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:
- 7% Unemployment In Search Marketing Industry
A couple weeks ago, I ran a poll asking do you currently have a job. We have just under 400 responses, which I would consider a great sampling, and I wanted to share those results with you. According to our survey, 7% of search marketers are out of a job and consider themselves unemployed. The current unemployment rate is 9%, so it looks like the SEM space is a bit better off, but not all - Google's Call Tracking & Free 800#s Discontinued
Google has been testing click to call features for a while, but the true value to having Google Audio Ads, which was discontinued recently, was to get the toll free and trackable free phone feature. In fact, many AdWords customers used it to track their campaigns, even without using audio ads. Since Audio Ads was discontinued, the phone tracking was discontinued as well. As of May 5th, Google has discontinued the service. If you read - Twitter Aims to Make Twitter Search More Relevant
News.com reports that Twitter is working on making Twitter Search more useful and relevant. Former VP of Search Quality for Google, Santosh Jayaram said they will soon be analyzing the links and content of the links in Twitter posts to make the search results more relevant. They will also build a ranking engine to take into account a person's reputation and trending topics. The article said that this might help Twitter become a "credible competitor - Google Gadget Porn Becomes an Issue
A Google Web Search Help thread reports that iGoogle is starting to get hit with lots of Google Gadget Porn. Via the thread, I found several Google Gadgets that show pornography including frontal nudity and link to pornographic sites. If you do not want to see porn, do not click on this Google Gadget. The Babe Of The Day Google Gadget, if added to iGoogle, will show you a topless girl. If you click on - More on Google Web Search's New Referral Strings
So we know Google is seriously testing AJAX search results and Google has confirmed that. We know Google was not passing referrer strings to the receiving sites, but Google promised to fix that. But these changes are going to be coming to a Google search result near you, so you need to be aware of it. Matt Cutts of Google posted a video explaining a bit more about these changes. It is well worth watching - How Google Maps Can Seriously Hurt Your Business
In the past couple of weeks, we showed how Google Maps can cause real pain for some business owners. I first showed you how you can close down competitors on Google Maps and then I showed how your business listing can be merged into a competitors listing leaving them with your business and you with non. Those are two serious ways on how Google Maps can seriously impact your business and sales. Google posted documents
Other Great Search Forum Threads:
- Bruce Clay: “How I Built My SEO Business”, Sphinn
- Do Local Search Spam Penalties Exist?, WebmasterWorld
- Don’t Forget About Us, The Web Directories, Sphinn
- Greatest Linkbuilding Story Ever Told, Sphinn
- Is Keyword Discovery Suggesting the Wrong Keywords?, Sphinn
- My dad passed away. How to change the payee name? Since i have no use of the cheque in his name., Google AdSense Help
- Rescuecom Corp. v. Google Inc. ruling, WebmasterWorld
