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's Mysterious White Logo Now on Google Hong Kong
If you go to Google Hong Kong, or the place Google China redirects you to, you are shown an interesting Google Logo. The Google logo is all in white. Here is a picture: This white Google logo was also on Google Poland a few days ago. The reason it is mysterious is that the alternative text on the image has no clue on what the white logo represents, nor does the logo hyperlink to anywhere, - Google Israel Gets Independence Day Doodle
I often cover how different people are upset that a specific logo was not designed and placed on Google for an event. The complaints range from missing an important country's holiday or missing someone's birthday, amongst others. So when I was testing Google's virtual keyboard in the search results, I noticed that today, Google Israel has a special doodle. Today is Israel's Independence Day, which technically happens every year on 5 Iyar (jewish month). It - Google Including Virtual Keyboards In Search Results
Back in June 2009, Google introduced a virtual keyboard API that developers can use to add to their multilingual web sites. In fact, we used it on some of our web sites. Now, Google is including this virtual keyboard directly in the search bar, within the search results page. For example, conduct a search at Google Poland or Google Israel and after you search, on the search results page, you will see a keyboard icon - Google, I'm Not a Taxi Service, Stop The Phone Calls
A funny but yet sad Google Web Search Help thread reports a person receiving phone calls from people looking for taxi service. In short, if you search for [taxi in postcode CT3] in Google UK up comes taxi results from Google Maps. But the number listed at the top of the page is of someone's home, who has nothing to do with the taxi service. The person said in the thread: If you search for - Google: Try Not To Change URLs
A Google Webmaster Help thread has a webmaster who changed pretty much all the URLs on his web site. He did set up proper redirects, but is patiently waiting for Google to reindex the site and capture the new URLs. In response to a question, Google's JohnMu replied with the following statement: As freebeer mentioned, my guess is that this is from a time where your site did not have the proper redirects in place. - WebmasterWorld Builds Their Own Search Engine
Brett Tabke, owner and founder of the popular WebmasterWorld forums, announced in a thread that they have built their own search engine to help forum users locate content within the forums. Brett explained that this new search engine took them about a "couple months work" and they are "very proud of it." You can access the new search feature at webmasterworld.com/newsearch.cgi. Keep in mind, non-subscribers are allowed a maximum of 10 searches per day. According
Other Great Search Forum Threads:
- AP: "Website" is now a word, WebmasterWorld
- Bug with the Subscription system: YouTube team working on a fix, YouTube Help
- Important social network activity for site optimization, WebmasterWorld
- Rise of the Marketing Technologist, Sphinn
