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:
- ISP to Spy on User Activity to Deliver Targeted Ads
United States ISP Charter Communications announced that it will start looking at your surfing behavior to find you relevant ads. While continuing to deliver the same fast and reliable Internet service you’ve always received, innovative new technology in the field of online advertising enables Charter to provide you with an enhanced online experience that is more customized to your interests and activities. As a result of this service, the advertising you typically see online will - Quick Bookmark URL for Google AdWords Live Chat
Need help with Google AdWords? If you're afraid of picking up the phone and find email to take too long, you have another alternative: live chat. This URL may be specific to the UK (or may fit both UK and US queries), but if you ever have a quick question related to Google AdWords, you can click here to start your chat with an AdWords representative. Life just got a lot easier. :) Forum discussion - UK Based Yahoo Users Redirected to Yahoo UK
David Eaves reports that UK based users who go to yahoo.com are now being redirected from the .com version to the Yahoo UK domain. David said this is brand new behavior from Yahoo. 24 hours earlier, if a UK internet user went to Yahoo.com, it would keep them on Yahoo.com. Now, Yahoo is sending UK users off to Yahoo UK. I honestly have a feeling this has to do with Yahoo Now Showing Geo-Location Under - Yahoo Site Explorer Mishandling HTTPS Vs. HTTP Protocols?
A WebmasterWorld thread is reporting a possible bug with the Yahoo Site Explorer tool. The webmaster reports that when trying to delete the https URLs of his site from the Yahoo index via Yahoo Site Explorer, it tries to delete the http version as well. As many SEOs and Webmasters know, having both the https and http version of the same content in the search results can hurt you a bit in terms of link - Should Google Not Index Robots.txt Files in Search Results?
An interesting discussion is taking place at WebmasterWorld on the topic of the robots.txt file. One webmaster did not want his robots.txt file to be indexed by Google, but has no way of delisting in in Google. The only ways of removing content is Google includes: Via meta tagsVia robots.txt commandReturn a 404 server statusUse the Remove URLs feature in Webmaster ToolsPassword protect the pageSome more ideas on how to remove content in Google can - Of Course Google Indexes Content About Vodka & Hard Liquor
Frank Watson, AKA AussieWebmaster, has written a blog post at Search Engine Watch complaining that Google basically indexes content on hard liquor, such as vodka. Frank's specific complaint is that vodka results come up in Google Product Search for a search on vodka. His argument is that since Google AdWords has a policy against showing ads for hard liquor, Google should not show it in the "Google Checkout listing." I have to be frank with
Other Great Search Forum Threads:
- 5 Tools for Keyword Brainstorming, Sphinn
- 50 Sites To Help You Bury Negative Posts About You or Your Company!, Sphinn
- Ask.com Acquires Lexico Publishing Group, Including dictionary.com, WebmasterWorld
- fake Adsense Screenshots<!>, DigitalPoint Forums
- Google Reader Tagging is broken, Google Groups
- What do you think about Google Docs offline?, Google Groups
