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 Webmaster Tools Now Showing "Total Links"
About two weeks ago, Google updated the Webmaster Tools link reports to provide some more actionable data and cleaner interfaces. But it left out a key metric for some SEOs, the metric of "total links." Late Friday, Google announced in a Google Webmaster Help thread that they added it back. Jonathan Simon of Google said: I'm happy announce that we've added back the "Total links" count in the "Links to your site" section of Webmaster - Google's Fetch as Googlebot Returning Not Found Errors
Two Google Webmaster Help threads have complaints from webmasters and SEOs that the fetch as Googlebot feature in Webmaster Tools is not working. Specifically, people are running it and are being returned a 404 error that reads: Webmaster Tools - 404 Oops! The page you are trying to reach does not exist (404). Google's JohnMu chimed in over the weekend to say he will send it up the chain to be fixed. He said: Thanks - Google Showing Related Brands, Stores & Types In Results
Google has been testing a form of related or search refinements for brand searches for several months now. But now I am seeing a new refinement that adds Stores and Types to the Brand refinement. I was able to replicate it for the search [diamonds] and [cameras]. Here are screen shots: The refinements are simple, you click on it, it replaces your search for a combination of your current search and adds on the keyword(s) - Blekko Search Launches, Entices SEOs With New Tools
Blekko, the latest search engine coined the "Google Killer" has launched to the public yesterday. I won't dare to do what every other site has done out there and do a full review. I'll strongly recommend you read Danny Sullivan's two reviews and then come back here. What Blekko does that is different is that they do use humans to tailor the results. They also use what is called slashtags which allow you to search - Yahoo Site Explorer Link Bug Fixed?
A couple weeks ago, we reported that Yahoo Site Explorer suffered a major link drop site wide. So when webmasters and SEOs checked their links within Site Explorer they found a fraction of the links of what they are accustomed to see. Yahoo said then that they are working on a fix. Some are now reporting their link counts within Site Explorer are now back to normal. The a href="http://www.webmasterworld.com/link_development/4219635.htm">WebmasterWorld thread has one SEO saying, - Halloween Logos From Google, Yahoo, Bing & More: 2010 Scooby Doo Edition
Happy Halloween everyone! Here are the logos from Google, Yahoo, Bing, Ask, Dogpile and others. For the past year's special Halloween logos, see the 2009, 2008, 2007, 2006, 2005 and 2004 Halloween logos. This year, Google has a very special Halloween logo featuring the Scooby-Doo cartoon. You can flip between the five different logos by clicking on the right arrow, clicking on the logo or clicking on the palm imprint under the logo. For those
Other Great Search Forum Threads:
- Facebook Ad-Targeting Patent Application, WebmasterWorld
- Doodle Katsushika Hokusai, Google Blogoscoped Forum
- Youtube: 1 Bilion subscriptions, Google Blogoscoped Forum
- A New Kind of Local Search Result: The “O-Pack”?, Sphinn
- Doodle 2500 Years Marathon, Google Blogoscoped Forum
- Google’s 2010 M&A Bill: $1.6 Billion and Counting, DigitalPoint Forums
- The Future of SEO in a Big Brand, Google-Only World, WebmasterWorld
- Localization, Unique Data Sets & the Future of Search, Sphinn
- TargetingIdeaService with more than 1 CountryTarget always returning 0 in MonthlySearchVolumeAttribute, AdWords API Forum
