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:

January 2014 Google Webmaster Report
Despite it being the month of December, which normally means it is slow, it was a pretty busy month. The past week or so has been dead, so not much to report in the first week of January…

Google Webmaster Tools Search Queries Shows Top Pages By Keyword Clicks
You know the search queries report in Google Webmaster Tools? Of course you do…

Google: Your Rankings Dropped Because Of Links, Not Hummingbird
A Google Webmaster Help thread has an office furniture site complaining that his Google rankings dropped after the Hummingbird update was pushed out.

Of course…

Issues With Google Webmaster Tools Verification
A Google Webmaster Help thread has dozens of webmasters complaining about not being able to verify their web sites.

The first report came in yesterday afternoon. The webmaster said…

Google Doodle For Zora Neale Hurston
Today on Google.com is a special Doodle, aka logo, for Zora Neale Hurston. Zora Neale Hurston is considered one of the pre-eminent writers of 20th African-American literature.

Here is the Doodle:

She was born today on January 7, 1891…

Water Bottles From Google & YouTube
Check out these thirst quenching water bottles branded with YouTube and Google on them. Richard Hay from Google snapped a picture of them and posted them on Google+ saying “YouTube + Google Good pai

Other Great Search Forum Threads:

Google Announces Android OS To Come To Auto makers GM, Honda, and Audi, WebmasterWorld
How can you make your inbound links more natural in Google’s eyes?, WebmasterWorld
Need advice: I want to move good content to a Pandalized domain, WebmasterWorld
Using Content Group Data A few people recently asked where…, Justin Cutroni – Google+
Ways for Small Sites to Beat Larger Sites, WebmasterWorld
January 2014 AdSense Earnings and Observations, WebmasterWorld