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 You May Have To Use Google AdWords Even With Top Organic Rankings
A featured WebmasterWorld thread has a webmaster who is upset that although he has remained the number one ranking for a competitive term in Google for 8 years or so, he has seen his click-through rate from Google dwindle down and down as time goes on. He said, over the years he first noticed AdWords ads push down his organic listings. Now, he is not only being pushed down by AdWords but also by the - Google Sued Over Maps Walking Directions: Hit & Run
Ad Danny Sullivan explained in his amazing story, Woman Follows Google Maps "Walking" Directions, Gets Hit, Sues, Lauren Rosenberg was hit by a car as she walked between two locations in Park City, Utah. Using her BlackBerry phone, she'd used Google Maps and its "walking directions" feature to generate a route. Those directions sent her down "Deer Valley Drive," an alternative name for Utah State Route 224. She was struck on that highway. Danny then - Google Webmaster Tools "Not Found" Errors Won't Hurt Your Rankings
A Google Webmaster Help thread has confirmation from Googler, Jonathan Simon, that the page not found errors found in Google Webmaster Tools won't necessarily hurt your Google rankings. Jonathan basically explained that if someone is linking to a page that is not found, there is not much you can do to prevent that from happening. Jonathan said: Since you can't control who links to your site these Not Found errors won't negatively impact your site's - Google Maps New Direction Icons
I am told this is about a week or so old, but I haven't really seen any posts on it yet. Google Maps has changed the way they let users pick the type of directions they want. Instead of showing a drop down, defaulted to car directions, they now show you icons above the directions box. Here is a screen capture of the new design: Here is the old design: I posted this at the - Make Google SSL Search Your Default Search Engine in Chrome
A Google Web Search Help forum thread asks how you can make Google SSL search your default search provider in Chrome. It is a good question that is a bit hard to answer in the forum, so I thought I do a blog post with screen captures to explain the process. Step 1: Right click in the URL bar and click on "Edit search engines...": Step 2: Click on the plus sign at the bottom
Other Great Search Forum Threads:
- New little Youtube features, Google Blogoscoped Forum
- Doodle Republic Day Italy, Google Blogoscoped Forum
- Google Sued For Click Fraud For First Time In Five Years, Google Blogoscoped Forum
- Google's "Reasonable Surfer" - Bill Slawski popularizes the concept, WebmasterWorld
