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:
- SEO Companies Springing Up "Like Dandelions"
Jill Whalen, in her High Ranking Advisor wrote a piece named Setting Up an SEO Shop Overnight! Jill goes on a well-deserved rant about how SEO companies are popping up left and right, even thought the people running these SEO companies know very little about SEO and have no real experience offering SEO services. Here is a blurb: What I don't understand is why people think that SEO is something they can perform as a - Google Squared Fun
Part of the Searchology 2009 Google event was that Google will be launching Google Squared this month. Danny has a good walk through of Google Squared features, if this is the first time you are hearing about it. Brian Ussery Tweeted that there are some fun easter eggs in the preview. A Google Blogoscoped forum thread lists some, including: [times][be there][alpha][42] Forum discussion at Google Blogoscoped. - Do I Have a Google Penalty?
You wake up one morning, check out your site statistics and learn your traffic has plummeted. You then dig deeper to see the source of the traffic drop is from Google sending less traffic for your main keywords. Most SEO companies have gone through the experience of having at least one site penalized. The question is how does an SEO company first confirm a site penalty and then remove the site penalty. We will discuss - Google News Get Update & Blog Search Gets Improved
Google News and Google Blog search had updates over the weekend. Google News announced the visual update to their home page, while the Google Blog search update was not announced and less visual in nature. The Google News update includes three main things: New color frames around each sectionYouTube logos to embedded news videosSection pages (Top Stories, Business etc) now feature the media files from partners Most people don't mind the update, and there are - Poll: Do You Like Google's New AdWords Trademark Policy?
While my wife was giving birth to our baby, Google sent me an email telling me they have made a serious change to their AdWords trademark policy. The AdWords blog explains that now, in the US, advertisers can use the trademark term(s) in the ad text, in certain conditions. Here is Google's language: That is why, in an effort to improve ad quality and user experience, we are adjusting our trademark policy in the U.S.
Other Great Search Forum Threads:
- Using Tinyurl Or Actual Url On Twitter Account, HighRankings Forums
- Adsense forces European publishers into Euro payments, WebmasterWorld
- Chris Sherman on Algorithms, Humans & SMX, Sphinn
- Google search results favor SEO optimized sites and are destroying small local businesses with websites, Google Web Search Help
- How will Google's new features impact SEO?, Sphinn
- New interface problem: No more site pick list makes it a pain to find my site, Google Webmaster Help
- Rich snippets : Does Google supports tags for multidimensional reviews (hReview) ?, Google Webmaster Help
- Search Engine Journal Merges with Search & Social, LLC, Sphinn
- Twitter Helping Local Business Opportunities, WebmasterWorld
