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:
- Major Latency With Google Web Search & Gmail
It seems like many people around the world are complaining that Google's properties, including Google Search and Gmail are both either down for them or incredibly slow. For me, it is working well, but I had people call, email and IM me about the issue. Plus, if you look at a Twitter Search for google, you will see many are saying it is slow or down, at the moment. We do have a few threads - Empty Google AdSense Ads is Linux Bug
A WebmasterWorld and Google AdSense Help thread reports seeing more of empty or test AdSense ads. We have seen them back in March 2007 but they have disappeared until now. Here is a screen capture of one ad that reads "text goes here" in the ad and the URL reads yoururlgoeshere.com. Google replied to the threads confirming this is a Google bug with Linux operating systems. Google said: Thanks for bringing this to our attention. - Twitter @ Replies, Neither Here Nor There
Yesterday was a very interesting day for Twitter. In short, Twitter removed the ability to see @ replies. Then they brought it back but in a limited fashion. The Twitter blog explained: We're making a change such that any updates beginning with @username (that are not explicitly created by clicking on the reply icon) will be seen by everyone following that account. Read that a few times. Neither here nor there. Well, you might be - More Nudity & Pornography Found in Google Gadgets
Last week, we reported for the first time of Google Gadget porn becoming an issue. Well, it is now more widespread then I have ever seen. A new Google AdSense Help thread reports seeing porn in home page of the Google Gadgets directory. Here is a screen capture: Both Google Gadgets contain full nudity and also include sex photos. This is a clear violation of the Google Gadget terms. This was first reported two days - Google's New Webmaster Tools Is Missing My Backlinks
The other day, Google released a redesigned Webmaster Tools area. Soon after it was released, webmasters began noticing that the linkage data found in the new Webmaster Tools was out of sync with the one found in the old Webmaster Tools version. Google has confirmed the issue, saying: You may notice that your backlinks data differs between the new and old versions—this is because we're still filling in data for some sites in the new - Case of Accidental Search Engine Cloaking
Gab Goldenberg from SEO ROI posted a thread at Google Webmasters Help discussion forums when he noticed Google began to drop his rankings for all his pages. I have been tracking the thread for about three weeks, but held off on posting about it until Gabs wrote his post. How I Cloaked My Way To LOWER Rankings was Gab's title and it shows how you must be careful about who you request site changes from.
Other Great Search Forum Threads:
- Can you consider a 301 redirect for products.google.com to google.com/products?, Google Web Search Help
- AdWords API InfoService values are stale for May 12 & 13, Google Groups
- AdWords Downtime: May 16, 10am-2pm PDT, Google Groups
- Directory Discounts & Link Building Service Promotions | Link Spiel, Sphinn
- iGoogle - Enhanced Bookmarks widget - where have all my bookmarks gone?, Google Web Search Help
- Link Development Training: How Link Building for SEO is Like Picking Up a Girl, Sphinn
- Maintenance, Saturday May 16, WebmasterWorld
- Reddit’s Decline in Democracy, Sphinn
- Spaces In Urls, HighRankings Forums
- Tracking Keyword Ranking Position with Google Analytics, WebmasterWorld
