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:
- Google AdSense Serves Up Public Service Ads (PSAs) By Accident
Over the weekend, many AdSense sites, were not serving up paid contextual ads. Instead, they were serving up what are called PSAs or Public Service Ads. They kind of look like this: They do not earn publishers money. A Google AdSense Help thread has confirmation from Google on this bug. AdSensePro Ashley said: This issue has now been resolved. PSA ads on affected blogs should now be replaced with paying ads. Some publishers may experience - Google Bomb Defusing Has Two Algorithms
Two years ago today, Google launched an algorithm to defuse Googlebombs. It basically helped remove the miserable failure results at Google, amongst others. In May of 2007, we learned that the Googlebomb algorithm was not a live algorithm, meaning, it was run manually, as often as Google wanted. Now, in Detecting Googlebombs by Googler, Matt Cutts, we learn there are two parts to the algorithm. Matt explains the first algorithm finds these Googlebombs and then - Google Groups Update Removes Ownership Status for Some Group Owners
Google has posted an announcement thread at Google Groups saying they hope they have fixed a bug that removed ownership status of some Google Group owners. In short, Google Groups pushed out a new update that caused the removal of ownership in some instances. Google believes they have addressed the issue and returned ownership status to those impacted by this change. Google said: We believe that we have identified all of the users who lost - Google AdWords Won't "Blacklist" Campaigns for Poor Quality Scores
A Google AdWords Help thread is a myth busting thread on the topic of blacklisting AdWords campaigns. Two Google representations confirm that Google will not blacklist or ban AdWords campaigns due to have a low or poor quality score. One advertiser asked, "Can your account be "blacklisted" in regards to the Quality Score of the Landing Page?" This might be considered a popular myth. Why? Well, if a campaign or keyword has a low quality - Bug: Google Sitemaps Shows 0 Index Count
If you are noticing that your index count in Google Webmaster Tools in your Sitemaps section shows zero pages are indexed, then don't panic. Google has confirmed in a Google Webmaster Help thread that there may be a bug impacting some reporting for Sitemaps files. JohnMu of Google said: It looks like the "0" count may be a bug at the moment, so I wouldn't worry about it for now. I looked at your Sitemap - Google Testing Site Fav Icons in Search Results?
Brian Ussery posted screen captures of Google possibly adding favorite icons on the left hand side of the display URL in the search results. He posted a screen capture at Google Blogoscoped Forums and emailed me a few. Here is a screen shot of a site command, which is the only way he was able to see the fav icons, for Matt Cutts' site. Now, we are not sure if he has some Firefox extension - Google AdWords Requiring One Domain Per Ad Group?
A pulled WebmasterWorld thread has reports from some advertisers that Google is sending out notifications to them that they have changed their display URL policy again. This change is that you can have only one display URL domain in an ad group. So you can not have a display URL for www.seroundtable.com and www.rustybrick.com in the same ad group, according to this policy. I have not seen confirmed reports of this email, but they are
Other Great Search Forum Threads:
- AdSense and US $ UK Pound Exchange Rate, WebmasterWorld
- Tip #15: Do More With Less: Measuring up in a downturn, Google AdWords Help
- Is Global Crisis is Threat for Adsense advertiser?, WebmasterWorld
- My 5 "6" star reviews are gone!, Google Maps Help
- When Google Fails, It's SearchWiki to the Rescue!, Sphinn
- 'Display images below' doesnt work when viewing mails inside iGoogle, Google Web Search Help
- How Not To Launch A Twitter Account, Sphinn
