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:
- Major Gmail IMAP Outage Overtake Google Groups Forum
If you rely on Google's email server, be it Gmail or Google Apps, you may have noticed a major issue with connecting via the IMAP server. As I reported at Search Engine Land, Google's IMAP server seemed to black out, along with Google Talk features. So I went over to check how wide spread the issue. There were two thread about the IMAP issue, which quickly turned into dozens of threads, with dozens of posts - New Wave of Google Sitelinks Given to Sites
It looks like Google Sitelinks have had a update, and now mine look a lot better than they were previously. Here are my new sitelinks: Whereas before during the March update that added sitelinks to my domain just didn't look as clean: (Matt, if you had anything to do with this, thanks.) :) Additionally, new sites are reporting that they now have sitelinks. Forum discussion continues at WebmasterWorld and Search Engine Roundtable Forums. - Why Don't Big Brands Have Good Search Engine Optimization?
The SEM Insights blog discusses four reasons why big brands don't have good SEO. They are: Requirement: ease of maintenance: Therefore, they may not be using CMSes that are SEO friendly. Requirement: personalization and tracking: They need quantifiable results, but they don't understand that search results are going to display the most applicable page to a search query and that that every related page probably won't rank in the top 10 for a search. Requirement: - Can Google Ever Become "Evil," Google's Mayer Discusses
TechCrunch explains that Marissa Mayer of Google discussed the "evolution" (if you will) of the motto, "Don't Be Evil." She says: "It really wasn't like an elected, ordained motto. I think that "Don't Be Evil" is a very easy thing to point at when you see Google doing something that you personally don't like; it's a very easy thing to point out so it does get targeted a lot." At Search Engine Land, Barry shares - Hosting Company Touting Server Speed As "Intrinsically Linked" To SEO
A Cre8asite Forums discussion pointed me over to a UK hosting company named UKFast that has a white paper on Server Speed and SEO. The paper makes the argument that server speed is a critical component to your SEO campaign. Here are some quotes from the white paper: Website response speed helps search engines to assess the site’s relevance because speed is one of the criteria recognised in a successful site. If a more powerful, - Updated: Google Reader Now Supports Flickr Videos
Update: It seems like Google Reader is showing embedded Flickr Videos, for me at least. I inserted a picture below showing the Flickr Video in this post, rendering in my Google Reader (on Apple Safari). A Google Groups thread has word from a Google representative, Roger from the Google Reader team, that Flickr Video will soon be supported in Google Reader. For example, if you are using an RSS reader, you might not be able - Major Google UK Search Changes? 'Dewey' Crosses The Pond
I'll be honest, I keep watching the WebmasterWorld thread discussing the April 2008 Google update, code named Update Dewey. The latest thing that I noticed were recent reports from very senior members saying that Google is shuffling around the results, in a major way, at Google UK. Here are two posts I isolated from the past 24 hours specific to Google UK and this update: Oooo! (too effeminate?) Big changes on Google.co.uk ... big, awful - Yahoo's New Minimum Bids Now Live
Yahoo told us to prepare for a minimum bid change, where now quality and value will impact an advertisers minimum bid for a keyword buy. Those minimum bids have now gone into affect, according to a WebmasterWorld thread. We knew it was coming this week, but we didn't know exactly when it would hit advertisers. First reports suggest it happened sometime before midnight last night (EST). The first post was at 11:13pm (EST), and the
Other Great Search Forum Threads:
- How to Get Piles of Links, Subscribers and Comments, Sphinn
- Advice for Managing Negative Reviews of Small Businesses, Sphinn
- AOL Acquires Sphere, WebmasterWorld
- Google KML Becomes an International Standard For Map Sharing, WebmasterWorld
- Google tackles child pornography, Sphinn
- Reader + Gears Problem - articles won't select, Google Groups
