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:
- Weekly Search Buzz RoundUp - 10/17/08: Yahoo Update for October, Google Webmaster Tools Updates & Woot.com AdWords Ad Removed by Google
Another holiday week had me offline for 2 days. In case you were all wondering, it's not a vacation when you have no access to email and then come back to the real world and have 500+ actionable emails. There's one more of these 2 day chunks next week, and then you'll have both Barry and me posting on a daily basis. Until then, enjoy the "break" and be advised that there's no video this - Google's Q3 Earnings Beat Expectations
I'm sure you all know that we're in a recession. Most companies are reporting layoffs and lowered earnings. Of course, if you're living in the bubble that is Google, you don't have $700 shares anymore, but you are doing pretty well financially, according to reports from CNBC and other sources (including the official release). It's as if Google is not in much of a recession at all. Google has earned $4.92/share in Q3 (excluding one-time - Google Explains Quality Scores in AdWords
How does the Google Quality Score work? The Official Google Blog explains how Google takes preference for quality score in the display of ads: The quality score gives search engines a way of aligning the incentives of the buyers, the sellers, and the viewers of ads. The article goes on to say that ads that don't get many clicks will not be shown. It then ends with the idea behind the quality score: So why - Google Launches AdWords Display Ad Builder, Receives Accolades
Yesterday morning, my friend Sam from Oh! Nuts candy sent me an email asking me if the screenshot below (click for a larger image) was new. After a two-day holiday offline, I wasn't 100% sure, but I also remembered glancing over this WebmasterWorld home page discussion that announced a new tool for Google AdWords. This tool, according to the Inside AdWords blog, creates professionally looking advertisements without needing to hire a designer. Here's the actual - Google Adds Est. First Page Bid & Quality Score To AdWords Reports
Google has added two fields to the AdWords reports section. Those two fields are: Quality ScoreEst. First Page Bid It took Google about a month to add this level details, since launching the new real time quality score calculation. But now, a month later, advertisers can use this reporting data to measure how quality score and/or estimated first page bid relates to other performance or keyword metrics in the reports. Advertisers are happy that Google - Google Explaining Customized & Personalized Results
A WebmasterWorld thread has discussion around Google now telling you how the search results were either customized based on your previous searches or personalized based on your web history. This is not all that new, relative to search, Danny wrote about it at the end of July. Let me just catch you up quickly. Search for pizza st louis and then search again for just pizza and you still should get customized results for St - Google AdWords Showing The Search Partner Network, Finally
The Google AdWords Blog announced you can now separate out the search traffic between coming from Google.com versus coming from Google's search partners (such as AOL and Ask.com). How do you see it? As I explained, you login, pull down the menu to “Split: Google search/search partners/content network.†It will then break the results out for you. Awesome first step. But now advertisers can see exactly what they have been missing, performance of traffic from - Google Drops Home Page Crawl Date From Webmaster Tools
If you login to Google Webmaster Tools you may notice that something is missing. Google has removed the date from the Home page crawl field from the site overview page. The field was grouped in the "Home Page Crawl" section. Here is a before shot: And now: Why was it removed? Google's JohnMu was asked this in a Google Groups thread, where he responded that the date was "frequently incorrect and not really that useful."
Other Great Search Forum Threads:
- AdWords system maintenance on October 18th, Google Groups
- Cannot login to adCenter now, anyone else having the same issue?, DigitalPoint Forums
- enableSeparateContentBids for new Campaigns, Google Groups
- Satellite maps in http://maps.google.cat do not load, Google Groups
- The New iGoogle Look.., DigitalPoint Forums
