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:
- Bing Adds My Favorite Fact Engine, Wolfram|Alpha
I was all giddy when Wolfram|Alpha demo'ed back in May. The search engine, a fact engine, is filled with so much information and the results are provided in such great detail that this is one of the most, if not the most, useful publicly accessible fact engines available. As you can tell, I am a huge fan. Like I said then, it does not replace a Google but I know when to go to Wolfram - Google Updates Keyword Tool in Webmaster Tools: Updates Daily & Shows More Detail
The Google Webmaster Central Blog announced they have updated the keyword tool and data in Google Webmaster Tools. The new additions include: Data updated dailyHow often is the keyword foundDisplas top URLs that contain the keyword Specifically, the new significance column "compares the frequency of a keyword to the frequency of the most popular keyword on your site." Google adds, "when you click on a keyword to view more details, you will get a list - Being Banned from Bing Cashback as a Merchant
I am a big fan of the Bing Cashback program but on the merchant side, I was never to clear on how that worked. I did some research and merchants can sign up here to be included in the Cashback program. There are actually detailed merchant guides (PDF) and optimization tips (PDF) for Bing shopping available. At DigitalPoint Forums, I spotted one merchant who was kicked out of the program. Honestly, I have never seen - Find Me a Flu Shot with Google Maps
The Google blog also announced they teamed up with U.S. Department for Health and Human Services (HHS) to provide a Google Maps mashup to help people find flu shots in their area. You can access the Google Maps mashup at google.com/flushot or go to flu.gov for other information. One person asked in a Google Maps Help thread, how does he get his facility on the Google Maps list? I believe the way to do this - Google Let's You "Lock" Safe Search, Well Kind Of
The Google blog announced you can now lock the SafeSearch filter to help prevent a computer from seeing adult or sexually explicit content in the Google images and results. To do this, go to Search Settings and click on "Lock Safe Search." FYI, I personally do not see this option right now. But here is a video of how to set it up, when it is available: Once Safe Search is locked, the Google pages - Google Rich Snippets Coming To Smaller Sites?
Back in May, Google launched rich snippets that enabled webmasters to markup their HTML with richer data for Google to display. For example, you can often see results from Yelp and other sites like it for reviews that display reviews in the Google results. Here is a picture: In fact, most webmasters said they will markup their HTML to take part of this richer snippet experience. Then in September, Google added a rich snippet testing
PubCon Live Coverage of Sessions:
- PubCon Live: Super Session : Search Engines and Webmasters - aka: The Search Engine Smackdown
- PubCon Live: Community Hacking: 96 Baiting Strategies You Can Employ
- PubCon Live: Search Bloggers : What's Hot and Trending?
- PubCon Live: Real World Winning Tactics for Content Creation
- PubCon Live: Social Media Measurement and Signals
- PubCon Live: Starting a vBulletin Community
- PubCon Live: Real World, Low Risk, High Reward Link Building Strategies
- PubCon Live: Interactive Site Review : Organic Focus
- PubCon Live: The Top 50 Best Website Ideas We've Ever Seen
- PubCon Live: Linkfluence: How to Buy Links With Maximum Juice and Minimum Risk
Other Great Search Forum Threads:
- A link that has both nofollow & dofollow, WebmasterWorld
- Tracking coming to an 'end' in the EU?, WebmasterWorld
- Using The Ads Diagnostic Tool: first page bids, Google AdWords Help
- AdWords system maintenance on November 14th, Google AdWords Help
- Google New Feature Spotlight: Advanced Filters, DigitalPoint Forums
