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:
- Google Drops Aboriginal Flag from Doodle Winner Due To Copyright
Google ran a Doodle4Google competition in Australia and Jessie won with this Doodle: When they posted the Doodle on the Google.com.au web site, it was missing the Aboriginal Flag. Here is a picture: I mentioned this in passing in Google's Kuwait Doodle mistake. But now, Google came to the Google Web Search Help forums explaining the issue. Jaime from Google said: Thanks for voicing your concern here in the forum. Just to make sure everyone - Google Maps Can't Find Home After Adding Personalization
This week, Google added personalization to help you find your "favorite locations faster." The issue is, it slows you down in finding your most favorite location - your home! A Google Maps Help thread has complaints from people who have saved locations labeled as "home." Whenever they wanted directions, they typed in "home" or "my home" and bingo, it came up. Now it does not and it requires them to enter in their address, which - Trusted Sources vs Less Trusted Sources on Google News
Clearly, Google News has it's own algorithms and techniques in ranking stories and articles. Danny has one of the most comprehensive articles on ranking stories in Google News that I know of. But I spotted an interesting thread at the Google News Help forums about how possibly some stories can, over time, hurt your trustworthiness in Google News. The person is trying to somehow communicate to Google that some of his stories are press releases - Google Launches Social Search
Google has launched the very neat social search feature yesterday. I am honestly surprised there is not more discussion around it in the forums. We covered it three times, first for the demo, then when it went experimental and then with some technical issues. Well, it is now live. On by default. Honestly, I don't believe it impacts normal searches unless you specific choose, "show options" and click on the social feature. But when you - How To Report a Google AdWords Professional
An Google AdWords Help thread has one company who feels he was scammed by a Google "subcontractor." His first mistake is not being knowledgeable enough about who he hired. Google does not have "subcontractors" but they do have certified AdWords professionals. So if you do feel you were done wrong by a certified AdWords professional, you can report them. That is, if they are really an AdWords professional. First make sure they are a a - Why Does Google Sometimes Show PSAs for Cumming Georgia Pages?
A WebmasterWorld thread has a unique discussion going on about Google AdSense and their stop words. In this discussion, some publishers have landing pages targeting the city, Cumming, Georgia. Clearly, the word 'Cumming' is an adult word, but it is also a fairly populated city in Georgia. The question is, why are some of the pages that target this city, showing Google AdSense ads that are PSA (public service ads), while others seem to show
Other Great Search Forum Threads:
- Apple iPad Tablet Is Launched, WebmasterWorld
- Yahoo to be default search engine in Ubuntu, WebmasterWorld
- Article Sites - I see fewer ranking now, WebmasterWorld
- Google Chrome Extensions 24 New SEO Plugins, Sphinn
- How does Google choose what text to include in blurb?, Google News Help
- Http status code for soap fault, AdWords API Forum
- Some SEO Advice For Bill Gates, Sphinn
- Upcoming Sandbox DB Refresh: Jan. 29th, AdWords API Forum
- Why So Many Fake Page Ranks?, HighRankings Forums
