I am back from Puerto Rico but the Passover holiday isn't over. It was fun, thanks for asking. ;) It rained for all of 20 minutes and I got some crazy weird sunburns and lots of bug bites. In other words, it was great fun. Seriously.
Earth Day
This week, while taking in a breath of fresh air, we celebrated Earth Day. Google, Yahoo, AOL, and Ask had some nice designs, and Cre8asite Forums as well as Search Engine Roundtable changed their theme. Did you do anything useful for Earth Day? I actually walked around old San Juan!
Q1 Earnings Released
Last week, Google's Q1 earnings saw a surge in stock prices after everyone jumped on the announcement about how well they've done. Yahoo has gone up substantially since Q1 2007, and Microsoft just announced their earnings as well. Life looks good for search giants.
Does Microsoft Favor adCenter Customers?
After a Microsoft adCenter user complained that his organic rankings plummeted after opting in to use adCenter, a Microsoft rep joined the forum discussion and gave the individual personalized attention. Do they get premium organic support if they use Microsoft's adCenter? Food for thought.
Google Sitelinks in Position 60?
A forum member pointed out that he discovered sitelinks in position 60 which looks strangely odd to most of us. This begs the question if it has anything to do with the -60 penalty and if sites ranked #60 are really supposed to be #1.
New: Microsoft Live News
Microsoft Live has launched a revamped news service that is still shadowed by Google but has promise. It'll take time, though.
Google Tests Higher Placement of AdWords URLs
What has a higher CTR, a Google AdWords ad with the URL first followed by the description or an AdWords ad that displays the description followed by a URL? Google is testing out the display of ads in this way, much like A/B testing, I suppose. :)
Google Teams Up with DomainTools for Whois Information
This is very cool news because I always found that DomainTools gives the most relevant whois information without having to worry about CAPTCHAs and the like--and also because I think that Jay Westerdal of DomainTools is a pretty cool guy. Google has partnered with DomainTools to provide Whois information, so if you type "whois seroundtable.com" in Google's search, it will show up on top. That's hot.
Gone Goes Google Proxy Hijacking
Google has been proactive about proxy hijacking and it seems like a thing of the past. Let's hear it for a sigh of relief! ;)
Google is Spidering Weird URLs
More specifically, as our friend Ben discovered, Google has spidered encoded HTML in URLs -- that is, ampersands that are declared with & in the result. If you ask me, it's a bit confusing -- and why? It's probably a bug.
Google CPC Lawsuit
A class action suit is holding Google liable for implying that a blank input box should inherit costs that are input in another box instead of assuming that blank means zero. I totally hear that concern, because if I left a box blank, I'd hope that Google or whatever service I was using wouldn't fill in the box with random gobbleygook or make assumptions for me (remember what ASSuME means, people!). Personally, while some forum members disagree, I think that this lawsuit actually is stronger than a lot of other weird Google lawsuits that I read about.
Yahoo Search Marketing Offers Click Filter Report
If you're a YSM user, you might see the new click filter report that Yahoo has provided to let you wade through statistics that relate to invalid clicks. For example, you'll get CTR, cost, and a bunch of other statistics and graphs as well.
The Large Rectangle is Annoying
While many people think that the largest Google ad yields the most clickthroughs, others think that the most annoying AdSense unit is the large rectangle. Oh well. To each his own.
Do You Want to Work at Google?
Most of you do want to work at Google, according to a recent poll. To be honest, I like the perks that Googlers are offered, but I also like what I do. What about you?
