Happy Friday everyone! Today we're preparing for PubCon, but before that: here's what happened this week in search.
Google Screws Up Search Results This past week, we've seen some crazy Google SERPs and not many people were happy. One even likened the results to Live.com. Ouch.
Google PageRank Being Dropped? Google is removing PageRank from the toolbar -- you can turn it on, apparently, but some are wondering why it's off by default. However, others note in the comments of that post that if Chrome doesn't have it, then PageRank is slowly disappearing for good.
Yahoo and Google Break Up, and Microsoft ain't Interested Earlier this week, Google and Yahoo dissolved their advertising agreement, which is unfortunately for... Yahoo. Worse, Techmeme reports that Microsoft doesn't want Yahoo either. And even worse, Terry Semel's daughter has asked people to Google her. Um, yeah.
Once Upon a Time, Google Gave You High-Ranking Ads How does Google determine CTR of an ad? They test by putting ads ranked pretty high so that they can assess user interaction with the said ad. Did you know this? Barry didn't and he's shocked.
Your Trademarked Terms Are Visible in AdWords If you have been using keywords that are trademarked, now you can see them as Google is now putting TM signs next to all trademarked keywords in Google AdWords.
Google Forums Changes Google has upgraded its forums, and the AdWords Forum was one of the first to go. We're watching the discussion, but guys, it's hard to track the Google reps here, so GOOGLE: please bring back the blue "G" next to the username. Please?
But that's not all. Now you can perform a Google Groups search and find more forums in case you wanted to network with more like-minded folks. Cool.
Ask.com's Technology Falls Apart, but at Least We Still Have Jeeves If you missed Jeeves, you can find him using askjeeves.com. But that's probably the only thing Ask.com has for itself; the web technology is falling apart and my guess is that it had to do somewhat with its management shakeup awhile ago. The passionate people of Ask.com are gone (with the exception of a few good souls), but it looks like nobody really wants to trudge along and make Ask better for the future.
What College Degree Should an SEO Get? We polled you on the degree an SEO should get, and most of you thought marketing and programming were best. I'm not 100% sure I agree with this, but hey, I read it on the Internet, so it must be true.
Should Google Have Endorsed Obama? The election is over but 55% of you thought Google should not have endorsed Barack Obama for the candidacy, especially since they are armed with a lot of information and want to be perceived as an unbiased company. Google's Schmidt is showing a bias and his fame probably comes from nothing but being affiliated with Google.
Google AdSense Pushes Political Agenda Just in time for election day, Google AdSense ads were poured out all over the internets on sites urging people to vote. More disturbingly, a big site I help operate (with a big California population) was urging people to Vote YES to Proposition 8. Now I'm a very tolerant person and I'll let people do what they want--and if you were aware of the issue of Proposition 8, it has to do with their lives, not yours, and you should let them live their lives just as you would your own. I did not think it was appropriate for Google's AdSense to target this site and promote its political agenda, but unfortunately, we didn't know about it until users complained. I hope that in 2012, Google will be a little more suspicious of said advertisements.
We Voted: Did You? Then, election day came and went, and I voted. I also represent Bronx County where the breakdown for McCain/Obama was 12% to 88%, which I hear was the most lopsided vote in all of the United States, baby! And guess what? I voted in the m[aj/in]ority!
Next Week: We're Headed to PubCon
Are you going to PubCon? We hope so not, since we'll be blogging the event and have over 50 sessions for you guys to read. And if you are, be sure to find us in the front row or near the power strips and say hi. (Oh, and please don't hog the power strips from us!)
