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:
- Why Google Doesn't Index @ Signs
Google's Matt Cutts explained in a video why Google does not currently index @ signs. It stems from not wanting to index email addresses, he said. But now with the popularity of Twitter, Matt would not be surprised if Google changes how they handle indexing of @ signs. Here is the video: I find these little tidbits interesting. Forum discussion at YouTube. - Google Web Search's New Click Tracking
A moderator at WebmasterWorld noticed Google stopped using standard URL redirects in the Google search results to track click events. If you hover over the link, it now appears that Google is just sending you directly to the destination URL, without using any click tracking. But that is not the case. If you look at the source code, it looks like Google is using some type of JavaScript to track the click. Here is a - Recent Google Webmaster Tools API Errors
A Google Webmasters Help thread has reports that the Google Webmaster Tools API is having some technical difficulties over the weekend. Users of the API are receiving 502 errors for some requests. Authentication seems to work via the API, but all other requests seem to time out eventually. One webmaster coder said the following protocols are having issues, but there may be others: Googler, JohnMu, said he has "passed it on to the team - Google Finally Commemorates Memorial Day, Like Yahoo, AOL, Live & Ask.com
Today is Memorial Day in the United States of America. And to recognize the day, Google, Yahoo, AOL, Live.com, Ask.com, DogPile and others have special logos up. Google, who is known not to show a special logo for the day, has placed a little yellow ribbon below the search box. This is a historic move for Google, since they gone on record as saying the Google logo is not appropriate for the day. Google's yellow - Video Recap of Weekly Search Buzz :: May 22, 2009
In this 13 minute video recap, I go quickly through the past two weeks of search news. First, I had a baby girl, so that is why I missed the recap last week. Google made major changes named search options, wonder wheel, timeline, rich snippet markups, search suggestions and news and blog search were updated. Google and Yahoo Japan has a search index update. AdWords shows all queries now. Google tests one line product AdWords
Other Great Search Forum Threads:
- A Framework for Thinking About Local Search Campaigns, Sphinn
- Announcing New Google Spreadsheets Features, Google Docs Help
- Google Chrome Now Faster With Latest Version, WebmasterWorld
- 4% of 20 million URLs indexed, Google Webmaster Help
- How do I tell Google about typos or errors in their help/support pages?, Google Webmaster Help
- 2.5-way linking?, WebmasterWorld
- Ann Smarty Named Director of Media for Search & Social, Sphinn
- If you had one question for Matt Cutts ..., DigitalPoint Forums
- Googlenomics: Data Is The Key To Profitability, WebmasterWorld
