April 18, 2007 Archives

Digg users love Google. (Digg top-user wannabes: take note!) From Bush's failure to Google's recent "SEO firm" acquisition, Google is all over the news.

Two weeks ago, one of the White House web editors added the word "failure" to George Bush's homepage. Previously, in what we know as an attempt in Google bombing, a search for "miserable failure" in Google would bring Bush's page up in the #1 result. Google fixed that at the end of January. The White House undid this once they put the word "failure" on his page, and Search Engine Land took note. The mistake brought this Digg finding to the front page. Oops. As of this writing, the "failure" reference to the White House page is gone. Shucks.

Around the same time as "failure" was rediscovered, Google launched 1-800-GOOG-411 , its free 411 service. This also got popular on Digg, and yesterday, Barry tried it for a naughty purpose: free prank calls . Yeah, that was a popular Digg too until it was buried.

In other interesting news: How much does Google's CEO Eric Schmidt really make? Apparently, he only gets $1 . His personal security, however, cost the bulk of what he ended up pocketing: $532,755.

And then, last week, Google acquired DoubleClick , and consequently, now owns an SEO firm, Performics . All of this is really disturbing to Google's rivals, particularly Microsoft.

And on the social front, Li Evans, who contributed to the Search Engine Roundtable coverage of SES NY 2007, wrote a great guide about the variety of social media sites on the 'net . So if you choose not to Digg, you could always Reddit or use Netscape, among the 300 other social networks that Li highlights in different areas. (Okay, there are not that many!)

That brings me to my final point. Even though there are eleventy billion social networks and news sites on the Internet, for now, this still a Digg Digest. If you want the story to be covered here, make sure you Digg it. ;)

On the Search Engine Watch Forums, our author Chris Boggs found a very interesting article written by HackerSafe that "brags" about its link juice.

In the article, HackerSafe claims that "the security certification does improve search engine optimization."

The security firm was exhibiting at SES this week and discussed how offering three one-way PR6-PR8 text links from ScanAlert’s Hacker Safe Merchant Directory helped sites such as Vermont Teddy Bear Company and Stacks and Stacks raise organic search placement.

Chris found this very troubling that HackerSafe was essentially bragging to the world about the power that they have. But forum members see that this could be a problem for HackerSafe, since Matt Cutts addressed paid links just a few days ago and asked people to report this activity.

I happen to agree with Chris. He writes:

I am not totally buying this as being the sole or even a major reason for the success of the site...

Having worked in web development and on e-commerce sites in the past, I do understand the mentality that buyers feel much more comfortable buying from sites that have a familiar SSL certificate logo (e.g. GeoTrust, Verisign) on the site. This itself boosts confidence of buyers. Was it the fact that HackerSafe is involved in a link building effort? I wouldn't think so in the least. The credit they are taking is not likely due to a link-building effort.

Let Chris and other Search Engine Watch readers know what you think by joining in the discussion.

Postscript Barry: As per Dan's comment we learned that HackerSafe is actively and publicly promoting, "Boosts Google rank with over 100 Million cross-links."

Here is a screen shot:

Pretty impressive.

Is the Google Phone a reality? Indeed it is, according to a DigitalPoint Forums post. Google has apparently partnered with Taiwan manufacturer HTC (High Tech Computer) to manufacture the phones which are slated for a 2007 worldwide launch.

What is the community sentiment?

For one, multiple users think that if the Google phone is going to sell, it needs to be better than the iPhone, the leading contender in the mobile market at the present.

If it can beat Apple iPhone, sure i'll buy. But iphone is too cool..

Others are hoping that the cost is right. But once upon a time not long ago, Eric Schmidt said that phones should be free. Maybe they'll cut the consumer a good deal if it displays AdSense ads.

Even others wonder what Google is trying to achieve here:

Why does Google need to sell phones?

However, I (and others) think that answer is obvious:

sure, if the phone's browser could display google ads, why not?

Engadget has more coverage as well.

Discuss the Google Phone at DigitalPoint Forums.

The twenty-sixth edition of the Search Pulse is now available for download. We discussed our extremely comprehensive and detailed job covering the SES NY conference. We then had a 15 minute conversation about paid links based on some recent blog posts by Google's Matt Cutts. We had a brief conversation on Ask.com's new algorithm, Edison. Followed by yellow Google ads, a Google.com update, support for sitemaps autodiscovery, the DoubleClick acquisition and much more. The topics we covered are listed below, in order of priority (based on search community buzz). You can download the MP3 file and listen at your convenience.

You can listen to the MP3 file with our new player directly below:

Topics We Covered:

1. Search Engine Strategies '07 New York Session Coverage Roundup
   
2. Matt Cutts of Google on Paid Links Again
   
3. Ask.com To Launch New Search Algorithm Code Named Edison
   
4. Impact of Yellow Google Ads & Click Through Change on CTR & Sales
   
5. Google.com Search Results Shake Up on April 10
   
6. Google, Yahoo, Microsoft & Ask.com To All Support Sitemaps Autodiscovery
   
7. Sitemaps Ping URLs at Google, Yahoo, & Ask.com
   
8. Updated: Unusual Fall in MSN adCenter Traffic Last Night Due To adCenter Adding Quality Factors
   
9. Google Acquires DoubleClick for $3.1 Billion, Faces Challenges by Competitors
   
10. Will Google's Purchase of DoubleClick Affect Google AdSense?
    
11. Response to Eric Schmidt Wired Interview: Should Consumers be Afraid of Google's Control?
    
12. Yahoo! Updates Site Explorer Capability to Allow for Mobile Site Submission, Report Spammy Sites
    
13. Google Voice Search: Easy & Free Prank Calls?
    

Continue reading "Search Pulse 26: SES NY, Paid Links, Ask.com's Edison, Yellow Ads, Google.com Shakes, Sitemaps, DoubleClick, Yahoo Site Explorer, Google Voice & More"

In an attempt to improve the consumer shopping experience, Yahoo! announced yesterday that it is looking to partner with eBay's PayPal and will add shopping cart links to sponsored results for merchants who accept PayPal Express Checkout. A WebmasterWorld thread looks at this partnership more closely.

Yahoo! has introduced a PayPal Checkout Program with more information for how merchants can sign up.

Since PayPal is still a familiar household name and Google Checkout is a relatively foreign entity, this seems to be a win in the forum community:

I'm excited about this. I've always liked PayPal and I'm rooting for Yahoo to do great things. It seems like Y may win this little battle.

Chris Sherman covered this topic on Search Engine Land. After speaking with Rich Riley, Yahoo! Senior Vice President, about how this differs from Google Checkout, Chris received a response that is quite similar to my own opinion: the number of PayPal customers is huge (over 100 million!) and this partnership is a great thing for Yahoo!

I have also included a screenshot of the shopping cart link:

The one thing that confused me was that nothing happened when I clicked on the icon or hovered over it with my mouse. In due time, I suppose.

Forum discussion continues at WebmasterWorld.

As many know, yesterday was a rather important day for Google Docs when they announced that they are pregnant with a baby. Well, not really, but the Google Docs and Spreadsheets family intends to branch out into the world of presentations. Yeah, that's right, a DigitalPoint Forums member noted that this is Google's PowerPoint alternative. WebmasterWorld and Search Engine Land have coverage as well.

What does the community think?

It's great for collaboration:

Might be very useful for collaborative presentations (no more emailing ppt file around).

But Google is expanding way too fast and might as well soon have its own operating system (which isn't entirely farfetched):

Can't believe why google want to spread its business to every area!

may be next day G will have their own Word, Excel, .... and then OS

What do you expect now? Anxious for them to give birth? Forum discussion continues at DigitalPoint Forums and WebmasterWorld.

Yesterday Google announced a the AdWords blog a new bidding option named preferred cost bidding. Google prepped me the day before for my post at Search Engine Land on this feature. Honestly, after the call I was still not 100% clear on the benefits.

What is preferred cost bidding?

You select the average price you'd like to pay per click (a preferred CPC bid) or per thousand impressions (a preferred CPM bid). The AdWords system then automatically works to hit this target price.

For example, if your analysis shows that a click on your keyword-targeted ad is worth US$0.75 to your business, you can set a preferred CPC bid of US$0.75. The AdWords system will then adjust your bid on individual ad impressions to bring your actual average CPC as close to US$0.75 as possible. Your ad may be placed in a range of positions as the system works to give you your preferred cost.

In contrast, the traditional AdWords bidding method lets you set maximum CPC or CPM bids. You specify the most you're willing to pay for each individual click (for keyword-targeted campaigns) or each thousand impressions (for site-targeted campaigns). You may end up paying any amount up to the maximum bid that you specify.

The FAQs can be found at http://adwords.google.com/support/bin/topic.py?topic=10775.

The benefits of preferred cost bidding?
I was told this gives advertisers more control over their campaigns, also allowing advertisers to stabilize their costs and save time so they don't have to manually adjust their maximum bids, which saves time.

Reaction to preferred cost bidding:
Advertisers are not giving this new bidding option a warm welcoming. The largest discussion on this new feature is at WebmasterWorld where we have several posts that all show a negative reaction to this release. Here are some, but not all, quotes from the thread.

I'm glad they keep adding features because it's so easy to master the simple set of tools they had so far ;)

Sounds like a great way to overspend. I wouldn't touch this one with a 10-foot pole.

I for one would prefer they worked on fixing some of the existing issues.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld & DigitalPoint Forums.

A WebmasterWorld thread reports finding the destination URL change dynamically as you mouse over a Google AdSense ad.

For example, as I mouse over an AdSense ad, when I look in the status bar at the bottom, I can see the end of the URL change from &nm=01 to &nm=02 to &nm=03 and so on.

Here are screen captures:

At nm=94:

At nm=130:

I have never seen this myself, but that doesn't mean it is incredibly new. If you like to see it in action, I will place an AdSense ad below (please do not click on the ad, just mouse over it and look at the destination URL).

Very interesting find.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Vanessa Fox of the Google Webmaster Central team announced that Google Webmaster Central now supports the easy removal of content from their index.

In short, if you login to your Google Webmaster Central account, you can easily remove content (individual pages, directories, entire site or cache copies) from Google.com, if you have verified the site. The blog post also explains new ways of requesting the removal of content that you do not have access to.

Google Releases Improved Content Removal Tools from Danny Sullivan at Search Engine Land has a very detailed write up on how it works. If you are interested in understanding it in detail, read Danny's post. If you just want a quick glance at how you can use it, check out the Google Webmaster Central Blog because they have tons of screen captures.

I am not going to get into how it works or how you make it work.

This was announced later last night, so we currently only have a thread at DigitalPoint Forums.

Overall, this is a nice step for the tool. We know Yahoo added the remove URL feature to Site Explorer earlier this year. But Google's approach is a bit more detailed. But still, nice to see these features and ways to interact with your content via Google.

Forum discussion at DigitalPoint Forums.

The Inside AdSense Blog announced support for Greek and Romanian publishers to place AdSense on their site. The ads will then target Greek and Romanian advertisers in Greek and Romanian languages.

In addition, Romanian publishers (not Greek) can add AdSense for Search to their site.

How do you do it?

If you're ready to get started with these languages, just log in to your AdSense account and follow the wizard located under the AdSense Setup tab. You can also contact the Greek team at adsense-el@google.com and the Romanian team at adsense-ro@google.com with additional questions.

DigitalPoint Forums has some early feedback on this release.

The English version looks tidier and the CPM explanation in Romanian sounds weird so I'll stick to English for now.

It's not really worthy making a romanian site with romanian ads on it. you'll only get $0.01/click unless it is Real Estate or Travel site where you get $0.05.

Forum discussion at DigitalPoint Forums.