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:
Video Recap of Weekly Search Buzz :: January 16, 2009
In this week’s recap, I discuss Yahoo’s new CEO, Carol Bartz. I talk about how the recession is impacting Google. Google is testing out longer descriptions in the search results. Google Sitemaps gets credit for faster crawling and indexing. Google made a new Sitemap generator. Google is consistently showing search ads on image search. AdSense publishers had the optimization reports. The AdSense competitive ad filter doesn’t work. Yahoo Publisher Network might be bust. Yahoo turns
The End of Yahoo Publisher Network Nearing?
I am honestly surprised I have not seen more discussion around this topic in the forums recently. A couple days ago, I reported at Search Engine Land that Yahoo is shutting down Content Match in the UK, Germany and other locations outside of the US. The last day for advertisers outside of the US to bid on Content Match ads would be March 31st. That directly translates to less inventory for Yahoo to place in
Publishers Feeling Screwed By Google AdSense Competitive Ad Filter
In late December, we reported that Google’s AdSense Competitive Ad Filter stopped working for many publishers. Guess what, it is still not working for many of them and they are feeling very let down by Google. If you don’t know what Google’s competitive filter is, it basically gives publishers the functionality to block specific ads from appearing on their pages. Successful AdSense publishers depend on the competitive filter to block out the MFAs and poor
Google Sitelinks Disappear? Should You Worry?
The first week of January, when we wrote about the Major Google Search Results Changes, January 2009, I noticed the Google Sitelinks for this site, disappeared. Today, I noticed they are back. Today, also, many webmasters are noticing they have lost their sitelinks. A WebmasterWorld thread has two webmasters noting that their Sitelinks disappeared both in the Google search results and in Google Webmaster Tools. They both are concerned and asked if they should be.
What Happens When Google Does Not Catch a Site Hack?
A Webmaster posted a thread at Google Webmaster Help groups asking why his description for his site shows porn related terms in the snippet. The clear answer was that his site was hacked. The question was posed by a concern webmaster: The description showing on google for etceteraonline.eu is for a porn site, the link works fine but the description is wrong and not contained on my site please help. Several top contributors replied, showing
Google Now Consistently Showing Ads on Image Search?
Since 2005, we have reported signs of Google placing ads on their image search service. In May 2008, Google said they would run ads on image search and then signs of text ads on image search back in December. But it has really not stuck and people saw the ads on and off. I think for the first time, we are now seeing ads for many queries in image search. Here are some examples of
Other Great Search Forum Threads:
Any Using Google’s Enhanced Custom 404-page Widget, HighRankings Forums
China’s Net Users Up 42pct to 298 Million, WebmasterWorld
DIY Government links, WebmasterWorld
Google Images (Adult Material), Google Webmaster Help
Google TV Ads With Free Ad Creation, WebmasterWorld
The map tiles won’t load or the satellite imagery isn’t displaying. What is the cause?, Google Maps Help
The Scientists of Search Engine Optimization, Sphinn
Yahoo Adds Deep Links to Wikipedia SearchMonkey App, WebmasterWorld
