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 Engine Roundtable Stories:
- Weekly Search Buzz Roundup - 03/14/08: Google Acquires DoubleClick, YouTube's New API, and Google Search Quality Guidelines
I am back from SXSW in Austin, TX and somehow I am still alive. I have no idea what really happened in search this week because I've been so immersed in the southwest, but thankfully Search Engine Roundtable is keeping me up to speed. :) Happy 3/14 Until earlier this week, I've never heard about Pi day. Do people really celebrate it? I guess Search Engine Roundtable does. But that's news to me. Barry? ;) - Google's Internal Search Quality Rating Guidelines Leaked
Aaron Wall discovered a Google Spam document that he then shared with his readers. Brian Ussery archived the entire spam recognition guide for our perusal (here) and explains that while he had initial doubts about the authenticity of the document, it looks like it has some legitimacy. He notes that relevancy isn't necessarily the most important issue. Sometimes, other concerns will impact how Google perceives your page, especially if a social networking profile is maintained - Google Launches Google Sky
Who needs a telescope when there's Google Sky? You can now view galaxies and stars from your browser without the need of Google Earth, the application that this tool previously required. Take a look and let me know what you think. :) In case you're wondering, you can now search the skies, browse a constellation, change the video between infrared, microwave, ultraviolet, or x-ray, see historical data, and access a podcasts gallery among other cool - AOL Acquires Bebo for $850 Million
In an extremely unexpected move, AOL has acquired social site Bebo for $850 million. Bebo currently has over 40 million members, but nobody realized that AOL would go the acquisition route -- until it did. Was it worth it? Some people think that the approach is the most important thing: If they push for international recognition (AOL was mainly based in the US) they should be alright in the long run. If they are trying - Google Ad Manager Adds Special Icon to AdSense Ads
Yesterday Google announced a new product named Ad Manager. In short, it is a hosted ad management solution, like OpenAds (aka PHPAdsNew) but OpenAds is not hosted. So the benefits of the Google Ad Manager product is that you don't have to use your server resources to serve up ads, you can use Google's. You can see a tour of the product, if you are interested. I actually started experimenting with it yesterday on our - Google Teases Advertisers By Reversing March 2008 "Google Slap" For Half Day
On March 5th, Google came down hard on many many advertisers serving them the March 2008 Google Slap, where AdWords advertisers saw their minimum CPC prices sky rocket overnight. Hundreds of advertisers were impacted by the "slap," and we still have forum threads discussing ways to reverse it. Yesterday, I noticed two different threads, one at WebmasterWorld and the other at DigitalPoint Forums reporting that Google has shown their kind side by reversing the Google - Google Analytics Graphs Still Lagging Behind
Tuesday morning we reported issues with Google Analytics but those issues have not yet been resolved. In short, the graphs and charts seem to be lagging behind by two days. But if you look closely and narrow down the date range to yesterday, Google Analytics is reporting statistics for the day, just not on the pretty graphs. A revived DigitalPoint Forums thread has discussion on this. Lots and lots of Google Analytics users are reporting - Happy Pi Day - No Logo from Google?
Today is Pi Day, yes, March 14th, 3.14 and due to π being about equal to 3.14 (i.e. 3.1415926). Pi is a favored number by mathematicians and tech people - so I am a bit surprised there is no mention of it via a Google logo or Ask theme. However, I don't think they did anything in the years before. But that didn't stop us, as you can see, we have our Pi Day theme
Other Great Search Forum Threads:
- "We are updating the website" temporary page, Google Groups
- 12 Search Engines Which Can Replace Ask.com, Sphinn
- Did the new TOS page disappear?, WebmasterWorld
- Letting Clients Know How You Do Keyword Research?, HighRankings Forums
- Principles of Advanced Search Engine Optimization, Sphinn
- Why should Google care about IP address?, WebmasterWorld
- Yahoo open search to support microformats, WebmasterWorld
