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 Changes Maps OneBox Design
There are a few Google Maps Help threads with reports of changes to the maps OneBox design found in Google's web results. Mike Blumenthal documented these changes and I wanted to share them with you as well. For example, search for [General Patent Corporation International 10901], you will see a new look for the Maps OneBox: The main change is that clicking on the OneBox result doesn't take you to the business owner's web site. - Bing Almost Doubles Search Share In a Year
Microsoft relaunched their search engine Bing on June 1, 2009, just over a year ago. On June 1, 2009 Bing's market share, according to Hitwise was 5.25%. A year later, according to Hitwise it is 9.85% share. If you do the math, that is about 88% growth year-over-year, not too far under double growth! Here are some of the latest stats from Hitwise: Of course, growing share from 5% to 10% is nice, but it - Google Invests In Major Part of Facebook via Zynga For Games Or More?
TechCrunch reports Google has invested $100 million in Zynga. Zynga is a company that makes socially connected games and is incredibly popular on Facebook. They are the company behind Farmville. Greg Sterling has his thoughts on how this may "fuel" a Google social networking site around gaming. But folks at WebmasterWorld fear it is more than just a gaming pitch. By investing in Zynga Google can potentially use their influence to get data from within Facebook's - I Live Near a Sex Club According To Google Maps
A resident in Amsterdam is upset that when he tells people to use Google Maps to find his home, up comes a Sex Club labeled on the map near his home. You can see the map label over here. You will notice that the Asmara Sex Club Erotische Massage comes up right near his place. Here is a picture: The resident said: When people use Google maps to find my apartment in a residential neighborhood - Google Product Feeds For Electronics, Books & Media To Require More Data
Ronald from Google in the Google Merchant Help help forums announced changes are happening to Google's product feeds. Specifically, if you submit products in the categories of Electronics, Books, and Media in the U.S. you will need to pass along more product attributes or the products won't display in future searches. For these products to show, you will need to include the unique product identifiers, such as MPN, Brand, GTIN/UPC/EAN or ISBN. If you do - Google Maps Labs Adds Automatic Short URL For "Link" Feature
If you visit Google Maps Labs you will notice they have added some features. The most exciting new feature for me is the use of Google's URL shortener for the "link" button. For example, I can now link to my business's location using http://goo.gl/maps/rNAh instead of a really long and hard to read URL. To activate this feature, go to Google Maps Labs and click enable for the "Short URL" feature. Then load Google Maps - 2010 FIFA World Cup Final Google & Yahoo Logos
If you visit Google or Yahoo today, you will see a special logo for the 2010 FIFA World Cup Finals. Today at 2:30pm (ET) on ABC in the United States the Netherlands play Spain. Most feel Spain will win, but who knows. Here is the Google logo: I should note, both Google and Yahoo and others had logos for when FIFA kicked off. Yahoo's logo today is very similar to what it was then, but - Video Recap of Weekly Search Buzz :: July 9, 2010
In this week's video recap, I go through the July 2010 Google webmaster report. I also discuss how Yahoo has dramatically changed their algorithm, but no one really knows why. Google banned AdWords help and it is really causing issues with support related concerns. Google is now showing related video video icons in the search results. Google dropped support for using one double quote when searching. Google had a bug when searching with a hash,
Other Great Search Forum Threads:
- 18 SEO Excel Functions, Sphinn
- Doodle Independencia de Argentina, Google Blogoscoped Forum
- YouTube supports huge original video resolutions up to 4k (IMAX is 2k), Google Blogoscoped Forum
- 4K Video Comes to YouTube, WebmasterWorld
- Google auto-search suggestions for "heterosexual" and "homosexual" but not "bisexual"???, Google Web Search Help
- Lightbox: Yes Or No?, HighRankings Forums
- Ranking drops immediately after placing a link in a forum signature, WebmasterWorld
- Share your opinion with us: Multi-client accounts, Google Merchant Center Help
