Search Buzz Video Roundup

Search Buzz Roundup: 11/20/2009 - Google Jazz, Web Page Speed, Michelle Obama Racism & Bing Search Update

Barry Schwartz — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 15:55:00 EST

In this week's search video recap, I try a new format, breaking the news up in segments - do let me know if you like it. I am sorry the video is so long, just lots of information to cover. We start with Google's new user interface that is now being seen by some searchers - it is pretty jazzy. Google is showing breadcrumbs instead of URLs in the search results on occasion. Google is testing Image Swirl, it is pretty tasty. Google Social Search labs is now back in action after going offline. Page load time will be a ranking factor in 2010. Is Google's Caffeine index live in a data center? Why did FeedBurner ruin the search engine friendly web? Did Google preform a hand change to the index for Michelle Obama? Microsoft Bing is updating now. Bing UK when out of beta, was it too soon? AdWords goes on another banning spree - but they now have an appeals process. Check out all that Polish Google ad spam. Google no longer allows exceptions to their 35 character display URL limit. Google expanded their product ads beta. AdSense places gold stars near featured ads. I now have access to the new AdSense beta interface. Publishers are being banned over using Tamper Data as a Firefox plugin. Yahoo added a developing news box to some search results. Finally, Danny took us back to the first ever search marketing conference. That was this past week at http://www.SERoundtable.com/.

Search Buzz Roundup: 11/13/2009 - PubCon Vegas, Google Caffeine Out, Bing Gets Wolfram Alpha, Porn on Google Maps

Barry Schwartz — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 09:40:00 EST

In this weeks recap, I act all tired and dazed from coming off a red eye from Las Vegas and doing the video at 8am in the morning, with maybe 20 minutes of sleep. Of course I talked about our PubCon coverage, about 40 sessions covered live. Google shut down the Google Caffeine Sandbox and is pushing it out to a single data center soon. Google enhanced the keyword report in Webmaster Tools. MSNBot is having issues respecting the crawl delay directive. Bing added the awesome Wolfram Alpha data. Google Maps has a pornography issue. Are rich snippets being displayed in Google for smaller sites? The AdWords team did a help and tip photo shoot, they also backed a cake for the one year birthday. There is some fake Matt Cutts ban spam that is not real. We also have logos for Veterans Day, Sesame Street and Berlin Wall to show you. That was this week at http://www.SERoundtable.com/.

Search Buzz Roundup: 11/6/2009 - Google's Sesame Street, Halloween Costumes, AdSense Beta & More

Barry Schwartz — Fri, 6 Nov 2009 14:37:00 EST

Google shows about ten Sesame Streets logos over three days for their 40th anniversary. Google, Yahoo, Bing, AOL and others dressed up for Halloween. Google's home page fade adds "this space left blank," and it is ridiculous. AdSense is testing out a new interface. AdWords keeps banning advertisers. We got the detailed November 2009 Google webmaster report. AdWords now officially has Sitelinks. Publishers need to update their Sitemaps for Google News within six months. Google Maps updated the business listing quality guidelines. Google created a single dashboard. Google adds page previews to search options. MSN previews a new design. Matt Cutts drops WebmasterWorld cold. Sphinn leaves beta and adds premium features. PubCon is next week, we will have live real time coverage of the sessions. That was this past week at http://www.SERoundtable.com/.

Search Buzz Roundup: 10/30/2009 - Google PageRank Update, Bing Search Update & Yahoo's GeoCities Gone

Barry Schwartz — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 15:25:00 EST

Google updates the toolbar PageRank scores yesterday. Bing did yet another search index update. Google launched social search in the experimental labs. Google adds instructions for their simplistic fading home page. Yahoo finally killed GeoCities. Did Bing figure out 301 redirects? Google Sitelinks can take two weeks to be blocked. Google treats 410 status codes differently from 404s. Google tests cost per lead comparison ads in mortgage and refinance industry. Google graduates similar image search. Google Maps to fix a one box mistake. Google warns that publishers should not block the AdSense certified 3rd party network. A new adCenter Desktop beta might be coming November 6th. Google Maps adds navigation GPS tool to Android 2.0 on Verizon Wireless Droid. Should Diller sell Ask.com to Microsoft or donate it to Rutgers. That was this past week in search at http://www.SERoundtable.com/.

Search Buzz Roundup: 10/23/2009 - Google & Bing Update, Twitter Search & Linking Poll

Barry Schwartz — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 14:05:00 EST

Google seemed to have a minor search update, while Bing had a major search index update. Microsoft and Google both confirmed deals with Twitter on the firehouse. Yahoo added Delicious data and Search Monkey data to Site Explorer. AdWords released an update to their API v2009 and is sunsetting version 13 on April 22, 2010. Google confirmed the ad position move made for a higher click through rate. Google is indenting multiple results now. Bing is a bit too crawl happy with MSNBot. Google added " is this accurate" to the web maps. Most SEOs do not link to competitors. That was this week at http://www.SERoundtable.com/.

Search Buzz Roundup: 10/16/2009 - Google PageRank Be Gone, Yahoo Drops Paid Inclusion & Bing Webmaster Tools Bugs

Barry Schwartz — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 13:45:00 EST

This week was pretty busy over at the Search Engine Roundtable. We broke the news Google has dropped PageRank data from Webmaster Tools and we hope from more places. Yahoo was wrong about the meta keywords tag, they still use it. Yahoo dropped the controversial paid inclusion program. Microsoft Bing has major bugs preventing people from using their Webmaster Tools for over 3 days. Google launched a labs area for Webmaster Tools, adding Fetch as Googlebot and Malware Details. Did Google Suggest just get smarter and start figuring out abbreviations? Google Maps dropped Tele Atlas for their own data in the U.S. Google now only shows 7 of 10 local results in the "ten pack" on web search. Beware of a Google AdSense "account disabled" phishing email that is going around. AVG has labeled some of the Google search results as a security threat. Google thinks Ireland is New Zealand. Google reported earnings, revenue up 7 percent, clicks up 14 percent and cost per click was down 6 percent. A person lost their unemployment check of $405 per week for earning a dollar a day with Google AdSense. A site is conning convicts into paying $50 to remove their name from their web site, which ranks high for their names in Google. That was this past week at http://www.SERoundtable.com/.

Search Buzz Roundup: 10/9/2009 - SMX East, Google 10/09 Report, White House Love & Yahoo Tags

Barry Schwartz — Fri, 9 Oct 2009 14:25:00 EST

This week, I got sick during SMX East, which made for a pretty poor sounding video - so I apologize for my voice. We did cover 33 or so sessions at SMX East, which had a ton of useful and fun materials presented. I also posted the October 2009 Google Webmaster report. Google will allow cross domain canonical tag use. Did Google give the White House a "hand job" in the search results? AdSense login problems plague publishers. Google fades in the home page, which I think is ridiculous. Yahoo said they no longer use the meta keywords tag. Google proposes new way to crawl AJAX. iGoogle theme NoBama is racist and I get blamed for it. Did you see the Google bar code Doodle? That was this past week at http://www.SERoundtable.com/.

Search Buzz Roundup: 10/2/2009 - Google Bans AdWords, Google Image Update & The Sandbox

Barry Schwartz — Fri, 2 Oct 2009 14:00:00 EST

Google has been banning AdWords advertisers and warning advertisers of bans for low quality landing pages, but I think something is wrong with Google. Google fixed a low share of voice AdWords bug. Google has an image search update in September 2009. Google updated their search options with neat new filters. Google confirmed adding deeper links and named them forum Sitelinks. Bing added a link to their Visual Search on their home page. Google updated their site verification process in Webmaster Tools. Did the Google Sandbox exist? We polled our users on that. Google launched Merchant Center to help with Google Base product uploads. Google might add tons of ads to Google Maps. Google Maps got foggy over New Delhi. The fake Yahoo employee is real, but might not have Yahoo's approval to post. Google celebrated their 11th birthday on September 27th. Google celebrated also Confucius' birthday with a doodle and Gandhi's birthday with a doodle. That was this past week at http://www.SERoundtable.com/.

Search Buzz Roundup: 9/25/2009 - Yahoo Search New Interface, Google AdWords New Keyword Tool & AdSense Changes

Barry Schwartz — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 20:00:00 EST

Yahoo launched a new search interface along with a brand campaign. Google AdWords is testing a new keyword tool, which is extremely advanced compared to the current one. AdWords advertisers were hit with a "low share of voice" notice. Google has confirmed new AdSense arrows and I see them. Some AdSense publishers are unable to login to their accounts. Did you know, Google doesn't use meta keywords? Did you see the new deeper Sitelinks with data formats? Google launched Sidewiki, which lets you comment on other sites, directly on those sites. Yea, there is a weird way to block it. Google Maps launched Place Pages. Referrer spam can't hurt your Google rankings. Should you nofollow your affiliate links? Bing's adCenter is to try favicons in ads. Google's flying saucer logo leads to H.G. Wells. Finally, we posted our SMX East coverage schedule, see you there in about a week. That was this past week at http://www.SERoundtable.com/.

Search Buzz Roundup: 9/18/2009 - Bing Visual & Bad, Google Flips & Clicks, Webmaster Tools & Yahoo Site Explorer

Barry Schwartz — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 16:05:00 EST

In this week's recap, I take you to St. Louis with a quick recap on my laptop. Bing launched visual search, while Google launched news flip. Google added DoubleClick to AdWords. Parameter handling finally came to Google Webmaster Tools. Yahoo secretly added top query and URLs reports to Site Explorer. Bing takes over 10 percent market share. Google acquired reCAPTCHA for OCR improvement. Google says validation doesn't help with ranking boost. Google's related command is much better. Bing hides MSNBot as Mozilla, plus they don't reverse DNS properly. SEOs don't like to show off and SEMs refuse to let Google manage their AdWords accounts. Are there AdSense poison words and is it a double standard? Is Google locking down AdSense publishers? When will the Google UFO or flying saucer logos be solved? Everyone, thanks for listening to this weeks search recap. Have a wonderful Rosh Hashanah and Talk Like a Pirate Day from http://www.SERoundtable.com/.

Search Buzz Roundup: 9/11/2009 - Google & Microsoft on 9/11, Bigger Search & SEO Domain Registration

Barry Schwartz — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 16:20:00 EST

On September 11th we covered why Google doesn't have a logo, but yet will "fix" Google Maps for "September 11 Attacks." We did however show off the logos for Bing and Ask.com for their remembrance. Also, Labor Day, Google didn't have a logo, but Ask.com, Bing and Dogpile did. Google did a logo for 9/9/09 at 9:09:09 and a weird missing "O" logo on Saturday. Google made their search box much larger. Longer domain name registration does not improve SEO, Google said. Keywords in the URL help with SEO according to our most recent poll. UK and Ireland are very similar and even on different ccTLDs can result in duplicate content. Google Sitelinks are now in the search snippets. Bing fake referrers might be back, but are they even paying attention to the robots.txt files? Yahoo search ads should get cheaper and they added a new report. Google Base added a YouTube attribute to link up videos. Google AdWords advertiser threatens suicide. How can you stop search spiders on the Jewish Shabbat? Finally, did you check out Google Monopoly? That was this week at http://www.SERoundtable.com/.

Search Buzz Roundup: 9/4/2009 - Yahoo Update, Google Report, Bing's Previews & Michael Jackson Logo

Barry Schwartz — Fri, 4 Sep 2009 16:02:00 EST

There was a Yahoo Search update last night, that is currently updating right now. We released the Google Webmaster report for September 2009. Some are reporting a higher click through rate on the AdWords ads since Google moved the ads closer to the free listings. Bing Mobile has a language bug that we can fix for you. Bing might allow you to manage your preview box, which is good cause some of error code in them. AdSense speeds up competitive ad filter, plus doubles its size. PSAs plagued AdSense publishers in Asia region for 12 hours. Google released an excellent rich snippet test tool in Webmaster Tools. Google said they recrawl all site's robots.txt file daily. Google allows you to stop them from translating with the notranslate tag. AdWords API users can now test the 2009 version. Don't post private information in a public forum, search 101. Are Google impersonators threatening and spamming webmeisters? Finally, Google had a logo (doodle) for Michael Jackson's 51st birthday, which sparked some controversy in the forums. That was this past week at the http://www.SERoundtable.com/.

Search Buzz Roundup: 8/28/2009 - Microsoft Spamming Us, Yahoo Search Updates & Google Penalizes With Experiments

Barry Schwartz — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 13:10:00 EST

This week's video recap goes old school with my old video set up, sorry, I forgot my HD camera at home. Yahoo had a small, unconfirmed search update. Bing is still spamming us webmasters with fake referrals, I say enough is enough! Google unleashes new penalties, new sitelinks and US results in the UK search engines. SEOMoz released their ranking factors, which our readers find mostly accurate. AdWords tries Sitelinks and new open product ads. I talk about duplicate content issues with print URLs and mobile sites. AdSense allows third party ad networks and has a major PSA bug for five minutes this week. That was this week at http://www.SERoundtable.com/.

Search Buzz Roundup: 8/21/2009 - Google AdWords Hostage, Bing Fixes Fake Referrers & Google File System

Barry Schwartz — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 16:05:00 EST

In this week's recap, Google began forcing even more advertisers into the new AdWords interface, some are not happy. Microsoft said they fixed the one word query fake referrers issue, again. We have listed several tools to compare Google Caffeine's index to the current index. Google Caffeine seems to be running off of Google's new file system - do we care? Bing's search results are showing up in Google. Google News now recrawls articles within 12 hours. Why do SEO experts get a bad rep? Matt Cutts gives two wonderful presentations, it is a must see. Also, Matt might be the new "hot guy" in the search industry. Did you catch the Google logo question on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? That was this week at http://www.SERoundtable.com/.

Search Buzz Roundup: 8/14/2009 - SES Recap, Google Caffeine & Bing Click Happy

Barry Schwartz — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 18:00:00 EST

In this week's recap, I first discuss the 30 sessions we covered at the SES San Jose show this past week. I then get into the Google Caffeine update and what it is all about, including some religious debate. I discuss how Microsoft is clicking on their own Bing search ads. They also still have this single query word issue, maybe a cloaking test again? I ran a poll on nofollow links, where 38% said they would keep the nofollow on their links. AdWords tests a new product ad spot. AdSense bug prevents changing the channel names. There is a Webmaster Tools bug with PageRank distribution charts. Google's help forum gets redesigned. Google Doodles this week features the Perseids meteor shower and Hans Christian Ørsted's 232nd birthday. That was this past week at http://www.SERoundtable.com/.