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 SearchBuzz RoundUp: 12/12/08 - Google Bans Itself, Yahoo's 301 Redirect Issues & Google's Economic Woes
I can't believe that there are less than 3 weeks till 2009. Insane, right?! I think so. Google Expands AdSense for Domains = TEH SUCK People are really pissed that Google is expanding AdSense for domains which is coming at a cost -- poor quality and lots of money. Google is starting to look like a greedy company who doesn't give a damn about its community members. This can't be good. Google's Economic Woes Still - Two Months In: My Google Reader Gripes (and the Complaints of Others)
I finally switched over to Google Reader from Bloglines after it failed me for 2 days in October. I have a few gripes of my own and wonder if Google will ever address them. For example, I don't understand why there's an incredibly annoying amount of whitespace on the right side of RSS feeds -- Google's decision to wrap text in the way that it does is, erm, annoying. Another problem I don't like is - Google's Economic Worry #442: AdSense for Domains Expanded
The Inside AdSense blog made a big announcement yesterday saying that AdSense for Domains, the much controversial feature set that has been offered for several years to a select group of publishers, has been open to all publishers. We suspect that this has something to do with Google's fear of the economy -- lately, with Google allowing bidding on hard liquor and beer, they certainly are becoming more lax in terms of what they can - Stop GoogleBot From Indexing You At Busy Times
A Google Webmaster Help thread has a member upset that Google is crawling his site during times when his server is overloaded. Is there a way to tell GoogleBot to stay away during these times? JohnMu of Google said, yes there is. John explains that you can use a 503 status code to tell GoogleBot to come back later. The thing is, you would need to just server this status code to spiders and not - Google AdWords Bans Horse Racing Ads But Allows Hard Liqueur?
Google has recently allowed advertisers to place AdWords ads for hard liquors, beer, and even gambling ads in the UK, but has now banned ads for the keyword phrase, [horse racing]. A WebmasterWorld thread says this ban is brand new. He has had ads for that keyword phrase for a long time and now Google is telling him that these ads are not a "good match for AdWords". Even if you sell sporting goods for - Want Google AdSense Integration in Google Analytics? Here is How
Google has been rolling out integration of your AdSense data in Google Analytics since October, but many publishers still wish they had it. If you do not have it yet, you can now get it. AdSenseAdvisor posted a WebmasterWorld thread said you can get it by going to the Inside AdSense Blog and reading the top. The top basically says: Want to integrate your AdSense account with Google Analytics? Improved reporting was on publisher wish - Google Bans Itself For A Few Minutes?
Last night I was noticing Twitters and some blog posts, as well as a DigitalPoint Forums thread that asked why did Google ban themselves. In short, a search for [google], [analytics], [adwords], [adsense], [google adwords], and so on, did not return the main Google.com result. So a search for [adwords] would not return http://adwords.google.com/ like it normally would. Matt Cutts of Google even Twittered that he saw the issue and then soon after it was
Other Great Search Forum Threads:
- How Google Treats Trusted Sites Differently With Duplicate Content, Sphinn
- Vanessa Fox: Don't Be Overwhelmed By Data, Sphinn
- Duplicate Content Dilemma, HighRankings Forums
- Google Reader: Using space bar does not select articles after switching to next feed, Google Groups
- How To Gain Trust And Influence People, Sphinn
- How To Quickly Evaluate Your SERP Competition, Sphinn
- New Browser Security Handbook from Google Code, WebmasterWorld
- Your Favourite English Grammar Book, HighRankings Forums
