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 Kills 100 Result Output Page? Scroogle Taken Down Again
An ongoing WebmasterWorld thread has been tracking the various advanced search result pages from Google since the Google redesign. Back in the day, google.com/ie would let you set a special URL parameter to show 100 results on the page. Google killed it and it gave Scroogle a set back for a little while. But webmasters and Scroogle found an alternative URL to get the same results. The alternative URL was adding on &output=ie to the - Google Sitemaps Now Allows One File For All Formats
Google announced you can now use a single sitemap file for all the various content types. Vanessa Fox has the best analysis of what this means to webmasters and other search engines at Search Engine Land. In summary, it may lead to making things easier for SEOs and webmasters to worry about a single file. But sometimes, it makes sense to keep them separate. At the same time, it is questionable if Bing and other - Users Revolting Over Google News, Google Doesn't Care
Google News did a major redesign the other day and the Google News Forum in covered with complaints. There has to be hundreds and hundreds of complaints from users. But Googlers are replying with the following message: Thanks for your concern, everyone. We understand your frustration, but we have no plans to revert to the old version of Google News. Abe from Google replied after posting this explaining why Google made the change: We definitely - Google Webmaster Tools Reporting Slow For New Sites
A Google Webmaster Help thread has confirmed reports that for new sites and some others, the reports in Google Webmaster Tools may be delayed. JohnMu from Google said in the thread: It looks like this is a general slow-down in our Webmaster Tools reporting pipeline for some new sites and not something due to your site in particular. I would just give it more time, though I'm afraid I don't have any particular timeline that - France May Fine Google Over Suspending AdWords Advertiser
Every day I hear of several reports of Google banning and suspending AdWords advertisers with no cause - at least according to the advertiser. Until now, no one really made Google shiver after them being suspending. Yea, there were some court cases, but typically Google always wins. Maybe not this time! Reuters reports the French authorities are requiring Google to "clarify within four months the scope and impact of the AdWords conditions applicable to devices - Google To Take Over Airline Booking Industry, Buys ITA
Google announced they have purchased ITA for $700 million. ITA is a flight information software company and will enable Google to "work on creating new flight search tools that will make it easier for you to search for flights, compare flight options and prices and get you quickly to a site where you can buy your ticket." The truth is, this may be the beginning of the end of other travel web sites. And Google
