX West: The Current State Of Social Search

Posted: March 3rd, 2010, 1:15am CET by rustybrick

Tags: Search Marketing Expo West 2010

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

This coverage is provided by Brian Ussery of Beu Blog.

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

The Current State Of Social Search
SMX West: Supercharging your Descriptions with Sitelinks

Posted: March 3rd, 2010, 1:15am CET by rustybrick

Tags: Search Marketing Expo West 2010

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

This coverage is provided by Keri Morgret of Strike Models.

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

Supercharging your Descriptions with Sitelinks
SMX West: Google's Personalized Search Revolution

Posted: March 2nd, 2010, 11:45pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Search Marketing Expo West 2010

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

This coverage is provided by Brian Ussery of Beu Blog.

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

Google's Personalized Search Revolution
SMX West: Keyword Research: Beyond the Ordinary

Posted: March 2nd, 2010, 11:45pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Search Marketing Expo West 2010

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

This coverage is provided by Keri Morgret of Strike Models.

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

Keyword Research: Beyond the Ordinary
SMX West: Not Your Father's AdWords

Posted: March 2nd, 2010, 10:00pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Search Marketing Expo West 2010

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

This coverage is provided by Keri Morgret of Strike Models.

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

Not Your Father's AdWords
Daily Search Forum Recap: March 2, 2010

Posted: March 2nd, 2010, 9:30pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Search Forum Recap

Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today, through the eyes of the Search Engine Roundtable and other search forums on the web.
SMX West: Mobile Paid Search Ads

Posted: March 2nd, 2010, 7:30pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Search Marketing Expo West 2010

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

This coverage is provided by Keri Morgret of Strike Models.

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

Mobile Paid Search Ads
SMX West: Keynote Conversation: Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer

Posted: March 2nd, 2010, 5:50pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Search Marketing Expo West 2010

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

This coverage is provided by Brian Ussery of Beu Blog.

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

Keynote Conversation: Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer
Google's St Davids Day Logo Insults Welsh

Posted: March 2nd, 2010, 10:13am CET by rustybrick

Tags: Google Search Engine

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

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

He goes on to explain:

While it is very nice that Google celebrates St David's Day by adapting its front page, its very insulting that it uses a castle built by the English king who wanted to prove his power over the Welsh!
The castle looks very similar to Caernarfon castle, which was one of a series built by Edward 1. While most people know that Wales is full of castles, it is not the Welsh that built them - it was the English!

Forum discussion at Google Web Search Help forums.
Yahoo's 15th Birthday Logo : March 1, 2010

Posted: March 2nd, 2010, 9:27am CET by rustybrick

Tags: Search Engine Yahoo

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

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

Happy Birthday Yahoo!

Forum discussion at Search Engine Roundtable Forums.

Hat tip to Michel.
Daily Search Forum Recap: March 1, 2010

Posted: March 1st, 2010, 10:00pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Search Forum Recap

Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today, through the eyes of the Search Engine Roundtable and other search forums on the web.
Google Adds "Nearby" Search Option

Posted: March 1st, 2010, 11:01am CET by rustybrick

Tags: Google Search Engine

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

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

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

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.
Daily Search Forum Recap: February 26, 2010

Posted: February 26th, 2010, 10:00pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Search Forum Recap

Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today, through the eyes of the Search Engine Roundtable and other search forums on the web.
(Text) Recap of Weekly Search Buzz :: February 26, 2010

Posted: February 26th, 2010, 10:04am CET by rustybrick

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

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

Select Topics For This Past Week:
Please do subscribe via iTunes or on your favorite RSS reader. Don't forget to comment below with the right answer and good luck!
Yelp Sued Over Accepting Money For Removing Negative Reviews

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

Tags: Search Local

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

MediaPost writes:

A California veterinary center has sued review site Yelp for allegedly promising to bury bad reviews in exchange for purchasing $3,600 worth of advertising on the site.
"Yelp frequently exercises its control over the Yelp.com listing application to modify business listing pages to the advantage of businesses that purchase Yelp advertising subscriptions, and the disadvantage of those that decline," Cats and Dogs Animal Hospital owner Gregory Perrault alleges in a complaint filed in federal district court in the central district of California.

Greg at Search Engine Land writes:

Two class action law firms have filed suit in Los Angeles federal court claiming that Yelp has attempted to “extort” money from small businesses by offering to remove negative reviews in exchange for payment.
The truth will out of course but I would be stunned if these claims were based in truth rather than the frustrations and misunderstandings of the plaintiff in this case.

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

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

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

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.
Daily Search Forum Recap: February 25, 2010

Posted: February 25th, 2010, 10:00pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Search Forum Recap

Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today, through the eyes of the Search Engine Roundtable and other search forums on the web.
Google Jazz Slightly Updates It's Look

Posted: February 25th, 2010, 1:55pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Google Search Engine

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

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

Here is the new look:

Here is the old Jazz look:

They are very similar but there are slight differences.

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

Go to Google.com (Press Go to Google.com if you are brought to a localized version of Google, this won't work for localized versions evem if you change the code to .google.ie or whatever instead of .google.com)
Put
javascript:alert(document.cookie="PREF=ID=496cfd992ab9f273:
U=a77c3a4da3815c1d:LD=en:CR=2:TM=1260896352:
LM=1267013388:DV=8atQZBunt08B:GM=1:IG=1
:S=1ebLUyXkRkBnJMYi;path=/;domain=.google.com")

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

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

Forum discussion at Google Blogoscoped Forums.

Hat tip to Michel.
Yahoo Partners With Twitter Again

Posted: February 25th, 2010, 1:10pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Search Engine Yahoo

It seems like for every search company to remain cool, they need to have a partnership with Twitter. And since Yahoo is no longer a search company, I guess they need to be very cool and announce yet another partnership with them.

This partnership includes three primary elements:
1) People will be able to access their personal Twitter feeds across Yahoo!'s many products and properties, including the homepage, Yahoo! Mail, Yahoo! Sports, and others, letting them check in more easily on what's happening with the people and things they care about while on Yahoo!.

2) People will be able to update their Twitter status and share content from Yahoo! in their Twitter stream, so they can easily share their Yahoo! experiences with their friends and followers on Twitter.

3) Yahoo! Search and Yahoo! media properties like News, Finance, Entertainment, and Sports will include real-time public Twitter updates across a variety of topics. Yahoo! Search users will immediately see real-time Twitter results today; go to Yahoo! and try it out.

Let me quote some of my favorite lines from the WebmasterWorld discussion:

This is getting stupid now. I can see some good stuff coming from twitter like emergency stuff, news of world events and so forth, but these tweets may account for only .00001 of all tweets. The rest are IMO complete garbage.

I'm not onboard with the movement that considers Twitter an ultimate site or tool, to me it's trivial and a waste of time, but I had a first happen to me as a webmaster so this announcement is not all that surprising to me.

Hey, if you don't follow me on Twitter, feel free @rustybrick - I want to be cool too!

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.
Daily Search Forum Recap: February 24, 2010

Posted: February 24th, 2010, 10:00pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Search Forum Recap

Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today, through the eyes of the Search Engine Roundtable and other search forums on the web.
Daily Search Forum Recap: February 23, 2010

Posted: February 23rd, 2010, 10:00pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Search Forum Recap

Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today, through the eyes of the Search Engine Roundtable and other search forums on the web.
SMX West 2010 Live Blog Coverage Schedule

Posted: February 23rd, 2010, 1:55pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Search Marketing Expo West 2010

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

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

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

Here is out SMX West 2010 Live Coverage Schedule:

March 2, 2010

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

March 3, 2010

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

March 4, 2010

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

That is our live blogging schedule - it is subject to change last minute.
Daily Search Forum Recap: February 22, 2010

Posted: February 22nd, 2010, 10:00pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Search Forum Recap

Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today, through the eyes of the Search Engine Roundtable and other search forums on the web.
MySpace Results Now in Google Real Time Search

Posted: February 22nd, 2010, 2:53pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Google Search Engine

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

Google wrote:

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

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

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.
Bing Masking MSNBot As Internet Explorer or a Rogue Bot?

Posted: February 22nd, 2010, 2:46pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Microsoft Search MSN

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

The following IP addresses are from MSN's search bots, but use what appears to be just normal user agents.
65.55.109.22
65.55.109.106
65.55.109.118
65.55.109.119
65.55.109.120
65.55.109.162
65.55.109.209
65.55.109.212
65.55.110.16
65.55.110.21
65.55.110.41
65.55.110.88
65.55.110.107
65.55.110.121
65.55.110.132
65.55.110.164

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

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

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

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

Forum discussion at Bing Community.
Google Ranks "Piss Christ" #1 For Chris Image Search

Posted: February 22nd, 2010, 2:35pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Google Search Engine

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

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

Here is a picture:

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

Forum discussion at Google Web Search Help.
Daily Search Forum Recap: February 19, 2010

Posted: February 19th, 2010, 10:00pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Search Forum Recap

Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today, through the eyes of the Search Engine Roundtable and other search forums on the web.
Video Recap of Weekly Search Buzz :: February 19, 2010

Posted: February 19th, 2010, 9:20pm CET by rustybrick

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

Make sure to subscribe to our video feed or subscribe directly on iTunes to be notified of these updates and download the video in the background. Here is the YouTube version of the feed:

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

Search Topics of Discussion:
Please do subscribe via iTunes or on your favorite RSS reader. Don't forget to comment below with the right answer and good luck!
Facts For Webmasters & Advertisers: Yahoo Out Of Search, Bing Takes Over

Posted: February 19th, 2010, 2:25pm CET by rustybrick

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

SUNNYVALE, Calif. & REDMOND, Wash.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Microsoft (Nasdaq:MSFT - News) and Yahoo! (Nasdaq:YHOO - News) announced today that they have received clearance for their search agreement, without restrictions, from both the U.S. Department of Justice and the European Commission, and will now turn their attention to beginning the process of implementing the deal.
Implementation of the deal is expected to begin in the coming days and will involve transitioning Yahoo!’s algorithmic and paid search platforms to Microsoft, with Yahoo! becoming the exclusive relationship sales force for both companies’ premium search advertisers globally. Once the transition is completed, the companies’ unified search marketplace will deliver improved innovation for consumers, better volume and efficiency for advertisers and better monetization opportunities for web publishers through a platform that contains a larger pool of search queries.

Important Facts for Webmasters & Advertisers:
- Algorithmic search on Yahoo will be powered by Bing in the United States by the end of 2010.
- Search advertisers will be migrated from YSM to adCenter prior to the 2010 holiday season, but may wait until 2011.
- All global customers and partners are expected to be transitioned by early 2012.
- Yahoo BOSS, Search Monkey & SiteExplorer are all still up in the air but if Yahoo is not crawling the web, Bing would have to build out their own tools going forward.
- Also, check out the Yahoo Transition Center for additional details
Of course, most of you know my thoughts about where this puts Yahoo. Yahoo, in my opinion, is out of search now. And most of you agree, the poll we ran a week or so ago, has over a hundred responses (see poll pie chart above) and 60% said Yahoo is not in search, 20% are hoping they are but are unsure. Just sad.

Forum discussion at many places:
- Search Deal Approved, WebmasterWorld
- Microsoft-Yahoo search deal approved, DigitalPoint Forums
- Yahoo and Adcenter Announcement, Search Engine Watch Forums
- Microsoft And Yahoo! Team Up To Take On Google, HighRankings Forums
- The Yahoo! and Microsoft Search Alliance, Search Engine Watch Forums
- The Yahoo! and Microsoft Search Alliance, DigitalPoint Forums
- The Yahoo! and Microsoft Search Alliance, WebmasterWorld
- Yahoo & Bing = ???, Google AdWords Help
Yahoo Search Ads Not Driving Necessary Traffic Volume

Posted: February 19th, 2010, 2:17pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Search Yahoo Marketing

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

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

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

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

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

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

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.
Google Images Change How They Display Sources?

Posted: February 19th, 2010, 2:02pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Google Search Engine

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

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

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

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

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

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

The original poster described it as follows:

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

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

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

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Update: Google confirmed this change over the weekend, they said:

Based on feedback from users and webmasters, we have improved the [site:] operator for Google Images. In the past, the [site:] operator filtered based on the image URL, not based on the URL of web pages linking to the images. Now, the operator will run your search over web sites that include images, no matter where the images themselves are hosted, which removes a lot of noise from your results and gives you more control over what you're searching for.
Example searches: [site:digg.com space shuttle], [site:morbidanatomy.blogspot.com], [site:flickr.com/photos/polvero]
Bing Webmaster Tools Mysterious Missing Domains?

Posted: February 19th, 2010, 1:54pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Microsoft Search MSN

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

Here is one report:

I (for the very first time) submitted several URL's, and I also authenticated my website by adding a LiveSearchSiteAuth.xml to my website sites, and I also submitted a sitemap.xml. They all showed yesterday.
But when I login today, I don't see any of my URL's from yesterday.

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

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

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

Forum discussion at Bing Community.
Daily Search Forum Recap: February 18, 2010

Posted: February 18th, 2010, 10:00pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Search Forum Recap

Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today, through the eyes of the Search Engine Roundtable and other search forums on the web.
Bing Advertising On Intellitxt

Posted: February 18th, 2010, 2:29pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Microsoft Search MSN

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

The thread said:

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

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

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.
Daily Search Forum Recap: February 17, 2010

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

Tags: Search Forum Recap

Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today, through the eyes of the Search Engine Roundtable and other search forums on the web.
Bing Indexing New Content & Sites Faster?

Posted: February 17th, 2010, 2:27pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Microsoft Search MSN

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

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

Mack, the forum moderator summed it up, saying:

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

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

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld .
Google Book Search Dropped Search My Library

Posted: February 17th, 2010, 2:23pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Google Search Engine

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

Then a couple of weeks ago, I logged in and I can no longer restrict my search results to items in My Library.
For me, this is the primary way I use Google Books. First search my library. If I don't find it, search more broadly. If I find something good in general search, add that book to my library. If you will, it's like manually controlled personalized search.

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

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

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.
Google Calculates Kelvin to Celsius Wrong: Thanks WolframAlpha

Posted: February 17th, 2010, 2:15pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Google Search Engine

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

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

272.15 is wrong, but 273.15 is correct.

Forum discussion at Google Web Search Help.
Daily Search Forum Recap: February 16, 2010

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

Tags: Search Forum Recap

Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today, through the eyes of the Search Engine Roundtable and other search forums on the web.
Is Google Mixing Paid Results With Free Results?

Posted: February 16th, 2010, 3:06pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Google Search Engine

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

Here is the search result in question:

* skateboards in houston

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

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

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.
Bing Leads Customers To Competitors With Their Best Match Information

Posted: February 16th, 2010, 2:32pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Microsoft Search MSN

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

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

The Carpet guy said:

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

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

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

Please contact support using the form located at:

[https:]

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

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

Forum discussion at Bing Community.

Update: Nice, Bing fixed it the same day.
Facebook Sent More Traffic to Yahoo & MSN Than Google: Is It Bad SEO?

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

Tags: Search Engine Industry News

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

According to Web measurement firm Compete Inc., Facebook has passed search-engine giant Google to become the top source for traffic to major portals like Yahoo and MSN, and is among the leaders for other types of sites.
This trend is shifting the way Web site operators approach online marketing, even as Google takes steps to move into the social-media world.

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

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

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

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

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

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.
Daily Search Forum Recap: February 15, 2010

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

Tags: Search Forum Recap

Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today, through the eyes of the Search Engine Roundtable and other search forums on the web.
Bing to Fix SafeSearch Bug With Text Results

Posted: February 15th, 2010, 2:28pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Microsoft Search MSN

Brett Yount from Bing has confirmed a bug with Bing's SafeSearch filter in a Bing Community thread.

The issue is that when you set your Bing Search preferences to the SafeSearch setting of "Moderate Filter adult images and videos but not text from your search results," it doesn't seem to work as described.

It should only block out adult images and videos, but leave adult oriented text in the search results.

On Friday afternoon, Brett confirmed the issue and said a fix will come in March. He said:

I recieved word that this is a known issue with a fix scheduled for March.

I have not seen many complaints about this to date.

Forum discussion at Bing Community.
President's Day Gets Overshadowed By Olympics: No Google Logo

Posted: February 15th, 2010, 2:14pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Search Engine Industry News

Today is President's day, you wouldn't believe the number of US based businesses that are closed today, including the post offices, banks and courts. But like every year, Google does not show a logo for the day. Just like 2009's President's Day and 2008's President's Day, Google and Yahoo do not have special logos.

This year, they have an excuse, it is the 2010 Winter Olympics, which is what Google, Yahoo and Bing are sporting logos for right now. To see those logos, see our post.

Here is the President's Day message from Ask.com:

And here is from the Search Engine Roundtable:

In addition, there are some complaints in the Google Web Search Help forums that Google China didn't have a special logo for the Chinese New Year.

Forum discussion at Search Engine Roundtable Forums.
2010 Happy Valentine's Day from Google, Yahoo & Ask.com But Not Bing

Posted: February 14th, 2010, 2:27pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Search Engine Industry News

Today is Valentine's Day but it is also the 2010 Winter Olympics. Google & Bing decided to stick with changing their Olympics logos, while Yahoo and Ask.com placed special Valentine's Day logos up today. I am constantly updating our Vancouver 2010 Olympic Logos, which is now up to thirteen logos from various search engines and forums - so make sure to check them out.

Meanwhile, here are the 2010 Valentine's Day logos - to see the previous years go to Valentine's 2009, Valentines 2008, Valentines 2007, Valentines 2006 and Valentines 2005.

Update: Although Google shows an Olympics logo, as Michel points out in the comments below, if you hover your mouse over the logo an Alt tag (alternative text tag) pops up saying Valentine's Day. Plus, the scatting marks shows a heart in the logo - nice touch Google:

Yahoo:

Ask.com:

DogPile:

YouTube:

Cre8asite Forums:

Search Engine Roundtable:

Forum discussion at Search Engine Roundtable Forums.
Daily Search Forum Recap: February 12, 2010

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

Tags: Search Forum Recap

Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today, through the eyes of the Search Engine Roundtable and other search forums on the web.
Video Recap of Weekly Search Buzz :: February 12, 2010

Posted: February 12th, 2010, 9:15pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Search Buzz RoundUp
In this week's search video recap, I start of with an overview of Google Buzz. I then talk about Bing's revised webmaster FAQs. Google is not offering SEO services, despite what people say. Also, when should you not use the canonical tag. Adsense is using previous search queries, they sent out Valentines day cards and publishers feel like they are earning less and less. AdWords has a bug with the billing information. We posted a picture of the new Google News home page test. Google is becoming an ISP and they bought Aardvark. Yahoo says they are still in search, while Bing extends their search deal with Facebook. Finally, the Olympics is tonight and we got the logos to prove it. That was this past week at the Search Engine Roundtable.

Make sure to subscribe to our video feed or subscribe directly on iTunes to be notified of these updates and download the video in the background. Here is the YouTube version of the feed:

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

Search Topics of Discussion:

Social:
- Google Buzz...
SEO:
Google AdSense:
Google AdWords:
- Google AdWords Bug: Can't Enter Billing Information
Google News:
- Picture of Google News New Home Page Test
Search Business:
Olympics 2010:
- Vancouver 2010 Olympic Logos from Google, Yahoo, Bing & Others
Please do subscribe via iTunes or on your favorite RSS reader. Don't forget to comment below with the right answer and good luck!
Vancouver 2010 Olympic Logos from Google, Yahoo, Bing & Others

Posted: February 12th, 2010, 3:03pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Search Engine Industry News

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

Google:

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

Yahoo:

Bing:

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

Search Engine Roundtable:

Via Michel, Yahoo China has an animated theme with Tigers:

Baidu:

Sogou:

Google Day 2 Logo:

Luge Logo was up first, then taken down:

Then a snowboarder went up:

Here are some threads at Google Web Search Help.

Bing Day 2 Logo:

Google Day 3 Logo:

Bing Day 3:

Google Day 4:

Bing Day 4:

Cre8asite Forums:

Forum discussion at Google Web Search Help & WebmasterWorld.
Condolences To Bing's Brett Yount

Posted: February 12th, 2010, 2:31pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Search Engine Industry News

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

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

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

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

Thank you for your concern.

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

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

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

Forum discussion at Bing Community.
Picture of Google News New Home Page Test

Posted: February 12th, 2010, 2:14pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Google Search Engine

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

Here is that picture:

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

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

Forum discussion at Google News Help.
Daily Search Forum Recap: February 11, 2010

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

Tags: Search Forum Recap

Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today, through the eyes of the Search Engine Roundtable and other search forums on the web.
Bing: "We Do Not Index 302 Redirected Pages"

Posted: February 11th, 2010, 3:15pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Microsoft Search MSN

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

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

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

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

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

Forum discussion at Bing Community.
Yahoo Says They Are Still In Search, Sure Thing!

Posted: February 11th, 2010, 3:01pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Search Engine Yahoo

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

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

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

Do you agree? Here is a poll:

Will Yahoo Really Continue in Search?(online surveys)

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.
Bing Updates Webmaster FAQs Into 82 Questions

Posted: February 11th, 2010, 2:39pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Microsoft Search MSN

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

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

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

Forum discussion at Bing Community.
Daily Search Forum Recap: February 10, 2010

Posted: February 10th, 2010, 10:00pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Search Forum Recap

Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today, through the eyes of the Search Engine Roundtable and other search forums on the web.
Now Google Is Matriarchal Biased

Posted: February 10th, 2010, 2:59pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Google Search Engine

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

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

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

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

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

Forum discussion at Google Web Search Help.
Daily Search Forum Recap: February 9, 2010

Posted: February 9th, 2010, 10:00pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Search Forum Recap

Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today, through the eyes of the Search Engine Roundtable and other search forums on the web.
Google "Save Us From Berlusconi" Spam?

Posted: February 9th, 2010, 3:22pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Google Search Engine

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

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

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

Forum discussion at Google Webmaster Help.
When Not To Use Canonical Tags With Pagination

Posted: February 9th, 2010, 3:09pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Optimization Search Engine

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

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

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

John explained this well, saying:

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

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

Forum discussion at Google Webmaster Help.
Google Turns Their Back on Boy Scouts, No 100 Year Anniversary Logo

Posted: February 9th, 2010, 2:29pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Google Search Engine

100 years ago, yesterday, on February 8, 1910, the Boy Scouts was founded by William D. Boyce, Ernest Thompson Seton and Daniel Carter Beard. The Boy Scouts in America is a pretty significant foundation or club, with millions of members involved. 100 years is a significant milestone for any organization, which is why some people are upset with Google for not posting a special Google logo or Doodle.

We have several threads, one in Google Webmaster Help and a few in Google Web Search Help. If you read through some of these threads, you will see how upset and hurt some of these people are.

One person said:

Today (February 8th, 2010) is the 100 year anniversary of Scouting in the United States. Started earlier in England, it was officially created in the US 100 years ago today. I was dissappointed not to see a Doodle, so thought I might could suggest one and (hopefully) someone could get one up this week anyway.

Google likes to automate everything, but one thing they cannot automate is the creation of these logos. I suspect Google simply forgot about this event and I am sure they are upset they have. I doubt it was intentional, because a 100 year landmark for the Boy Scouts, for even someone like me who was not in the Scouts - seems significant and worthy of a Google Doodle.

Forum discussion at Google Webmaster Help and Google Web Search Help.
Daily Search Forum Recap: February 8, 2010

Posted: February 8th, 2010, 10:00pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Search Forum Recap

Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today, through the eyes of the Search Engine Roundtable and other search forums on the web.
Most Say, Google Should Not Censor Non-Adult Search Suggestions

Posted: February 8th, 2010, 3:04pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Google Search Engine
About a month ago, we ran a poll asking should Google censor non-adult search suggestions? This was based on all the religion based controversy and political controversy. So I specifically asked our readers, should Google censor these search suggestions or not.

We received 113 responses, where about 75% said, no, Google should not censor these results. 23% said they should and the rest said "other." Here is the break down of the few other responses:
- Should show only when safe search filter is off!
- Doing what the big companies want is taking away free speech
- They should censor what they choose, not what anyone tells them
So there you have it, a completely unscientific poll from our readers.

Forum discussion continued at WebmasterWorld.
Bing Powers More of Facebook Search

Posted: February 8th, 2010, 2:23pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Microsoft Search MSN

I reported this last week at Search Engine Land, that Microsoft furthered their search deal with Facebook. In short, Bing will now power global Facebook searches and include fuller search results.

Now that the search industry had some time to digest the news and here are some quotes from the WebmasterWorld thread:

Each page view with a search "powered by Bing" will be a tiny advertisement for Bing. Google will be hit hard by this. Finally, Google gets what it deserves, after having ignored important needs (like transparency and privacy) from publishers and webusers for so long. What joy!

I would have serious issues with FB if I knew Google had access to the FB data coupled with their famous virtually non-expiring, unique tracking cookie.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.
Video Recap of Weekly Search Buzz :: February 5, 2010

Posted: February 5th, 2010, 10:20pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Search Buzz RoundUp
In this weeks search recap, I cover the past month of Google SEO related topics, in the February Google Webmaster report. Bing spoke up on how important redirecting your canonical URLs are. Google is disapproving AdWords ads for "artificial ad traffic." Google is sending payment notifications to some AdSense publishers. Some publishers got paid double last month. Google may disclose the AdSense revenue split, and yes, most publishers want to know. AdSense has a reporting glitch with Blogger. Google is testing a new Google News home page and they also added a starring feature. Google Images previews now have a flip image feature for some. Finally, it was Groundhog day and only Bing and us had themes, Google, Yahoo and others did not. That was this past week at the Search Engine Roundtable.

Make sure to subscribe to our video feed or subscribe directly on iTunes to be notified of these updates and download the video in the background. Here is the YouTube version of the feed:

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

Search Topics of Discussion:
Please do subscribe via iTunes or on your favorite RSS reader. Don't forget to comment below with the right answer and good luck!
Daily Search Forum Recap: February 5, 2010

Posted: February 5th, 2010, 10:00pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Search Forum Recap

Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today, through the eyes of the Search Engine Roundtable and other search forums on the web.
Some Insight Into How Bing Handles WWW vs Non-WWW Canonical SEO Issues

Posted: February 5th, 2010, 2:16pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Microsoft Search MSN

Canonical URLs and domains to most SEOs are a common issue they run across. How each search engine handles the various patterns of URLs that seem or are duplicate to each other, may differ.

In a Bing Community thread, there is a comment from Brett Yount, a Program Manager at Bing Webmaster Center, on how Bing typically handles WWW vs non-WWW issues. By that I mean, if you both the http://example.com/ and http://www.example.com/ URLs return the same page, without redirection. Brett said:

It really doesn't matter if the site your link is residing on is www or non-www. More important is the structure of the URL they are using to link to you--especially if your site is not canonicalized using 301 redirects. When not redirected, we treat the non-www and the www version of your site as two different sites, so if you have links out there with and without the www, your whole site rank is affected. Canonicalizing your site to one or the other will automatically cause us to combine all the links and apply them to the chosen version of your site and may help increase your site rank.

Forum discussion at Bing Community.
Daily Search Forum Recap: February 4, 2010

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

Tags: Search Forum Recap

Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today, through the eyes of the Search Engine Roundtable and other search forums on the web.
Daily Search Forum Recap: February 3, 2010

Posted: February 3rd, 2010, 10:00pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Search Forum Recap

Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today, through the eyes of the Search Engine Roundtable and other search forums on the web.
Google Straw In Czech & Find Dead People

Posted: February 3rd, 2010, 2:52pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Google Search Engine

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

Here is a picture:

(FYI, I did crop the picture a bit)

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

Forum discussion at Google Web Search Help.
Daily Search Forum Recap: February 2, 2010

Posted: February 2nd, 2010, 10:00pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Search Forum Recap

Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today, through the eyes of the Search Engine Roundtable and other search forums on the web.
Old Time Forum Personality, MakeMeTop, Acquired Partially

Posted: February 2nd, 2010, 2:31pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Search Engine Industry News

Possibly the first "Barry" in the SEO industry, Barry Lloyd, aka MakeMeTop, has sold the MakeMeTop brand, software and analytics business to Unica. Barry Lloyd has been in the industry for a really long time and he has been somewhat quiet recently, but has given so much to the industry over the years.

He joined the WebmasterWorld forums back in 2000. It is over there where he used the MakeMeTop username for years and years. There is now a forum thread at WebmasterWorld discussing the acquisition.

It is over there where he thanks everyone for their wishes and explains the situation a bit more. He said:

Thanks everyone and I suppose (and hope) I am permitted one more post under the MMT name before I transform into another ID!
Just one clarification, the MMT trademark, software and analytics business has been acquired, but my company Microchannel Technologies (which owned the MMT brand and trademark) is still here and will be doing SEM consultancy, a bit of affiliate stuff and the odd thing in this space. I can just afford to be way more selective about what I do!

For the past 10 years MMT enabled me to be part of this industry in many forms, SEO, SEM, affiliate marketer and lately SEM software provider. It has also enabled me to have a somewhat more decent standard of living than I probably deserve and allowed me to travel the World meeting like minded individuals.

For that, in no small part, I have to thank the people I have met here both virtually and in person. Some of you have been an inspiration and all have been a pleasure to enagage with in lively discussion.

As MMT rides off in to the rosy future I fully expect it to have (although under new ownership) I will be able to be able to choose what I want to do a lot more and that, of course, means I can get back to going to PubCon. Now that is something to look forward to!

Congrats Barry!

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.
Groundhog Day: Bing Theme But Nothing From Google, Yahoo, AOL & Others

Posted: February 2nd, 2010, 2:20pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Search Engine Industry News

Today is Groundhog Day and in the past we have seen special logos from AOL, DogPile, Bing and others. But we never get a theme or logo from Google and Yahoo for the day.

In any event, here is Bing's theme for Groundhog day:

We also have a theme up, here is how it looks:

Forum discussion at Search Engine Roundtable Forums.
Daily Search Forum Recap: February 1, 2010

Posted: February 1st, 2010, 10:00pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Search Forum Recap

Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today, through the eyes of the Search Engine Roundtable and other search forums on the web.
Google Images Preview Flip (Slider) Feature

Posted: February 1st, 2010, 2:24pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Google Search Engine

It seems Google is testing a new user interface for Google Images image previews. There are reports of this test at both WebmasterWorld and DigitalPoint Forums. As you can see from the image below, after you click on an image from Google Images, you are then taken to a page that lets you click on left or right arrows, to slide through the various images.

I personally cannot replicate it. It seems to be something being tested from outside the US.

As you can imagine, webmasters are not happy with this new feature. They believe it will result in a drop in traffic from Google Image search. One webmaster said:

This changes everything! - before - a well placed image would bring in traffic - and a enough revenue to cover costs - etc. Now the image is in a gallery (Bing style) - I imagine click through rates will be negligible to the host page, context is lost, any copyright notifications gone, and no protection for the image.

The information from the site is just a small panel to the right.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld and DigitalPoint Forums.
Daily Search Forum Recap: January 29, 2010

Posted: January 29th, 2010, 10:00pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Search Forum Recap

Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today, through the eyes of the Search Engine Roundtable and other search forums on the web.
Video Recap of Weekly Search Buzz :: January 29, 2010

Posted: January 29th, 2010, 7:25pm CET by rustybrick

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

Make sure to subscribe to our video feed or subscribe directly on iTunes to be notified of these updates and download the video in the background. Here is the YouTube version of the feed:

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

Search Topics of Discussion:
Google SEO:
- More Google Caffeine Sightings Over Weekend
- Remove Pages From Google ~Forever Using a 410 Status Code
Google Features:
- Google "Answer Highlighting" Upsets Webmasters
- Google Launches Social Search
Google AdSense:
Search Business:
- Search Continues to Grow: Showing 46% Growth YoY, comScore
Google Maps:
- Google Maps Can't Find Home After Adding Personalization
Google Reader:
- Google Reader Tracks Changes To All Web Pages: Tips on How to Block It
Google Doodles:
- Google A Month Early On Kuwait's National Day
- Google Drops Aboriginal Flag from Doodle Winner Due To Copyright
Please do subscribe via iTunes or on your favorite RSS reader. Don't forget to comment below with the right answer and good luck!
Bing Too Easy To Rank Well In?

Posted: January 29th, 2010, 2:00pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Microsoft Search MSN

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

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

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

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

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

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

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.
Daily Search Forum Recap: January 28, 2010

Posted: January 28th, 2010, 10:00pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Search Forum Recap

Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today, through the eyes of the Search Engine Roundtable and other search forums on the web.
Google Maps Can't Find Home After Adding Personalization

Posted: January 28th, 2010, 3:06pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Google Search Engine

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

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

The searcher said:

It appears the Google Maps team has replaced the "saved locations" feature with the "personalized search results". The problem is, when I created my "saved locations" I included some additional information in the names of those entries so they could be easily found by personal names. For instance, if my friend Steve lived at a particular address, I'd save his address into "saved locations" and include the name "Steve" or "Steve's home". Then, I was able to start typing "Steve" and it would automatically bring up this saved location.
This is no longer the case. His address is still flagged in my web history and it autocompletes if I start typing in his address... but I can no longer start typing "Steve" to bring up his location.

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

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

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

Forum discussion at Google Maps Help.
Trusted Sources vs Less Trusted Sources on Google News

Posted: January 28th, 2010, 2:54pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Google Search Engine

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

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

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

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

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

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

Forum discussion at Google News Help.
Google Launches Social Search

Posted: January 28th, 2010, 2:46pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Google Search Engine

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

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

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

Here is my social circle as found by Google:

Here is my social content:

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

Video Demo:

Pretty neat!

Forum discussion at Search Engine Watch Forums.
Daily Search Forum Recap: January 27, 2010

Posted: January 27th, 2010, 10:00pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Search Forum Recap

Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today, through the eyes of the Search Engine Roundtable and other search forums on the web.
Where Did Bing's Webmaster Support Rep Go? Brett Yount

Posted: January 27th, 2010, 2:25pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Microsoft Search MSN

As you know, I track the search marketing forums, including many of the official search engine forums, to find the latest breaking news and issues that are important to the community. I pay particular close attention to what the official search engine representatives say in these forums.

It appears that Brett Yount, the community lead at the Bing Forums and Program Manager of Bing Webmaster Center, has gone missing in action. His last post was 20 days ago, on January 7th in a Bing Community thread.

I know he may have recently said things he probably shouldn't have. Did that lead to him being fired or replaced? I don't know. I certainly hope not. Brett was a ray of sun for people like me, who like to see search reps who are honest, forthcoming and simply good people.

Brett - we miss you - please come back. There are tons of webmasters who need your help and guidance in the Bing forum.

Forum discussion at Bing Community.

Update: Bing Tweeted:

Brett’s taking some personal time off. Unrelated to forums, for the record ^az
Daily Search Forum Recap: January 26, 2010

Posted: January 26th, 2010, 10:00pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Search Forum Recap

Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today, through the eyes of the Search Engine Roundtable and other search forums on the web.
Some Google News RSS Subscriptions Not Validating?

Posted: January 26th, 2010, 2:10pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Google Search Engine

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

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

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

Forum discussion at Google News Help.
Daily Search Forum Recap: January 25, 2010

Posted: January 25th, 2010, 10:00pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Search Forum Recap

Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today, through the eyes of the Search Engine Roundtable and other search forums on the web.
Search Continues to Grow: Showing 46% Growth YoY, comScore

Posted: January 25th, 2010, 2:19pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Search Engine Industry News

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

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

Forum discussion at two Webmaster World threads.
Daily Search Forum Recap: January 22, 2010

Posted: January 22nd, 2010, 10:00pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Search Forum Recap

Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today, through the eyes of the Search Engine Roundtable and other search forums on the web.
Video Recap of Weekly Search Buzz :: January 22, 2010

Posted: January 22nd, 2010, 9:15pm CET by rustybrick

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

Make sure to subscribe to our video feed or subscribe directly on iTunes to be notified of these updates and download the video in the background. Here is the YouTube version of the feed:

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

Search Topics of Discussion:
Please do subscribe via iTunes or on your favorite RSS reader. Don't forget to comment below with the right answer and good luck!
SEO ≠ Search Engine Optimization, Rather Strategically Elevating Optimization

Posted: January 22nd, 2010, 2:24pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Search Engine Industry News

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

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

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

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

Forum discussion at Sphinn.
Google's Matt Cutt's State of the Index 2009

Posted: January 22nd, 2010, 2:11pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Google Search Engine

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

Here is the 25 minute video:

Here are the slides:

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

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.
Daily Search Forum Recap: January 21, 2010

Posted: January 21st, 2010, 10:00pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Search Forum Recap

Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today, through the eyes of the Search Engine Roundtable and other search forums on the web.
A Real Yahoo Search Update for January 2010?

Posted: January 21st, 2010, 3:13pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Optimization Search Yahoo

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

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

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

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

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.
Yahoo Search Advertisers Rejoice Over New Network Distribution Feature

Posted: January 21st, 2010, 3:06pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Search Yahoo Marketing

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

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

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

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

New Year, New Search Enhancements @ Yahoo! Video

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

This really makes my day.

Forum discussion at DigitalPoint Forums & WebmasterWorld.
SEOmoz Builds Open Site Explorer, Community Likes

Posted: January 21st, 2010, 2:49pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Search Engine Tools

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

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

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

Forum discussion at Sphinn.
Disabling Right Clicking Should Not Hurt Your Google Ranking & SEO

Posted: January 21st, 2010, 2:41pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Optimization Search Engine

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

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

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

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

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

Forum discussion at HighRankings Forum & Google Webmaster Help.
Bing's Auto Search Suggestions Gets More Current

Posted: January 21st, 2010, 2:32pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Microsoft Search MSN

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

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

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

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.
Daily Search Forum Recap: January 20, 2010

Posted: January 20th, 2010, 10:00pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Search Forum Recap

Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today, through the eyes of the Search Engine Roundtable and other search forums on the web.
First Image for Jesus in Google Images is Offensive

Posted: January 20th, 2010, 3:13pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Google Search Engine

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

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

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

Forum discussion at Google Web Search Help.
Should Google Add "Last Updated" Note to All Search Results?

Posted: January 20th, 2010, 2:48pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Google Search Engine

For new content, Google often adds to the search result a little note of some sort that says how new the content is. Normally in the form of X minutes ago or X hours ago. I have some screen shots of how this works over here. But should Google always do this? Should Google show the date the last time that page was updated in the search results even if it means X years ago?

A Google Web Search Help thread is having discussion just about that feature request. Of course it can come in handy, to know which pages are more up-to-date than others, especially for product reviews and news related content. Google somewhat handles this for articles that contain the dates in them, here is an example:

Notice the dates in the snippets. But again, this is just the date of the article, not the last time the article was updated.

Do you think Google should be sharing this information in the search results?

Should Google Show "Last Updated" Info for ALL Search Results?(polls)

Forum discussion at Google Web Search Help.
A Canonicalizable Tool

Posted: January 20th, 2010, 2:25pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Search Engine Tools

Susan Moskwa, a Google Webmaster Trends Analysts, posted a thread at the Google Webmaster Help forums announcing a new tool her husband created. The tool is named canonicalizable tool and it basically shows you potential canonicalization issues with your home pages. Here is a screen shot:

What I find interesting, and this is not new, but honestly, it is new to me. Susan Moskwa's husband is the lead developer of the LinkScape tools at SEOmoz. His name is Nick Gerner, so when Susan posted in the Google Webmaster Help , it sparked my interest:

My hubby threw together this tool this weekend:
http://www.nickgerner.com/2010/01/canonicalizable/

What do y'all think? Useful? What else does it need? Obviously I'm biased but I'm sure he'd love feedback. :)

In any event, the tool looks clean and simple and useful.

Forum discussion at Google Webmaster Help.
Microsoft To Purge Search Data on Bing After 6 Months

Posted: January 20th, 2010, 2:16pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Microsoft Search MSN

Microsoft's Bing blog announced they will reduce the time frame they store search data, from 18 months to only 6 months. This is in response to the European Union's request that search companies reduce the time they store such data. Microsoft Bing is the first major search engine to comply with those demands.

Bing said:

Specifically, we are reducing the amount of time we store IP addresses from searchers to 6 months. Currently we keep that information for 18 months before we delete it. Generally, when Bing receives search data we do a few things: first, we take steps to separate your account information (such as email or phone number) from other information (what the query was, for example). Then, after 18 months we take the additional step of deleting the IP address and any other cross session IDs associated with the query. Under the new policy, we will continue to take all the steps we applied previously – but now we will remove the IP address completely at 6 months, instead of 18 months. We think this gives us the right balance between making search better for consumers (we use the data to improve the service we offer) and providing greater protection for the privacy of our users.

Greg Sterling at Search Engine Land has additional history and insight into this change.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.
Daily Search Forum Recap: January 19, 2010

Posted: January 19th, 2010, 10:00pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Search Forum Recap

Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today, through the eyes of the Search Engine Roundtable and other search forums on the web.
Daily Search Forum Recap: January 18, 2010

Posted: January 18th, 2010, 10:00pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Search Forum Recap

Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today, through the eyes of the Search Engine Roundtable and other search forums on the web.
Martin Luther King, Jr Logo from Google, Yahoo, Bing, Ask, Dogpile & Othersin 2010

Posted: January 18th, 2010, 3:15pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Search Engine Industry News

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

Google's MLK Logo:

Yahoo's Flash MLK logo:

Bing's MLK Theme:

Ask.com's MLK Theme:

DogPile:

Search Engine Roundtable:

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

Forum discussion at Google Web Search Help.
Bing Showing Related Search Results By Default

Posted: January 18th, 2010, 2:22pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Microsoft Search MSN

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

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

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

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.
Daily Search Forum Recap: January 15, 2010

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

Tags: Search Forum Recap

Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today, through the eyes of the Search Engine Roundtable and other search forums on the web.
Video Recap of Weekly Search Buzz :: January 15, 2010

Posted: January 15th, 2010, 10:20pm CET by rustybrick

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

Make sure to subscribe to our video feed or subscribe directly on iTunes to be notified of these updates and download the video in the background. Here is the YouTube version of the feed:

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

Search Topics of Discussion:
Google SEO:
Google Search:
Google AdWords:
adCenter & Yahoo:
- If Microsoft / Yahoo Deal Goes Through: adCenter Will Replace Yahoo Search Marketing
- Yahoo To Kill Shopping API & Outsource to PriceGrabber, Not Bing
Google & Haiti:
- Google Now Shows Haiti Relief Message on Home Page Before Fade
Google China:
- Google's Bold Move to Leave China Drives Good Will
- Google China's Office Becomes a Shrine
Please do subscribe via iTunes or on your favorite RSS reader. Don't forget to comment below with the right answer and good luck!
Google Now Shows Haiti Relief Message on Home Page Before Fade

Posted: January 15th, 2010, 2:22pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Google Search Engine

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

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

Pre-Fade:

Post-Fade:

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

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

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

Forum discussion at Google Web Search Help.
Should Search Engines Be Immune to Copyright Infringement?

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

Tags: Search Engine Industry News

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

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

Danny Sullivan in response to Michael Gray:

Yeah, yeah, simmer down there troll boy :)
So the actual article this is talking about from The Guardian says this proposal also says:

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

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

Michael Gray in response to Danny Sullivan:

being a troll boy ;-) and not a lawyer I may be missing something, but this seems pretty clear...
In other words, Google would be free to copy everything - but a publisherblocking search spiders with a robots.txt file would be taken as withholding that right. An explicit "fair use" provision, which Google often cites against copyright-abuse claims, does not exist in UK law.

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

The debate goes on and on in the thread, so if you are in a troll/rant mood or if you just find the topic interesting, do check it out.

Forum discussion at Sphinn.
Google UK Showing US Based Spelling Suggestions

Posted: January 14th, 2010, 1:44pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Google Search Engine

If you search at Google UK for keywords such as [search engine optimisation] or [personalised napkins] or the like, you will get US based spelling suggestions from Google.

Here are some screen captures:

The old S vs Z in US vs UK English.

As you can imagine, this is not just annoying for UK searchers but also can be a bit insulting. So far, Google has not commented in any of the threads I have seen report this.

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

Update: Google seemed to quietly fix this in the past 24 hours.

Update 2: Here is a statement from Google over 24 hours later:

We recently introduced a change to the spell correction feature on the google.co.uk domain. This change introduced a bug where we were suggesting American English spelling refinements. We have temporarily rolled back the change while we fix the problem.
Daily Search Forum Recap: January 13, 2010

Posted: January 13th, 2010, 10:00pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Search Forum Recap

Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today, through the eyes of the Search Engine Roundtable and other search forums on the web.
Daily Search Forum Recap: January 12, 2010

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

Tags: Search Forum Recap

Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today, through the eyes of the Search Engine Roundtable and other search forums on the web.
Yahoo To Kill Shopping API & Outsource to PriceGrabber, Not Bing

Posted: January 12th, 2010, 2:24pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Search Yahoo Marketing

Yahoo quietly announced they are discontinuing their Yahoo Shopping API, because they are going to be outsourcing the Yahoo Shopping component of their site to PriceGrabber.com. Greg Sterling has excellent questions and observations about this decision. The main question is why isn't Bing going to power this search feature?

On a webmaster note, just look at the first comment in the Yahoo announcement:

This is very disappointing to me. Several of my web apps depend on the API it for their real-time data needs. Pricegrabber is not a replacement. I suppose this means I'm collaterally going to shut down my own services as well. A big sarcastic "thanks" goes out to the Yahoo team for this.

A WebmasterWorld thread both sympathizes with those in this trap and also somewhat mocks them. For example one said, "This is yet another lesson for lazy or naive webmasters that build their sites around the services provided by third parties (mostly by Google in these days)."

incrediBILL adds, "The most amusing part is it probably requires no maintenance to leave the API function as-is." httpwebwitch explained the other value in this API:

The Yahoo! Shopping API is/was a really good product, too. Well designed, with massive amounts of excellent data. One of the best data API's out there, IMHO - I've often used it as an example when teaching others about APIs and XML.
I have several apps out there that depend on it, and projects in development that also rely on it. All those projects will be scrapped.

This is not the first time some webmasters were 'burned' by using a free and open API.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.
Baidu's Domain Name Snatched by Hackers For Four Hours

Posted: January 12th, 2010, 2:09pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Other Search Engines

Imagine going to Google.com and seeing that it has been hacked and taken over by hackers? That is what happened to Chinese searchers, with their favorite search engine, Baidu. @mranti snapped a picture of the Baidu home page, when it was hacked:

The news can be found on Techmeme, but in short, it seems like they took over Baidu's domain name for about four hours. Now, when I go to Baidu.com it redirects me to http://202.108.22.5/, which is a server operated by Baidu.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.
Daily Search Forum Recap: January 11, 2010

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

Tags: Search Forum Recap

Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today, through the eyes of the Search Engine Roundtable and other search forums on the web.
Google Suggest Leads to 14 Year Old Stripping

Posted: January 11th, 2010, 2:49pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Google Search Engine

We asked earlier today if Google should censor non-adult search suggestions. Google does censor out adult-oriented or illegal suggestions. But often they do not get censored unless someone really points it out in a public setting.

A Google Web Search Help thread points out the next upsetting search suggestion found on Google. Now, it isn't upsetting to me that Google is showing it, it is upsetting to me why Google is showing this. I'll explain in a bit. Here is a picture showing the search suggestion for [14 year old stripping].

Yea, Google is showing a search suggestion for [14 year old stripping.] Why? I guess because it is a popular query associated with the number 14. People who enter in 14 into Google are very likely to search for [14 year old stripping]. That is what is sad to me.

In any event, Google will remove the both adult-oriented and illegal search suggestion soon enough.

Forum discussion at Google Web Search Help.

Update: Google has removed the search suggestion and updated the forum thread explaining why:

Thank you for alerting me about this inappropriate query suggestion. The phrase that you reported falls into the category of pornographic terms that we'd consider for filtering from query suggestions. Will let you know if there are any updates to share.
Poll: Should Google Censor Non-Adult Search Suggestions?

Posted: January 11th, 2010, 2:30pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Google Search Engine

Ever since Google suggest became the default at Google.com back in 2008, the search suggestions had led to some controversy. Most recently over religions suggestions such as Christianity or Islam. Plus a month or so back, we had the Climategate controversy. We do know that Google censors out adult search suggestions and I don't think anyone would argue with that.

However, do you think Google should censor out non-adult negative search suggestions? Such as those that appear negative to religious beliefs or make companies look bad. For example, a WebmasterWorld thread is discussing a French ruling which required Google to remove the search suggestions that had the word 'scam' when you entered in a company name. Should those also be censored?

Take my poll:

Should Google Censor Non-Adult Search Suggestions?(opinion)

I for one believe adult content should be censored there, as Google does. But I do not believe Google should remove the others.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.
Video Recap of Weekly Search Buzz :: January 8, 2010

Posted: January 9th, 2010, 12:00am CET by rustybrick

Tags: Search Buzz RoundUp
This week, I try to get fancier with my video set up and integrate multiple video sources, including my monitor - let's see how that goes. I posted the Google webmaster report for January. There were rumors Caffeine went live, but it did not. More people are seeing the Google blue Jazz interface. Malware is becoming a bigger and bigger issues. Was there a Yahoo Search update or was it the paid inclusion results being removed? Google's local business privacy blunder caused some overall concern. Google may return the SEO and web design local pack? Bing says they are slow and recommends you spam Digg or Yahoo Buzz. Microsoft adCenter offered free clicks, well - not really. AdWords tests a CPA lead form and also click to call on mobile phones. Also, most PPCers have participated in bid wars, while most advertisers are not afraid to make changes to their accounts. Finally Googlers were working on New Years and Google animated their logo for Issac Newton. That was this past week at the Search Engine Roundtable.

Make sure to subscribe to our video feed or subscribe directly on iTunes to be notified of these updates and download the video in the background. Here is the YouTube version of the feed:

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

Search Topics of Discussion:
Google SEO
- January 2010 Google Webmaster Report
- Google Caffeine Results Now Going Live?
Google Search
- Google's Blue Interface (AKA Jazz) Being Seen By More Searchers
- Malware in 2010 : Hiding in Google Search Results
Yahoo SEO
- Yahoo Search January 2010 Update?
- Yahoo Paid Inclusion Still Live?
Google Local
- Google Sends Me & Others Wrong Local Business Center Reports
- Google Back Tracks a Bit on Dropping SEOs & Webmasters from Local Results
Bing SEO
- Microsoft Bing Says They Are "Fairly Slow"
- Bing Recommends Submitting to Digg & Yahoo Buzz for Indexing Boost
adCenter
- Microsoft adCenter Offering Free Search Ads Over New Years?
AdWords
Misc
- Yep, Googlers Working on January 1st, New Years Day
- Isaac Newton 367th Birthday Brings Google's First Animated Doodle (Logo)
Please do subscribe via iTunes or on your favorite RSS reader. Don't forget to comment below with the right answer and good luck!
Daily Search Forum Recap: January 8, 2010

Posted: January 8th, 2010, 10:00pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Search Forum Recap

Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today, through the eyes of the Search Engine Roundtable and other search forums on the web.
Should You Ever Have More Than 5 Clicks To Get To a Page?

Posted: January 8th, 2010, 2:11pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Optimization Search Engine

Most search engines find new pages by crawling links from other sites. At the same time, the more links to a page and the quality of the pages linking to a page, drives the quality of the page being linked to. These are all basic SEO principles.

This is why many SEOs place links to their most important internal pages, right off of their home page. Why?

(1) They want them indexed faster and typically one's home page is indexed more often than other pages (not always). So having a link from your most popular page to other pages, help the other pages also get indexed faster.

(2) Also your home page normally has the most amount of links to it, so typically has the higher link equity of all your page (not always), so linking to pages off your home page will funnel some of that high link equity to the pages you are linking to. This may result in a higher ranking for those pages linked to from your home page.

Again, all basic SEO principles.

The myth is having pages based in the root directory of your server results in higher ranking. That is not true, it is all about the click path.

That being said, does it ever make sense to require people to click and click, five or more times to get to an internal page? Since search engines will have to do the same clicking, it might take them longer to find the page and it won't pass the majority of your home page's link popularity.

JohnMu, a Googler, in the Google Webmaster Help forums discussed just that in less than a sentence. He said:

I'd have no problem clicking through 5-6 links to get to highly specific content if I needed it and your site had it.

Google knows that there is a logical site hierarchy. Google knows that there are deeper pages on a site that is important. As an SEO, it is not just about linking to them off your home page, but also about getting external links to those pages. And it is also about utilizing your other internal pages to get the search bots to bite them.

Forum discussion at Google Webmaster Help.
What Time Is It In Bangladesh? Google & Yahoo Disagree With Bing & Ask

Posted: January 8th, 2010, 2:04pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Other Search Engines

When you ask someone what time is it, you normally don't have to second guess them. But when it comes to asking Google, Yahoo, Bing or Ask.com what time is it, you have to second guess them.

If you search [bangladesh time] at the four search engines, you will have Google and Yahoo telling you one time, while Bing.com and Ask.com telling you a different time. Who do you believe?

Google & Yahoo:

Bing & Ask.com:

So who is right?

Forum discussion at Google Web Search Help.
Google: Christianity is Absurd & Stupid

Posted: January 8th, 2010, 1:53pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Google Search Engine

I am using an extreme title here to illustrate a point. We have a searcher come to the Google Webmaster Help forums and complain about the search results for a search on Google for [christianity is]. The results are mostly informational but you have a few results which are negative. I cropped this image to show only some of the negative-like results:

The person said, "I have never been so mad in my life. We have enough problems in the United States without Google slamming Christianity!"

When will people learn that this is not Google slamming Christianity? Well, maybe what set this person off is that Google wouldn't say Merry Christmas on Christmas? But still, these are the Google search results. Brin, Page and Schmidt aren't sitting down and saying, hmm - I hate Christians and I want to place these results there simply to tick them off.

There are just so many cases like this, for all religions. It comes down to education, which is a hard thing to do.

Forum discussion at Google Webmaster Help.
Daily Search Forum Recap: January 7, 2010

Posted: January 7th, 2010, 10:00pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Search Forum Recap

Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today, through the eyes of the Search Engine Roundtable and other search forums on the web.
Microsoft Bing Says They Are "Fairly Slow"

Posted: January 7th, 2010, 2:42pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Microsoft Search MSN

One of the latest comments to come from Microsoft's Bing representative in the Bing Forums was that they consider themselves to be "fairly slow." Fairly slow at indexing new sites and new pages, that is.

Brett Yount, the Program Manager at Bing Webmaster Center, said in a Bing Forums thread:

It is well known in the industry that MSNbot is fairly slow.

Did he just say that? For real?

So what is Microsoft's solution to get new sites into their index? Well, either spam Digg or Yahoo Buzz to be discovered or post a message in the Site not in index thread at Bing Forums and they will manually add you. Yes, there is a forum thread pretty much acting as a URL submit form. How 1995 of them.

Forum discussion at Bing Forums.
Jill Whalen Takes a Look at 10 Past Years of SEO

Posted: January 7th, 2010, 2:05pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Search Engine Industry News

I love it when you have the old geezers (in the SEO world, that means 10 years old), take a look in the past at how the industry has evolved. Danny Sullivan has done it and so have others. I personally have only been covering search for over six years, but I have been involved in the web development since I was 16, which was in 1996 (yea, I turn 30 this year).

In any event, Jill Whalen posted her A Decade of 21st Century SEO. She goes through each year, starting in 2000, and pulls out her notes of SEO thoughts and best quotes for that year. I cannot summarize them all, and although it is 10 years long, it is a quick and fun read. So make sure to check it out.

There is a Sphinn thread on the topic as well. Danny Sullivan let the cat out of the bag that his decade in search post will be out over the weekend. He is currently up to 2007.

I'll just end this post with a quote from her ending remarks:

It's important to note that my ideal of SEO even before the year 2000 has always assumed that search engines will someday be perfect. Through the years, Google has given credence to my mantra during the times when they haven't allowed the crap-hat SEO stuff to work. By the same token, they have also made me look silly at the times when it does still work. My hope is that Google (or any other search engine) never gives up trying to find the best, most relevant results for their users – the searchers – because my SEO methods are based on that ideal.

There are only a few in this industry who have stood up, given themselves to the community for as long as she has. I won't name them all, but Jill deserves huge credit for not just practicing SEO for over 10 years, but for being involved in the industry, actively, every day, for the past 10 years plus. You can't say that about many people in the industry.

Thank you Jill.

Forum discussion at Sphinn.
Daily Search Forum Recap: January 6, 2010

Posted: January 6th, 2010, 10:00pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Search Forum Recap

Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today, through the eyes of the Search Engine Roundtable and other search forums on the web.
Yahoo Search January 2010 Update?

Posted: January 6th, 2010, 2:46pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Optimization Search Yahoo

There is a single report at a WebmasterWorld thread of a possible Yahoo Search update. Senior member, textex, is noticing changes in the Yahoo Search results, but clearly, the Yahoo Search Blog has not posted anything since December 15th.

Typically, when it comes to Yahoo Search updates - we normally see it being reported in the forums before Yahoo posts anything on their blog about it. Also, we typically see Yahoo Search update every quarter or so and the last update was in September 2009, so we are do an update.

Do you notice any ranking changes in Yahoo or a shift in your Yahoo referrals?

Note: As Yahoo loses market share, less and less webmasters and SEOs are concerned about Yahoo. So it doesn't surprise me to see such little activity in the thread at this point. I do hope the thread picks up.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.
Bing Support Rep Still Not Admitting Lack of Canonical Tag Support

Posted: January 6th, 2010, 2:09pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Microsoft Search MSN

Two weeks ago, we reported that Bing doesn't support the canonical tag at all. I kind of blasted Brett Yount, the Product Manager of Bing Webmaster Center, that he kept on saying Bing uses it as a "hint."

Today he comes back into the forum and answers a question related to it in a Bing Forum thread. Brett said, "to my knowledge, we have very little support for the canonical tag."

Brett, is it a "hint" or nothing at all. "Little support" is not the same as no support, which is what we heard from others directly at Bing. Also, what does "little support" mean when it comes to the canonical tag? Does it mean that you treat the canonical tag as a 301 redirect or not? It can't mean you do both - can it? Maybe it means that if there is a canonical tag and a 301 redirect in place, doing the same action, Bing will treat it as a redirect (I am being sarcastic here).

I just don't get it.

Forum discussion at Bing Forum.
Daily Search Forum Recap: January 5, 2010

Posted: January 5th, 2010, 10:00pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Search Forum Recap

Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today, through the eyes of the Search Engine Roundtable and other search forums on the web.
Bing Recommends Submitting to Digg & Yahoo Buzz for Indexing Boost

Posted: January 5th, 2010, 2:32pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Microsoft Search MSN

Here is the weird Bing comment for the day. Brett Yount, the Program Manager at Bing Webmaster Center, told webmasters to submit their site to Digg or Yahoo Buzz to help get their pages indexed. I kid you not!

A Bing Forums thread has Brett saying, and I quote:

If your site pages have good content, submit them to buzz and digg. Both have a high chance of getting your page indexed.

Of course this makes sense. Get a link from a popular site and a search engine will find that link and hopefully index your site/pages afterwards. But I just find it weird that a search representative would specifically name Digg and/or Buzz. I mean, why not mention something else or just talk about the concept in general. Brett could have said, to get your pages indexed quicker, make sure to get links from sites we crawl on a frequent basis.

One day Brett and I are going to meet in person and I hope he doesn't punch me out. ;-)

Forum discussion at Bing Forums.
Bing Search Shopping Guides

Posted: January 5th, 2010, 2:24pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Microsoft Search MSN

Ever do a search on Bing and see shopping results come up, where one of the links are to a "guides" area? For example, search for [buy coffee maker] and you will see the following results:

There are two "guides" listed here for this query. The first goes to How Stuff Works and the second goes to .

A WebmasterWorld thread asks, how does one get to be placed in these guides. It is a good question, I am not sure. Is it purely algorithmic? Is it from a set database of guides only? I suspect these are trusted sites that are pre-coded to be considered "guides" and thus be listed for matching queries in Bing.

If you know anything more about these Bing shopping guides, let us know.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

eHub

OneRiot

Posted: January 5th, 2010, 9:22am CET by Emily Chang

Tags: Search

Search the real-time web. Crawls the links people share on Twitter, Digg and other social sharing services, then indexes the content on those pages in seconds. URL: OneRiot
Flocking.me

Posted: January 5th, 2010, 1:02am CET by Emily Chang

Tags: Search

Search your friend’s tweets by keyword, see trending topics, and toggle between list, grid and map view. URL: Flocking.me

Search Engine Roundtable

Daily Search Forum Recap: January 4, 2010

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

Tags: Search Forum Recap

Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today, through the eyes of the Search Engine Roundtable and other search forums on the web.
Google's Blue Interface (AKA Jazz) Being Seen By More Searchers

Posted: January 4th, 2010, 2:42pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Google Search Engine

In November, we reported on the Google Blue Jazz interface, a new Google user interface Google hopes to push sometime this year. Technically, it is not named Jazz, but I think that is the name that might stick. Only a few Google users saw the interface. But ever since the New Years period, I have been seeing more and more reports of users seeing the interface.

Here is a picture of the front page:

Actually, a reader sent me some crisp pictures of the various pages. You can see them all at [twitpic.com].

Anyway, the main thing here is that it is not "new" in that it was announced a few months back. But expect more and more people to see it in the upcoming weeks and/or months.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorldand DigitalPoint Forums and many other threads which prop up at Google Web Search Help.
Yahoo Paid Inclusion Still Live?

Posted: January 4th, 2010, 2:29pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Search Yahoo Marketing

Yahoo's paid inclusion program was suppose to end on December 31st. But some are reporting in a WebmasterWorld thread that the paid inclusion results are still in the Yahoo Search index.

I have not looked myself, but this person is saying the paid inclusion (search submit) URLs are still in the index. He said:

I still see all the paid spots working.

This can be for two reasons:

(1) Yahoo's Search Submit product is still indeed active.

or

(2) Yahoo indexed the special search submit URLs and they show up in the free listings as free?

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.
Malware in 2010 : Hiding in Google Search Results

Posted: January 4th, 2010, 2:11pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Google Search Engine

No one will deny it, not even Google. Viruses, malware, spyware and so on, is currently a major issue on the Internet. Google and other search engines has stepped up how they detect and block malware from showing up in their index. But now, in 2010, expect it to get a lot worse. Expect those who produce malware to not look to just infect computers, but to look to get around Google's malware detection techniques and infect even more computers.

A WebmasterWorld thread has reports of more and more malware getting through Google's filters. For example, we reported a major malware breach using the keyword phrase blackberry news via CNN as some sort of 302 redirect malware hack. Google finally removed it, but I wonder how many computers were infected by that?

The WebmasterWorld thread is discussing several people's experiences with recent malware infections they or friends received via a Google search.

I know Google is doing what they can to prevent this, but it is hard to keep up. So just be wary of what you click on via email, Google, Facebook and so on. The best prevention is being smart.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.
Isaac Newton 367th Birthday Brings Google's First Animated Doodle (Logo)

Posted: January 4th, 2010, 1:36pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Google Search Engine

If you visit Google.com today, you will see a Google Doodle (logo) of an Apple tree. If you wait a couple seconds, you will notice that one of the apple's falls off the tree. Yes, it is Issac Newton's birthday, 367 years ago today, and it is also the first ever (I believe) animated Google Doodle (logo) in history.

Here is a picture of the logo:

Want to see how it was/is animated? Here is a short video:

Everyone, I think, knows the story behind Issac Newton's theory of gravitation. So hence the apple falling off the apple tree. It is great to see Google have a Doodle for Issac Newton. But you got to believe there will be two points of controversy with this Doodle.

(1) Like always, there are plenty of other important events that occurred on January 4th

(2) Google has never really animated their logo in the past. Why now? They did recently have a neat I'm Feeling Lucky easter egg. Too see that click here.

Forum discussion at Google Web Search Help, DigitalPoint Forums and Google Webmaster Help.
Video Recap of Weekly Search Buzz :: New Years Day 2010

Posted: January 1st, 2010, 6:00am CET by rustybrick

Tags: Search Buzz RoundUp
In our New Years day video recap, I covered the last week of 2009 in search at the Search Engine Roundtable. I first showed off the various logos for New Years by Google, Yahoo, Bing, Ask.com and many others. Google also had a PageRank update on New Years eve. Google uses ccTLDs over server location. Google slapped SEOs by dropping them and web designers from the local pack. Bing's MSNBot is up to no good again, crawling fake file names. Google AdWords advertisers feel paralyzed. Increase your click through rate with women in thongs in your Google ads. Google launched the advertising professional search feature. Google had a weird bug related to the September 11 attacks. Finally, Google's porn filter had some issues this week. That was the last week of 2009 in search at the Search Engine Roundtable! Happy & Healthy 2010!

FYI - Sorry for the volume, you will have to crank it up to hear me.

Make sure to subscribe to our video feed or subscribe directly on iTunes to be notified of these updates and download the video in the background. Here is the YouTube version of the feed:

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

Search Topics of Discussion:
New Years:
- 2010 New Year Logos from Search Engines: Yahoo, Bing, Ask.com & Google
Google SEO:
Bing SEO:
- Bing's MSNBot Crawling Fake File Names?
Google AdWords:
Google Issues:
- Google Movie Search Returns Weird 9-11 Message
- Porn on Google Image Search with Strict Search On
Please do subscribe via iTunes or on your favorite RSS reader. Don't forget to comment below with the right answer and good luck!
Daily Search Forum Recap: December 31, 2009

Posted: December 31st, 2009, 10:00pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Search Forum Recap

Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today, through the eyes of the Search Engine Roundtable and other search forums on the web.
2010 New Year Logos from Search Engines: Yahoo, Bing, Ask.com & Google

Posted: December 31st, 2009, 2:48pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Search Engine Industry News

Typically, I compile the New Years logos from the various search engines and search industry on New Years Day, but most of the search engines, with the exception of Google, have the logos out already. So here are the 2010 New Years logos. If any of them update and when Google adds there logo, I will update this post.

Google:

Yahoo (Animated):

Yahoo (Static):

Bing:

AOL:

Ask.com:

DogPile:

Baidu:

Clicker:

Sogou:

Zuula:

Cre8asite Forums:

Search Engine Roundtable (that's us):

For the past year's logos, see: New Years 2009, New Years 2008, New Years 2007, Google's 2006 logo, Search Engine Roundtable's 2006 logo, Ask's 2005 logo, and Cre8asite's 2005.

Forum discussion currently at Search Engine Roundtable Forums, Bing Forums, HighRankings Forums, Google Webmaster Help, WebmasterWorld and Cre8asite Forums.

Update: Remember the I'm Feeling Lucky Google Countdown feature? Well, at midnight, when you click it, this is what it looks like: Via websonic.nl...
Daily Search Forum Recap: December 30, 2009

Posted: December 30th, 2009, 10:00pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Search Forum Recap

Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today, through the eyes of the Search Engine Roundtable and other search forums on the web.
Can You Optimize for Stop Words in Search Results?

Posted: December 30th, 2009, 2:39pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Optimization Search Engine

A HighRankings Forum thread asks an interesting SEO question. The question is, can you optimize for stop words in Google or other search engines?

His particular example seems flawed, in that he is calling IT a stop word and it is stopping him for optimizing for the query [it companies]. However, when I search for [it companies] in Google, it does seem to figure out, IT here stands for information technology.

But in general, is there a need to optimize for stop words? Do we have more examples of cases? If so, can it be done?

Here is a poll:

Can you SEO for stop words?(polls)

Forum discussion at HighRankings Forum.

Update: See Jill's comment below for the issue this SEO has in the thread.
Daily Search Forum Recap: December 29, 2009

Posted: December 29th, 2009, 10:00pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Search Forum Recap

Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today, through the eyes of the Search Engine Roundtable and other search forums on the web.
Hate Fox on Google News? Join the Google Club

Posted: December 29th, 2009, 2:11pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Google Search Engine

Everyone talks about how liberal Google is and how it may bias their objectivity in the search results and their other agendas. But every day, I check the Google News Forum and see complaints from "liberals" that Google News shows Fox News, a very conservative news source, in the Google News search results and home page. The more I see the complaints, the more I see that Google is not politically bias in their search results.

Just take a quick scan of the Google News Forum and see how many complaints there are about Fox News being included:

I find it a bit comical to be honest. I did think it would be nice to give searchers an option about how liberal or conservative they want the news to be. I asked they create a liberal & conservative news slider control that allows users to adjust how liberal or conservative the news gets. Of course, if Google did that, they would have to label each news source as liberal/conservative or pick up words on a page that make a news source liberal or conservative. That can get a bit hairy.

I just thought I point out the daily activity in this Google News Forum.

Forum discussion at Google News Forum.
Daily Search Forum Recap: December 28, 2009

Posted: December 28th, 2009, 10:00pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Search Forum Recap

Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today, through the eyes of the Search Engine Roundtable and other search forums on the web.
Bing's MSNBot Crawling Fake File Names?

Posted: December 28th, 2009, 2:41pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Microsoft Search MSN

A WebmasterWorld thread and an older Bing Forums thread has discussion from webmasters over the issue of Microsoft Bing's web crawler, MSNBot, crawling file names that do not exist on a specific site.

This reminders me of the ongoing issue of Bing creating fake referrals in webmaster log files. This has been going on for years, where Microsoft claims they have fixed it, but never really has.

In this specific case, it seems like Bing is creating file names on a specific site to crawl. Wel, they are not creating files, just trying to fetch pages that do not and never have existed on a specific site. I am not sure if this is a Bing issue or a webmaster issue.

A long time WebmasterWorld member explained the issue:

In what is apparently a rather old bad behavior, msnbot has a practice of regularly requesting totally manufactured URIs that appear to be designed to trigger 404 errors. Here are two sample log entries of the two styles of bogus URIs msnbot requests:
'65.55.207.126'¦Tue, 15 Dec 2009 20:39:49 -0500¦'msnbot/2.0b (+http://search.msn.com/msnbot.htm)'¦'*/*'¦'/ADBF3C7AB534E8356F30D8AC05291640_00000.temp019f.html'¦''
'65.55.207.28'¦Wed, 16 Dec 2009 05:46:22 -0500¦'msnbot/2.0b (+http://search.msn.com/msnbot.htm)'¦'*/*'¦'/000166709_00001.temp00be.html'¦''

The requests ALWAYS take on one of the formats above starting with either a 32byte GUID or a nine digit integer.

In the Bing thread, another person said:

For many many years, msnbot has been crawling my sites looking for files that have never existed... i'm trying to figure out why...
the filenames have changed slightly in recent times but they have been similar in structure since the beginning... they are something like 000092601_00002.temp0001.htm... in other words, 9 numbers underscore 5 numbers dot temp 4 numbers dot htm... the search for these is all over my server's directory tree...

I'll emphasize once more that these files have never existed on my site and i have no clue how msnbot may have picked them up...

Honestly, I feel bad that I am always beating up on Microsoft. I know they are new to the game, when you compare them to Google. But I have to report these issues.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld & Bing Forums.
Porn on Google Image Search with Strict Search On

Posted: December 28th, 2009, 1:53pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Google Search Engine

A DigitalPoint Forums thread reports that a search on (beware before you click) [cricket talks] in Google Image search returns a pornographic image. It happens both on standard safe search and strict safe search, but goes away completely when you turn off the safe search feature.

Here is a picture, which I cropped a bit to show the result here:

I personally see the image on the 3rd row when strict search is on and the second row when safe search is in standard or moderate mode.

What is interesting is that it is hosted on a pretty bad domain, i.e. asianteenmovieslesbiananal.info. OpenDNS for me blocks the domain due to the domain and network containing pornography and nudity. I guess Google got mixed up with this one.

On a related note, a Google News Help thread reports that Google News had an image of a PlayBoy teaser on their most viewed section. I personally did not see it, but it would not have been the first time seductive or nude images showed up on the front page of Google News.

Forum discussion at DigitalPoint Forums & Google News Help.
Video Recap of Weekly Search Buzz :: Christmas Day 2009

Posted: December 25th, 2009, 4:10pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Search Buzz RoundUp
Merry Christmas everyone! This week at the Search Engine Roundtable was a fairly slow week, due to the holidays. Some of the news I wanted to cover includes that Googlers are working on Christmas. Also, I posted the Christmas logos and themes from Google, Yahoo, Bing, Ask.com, Baidu, and so many others - so check it out. Google sent out e-cards saying they will be giving $20 million in charity in exchange for sending out schwag to advertisers and publishers. Brett Tabke felt we got stiffed and was pretty upset. Brett later explained he feels Google is cutting on webmaster and advertiser support and relations. Also, Bing really has zero support for the canonical tag and I explained why that upset me. QuickMark QR scanner fixed their bug, which caused a major headache for Google's favorite places decals. That was this week at the Search Engine Roundtable - Merry Christmas!

Make sure to subscribe to our video feed or subscribe directly on iTunes to be notified of these updates and download the video in the background. Here is the YouTube version of the feed:

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

Search Topics of Discussion:
Please do subscribe via iTunes or on your favorite RSS reader. Don't forget to comment below with the right answer and good luck!
Merry Christmas All & Googlers Working Today

Posted: December 25th, 2009, 2:22pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Search Engine Industry News

Merry Christmas! Although I have about five items to write about today, I figured I hold off on them until Monday. Trust me, I know how it is to be swamped and buried in feeds and news to catch up on while I am celebrating a Jewish holiday - so I will spare you all. Plus, I finally am making the move to Google Chrome, using Chromium on my Mac - so it is nice to take it slow to get up to speed on it.

If you are reading today, make sure to check out our Christmas logos for 2009, which I just updated this morning to add several more logos from other search engines. In short, there are logos from Google, Yahoo, Bing, Ask.com, and many others - so check it out.

In addition, I caught Googlers working on Christmas again. For the past few years, I have caught Googlers helping webmasters in the forums. This year is no different. JohnMu from Google posted in at least two threads on Christmas eve. One was the Merry Christmas Google thread and the other was a more technical webmaster question. Googlers did the same in 2008, 2007 and 2006. They also worked on New Years last year and the year before.

Finally, I will be working on my weekly search video recap today. Expect it to go live later today and you can watch (or just listen to) it at your leisure.

Merry Christmas and in our tradition, forum discussion at Search Engine Roundtable Forums, Cre8asite Forums, Google Toolbar Help, HighRankings Forums, WebmasterWorld, DigitalPoint Forums, Google Maps Help, Google AdWords Help & Google Webmaster Help.
Daily Search Forum Recap: December 24, 2009

Posted: December 24th, 2009, 10:00pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Search Forum Recap

Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today, through the eyes of the Search Engine Roundtable and other search forums on the web.
Bing Doesn't Support the Canonical Tag At All Right Now

Posted: December 24th, 2009, 3:02pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Microsoft Search MSN

There is this old and upsetting thread in the Bing Forums about how Bing handles the canonical tag. The thread is filled with misinformation. Matt McGee's post at Search Engine Land a week ago says it clearly.

Bing says it's still working on supporting the canonical tag on a single domain, and suggests webmasters should rely on other means to manage duplicate content.

You got that right, 11 months ago, Google, Yahoo and Bing announced support for the Canonical tag. As far as I know, only Google really uses it and they even added cross domain canonical support this month. Where is Bing at this? Well, in the next several months they hope to support a single domain use of the canonical tag and hopefully soon after the cross domain support. So it would have taken Bing over a year since they announced support of this tag to actually support it?

I am not too upset about that, to be honest. What I am more upset about is that official Bing support representatives are pretty much lying in the Bing Forums. Brett Yount, the Product Manager of Bing Webmaster Center said:

accourding to our blog post, http://www.bing.com/community/blogs/webmaster/archive/2009/02/12/partnering-to-help-solve-duplicate-content-issues.aspx, the canonical tag is used as a hint only.

No, it is not used as a hint or anything. It is not used period, not yet. Maybe in four months, but not yet.

Forum discussion at Bing Forums.
Christmas Logos From Google, Yahoo, Bing, Ask & Others

Posted: December 24th, 2009, 1:31pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Search Engine Industry News

Merry Christmas Search Engine Roundtable readers! I believe most of the search engines have their special logos or themes live today. They include a handful of logos from Google, an animated logo from Yahoo, an awesome picture from Bing, a sweet Ask.com theme, DogPile's fun dress up and more from the industry.

Google began their logo blitz on the first day of Winter. While, we had Winter themes from YouTube, Bing and others, Google started with "the holidays." Calling it "The Holidays" made some Christians upset, mostly those in the U.K. Also, Google did not have a Chanukah logo like Bing or Ask did.

In any event, here are pictures of the Christmas logos, but this time I will end with Google, since they have so many:

Yahoo (animated) Christmas logo:

Yahoo (static) Christmas logo:

Bing's Christmas Theme:

December 24th:

December 25th:

Ask.com's Christmas Theme:

DogPile's Christmas Theme:

Baidu's Christmas Logo:

Quintura's Christmas Logo:

Clicker Christmas Logo:

Sogou Christmas Logo:

FriendFeed Christmas logo:

Zuula Christmas Logo:

BruceClay Christmas Logo:

Cre8asite Christmas Logo:

Search Engine Roundtable Christmas Theme:

Google's Christmas / Holiday Logos (so far four):

#1:

#2:

#3:

#4:

#5:

I'll update this post when I find more logos from the search industry.

For the past year's holiday and Christmas logos, see our posts from 2008, the 2007 logos, plus Google's five logos, 2006 logos, Cre8asite in 2005, also '05 Search Engine Roundtable and '05 Google, Yahoo and Ask, plus we have 2004 and some of 2003 archived for you.

Forum discussion at Search Engine Roundtable Forums, Cre8asite Forums, Google Toolbar Help, HighRankings Forums, WebmasterWorld, DigitalPoint Forums, Google Maps Help, Google AdWords Help & Google Webmaster Help.
Daily Search Forum Recap: December 23, 2009

Posted: December 23rd, 2009, 10:00pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Search Forum Recap

Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today, through the eyes of the Search Engine Roundtable and other search forums on the web.

del.icio.us/jimcallender

Make WordPress' search function suck Less

Posted: December 23rd, 2009, 2:03pm CET by jimcallender

Tags: Search plugin WordPress

Make WordPress' search function suck Less

Search Engine Roundtable

Funny Ballmer Firing Bing Employee Hoax

Posted: December 22nd, 2009, 2:45pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Microsoft Search MSN

This is a hoax, this is not true, but it spread around the internet over the weekend and I found it pretty funny. Again, this is a comic, who did a skit of some sort. Microsoft confirmed this is not a real employee or ex-employee at Microsoft.

The video portrays a disgruntled ex-Microsoft employee describing how he was fired by Microsoft's CEO, Steve Ballmer, over not saying "Bing" with enthusiasm.

If you know the jokes about Ballmer, this is pretty funny.

Forum discussion at DigitalPoint Forums.
Google Images Bug Shifts Images Off Search Results Page

Posted: December 22nd, 2009, 2:25pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Google Search Engine

I am seeing random reports, now a total of three individual reports, in the Google Web Search Help forums where users are reporting that Google Images search results are going off the page.

One user posted a picture, which describes the issue. Here is a picture:

It seems like the first row of images is shown on the far left side of the browser and then the rest are displayed down the row, but under the fold. One person explained:

All the images are on the left side of the page going down the page. You can bearly see the image and it is very anouying!! How do u make it so it is back to the normal way, were the images go across the page instear of going down????

Googler, Jem thinks this is some type of browser bug. Jem asked the users to clear their cookies and try again. Jem is also asking users for more feedback so they can debug the issue.

Forum discussion at Google Web Search Help.
Daily Search Forum Recap: December 21, 2009

Posted: December 21st, 2009, 10:00pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Search Forum Recap

Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today, through the eyes of the Search Engine Roundtable and other search forums on the web.
Google One Box Blindness

Posted: December 21st, 2009, 3:02pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Google Search Engine

An early WebmasterWorld thread is discussing the topic of Google One Box "blindness." Google One Boxes are those enhanced results you see at the top or within the search results of Google. When they first came out, there were hard to miss, but now SEOs and maybe some searchers are subconsciously blocking them out, like they would ads?

Here are some examples of "one boxes":

Get the point?

Do you think all this injection of special "universal search" results, as well as Google owned content (i.e. YouTube, weather, google groups, blogspot, definitions, etc) is going to eventually suffer from "one box blindness"?

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.
Google Holiday Logos, Also Yahoo, Bing & YouTube Winter Logos

Posted: December 21st, 2009, 2:04pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Search Engine Industry News

The next two weeks are typically the slowest two weeks in the search industry (and probably most other industries). It is the holiday week, with Christmas and New Years coming, as well as it being the first day of Winter today.

Google already started their holiday logo blast, although Google missed Chanukah this year, they are calling the logos "Holiday logos". You will be able to see a new one every day and Google will archive them at google.com/logos/holidays-2009.html. Here is the first one:

Like I said, Google will have a new logo each day (maybe I will update this post here or make a new one for those).

Google # 2:

Yahoo is running a flash based logo also for the past few days:

But today is actually the first day of Winter here on our side of the world. And for the day, we have a nice theme from Bing, YouTube and from ourselves as well:

Bing Winter:

YouTube Winter:

Search Engine Roundtable Winter:

Happy holidays, cold winter and relaxing/healthy next two weeks.

Forum discussion at Search Engine Roundtable Forums and Google Web Search Help.
Daily Search Forum Recap: December 18, 2009

Posted: December 18th, 2009, 10:00pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Search Forum Recap

Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today, through the eyes of the Search Engine Roundtable and other search forums on the web.
Video Recap of Weekly Search Buzz :: December 18, 2009

Posted: December 18th, 2009, 9:54pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Search Buzz RoundUp
This week in search, I announce that I am hosting SMX SphinnCon Israel on March 7, 2010 in Jerusalem. Google announced the support for cross domain canonical tags. There may have been a Toolbar PageRank penalty earlier this week. Google may add PDF support to fetch as Googlebot. Google dropped Answers.com for their own definitions. Google is testing infinite scroll in image search. Bing might add "page score" to their toolbar. MSNBot crawls pages twice, once for compressed http and one for uncompressed. Google's new QR codes on the favorite places maps decals are sending users to wrong business, likely because of QR scanners and not Google. Google messed up the AdSense reporting again. Yahoo Search Marketing ads went down for a short period of time. Google is now in the URL shortening business with goo.gl. Google may buy Yelp for $500 million. Google is inviting publishers for Christmas lunch. Google's Im Feeling Lucky button does the New Year countdown. Google did a Doodle for Zamenhof. Google forgot about The Simpons 20th birthday, a shame. That was this past week at the Search Engine Roundtable.

Make sure to subscribe to our video feed or subscribe directly on iTunes to be notified of these updates and download the video in the background. Here is the YouTube version of the feed:

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

Search Topics of Discussion:
Misc:
- Announcing SMX SphinnCon Israel 2010: March 7, 2010
Google Web Search:
Bing:
- Microsoft Might Add Bing Page Score to MSN Toolbar
- Bing's MSNBot Crawls Twice, Once For Compressed HTML & Again For Uncompressed
Google Maps:
- My Google Favorite Place Decal Was Hijacked
- Google Favorite Places QR Codes Taking Many Customers to Wrong Location
Paid Search & Contextual:
- Google Mixed Up Link Units Earnings With Ad Units
- Yahoo Search Marketing Down For Some Advertisers
Misc Google:
- Google Does URL Shortening: goo.gl
- Google To Swallow Yelp For $500 Million?
Fun Search Topics:
Please do subscribe via iTunes or on your favorite RSS reader. Don't forget to comment below with the right answer and good luck!
Click Through Rate by Search Engine Result Positions

Posted: December 18th, 2009, 2:23pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Optimization Search Engine
How much better is a number one organic listing than a number two result? That is often a question webmasters, publishers, site owners ask themselves and others. A WebmasterWorld thread asked that exact question.

Tedster, a WebmasterWorld administrator, answered it with AOL's leaked data from 2006. Tedster shared the click-through rate by position:
- #1 - 47% click-through
- #2 - 13% click-through
- #3 - 9%click-through
- #4 - 7% click-through
The SEO Black Hat blog went through this in more detail. So take a look there as well.

I should add that Universal Search and the way the search engines are showing more than just organic results on a page may significantly impact these numbers.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.
Daily Search Forum Recap: December 17, 2009

Posted: December 17th, 2009, 10:00pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Search Forum Recap

Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today, through the eyes of the Search Engine Roundtable and other search forums on the web.
Google Drops Answers.com For Google Definitions

Posted: December 17th, 2009, 3:13pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Google Search Engine

Earlier this month, Google dropped Answers.com as their definitions provider. A month ago or so, Google would link from the word "definition" to Answers.com, now Google links to themselves.

For example, a search for [definitions] shows a hyperlink named "definition". Here is a picture:

When you click on it, it now takes you to Google Definitions at Google.com/Dictionary. In the past, and since early 2005 it took you to Answers.com.

I have not seen a thread or complain about this until today - so I guess most people didn't take much notice. The thread is at Google Web Search Help and it reads:

The "definition" feature Google has in its search page includes lots of features including comprehensive dictionary, pronunciation of words, translation to many other languages, all this gone, I have noticed its format was changed recently to a very simple uninformative format, very very disappointing! I was using it quite a lot.

Forum discussion at Google Web Search Help.
Bug: Bing Webmaster Tools Not Accepting URLs with Hyphens

Posted: December 17th, 2009, 3:03pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Microsoft Search MSN

There are a few reports in a Bing Forum thread that adding a site to Bing Webmaster Tools might not work. Specifically, if the URL or domain contains a hyphen (dash) such as www.best-domain.com.

Brett Yount from the Bing Webmaster team confirmed the bug, saying:

Currently, we are having a few difficulties which I just received confirmation from the indexing team. They are currently working on it, but said that if you try a couple times, it should work. If not, and your site isn't in the index at all , please post on the not in index thread and I will work to get your home page (only) into the index.

I personally tried adding a domain with a hyphen and it worked for me on the first try. So maybe it is resolved or maybe those specific domains have other issues?

Forum discussion at Bing Forum.
Microsoft Might Add Bing Page Score to MSN Toolbar

Posted: December 17th, 2009, 2:35pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Microsoft Search MSN

Brett Yount from the Bing Webmaster Team dropped a hint in the Bing Forums that they may add the Bing Page Score (similar to Google's PageRank) to the MSN Toolbar.

Bing has what they call Bing Page Score when you login to their Bing Webmaster Center. Someone asked in the thread, "is it possible to enable page rank in bing toolbar?"

Soon after, Brett Yount from Bing responded saying:

We might once we complete the rework of that tool, which will be Fall earliest. Good news is, there are some changes in the works due in May/June to many things important to the webmasters frequenting these forums.

So there are two things here:

(1) Bing's Page Score may come to their Toolbar.
(2) They will be reworking "that tool," which I believe is talking about Page Score specifically.

Forum discussion at Bing Forums.
Daily Search Forum Recap: December 16, 2009

Posted: December 16th, 2009, 10:00pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Search Forum Recap

Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today, through the eyes of the Search Engine Roundtable and other search forums on the web.
Bing's MSNBot Crawls Twice, Once For Compressed HTML & Again For Uncompressed

Posted: December 16th, 2009, 2:38pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Microsoft Search MSN

Here is one more oddity to add to Microsoft Bing's web crawler, MSNBot. Why on earth are people reporting that MSNBot is crawling the same page twice, once for the compressed version and then once again for the uncompressed version? Technically, it should probably only crawl once and it should opt for the compressed, gzip version - don't you think?

We have two threads complaining about this, one oldish one at WebmasterWorld and another at Bing Forums. Let me quote the Bing thread:

I've notice that bing is crawling each page of my website twice, first making an HTTP 1.1 request and getting a compressed response then immediately issuing an HTTP 1.0 request to receive the same page without gzip compression

The following lines from my log show the issue (there are thousands more similar occurrences):
65.55.207.74 - - [13/Dec/2009:14:58:42 +0000] "GET /specimen/235698/ HTTP/1.1" 200 1742 "-" "msnbot/2.0b (+http://search.msn.com/msnbot.htm)"
65.55.207.74 - - [13/Dec/2009:14:59:06 +0000] "GET /specimen/235698/ HTTP/1.0" 200 4259 "-" "msnbot/2.0b (+http://search.msn.com/msnbot.htm)"
65.55.106.209 - - [13/Dec/2009:15:03:08 +0000] "GET /specimen/250262/ HTTP/1.1" 200 1733 "-" "msnbot/2.0b (+http://search.msn.com/msnbot.htm)"
65.55.106.209 - - [13/Dec/2009:15:03:14 +0000] "GET /specimen/250262/ HTTP/1.0" 200 4164 "-" "msnbot/2.0b (+http://search.msn.com/msnbot.htm)"

This seems a waste of bandwidth and completely defeats the point of supporting http compression.

Indeed a waste of bandwidth and yes, it defeats the point of supporting HTTP compression.

A Bing representative, Brett Yount said:

could you please mail this information to bwmc@microsoft.com and I will get our crawling team to check it out?

But we have no confirmation from Bing on why this issue is occurring or when it will be fixed. Like I said, just one more oddity to add to MSNBot's crawl behavior.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld and Bing Forums.
Yahoo Search Marketing Down For Some Advertisers

Posted: December 16th, 2009, 2:25pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Search Yahoo Marketing

A WebmasterWorld thread reports that Yahoo Search Marketing is down for some. When some advertisers are trying to use Yahoo's pay per click ad system, they get an error.

The error reads:

We are currently experiencing a technical issue that is causing the ads of some advertisers to not be displayed properly to users. This may cause your account to receive a lower volume of clicks than normal. We are aware of this issue, and are working diligently to resolve it as soon as possible. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause you.

So far, we have two confirmed reports of this bug in the WebmasterWorld thread.

I am not sure how widespread the issue is or if it is resolved yet.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Yahoo updated the thread, saying:

I can confirm that this issue was resolved at approximately 10:30 a.m. Pacific Time on December 15, and ads should be displaying normally since then. Sorry for any inconvenience this may have caused.
Daily Search Forum Recap: December 15, 2009

Posted: December 15th, 2009, 10:00pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Search Forum Recap

Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today, through the eyes of the Search Engine Roundtable and other search forums on the web.
Daily Search Forum Recap: December 14, 2009

Posted: December 14th, 2009, 10:00pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Search Forum Recap

Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today, through the eyes of the Search Engine Roundtable and other search forums on the web.
Google's "I'm Feeling Lucky" Button Counts Down To New Year

Posted: December 14th, 2009, 3:00pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Google Search Engine

If you go to Google.com and click on the "I'm Feeling Lucky" button, Google will show you a countdown to the new year. You cannot type anything into the search box for this to work, just click on the button with an empty search box.

Here is a video of it working just minutes ago, on my screen:

Forum discussion at Google Web Search Help and DigitalPoint Forums.
Google Images Trying Bing's "Infinite Scroll"?

Posted: December 14th, 2009, 2:16pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Google Search Engine

I may be totally misunderstanding a post from swainzy in Cre8asite Forums, but maybe not. Swainzy is upset that she cannot change the number of results shown in Google Image Search, just like this person at the Google Web Search Help thread.

But what Swainzy added later seemed to imply to me that Google is testing Bing's infinite scroll feature, which continues to show you more and more pictures as you scroll the page.

She said:

G. may be over riding how many images you can see on one page but wow, it's much faster and the new page stays where you were on the last page. So if you are at the bottom, you don't have to see the image ads anymore.

Is Google copying Bing, who copied someone else?

I personally like the infinite scroll on Bing. Give it a try for red panda at Bing, just scroll and you will see what I mean.

Forum discussion at Cre8asite Forums.

Update: Google confirmed this test, a spokesperson told me:

We're continually testing new interfaces and features to enhance the user experience. What you describe below was one such test, which only a small percentage of users saw. We don't have any additional details to share at this time but I hope that helps. For more information on the experiments we run, please see: http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2006/04/this-is-test-this-is-only-test.html
Google Alerts Gone Wild?

Posted: December 14th, 2009, 2:10pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Google Search Engine

I am a big time user of Google Alerts, I just don't use them via email - but rather via RSS. Some users are reporting in both a DigitalPoint Forums thread and WebmasterWorld thread that Google Alerts seemed to have just gone a bit out of hand.

Tedster from WebmasterWorld said:

I've also been getting some peculiar Alerts again - and in some cases they are things that should have been sent a while back. I'm not seeing any impact on the SERPs from these new pages, however.

Netmeg added:

Yea, my Alerts have gone nutso over the past few days to a week.

A DigitalPoint member said:

The last 5 days I have been getting about about 5 or 6 emails a day, when I just used to get the odd one here and there.
Each email also has about 4 or 5 links

Like I said, I don't get these alerts via email - so I don't really notice the issue. Do you?

Forum discussion at DigitalPoint Forums and WebmasterWorld.

eHub

ConvoFlow

Posted: December 14th, 2009, 9:15am CET by Emily Chang

Tags: Search

Social media search. URL: ConvoFlow

Search Engine Roundtable

Video Recap of Weekly Search Buzz :: December 11, 2009

Posted: December 11th, 2009, 10:01pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Search Buzz RoundUp
Just a reminder, we did not do a video recap last week, we did a text one - so if you missed it, check it out. This week was the SES Chicago conference and we covered tons of sessions. Google switched personalized search on by default and SEOs are freaking out. Google and Yahoo both added real time Twitter results to the search results. Google launched image based search with Google Goggles. Google will add a trustworthy indicator to the page speed report because webmeisters aren't sure if it is accurate. Why? Well, both Google AdSense and Analytics have long page load times, but AdSense will be fixed and Google told us to ignore Analytics. Bing will crawl a 301 two or three times before registering it. We also posted our December Google webmaster report. Google is taking Google Money scammer to court and AdSense Pirates are becoming more of a problem. Ruscoe from Google Blogocoped is joining Google next month. Being an AdSense publisher doesn't mean Google will be a job reference for you. Don't search for 123456 in Google, you might get slapped in the face. Yahoo closed their deal with Microsoft, now they wait on the regulators (sorry, did not cover in video). Google had a Popeye logo this week. Tonight is Chanukah and Bing and we have themes live. Happy Chanukah everyone and have a great weekend. That was this past week at the Search Engine Roundtable.

Make sure to subscribe to our video feed or subscribe directly on iTunes to be notified of these updates and download the video in the background. Here is the YouTube version of the feed:

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

Search Topics of Discussion:
Conference:
- SES Chicago '09 Live Coverage Recap
Google & Yahoo Search Results:
Google Misc:
- Google Goggles & Other Mobile Announcements
Webmaster/SEO for Google & Bing:
AdWords & AdSense:
- Google Takes Google Money Scams To Court
- AdSense Pirates: Being Extorted Via Google AdSense
SEM Industry:
- Tony Ruscoe, Popular SEM Personality, to Join Google
Funny Search:
- Job Applicants, Google AdSense Can't Be Used As a Job Reference
- Don't Search Google for 123456
Business:
- Yahoo & Microsoft Complete Search Deal, Now Waiting on Regulators
Logos & Events:
- Google Popeye Logo For E. C. Segar's 115th Birthday
- Chanukah 2009 Logos from Bing & SERoundtable
Please do subscribe via iTunes or on your favorite RSS reader. Don't forget to comment below with the right answer and good luck!
Daily Search Forum Recap: December 11, 2009

Posted: December 11th, 2009, 10:00pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Search Forum Recap

Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today, through the eyes of the Search Engine Roundtable and other search forums on the web.
Chanukah 2009 Logos from Bing & SERoundtable

Posted: December 11th, 2009, 3:13pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Search Engine Industry News

Chanukah (Hanukah) starts tonight, technically, in Israel it is already Chanukah. It last for eight days and this year it does not overlap with Christmas. Currently, the only major search engine to have a logo or theme up is Microsoft's Bing. Google (even Google.co.il), Yahoo, and Ask.com do not have a theme up yet. Maybe they will wait for tonight or tomorrow, but for now, here is Bing's theme:

We also have theme, sporting driedels with SEO spelled on them out of our name, the Search Engine rOundtable.

Also, Cre8asite Forums plans on uploading this logo shortly for the holiday season:

We will update this post with more logos if they come out. For the past years, see 2008, 2007 and 2006.

Forum discussion at Search Engine Roundtable Forums.

Update: Ask.com posted a theme on Saturday, December 12th, see Nick's comment below:

No logo from Google, Yahoo or others.
Yahoo Adds Twitter to Search Results, Google's Twitter Results Now Live

Posted: December 11th, 2009, 3:06pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Search Engine Yahoo

Not to be outdone by Google, Yahoo also added real-time Twitter results for "buzzing" keyword phrases. I tried to replicate any results on Yahoo, but I was not yet able to see them. Maybe it is still rolling out.

The industry is discussing the Yahoo roll out at WebmasterWorld.

Meanwhile, sometime mid-afternoon yesterday, the real time results Google previewed a couple days ago, went live in the main Google search results. SEOs and Webmasters are now playing with it, looking for ways to exploit take advantage of it. There is discussion on it going live at WebmasterWorld.

Both Rae at OutSpokenMedia.com and Danny at Search Engine Land covered how the results can be exploited and get a be "mad."

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld (Yahoo) and WebmasterWorld (Google).
Don't Search Google for 123456

Posted: December 11th, 2009, 2:46pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Google Search Engine

A Google Web Search Help thread reports that he was testing to make sure his boss's computer network had connectivity, so he searched for [123456] in Google and up came a porn video hosted on Google Video in the top result.

Here is a picture:

The video on the right is complete adult pornographic material - so don't click on it (unless you want porn, then click on it).

The person who spotted this was very disturbed. He said:

I was assisting our CEO's secretary today, and to test whether she had connectivity, I did a quick search on google for "123456".
She thought I was being disgusting, but I eventually convinced her it was a freak occurrence.

Can you imagine that, this woman thought this guy was playing a trick on her or something. How sad.

Forum discussion at Google Web Search Help.
Daily Search Forum Recap: December 10, 2009

Posted: December 10th, 2009, 10:00pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Search Forum Recap

Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today, through the eyes of the Search Engine Roundtable and other search forums on the web.

eHub

Kaddoz

Posted: December 10th, 2009, 7:28pm CET by Cesar H Castro Jr

Tags: Search

A local (San Francisco) gift recommendation engine that allows you to quickly find quality gifts and walk to the store to purchase it. Working with hand picked stores that prefer quality above quantity. URL: Kaddoz

Search Engine Roundtable

Bing Requires 3 MSNBot Crawls To Register 301 Redirects

Posted: December 10th, 2009, 2:40pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Microsoft Search MSN

I spotted a useful tidbit for SEOs in the Bing Forums today. Brett Yount from Bing Webmaster Center team explained how Bing picks up on 301 redirects.

Brett said it can take two to three crawls from Bing to register a 301 redirect in their index. Brett said:

By design, our crawler usually takes 2-3 crawls before it registers the redirect.

I wonder how many crawls Google takes to do the same thing? I can see why you would want to wait at least for a second crawl to confirm a 301 redirect is indeed legit.

We had some reports recently that Bing is handling 301s much better now than they have in the past.

Forum discussion at Bing Forums.
Daily Search Forum Recap: December 8, 2009

Posted: December 9th, 2009, 12:30am CET by rustybrick

Tags: Search Forum Recap

Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today, through the eyes of the Search Engine Roundtable and other search forums on the web.

Cool Mobile Apps, Augmented Reality - It's a Brave New World from SES Chicago '09

Posted: December 8th, 2009, 11:00pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Search Engine Strategies chicago 2009

Below is live coverage of the Cool Mobile Apps, Augmented Reality - It's a Brave New World from the SES Chicago 2009 (official SES Chicago Site) conference.

This coverage is provided by Barry Schwartz of RustyBrick.

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

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Cool Mobile Apps, Augmented Reality - It's a Brave New World

(12/08/2009)

4:03

Barry Schwartz: We start here in about 10 minutes.

Tuesday December 8, 2009 4:03 Barry Schwartz

4:03

Barry Schwartz:

Cool Mobile Apps, Augmented Reality - It's a Brave New World!
User migration to a mobile environment is driven not only by information and communications requirements, but also a host of applications that are useful, quirky, or just plain fun. App developers and experts explain how these apps hook users, demonstrate their rapid growth trajectory, and explore what might be in store for the future.

Moderator:
Mike Grehan, SES Advisory Board Co-Chair & VP, Global Content Director, Incisive Media

Speakers:
Cindy Krum, Chief Executive Officer, Rank-Mobile, LLC
Bryson Meunier, Associate Director of SEO, Resolution Media
Colleen Curtis, Midwest Regional Director, Yelp
Barg Upender, Founder, CEO, Mobomo
Mark Dixon, VP, Product Management, NearbyNow

Tuesday December 8, 2009 4:03 Barry Schwartz