Happy Friday everyone! This week, we experienced the normal bit of search news with some exciting developments (PageRank updates pending, for example) and expected news (or is it -- Google and Digg -- again?)
Expect Your Google PageRank Update Soon
Matt Cutts announced last night that Google will be updating your PageRank soon. Thank you Matt for thinking of the SEO industry in light of other news.
Search and Ye Shall Find
Want to find funny images when you least expect it? Just search for short-tail keyphrases, like "educating" -- and you'll see what people are being educated about. In this case, there are some rather disturbing images due to Google Universal search. In a way, I'm sure people find it humorous. ;)
Google Cache: Discussion and Redesign
Earlier this week, we learned a little from JohnMu about Google cache. If your page isn't showing up there, it doesn't mean anything, for example. Interestingly enough, this week wasn't the last we heard about Google's cache. We saw that forum members were reporting that cache dates were relatively old. Additionally, the design of the Google cache pages changed too. It's a much more elegant design, I must say.
Sitelinks: A Good Idea
This week, we saw that timestamps were added to Google Sitelinks in Google Webmaster Tools, so you can see when Google generates them, which is pretty sweet. I guess it inspired Yahoo too, because they're moving toward sitelinks with their similarly-designed quicklinks.
Google Alerts You Via Webmaster Tools Message Center
Have you logged into Google Webmaster Tools recently? Well, you might want to. This week, we have reports of Google finding way too many URLs on your site and high response times on pages included in your sitemaps file. Are you having these problems? You might want to check!
Will Google Ever Get Over that Penalty?
If you get a penalty in Google, will they forgive you for that penalty? According to forum members, yes. (Don't you wish people were the same way?)
Goodbye Yahoo Ambassador Program
The end is near for the Yahoo Ambassador Program which is ending on September 30. Current ambassadors will be dropped, and you won't be able to participate in the program. Oh well.
Much Ado About Google
This week, we discovered that Google has a governmental search engine dubbed "Uncle Sam." We also saw that Google added walking directions to maps. And in the bigger picture, Google launched its Wikipedia killer, Knol. Is it too late for Knol? Maybe.
Google Schwag!
Long-time advertisers this week received the Google Cookbook, and as a huge fan of Google schwag, I WANT SOME.
Hot Dog Day
This message is for Jill Whalen, who has no idea what the significance of our hot dog was this week. Well, it was Hot Dog day. Unfortunately, we got to look at it but we didn't eat any (or I didn't). Barry, next time, you need to have a SERoundtable BBQ on hot dog day ;) Nobody is allowed to argue that one!
