We're back from Seattle! The Third Door Media group did a great job, and we covered 20 sessions! w00tw00t!
Get Your SMX Advanced Coverage Here
Nineteen sessions are already posted on Search Engine Roundtable for SMX Advanced. The 20th will be posted on July 3rd (because it's under embargo until then). Sorry readers, don't ask me this time around. I won't post it until July 3rd just like I enforced the embargo last year. (Sorry, CK!)
Yahoo Directory Lost its PageRank, but Matt Says No
Search Engine Roundtable first reported that the Yahoo Directory had no PageRank after Barry monitored the thread for several days. Then some other blogger repeated us. In any event, Matt Cutts responded to the forum discussion, the Search Engine Roundtable thread, and that other blog to say that Yahoo Directory has a PR8 in all of Google's datacenters, so way to jump the gun on this one ;)
Matt Cutts and JohnMu Disagree on the First Click Free Program
Who is right about Google's first click free program? On one hand, Matt Cutts says that "users can see a news story they click on without having to register or pay." On the other hand, JohnMu says that it's only for Google News, not for Web Search. In the comments, Matt says that it started with Google News but it led to Web Search. So there you have it.
Google Cloaking and IP Delivery Debate Rages
After a blog post was written about cloaking and IP delivery, we saw a huge debate. Some people think that they are being told that they are cloaking when they thought they weren't. There is a lot of confusion right now. Hopefully everything will be clarified soon.
Yahoo Terms of Service: You Can be Charged Without Authorization
It looks like the Yahoo Search Marketing TOS has been updated (thankfully some people read the fine print!). It says that Yahoo can optimize your campaign without your explicit permission and you'll still have to foot the bill. Interesting, eh?
Dropped .infos Out of the Index
After hearing that .info domains keep getting dropped out of the Google index, your domain names should probably be revisited. Don't get an .info TLD. That's the moral of the story.
Don't Get Phished
Okay, seriously. If you get an email that you need to update your password on any service, don't click on the link. Log into the account and see if you have any warnings in the console. There's a Google AdWords phishing scam out there and people are falling for it. I get about 5-10 of these PayPal scams daily. Use common sense, people. (I'm not even sure why you're posting this on a forum since it happens so often that it's almost to me like banner blindness!)
Watch Your Trailing Slash
Yahoo is trimming off the trailing slash and webmasters are paying for it from 404 errors and other such issues as a result of how Yahoo is handling it. Nothing official has come from Yahoo yet, but a lot of people are frustrated.
Which Anchor Text Counts?
Does Google weigh the first anchor text more heavily than any others? It may, according to an ongoing debate on the matter. Some people say other links do make a difference, though. I think that most feel that weight is distributed throughout the document, for the most part.
Google's Hot Air Balloon and Diego Velazquez Logo
To commemorate the first hot air balloon, Google had a logo of one earlier this week. Can you believe that the first hot air balloon is over 200 years old? The first public demonstration of one was on June 4, 1783. Wow!
Today, we remember Dela Velazquez who painted things in Spain way back in the old ages. Happy birthday, sir.
