Search Engine Roundtable

PubCon Live: Kickoff Keynote Tony Hsieh, CEO Zappos

rustybrick — 2009-11-10T11:50:00-05:00

Below is live coverage of the Kickoff Keynote Tony Hsieh, CEO Zappos from the PubCon 2009 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.

Kickoff Keynote Tony Hsieh, CEO Zappos

Google Caffeine Index Goes Live Right Before Holiday Shopping Season

rustybrick — 2009-11-10T08:36:27-05:00

Google has actually released a major Google index update before the holiday season. Yes, this is the Google Caffeine index, which has been in a Sandbox (testing environment) since August, is now being rolled out. If you visit the Caffeine URL at www2.sandbox.google.com, you are taken to a thank you page that reads:

We appreciate all the feedback from people who searched on our Caffeine sandbox.
Based on the success we've seen, we believe Caffeine is ready for a larger audience. Soon we will activate Caffeine more widely, beginning with one data center. This sandbox is no longer necessary and has been retired, but we appreciate the testing and positive input that webmasters and publishers have given.

Yes, this is being rolled out slowly, data center by data center. Some of you may already see it, while most of you probably don't yet. The big question is when will this be fully rolled out? Some have been saying they have been seeing Caffeine in the live index already. I am not too sure.

Why in the world would Google do this right before the holiday season? Did Google forget how the Florida update had hurt online retailers right in the most important time of their shopping season? It was devastating to many small webmasters. I assume Google is confident this will have a small impact on businesses and they are confident it won't shuffle things up too much.

Update: Matt Cutts of Google just promised it won't be rolled out until after the holiday season.

I believe Google's goal with Sandbox was more about infrastructure over the quality of those results. Yes, Google wanted to index deeper and faster and smarter, but the ranking of those results, I believe, they wanted to keep stable from the current index. I hope that makes sense to the readers here, i.e. indexing is different than ranking. But indexing does have an impact on what Google ranks, obviously.

The Google Caffeine Sandbox was shut down about a few hours ago. There is early discussion beginning at the various forums. No official blog post from Google, Matt Cutts or anything, except for that Thank You page.

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

Google's Sesame Street Logo Finale : 12 Doodles

rustybrick — 2009-11-10T08:27:28-05:00

Starting on November 4th, Google began displaying logos for Sesame Street's 40th anniversary. Today is Sesame Street's official anniversary, the previous logos all led up to today. That is why we have a collage of all the characters, all in one logo:

Yes, 12 Sesame Street personalities in total were displayed. Not all on Google.com, some on regional Googles. Here they all are:

Honestly, I think I may have even missed one. :)

For all those wishing Google give up the Sesame Street logos, I think today is the last day. Personally, I liked it...

Forum discussion at Google Web Search Help.

Update: The Google Blog posted a link to the logos in high-resolution.

Google AdWords Bug For Geo-Targeting Impacting Few

rustybrick — 2009-11-10T08:21:49-05:00

Google has confirmed a bug with region targeting in the AdWords advertiser console at WebmasterWorld. The bug appears to be an issue with when you set the regions you want your ads to be targeted towards and when you hit the save button, it shows you an error.

AdSenseAdvisor, an official Google representative, confirmed the issue on October 29th:

Yep, I can confirm that, C7Mike.
Assuming that I am in the office at the time it occurs, I'll post again once I've heard this is resolved.

To set reasonable expectations I typically wait at least four hours after I have heard from engineering that an issue is resolved before I am willing to say it's fixed in front of thousands of folks. ;) So, quite often, someone in this forum will notice that an issue has been resolved before I ever post to say so.

There has been no update from Google since that post and the one who reported the issue said it is half fixed. He explained that the changes seem to go through, but it does popup an error, which makes it confusing. In addition, he is not confident the targeting is correct and is concerned to use the feature:

He said:

From what I'm seeing on my end, I believe the issue to be partially corrected. I can define an area to advertise in, but when I save I get the error. I then refresh, like it says for me to do, and then it seems to act like the changes made it through.
Based on the numbers I'm seeing, something is still wrong, even though it shows that we're advertising in the defined area. The numbers act as if the changes to the broadcast area haven't been enacted even though the account shows the broadcast area as being enabled.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Does Google Handle Canonical Issues Fully?

rustybrick — 2009-11-10T08:13:37-05:00

Tedster, WebmasterWorld's Administrator, posted an excellent thread at WebmasterWorld asking how do you think Google handles the canonical issues they find on their own? By that he means, if webmasters don't use a 301 redirect or use Google's canonical header tag to instruct Google on how to handle that URL, how would Google handle it?

Would they cosmetically clean up the search results so that there does not appear to be any canonical (duplicate) URLs in the results? Or do they actually decide to implement a 301 on your behalf and pass all the 'link juice' from one canonical URL to the parent URL?

First, take my poll and then I will give you my thoughts on it:

I really think for the most part, where Google is not confident on which should be the main URL, Google will only apply this cosmetically to the search results. I remember when the new canonical tag came out and Google warned to use this carefully, because it is as powerful as a 301, but without actually being physically redirected. For Google to apply their own 301s, hidden be that, is extremely dangerous for both Google and the webmaster. I would assume, in certain cases, Google does do this, but I am not sure if they do this in most cases. Of course, this is just my thoughts - I have no hard evidence, since I never really tested it myself.

I would assume Google would want to be right 100% of the time on this. I would think that would be a goal. And when they are 100% or even 99% right, implementing this would make sense.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Daily Search Forum Recap: November 9, 2009

rustybrick — 2009-11-09T16:00:00-05:00

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.

Sesame Street Count(s) Day 6 Trumps Berlin Wall Logo

rustybrick — 2009-11-09T09:12:23-05:00

Today, if you visit Google.com, you will see Count Von Count as the Google logo (doodle) on the home page. This is the 6th day, and 11th Sesame Street logo, Google has posted in celebrating of Sesame Street's 40th anniversary. We have all the Sesame Street logos that have currently been posted over here.

Like, I said, today's logo is Count Von Count, another lovable Sesame Street logo:

But today, if you visit Google.de, you will see a logo commemorating the fall of the Berlin Wall 20 years ago, on November 9, 1989.

Personally, I felt it would be best to stop with Elmo, yesterday, on Sunday. There are several people upset that Google has not made the Berlin Wall logo more prominent by posting it on all of Google's properties. Especially since Google is on their 6th day and 11th logo for Sesame Street's 40th anniversary, which was 6 days ago. There are even some people upset Elmo usurped UK's Remembrance Sunday.

Clearly, Google likes to show fun logos over sad ones. But 6 days of Sesame Street?

Forum discussion at several threads at Google Web Search Help.

Fake Google Matt Cutts Ban List Referrers?

rustybrick — 2009-11-09T08:56:51-05:00

What appears to be a newbie, posted a thread at Google Webmaster Help asking why his site is not ranking yet. He also asked if he had something to do with the URL https://internal.google.com/spamteam/users/cutts/matt/ban_list/ showing up in his log files.

Got that?

https://internal.google.com/spamteam/users/cutts/matt/ban_list/

It appears to look like Matt Cutts' personal ban list at Google. But is it really?

(1) His site is indexed in Google.

(2) Why in the world would Google show those types of referrers in people's log files, especially those sites that are banned.

(3) The IP addresses noted by the webmaster did not seem to be from Google.

(4) Googler, JohnMu, said it is not Matt's ban list. JohnMu went on record, and I trust him, saying:

I can assure you that the URL in the title of the thread is not a Google URL -- where did you get it from?

Do you think the URL is real?

Forum discussion at Google Webmaster Help.

Poll: Where Do SEOs Cash In Best?

rustybrick — 2009-11-09T08:47:28-05:00

A Search Engine Watch Forums thread has a post asking where do SEOs make the most amount of money? Is it by offering SEO consulting services? Is it by building web sites with affiliate models? Is it by offering SEO education? Is it by selling successful web sites? Or is it something else?

I assume the answer depends on how good the person is at the particular service. If someone is great at dealing with clients, then consulting might be the way to go. If someone is excellent at educating people, then go that way. If some one can anticipate trends and is able to sell a site for big money, then that is the way to go.

But if you had to pick one, which would it be? Take our anonymous poll:

Forum discussion at Search Engine Watch Forums.

Microsoft adCenter Advertiser Suffer from Quality Score Issues Also

rustybrick — 2009-11-09T08:33:56-05:00

There is a small thread at WebmasterWorld with two advertisers complaining that their US based ads are not running as often as their UK based Microsoft adCenter campaigns. In short, the US campaigns they were running, in comparison to the UK campaigns, were getting a tiny fraction of impressions and clicks.

One advertiser emailed Microsoft and received this interesting response:

We see that your program was opened in 2006.
We see that you are receiving some impressions but not nearly as many as you could be. Sometimes when a campaign or ad group is not getting very much activity for a long period of time the ad will start showing less and less because it is not performing. That may be what has happened with your campaign.

My suggestion is to start two brand new campaigns and copy all of the data over from your existing campaigns.

We know adCenter has hit campaigns for low quality ranking factors in the past, but to have two campaigns, exactly the same, with the difference being UK versus US, that seems interesting. What I find even more interesting is that Microsoft here is suggesting the advertiser build a brand new campaign and just copy over the data.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

London Escort Service Using Seductive Images in Google Maps Business Listings

rustybrick — 2009-11-09T08:24:21-05:00

A disgruntled searcher posted a thread at Google Maps Help forum complaining that he spotted a nude photo on a Google Maps business listing for a London based escort service. I personally don't think I see a nude photo, but the photos are seductive in nature. You can see the business listing over here (also a screen capture).

The individual reported this on Saturday, November 7th, but no one really noticed (it was Saturday). Here is his post:

This is a serious breech of Google quality guidelines ever. Spammer added price £120 on the title of the listing . On the other hand spammer has added nude picture on the Gallery section to get more clicks from surfer .
What a shame, how could some do such things . Please take immediate action.

This is not the first time we found adult oriented content in Google Maps. We found adult spam in Google Maps listings in a much worse way, disguised as a normal business listing. That spam was cleaned up.

Now, I don't think escort services is an issue in Google Maps - I am not sure. But are these pictures an issue? Nudity is, but these?

Forum discussion at Google Maps Help.

Update: There are some that actually do have nudity. Do not click if you do not want to see nudity. Here are some examples, this one, this one, and probably many many more. Even many in the US, such as this one, this one, this one and many more. So there is plenty of nudity on Google Maps Business Listings.

Google AdWords Team's Photo Help Session

rustybrick — 2009-11-09T08:16:35-05:00

The Google AdWords team posted a photo help session, specifically to give tips on how to use the Google Content Network to the best of your ability.

AdWordsPro Sarah, the woman in the middle of the photo above, posted the details of the photo tips:

To help wish the AdWords Help Forum happy birthday, the Online Help team collected Googler's favorite tips and created several photo albums (so you can put a face to the tip!). Its our little way of saying "thank you" for a great first year on the forum.
Tip photo album: http://cli.gs/20RB5g

The first album in the series has tips for advertisers looking to place ads on the Content Network. If you look through the pictures and find a tip that looks interesting, some of the photos have URLs in the caption that will give you more information on how to implement this tip in your own account (it may be easier than reading our messy hand writing). And, as always, if you have questions about any of the tips, please feel free to leave them in this thread.

Happy Birthday Everyone!
AdWordsPro Sarah

There is a lot to say about giving online help for this product, but to show a smile when doing it - well, that adds a lot. To see all the tips, go to the Picasa album.

Very creative AdWords team!

Forum discussion at Google AdWords Help.

Daily Search Forum Recap: November 6, 2009

rustybrick — 2009-11-06T16:00:00-05:00

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 :: November 6, 2009

rustybrick — 2009-11-06T14:37:00-05:00

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 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."

Some Of The Topics Discussed:

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 To Treat .UA Domains as Root Domains Soon

rustybrick — 2009-11-06T08:56:06-05:00

A Google Webmaster Help thread reports that because .UA domains are currently not considered "root domains" by Google, the change of address tool doesn't work for them.

I am not sure if Google did not consider them root domains or didn't allow the change of address tool to work with those domains. But Google said, whatever the issue is, it will be fixed soon.

Jonathan Simon from Google replied to the thread confirming the issue:

I've alerted the team to this issue. .UA domains should soon be supported by the Change of Address tool.

Forum discussion at Google Webmaster Help.