Digg Digest Archives

It's Digg time! And the world is also sphinning, so it's likely that we'll do some Sphinn coverage in the Digest in the future. Who knows?

What's new in the world of search from a tech geek's perspective anyway? A lot of things, actually. First of all, did you know that Google has a quilt shop in Venezuela? I don't think Google knew either. It reminds me of the fake Engadget store in Malaysia. Do these people not think that these brands are almost completely ubiquitous? I guess they don't.

RustyBrick (the company, not Barry) has been featured in TechCrunch because we're providing blog authors with a means of organizing multiple stories with multiple authors. If you maintain a very large website and need to manage your writer's budget, this is a cool tool. On a side point, we've also used it to manage our conference coverage, so it comes in handy for alternate purposes.

Back onto search.

David Wallace proposes an interesting question: should small businesses be afraid of Google Universal Search? . It's one of those challenges that a small company with not as much brand awareness and visibility is posed with. Thus, he proposes that you take advantage of the tools to maximize that visibility, including using Flickr, setting up a blog, using YouTube to submit company videos, and getting listed on Google maps.

Last week, Yahoo started rolling out Yahoo! Search Assist . We covered it and featured Danny's screencast which is quite cool. It's interesting that Jeremiah Owyang then discovered that AOL has been "borrowing" Yahoo's homepage design. But as I commented in that story at Digg, the current design might be replaced by something newer soon.

And finally, a golden nugget of wisdom from Christine Churchill: learn everything you can about your website . For example, renew your domain name before it expires. Make sure your robots.txt file is not excluding pages you want indexed from being crawled. Don't share your IP address with a spam site. Otherwise, you may have major problems to deal with.

Today is July 11, otherwise known as 7-11, and they're giving out free slurpees in the states, so grab them while you can.

What's been up in Digg? First, I posted a nice and hopefully really informative article on 29 Tools Built on the Digg API . It took me about a month to collect that data and do the research, but it was worth it. If you like leveraging your social media efforts, these are definitely helpful.

Google has done a great job acquiring a ton of companies between 2001 and 2007. By the end of the year, it's guesstimated that they'll have acquired another 11 companies up to 22 for the year. Do you agree?

Nofollow sucks . Why? As the WebProNews Blog article says, it implies that despite the effort someone has put into commenting on a blog, they still might be a spammer. Right.

‘You left a comment. I would love to acknowledge your existence, but you might be a spammer. Since you might be a spammer, I better not link to you. Google doesn’t like spammers and… you know, you’re either with Google or you’re against them. So, I can’t really, you know, risk it.’

I hear that. It's true. But typical blogs don't always use Akismet or any other sort of spam defense, so I see why it's needed.

Who is the Animal House of search? And can you find Jeeves?

Social search? Sure, Google and Yahoo are doing it. The goal is to "rethink and reinvent online social networking." With Facebook's emerging popularity and crazy growth this past few months, that's a tough act to follow, but by all means, go for it.

Got an eBay store? Want to optimize it and get more traffic and sales? Here are some eBay Store Search Optimization Tips that should get you on your way. It really is good stuff.

On another note, Danny Sullivan's son doesn't know what Internet Explorer is . He says his kids also associate Google with "finding things on the web." Is this a sign of the future? I remember someone saying that Ask.com implies the same thing, so maybe not.

The world is still spinning, and people are still digging. There have been happy reports on Digg and sad reports on Digg. Little known facts are now more widespread, and rumors are circulating. Such is life.

A few weeks ago, the new version of Google Analytics left beta . With this came some new features, especially the highly desired hourly reporting. I'm glad about that.

SEO.com is rumored to have sold for $5 million which is a pretty substantial amount of money. Personally, while the three-letter domain is helpful, I know where the best SEO sites are already, so I don't know if it will do much for me. The cost, however, is not surprising, though it really is a rumor at this point as indicated by the update by Mike Mann himself in the comments of that blog announcement.

With Google Docs and Spreadsheets getting better and better each day, you should be aware that there are some lesser known features within Google Docs and spreadsheet. Here are 5 things you may not know: there's live lookup via Google Finance, you can perform Google searches within a spreadsheet, there are color-coded live comments, Google Docs supports revisioning, and documents are backed up in multiple places at once to avoid possible loss of data.

Dave Naylor reported that YouTube is giving FTP information away . This was discovered after we realized that Google Video is exposing usernames and passwords and is doing so on an unsecure (HTTP) protocol. Pretty scary stuff for those concerned about privacy.

Business owners, rejoice! You can now verify your business on Google Maps . Life for you has just gotten much easier.

Just a few days ago, we heard that Google has purchased GrandCentral , a phone service that allows people with multiple phone lines to combine them into one line.

Earlier this week, Aaron Wall announced that Threadwatch is closing . There's been an overwhelming response to the closure, and many people hope Aaron will reconsider. He hasn't responded to them yet. Best of luck, Aaron.

After we covered Google Maps Street view in our last Digg Digest, many more stories about privacy (and some funny pictures) have popped up on the Internet.

First, the silliness.

You can't see it anymore, because Google is removing Street View images due to privacy concerns, but I found the questionable image of the man peeing on the side of the road

There. Now you can't say I didn't show you.

In fact, it prompted people to make movies out of it.

Uh yeah, I'm not sure what he was doing. Really.

But anyway, all of this Google Maps Street View madness came out at the same time that Google was slammed for privacy concerns . However, not everyone agrees. Danny Sullivan, for example, thinks that the Privacy International report sucks . He points out a number of flaws with the Privacy International report, including the fact that one of its board members is an employee of Microsoft. And so, on the heels of this announcement, we see that Google will anonymize search results after eighteen months , which should also come as a relief to some of these Privacy International guys.

It's actually cool to see what search engines know about us, even if you're not inclined to actually take advantage of Web History. Think about it. AOL knows a lot about Thelma Arnold, the 62-year-old woman whose search queries were released to the wild. If you're not using Google, that doesn't mean the search engines don't know about you.

What else? Well, Google may know about you, but what don't you know about Google? Matt Cutts lists five things, emphasizing that Google is strongly focused on search, Google is constantly making improvements that aren't noticed (to the search algorithm, but I'd extend that to say that Google does it other properties, like Google Analytics), and that there are more people at Google besides Matt, Vanessa Fox, Adam Lasnik, and Susan Moskwa -- though they work behind the scenes. (Come out, come out, wherever you are!)

And well, some people don't care that Google is everywhere. In fact, they encourage you to Googleize your life . That's right: take advantage of Gmail, Blog Search, Google Earth, YouTube, and other Google properties, and you may not need anything else.

That Googleize your life post had some nice icons and eye candy. Google Korea has come out with an animated version which is also pleasant and pretty.

And finally, that design (or perhaps Google Maps Street View, or a combination of the two) have caused the GOOG stock to hit $519 the highest it's ever been.

Well, it might not have been the design for Google Korea after all. AussieWebmaster believes that the big three search engines are xenophobic. That is, Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft appear to be afraid of foreign territory. His statement is based on the fact that US traffic seems to overpower traffic from foreign countries. Consequently, other countries are forming other search engines.

And then there's Mahalo , the new search engine by Jason Calacanis whose name sounds like it might as well be from a foreign country possibly near Hawaii. Aloha!

By the way, Ask.com didn't seem to make it on AussieWebmaster's list. My guess is that it has something to do with the fact that Ask.com's marketing campaigns are confusing users with Ask.com as Google . I'm not sure that you guys wanted that, Ask.com. But I see what the other people mean. Google representatives are far more responsive than Ask.com representatives to my knowledge and Google's emphasis is on improving the "algorithm." Am I off when I point to this blog post or perhaps this one? While I majored in computer science at school and knew what an algorithm is from my coursework, as soon as I started working in this realm, I immediately thought of Google when I heard the term Algorithm. Ask.com is just confusing me now. However, I still like the ads.

Guess it sucks if you live in the other 49 states. :)

It's been a pretty cool last two weeks. A lot of Google innovations have been made public, and I for sure am impressed, albeit frightened when Google comes with a truck photographing my backyard.

Yes, you heard that right. Google has launched a pretty nifty street maps photography feature. Barry captured a video of how far this photography feature goes in New York: just blocks shy of our office. We also covered the street maps feature this morning.

Another nifty addition to Google is the ability to restrict image results to faces . That means Rebecca's complaint about the ineffectiveness of Google Image Search might no longer hold true. Well, with most of these other results, maybe not. Guess she's right about MSN Search, but it's a good start. (The results for Jordin Sparks was actually better without the special "face" restriction in the URL. But, moving on...)

As we covered, Google launched a new universal search platform . The response was overwhelming, and Diggers ate up that story: it hit the top 10 news stories on Digg for a few hours when it first came out. I feel special.

Other neat developments include Google's addendum of hot trends. On a very similar note, Barry decided to post his search trends. This helps Google collect its data.

Innovation doesn't only sit online. Google needs to hire its engineers and staff through innovative methods. They've been holding contests, games, Sudoku challenges, and the like to look for the best talent. I want to play all day. I guess I'm lucky we have this instead.

Danny shared a pretty cool link via Google Experimental . Some features include timeline views, keyword shortcuts, left-hand search navigation, and right-hand contextual search navigation.

Oh, but Google is not a flawless beast. Numerous Google properties have been hacked in the past. Cool. In #5 of these security breaches, we see that "Googlified discovered a fault in Gmail that allowed a user's contact list to be stolen via JavaScript." This week, there was a JavaScript finding via Ionut Alex Chitu and Danny Sullivan. If you have JavaScript turned off, Google is not navigable. Um, oops?

In the social search sphere, outside of Digg, we have Technorati, one of the foremost blog search engines, which came out with a redesign that broadens search capabilities . From the blog, "Overall the changes make Technorati somewhat easier to grok and move the site away from just blog searches to a wider view of what might be best termed time sensitive searches." Good stuff all around.

Let me see some more Digg love from you guys!

Another crazy week at Digg. SEOs are consistently under fire, even if they don't report on anything SEO-related. I still see a good amount of SEO stories being submitted, though. Guys, the Digg community hates that. It's not a good idea.

It's been proven time and time again that Diggers love Google. As of this writing, there's a Google story on the main page, featuring all of Google's hidden features on one page . Pretty neat stuff.

Similarly, Google's 10 commandments received wide acclaim this week. Some highlights: focus on the user and all else will follow, fast is better than slow, and you can be serious without a suit. Is this why Jim Boykin's SEO poll asks what your SEO business attire is? The typical answer: "I SEO naked."

Barry wrote a cool post on his personal blog that never got the exposure it deserved, probably because of the Digg staff burying stories internally. In any event, if you're a Treo user (like myself; I just got a 755p, and to quote Lisa, "Huzzah!"), you'll be interested in knowing what kind of feed reader to take with you on the go. He compared the mobile versions of Bloglines to Google Reader and used a cool tool called QuickTake to capture screenshots of his Treo. I can't wait to try that on mine.

Two weeks ago, I wrote about Stephen Colbert as the Greatest Living American in our last Digg Digest. Sadly for some SEOs, that's no longer the case . Brandon Wirtz is happy again in the #1 ranking at Google.

With all this hype about being searchable online, people are concerned when they cannot be found. It's bad for business. And it's so true. You're a nobody unless your name Googles well . You better choose a really unique name if you're aiming for a good ranking.

The New York Times likes 'sex' so much that they spammed Google with their archived results. Hey, at least they know what it takes, but those practices are indeed questionable.

Yahoo has been sued over a defective ad system . The claim is that they have misled advertisers and investors about the company's advertising capabilities, especially in comparison to the competition. Hey, it is pretty obvious by the promoted Digg stories that everyone loves Google. Yahoo has some ways to go.

On the subject of social and image search, Yahoo's property, Flickr, has recently been caught in its own censorship issue. That's right. An Icelandic photographer, Rebekka, had her photos stolen off Flickr by a British company and the images were resold under a different identity. She posted on Flickr about her problem and got over 400 comments supporting her. Flickr then removed that page over apparent harassment, which is censorship of the worst kind. It looks like Flickr is losing members to this recent activity too. Not good, Yahoo.

And finally, experts weighed in on the paid links debate especially after Matt Cutts announced that reports of paid links are being evaluated. Paid links is a "murky area of SEO," so it seems.

It's been a pretty interesting week, and well, truth be told, Diggers might hate censorship and SEO but they definitely like Google.

First of all, it's really true what they say. Diggers hate SEO types. That means that if your Digg submission mentions "SEO" in the title or description at all, you're 99% likely in for instant burial. I guess it's good for those of us who want to keep this information close to home, as the wealth of information provided by Todd's SEO Playbook didn't make the cut. It's a shame that the breadth of knowledge provided by Todd cannot be dispersed as publicly as one would hope, but that makes his post incredibly special. Only those who seek the knowledge will find the gold.

However, other tactics are useful, if they fit the bill for what Diggers look for. Apparently, they all love Stephen Colbert. That's why these two pages become popular on Digg: first, SEOmoz's post asking people to make Stephen Colbert the Greatest Living American totally rocked, and not after long, he was crowned the greatest . (This is frustrating information to some guy named Brandon Wirtz who is trying to secure his #1 spot once again. Brandon, I'm sorry to ask, but who are you?)

Google's greatness shines once again. They are now the most visited site on the Internet, beating out Microsoft, which was previously the record holder. All the same, they are apparently very rich too, giving out more than $1 billion to website publishers.

Google has been focusing on changing the user experience lately. From one facelift to another , Diggers are eating it up.

And of course, there are privacy concerns. Google wants to know everything you do . The web history feature of Google is pretty comprehensive (and scary!) indeed. Consequently, Andy Hagans decided to volunteer Ask.com as the privacy search engine because there are likely a few people who don't want to believe Google has so much information, and this could be a good move for Ask.

For fun and games, we learned that Marge Simpson searches for herself on Google and finds Homer sunbathing -- unclothed -- instead. Also, Barry's great picture column at Search Engine Land was widely accepted. Personally, those pics are awesome.

Last but not least (but there are so many other stories that made it on Digg lately), the Google Hell story did become Digg popular for awhile. (Shame on the submitter, though, for sending a duplicate story with the same URL. Digg had to improvise and append a 2 to the end of the popular submission when really everyone should have just focused on the first story. Such is power of social media.) Matt's response got buried, which goes to show how much a Digg democracy can overpower even the most basic and sound logic, especially when it helps users be better educated about how their sites can stay safe. Sometimes, social media is frustrating.

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. ;)

This week, we found users Digging a little less (could it be that they didn't want Barry and me to work too hard once we returned?) but there were still some interesting stories that were found.

We spotted it ourselves, but a lot of people thought it was real. The April Fools joke is on you, suckers! Matt Cutts's blog was not hacked , but that didn't stop this Digg from hitting the main page (and then a few clueless souls actually asked me if I knew... hello, I stalk watch Matt on Twitter!) Speaking of which, hey Matt, how come you haven't come back to Twitter since April 1st?

On the other side of that joke was the Dark SEO Team page which was presumably "hacked back" by Matt. I don't know these guys, but I didn't fall for that one either. Even Graywolf knew that he should refuse to be swayed.

Google's own April Fools joke had people running wires into their toilets (yeah, seriously) for high speed Internet. Similarly but not as Diggworthy was the announcement for Gmail paper.

After the joke ended, we resumed our regular programming. Ionut Alex. Chitu showed us the stylish new design in Google Notebooks

We know the big four, but did you know there are at least 100 other search engines?

And lastly (this is so short and bittersweet), the claim that SEO is dead was revisited once again. I know so many people who disagree with the guy.

Next week, I hope you all don't party up too much at SES NY or I'll just have to personally come up to you one by one and ask you to Digg more stories for my personal benefit. In the meantime, since I'll be covering just about every Wednesday time slot, I'm pretty sure that we'll resume our scheduled Digg Digest programming in two weeks. Stay tuned, and keep Digging!

If you do Digg a lot of stories related to search and want us to report your findings, please feel free to contact us with the URL to your Digg account page (but your username will suffice just as well).

As you may have read, we've started a brand new Digg column. There are plenty of social news promotional sites out there, but a big favorite among the industry's most respected search engine folks is Digg. We've done some sleuthing to see what interests these folks in the world of search.

Google announced that it accepted applications for its summer of code , the open source project for college students. Then, once you finish coding and graduate, you might want to consider a job with Google. Jason Warner, head of staffing, tells you what not to wear on your Google job interview.

Link building is hot this season. Some fine young man compiled a list of 66 ways to build links . On that note, check out some of the same people I stalk read about talk about link building .

Can you rank higher on Google? Google's secret sauce awaits your challenge. This four-page article is an interesting read and quotes a lot of industry experts.

Did I hear traffic? Yeah, it took me a little longer to get to work today too. Well, there's been an interesting study that was released that shows that changing the structure of your URL does increase rankings, and consequently, traffic. And if you're looking for more tips to improve your rankings, you might want to consider these six tips that address redirects, subdomains, custom 404 pages, and more.

For a 18 cool ways to pimp your Google calendar, check out these hot tips .

Oh, and I'm sure you remember that last week, Google got pretty with personalization from a design standpoint. Did you know that these personalized themes also have some easter eggs ? Now you do.

Li notes that the PPC model can be affected by Google's new Pay Per Action implementation.

If you didn't catch it from us, Google has launched a new mobile search engine .

So, there you have it... fun finds from our search industry experts and people I need to keep active on Digg so I have something to write about admire.

Now that I have hired Tamar as a editor for the Search Engine Roundtable, we have more resources to provide you with more coverage of the search forums. I really wanted to expand beyond that, but at the same time, keep true to our goal of being the "pulse of the search marketing community."

That is why I am proud to introduce a new weekly column where we will be providing coverage of the top search stories at Digg. The new column is named the Digg Digest and will be authored by Tamar.

How do we figure out what are the top stories at Digg on search? Simple, we are tracking several dozen of known search faces - that we know participate at Digg. We track what they submit, what they Digg and what they comment on. We continue to track who they befriend and add new Digg profiles to our list.

So not only are we providing daily coverage of search marketing forums. We now will be tracking, weekly, the top search stories at Digg.

Each weekly Digg Digest will contain some of the stories for the past week. They will have a link to the original story as well as a link to the Digg submission. The link to the Digg submission will be marked with a Little Digg man as so .

We hope you like this new weekly column, of course, feedback is always welcomed.

You may have also noticed our new Friday Search Buzz RoundUp column.