Other Google Topics Archives

About two years ago, Viacom sued Google over videos being uploaded and kept on YouTube. It was a big stink then because of the value of the lawsuit and the technology to follow to help copyright owners locate and remove content either manually or automatically from YouTube.

Now, the court documents have been released and things are looking nasty between the two companies. Here is a PDF of the documents on Google.

Google blogged their two cents on the case, saying:

Yet YouTube and sites like it will cease to exist in their current form if Viacom and others have their way in their lawsuits against YouTube.

For years, Viacom continuously and secretly uploaded its content to YouTube, even while publicly complaining about its presence there. It hired no fewer than 18 different marketing agencies to upload its content to the site. It deliberately "roughed up" the videos to make them look stolen or leaked. It opened YouTube accounts using phony email addresses. It even sent employees to Kinko's to upload clips from computers that couldn't be traced to Viacom. And in an effort to promote its own shows, as a matter of company policy Viacom routinely left up clips from shows that had been uploaded to YouTube by ordinary users. Executives as high up as the president of Comedy Central and the head of MTV Networks felt "very strongly" that clips from shows like The Daily Show and The Colbert Report should remain on YouTube.

Viacom's efforts to disguise its promotional use of YouTube worked so well that even its own employees could not keep track of everything it was posting or leaving up on the site. As a result, on countless occasions Viacom demanded the removal of clips that it had uploaded to YouTube, only to return later to sheepishly ask for their reinstatement. In fact, some of the very clips that Viacom is suing us over were actually uploaded by Viacom itself.

Given Viacom’s own actions, there is no way YouTube could ever have known which Viacom content was and was not authorized to be on the site. But Viacom thinks YouTube should somehow have figured it out. The legal rule that Viacom seeks would require YouTube -- and every Web platform -- to investigate and police all content users upload, and would subject those web sites to crushing liability if they get it wrong.

So Viacom responds later with their own post, saying:

YouTube was intentionally built on infringement and there are countless internal YouTube communications demonstrating that YouTube’s founders and its employees intended to profit from that infringement. By their own admission, the site contained “truckloads” of infringing content and founder Steve Chen explained that YouTube needed to “steal” videos because those videos make “our traffic soar.”

This is all pretty serious claims on both sides.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

A Google Maps Help thread reports that although there is a road that completely connects to each other, Google thinks the road has a gap in it. Since Google thinks there is a gap or ending to the road, the driving directions will not take someone all the way around.

Here is a screen shot of the virtual gap:

As you can see, the satellite imagery shows the road continues on, but Google seems to end at the arrow (which I added to the image). You can see the full driving directions laid out on Google Maps over here and you can zoom in to the gap over here. What is interesting is that if you do switch to walking directions, the gap is noticeable, but the directions continue.

Since this is an issue in the UK, Google's mapping provider will have to fix the issue.

But I do not believe I have seen an example of this before.

Forum discussion at Google Maps Help.

Hundreds of YouTubers are complaining that their videos that they are uploading are being set from the public status to private status. Obviously, if you set a video to private, most people won't be able to see the videos and thus the video views that YouTubers really seek out, will be way down.

Liz from YouTube support confirmed the bug in a YouTube Help thread. She said:

We've seen your posts about recently uploaded videos being converted to private (and not appearing as public as intended).

This situation has been reported to our engineering team and they're currently working on a fix for the bug. Rest assured that the team is aware of the issue and that the bug should be resolved soon.

Thank you for your understanding, and for reporting this situation to us!

There are literally dozens of threads on the issue, some of those threads, like this one has about a hundred posts or complaints in them.

As a side note, another YouTube bug is also impacting video views. There is confirmed issues with the AutoShare feature with Facebook. Liz explained:

Just a quick update from YouTube that there is currently a bug with AutoShare and Facebook. Our engineering team here is aware of the issue, and is working on getting AutoShare between YouTube & Facebook back up and running as usual again soon. In the meantime, thank you for your patience, we really appreciate it.

Forum discussion at YouTube Help.

Google Maps Guide, Cecelia, created a Google Maps Help thread warning users not to edit their Google My Maps. The specific issue is with editing the Place Details in the My Maps. If you do edit it now, it may impact the rest of your information on your map.

Cecelia said:

We are aware of a temporary technical issue with My Maps. Our teams are working hard to resolve this issue. Until everything is running smoothly again, we recommend that you do not edit the Place Details of locations on your My Maps. This may impact the rest of the information on your map.

Thank you for understanding. We'll be sure to update this thread with more information as soon as we have it.

So be warned and hold off until you hear an update from Cecelia in the Google Maps Help thread.

Forum discussion at Google Maps Help.

In mid-January Google said they are leaving China after being part of a hack by the Chinese government. Since then, Google has been trying to work out details with the Chinese government to stay. Part of Google's requirements to stay was to stop or limit the censorship required there, but it appears that Google and China cannot see eye to eye.

The Financial Times reported:

Google has drawn up detailed plans for the closure of its Chinese search engine and is now "99.9 per cent" certain to go ahead as talks over censorship with the Chinese authorities have reached an apparent impasse, according to a person familiar with the company’s thinking.

Pulling out of China has huge financial concerns for Google.

Google's executives have made it clear that they still hope to stay in the country, whatever the fate of Google.cn. "It's very important to know we are not pulling out of China," Eric Schmidt, Google’s chief executive, told the Financial Times at the time. "We have a good business in China. This is about the censorship rules, not anything else."

A WebmasterWorld thread takes issue with that last quote. Google first went into China fully aware about the censorship requirements. They complied with the Chinese government then, and now they are saying they will leave because of it?

Now China is pushing back even harder, warning Google partners that they must also leave if they do not comply with Chinese law.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Today is one of my favorite holidays, Pi Day. Yes, today is March (3), 14th and Pi is 3.1415926. This year, unlike last, Google has a logo. Here is the special Google Doodle for Pi Day:

Bing, Yahoo, and the other search engines don't seem to have a logo for the day. We took the time to change our complete theme for the day, here is a picture:

I should note, that although Google did not have a logo last year, they did mention it in a blog post and they did tweet it.

DogPile also has a special message on their web site, but they reserved it for the clock change. Here is their spring forward logo:

Forum discussion at Search Engine Roundtable Forums & Google Web Search Help.

Update: As per the comments, it is also Mother's Day in the UK with the following logo at google.co.uk:

And the anniversary of Félix Rodríguez de la Fuente, which is represented at google.es today:

There are three known and confirmed bugs with YouTube. They include not being able to save changes being made to videos, and issues playing and sharing videos in YouTube Groups and Orkut. Here are the three threads created by Liz from the YouTube team:

(1) Known Issue: "Save changes" button doesn't appear on "Edit video" page:

We've seen a lot of reports from you indicating that on the "Save changes" button isn't appearing for you on the edit video page for your uploads (my_videos).

I've reported this situation to our team and they're working on a fix so that you're able to save the edits you make to your videos again without running into this issue.

(2) Known Issue: bug playing videos in YouTube Groups:

We've seen many of you report that videos you've submitted to a YouTube Group are not playing on the page. A grey box appears in place of where the video should appear in the player and sometimes an error message is displayed stating that the video is no longer available. The video is in fact still available (from the uploader's channel and in search), but its just showing as unavailalbe in the Group setting.

This situation has been reported to our Team here in San Bruno, and our engineers are currently investigating the issue and working on a fix.

(3) Known Issue: issues with YouTube videos on Orkut:

Just wanted to let you know that our Team is aware of the issue with sharing YouTube videos to Orkut. Many of you have reported here in the forum that when sharing one of your uploads to YouTube on Orkut, Orkut produces an error message saying that your video doesn't exist / isn't found. Ah!

I've reported this to our engineers and they're currently working with the folks over at Orkut to try and resolve the situation. A big thanks to you all for letting us know about this issue, and we really appreciate your patience as we're working on a fix. Hopefully you should be able to enjoy YouTube videos on Orkut soon.

So those are the three issues.

Forum discussion at YouTube Help Forums.

All of the content published on this site is sourced via discussion forums, that is what makes this site unique from the thousands of other SEO blogs out there. Much of that content is sourced from the Google help forums. So when Google changes something in their help forums, I typically notice.

One thing Google recently changes was the help forum search feature. Now, Google is including content in the help forum search that is from external web sites, not owned or maintained by Google. For example, a search at the Google Analytics Help forum returns several results that are from third party web sites. Here is a screen capture:

Each web site that is not maintained by Google is clearly labeled as such, with a message that reads:

The site you are about to visit is not maintained by Google Inc., but its content might be helpful.

There is then a way to "Report Abuse" on a site listed here.

What I find interesting is that Google labels their own blogs as "not maintained by Google," when indeed, it is maintained by Google. But it does differentiate between what is "user content" versus Google content - so I find that interesting.

A hat tip goes to PizzaSEO.com for letting me know about this new feature.

Google and Chuck Norris have a long history. If you go to Google.com and search for [find chuck norris] and hit, "I'm feeling lucky" button you will be taken to this result that reads:

Google won't search for Chuck Norris because it knows you don't find Chuck Norris, he finds you.

So it is surprising to see that on the 70th birthday of Chuck Norris, Google doesn't have a special Google Doodle up. Chuck Norris was born on March 10, 1940 and 70 years later, I would have thought he would deserve a special Google logo.

I am not the only one who feels he deserves a logo. There is a large Google Web Search Help thread with complaints from Chuck Norris fans. In all honesty, I find this all very humorous.

Happy 70th Chuck!

Forum discussion at Google Web Search Help.

Android powered TV search boxes are being tested by Googlers, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Google Inc. is testing a new television-programming search service with Dish Network Corp., according to people familiar with the matter, the latest development in a fast-moving race to combine Internet content with conventional TV.

The service, which runs on TV set-top boxes containing Google software, allows users to find shows on the satellite-TV service as well as video from Web sites like Google's YouTube, according to these people. It also lets users to personalize a lineup of shows, these people said.

Greg Sterling at Search Engine Land has some analysis around the news. A WebmasterWorld thread has some feedback from webmasters.

Might be fun if "on demand" but not all that fun if just a list of "what's on". Meanwhile several tv schedule sites give me the same thing.

I predict the TV will be just another web-providing device, and people will watch as much web-content as cable-content. Point in hand, the RSS agregator built in the latest TiVo. Basically, you can make your custom RSS-fed TV channel with that.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

A long time requested feature, bike directions, have been added to Google Maps. Both the Google Blog and Google Lat Long Blog have details about the addition.

First, here is a video demo:

• Dark green indicates a trail;
• Light green indicates a dedicated bike lane along a road;
• Dotted green indicates roads without bike lanes but are more appropriate for biking, based on factors such as terrain, traffic, and intersections.

To try it out, go to http://maps.google.com/biking and to submit more biking routes or report issues, go here.

Forum discussion at Google Maps Help.

Google announced a new feature named Google Public Data Explorer. What it does is allow you to mash up data from the public sectors into neat charts and graphs.

Google explains:

With the Data Explorer, you can mash up data using line graphs, bar graphs, maps and bubble charts. The visualizations are dynamic, so you can watch them move over time, change topics, highlight different entries and change the scale. Once you have a chart ready, you can easily share it with friends or even embed it on your own website or blog.

A WebmasterWorld thread mocks the announcement, where one member said:

Next up, Google unveils "Private Data Recorder" which makes large datasets of private information easy to explore, visualize and communicate.

Google CEO Eric Schmidt: "If you have something that you don't want anyone to know, maybe you shouldn't be doing it in the first place." ... "But if you really need that kind of privacy, the reality is that search engines, including Google, do retain this information for some time. And [...] we're all subject, in the US, to the Patriot Act, and it is possible that that information could be made available to the authorities."

Kind of funny - but heck, this isn't too far off, we have Google sourcing traffic data from your mobile device for use on Google Maps traffic layer.

In any event, this is neat stuff.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

There are some reports at the Google Maps Help forum that the "avoid tolls" feature for Google Maps driving directions does not always work right.

The issue spans as far as Australia and as close as Pennsylvania.

Brian B., a Googler, from the Google Maps help forum said:

Just wanted to give an update here that there are folks looking into this "avoid tolls" issue, and I'll post an update here when there's a resolution.

I am not sure when or if it has been fixed, but at least Google is aware of it.

Forum discussion at Google Maps Help.

Venture Beat reports Google has won the patent for using location in an advertising system, or something called geo-targeting. Let me quote the article:

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office awarded the search giant a patent for using location in an advertising system last Tuesday, which is the emerging business model for most consumer-facing location startups today.

Filed six years ago, the patent is fairly broad. It covers using location for targeting, setting a minimum price bid for an ad, offering performance analytics, and modifying the content of an ad.

However, the location-based ad patent may give Google a nice big stick as it goes head-to-head with Apple in the world of mobile advertising. Both companies have acquired or agreed to acquire a mobile ad network in the last three months; Google agreed to buy Admob for $750 million in November, while Apple bought Quattro Wireless in January. Google actually bucked a patent Apple owns last month, when it added multi-touch functionality to its Android operating system. Perhaps this is the card the search giant had up its sleeve.

Greg Sterling asked, Has Google Just Patented Geo-Targeting? Seems like they have, on some level. Which is why the WebmasterWorld thread discussing this, seems to be somewhat cynical about patents in general.

Webwork said:

To me, the hypothericals aren't far removed from the granting of rights of exclusivity to a company that "creates" a system for changing behavior (show ads) based upon IP->geolocation tracking.

Where's the invention . . in this invention? If you have an idea that my IP address is near Philly is delivering connected with Philly businesses "inventive"? Inventive so much so that "the discovery/invention" is worthy of the rights of exclusivity?

Software patents really need to be scrapped. Almost every patent relates to a simple mechanism or concept that a person with half a brain (such as myself) can come up with almost automatically when presented with a similar problem.

The patent litigation world is a business in itself, I agree, something needs to be done. Although, I am not sure exactly what.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

A few days ago, there was a tremendous tragedy in Chile, a massive earthquake. Google put together a tool to help family and friends locate missing people due to this earthquake. The tool is located at http://chilepersonfinder.appspot.com/.

At this tool, you can either submit a case of a missing person or search for a case of a missing person. There are currently about 35,700 records, or missing people in the database, some accounted for and some not.

Two people asked how they can remove a person they added to the list, after that person has been found? The thread of these questions are at a Google Webmaster Help thread. The people ask:

I would also like to know how to delete my personal information now that my person has been found, even if the profile remains up.

John from Google said you can update the status in the application under "Status of this person" and set it to perhaps "I have received information that this person is alive" and provide the information that you have. But that is not exactly what these people want to do, they want to delete their personal information, as the person who submitted the information.

John said:

I'll check with the team to see what can be done in a situation like that.

So far, there is not update on how to do that.

Forum discussion at Google Webmaster Help.

Update: Jaime from the Google Web Search team posted in a Google Web Search Help forums a link to a spreadsheet form where users can request their info to be deleted from the finder. The link is to this form.

If you visit https://www.google.com/ig, it will redirect you to http://www.google.com/ig, without the https for secure. Yes, Google is making sure no one can access the secure version of iGoogle.

Here is a server header check from SEO Consultants:

#1 Server Response: https://www.google.com/ig
HTTP Status Code: HTTP/1.1 302 Found
Location: http://www.google.com/ig
Cache-Control: private
Content-Type: text/html; charset=UTF-8
X-Content-Type-Options: nosniff
Date: Fri, 26 Feb 2010 08:29:08 GMT
Server: igfe
Content-Length: 221
X-XSS-Protection: 0
Redirect Target: http://www.google.com/ig

There are several complaints about not being able to access the secure version of iGoogle at the Google Web Search Help forums. Paul from Google explained why this is the case. In short, the gadgets on the secure iGoogle were not always secure, which led to confusion. Here is the detailed explanation:

As you noticed, we've recently started redirecting any users who attempt to visit an iGoogle page using "https" to an "http" page. The "https" on the iGoogle page that some users visited may have caused these users to believe that any activity performed on their page was protected by https, when in fact only gadgets that are built to support https provide the corresponding encryption protection to users. We made this change to clarify that only activity using gadgets that support https is transmitted over a secured https connection on iGoogle.

For example if you're using Google's official iGoogle gadget for our free email service, Gmail, you can continue to use it with https protection unless you have turned off the default setting on your Gmail settings page.

Valid excuse, but what would be nice (I know it is more work) would be to give gadget developers a way to create https enabled apps. If they are enabled, they work on the secure iGoogle, if not, Google explains why they are not working on the secure iGoogle.

Forum discussion at Google Web Search Help.

Upset you were penalized by Google? You are not the only one. Tons of sites are penalized by Google each day, on some level. But this time the European Union is opening an antitrust investigation to make sure Google is not penalizing web sites for their own gain.

Over the years, Google has got into business lines that compete with normal webmasters. From web analytics to selling mortgage leads, Google on some level, competes with the sites they rank, unbiasedly, in the search interface that made them so popular.

The Telegraph reports:

The European Commission has launched an anti-trust investigation against Google after three online companies alleged that the internet giant’s search functions were penalising their businesses.

The investigation comes under the Lisbon Treaty’s “abuse of dominant position” powers and is the first time that Google has been targeted by the European Union.

Foundem claims that Google lifted the “penalty” in December, resulting in an increase in traffic from Google searches of “10,000pc overnight”.

Foundem is owned in part by Microsoft and Ciao is owned by them, which is why Greg Sterling suggests that Redmond is the puppet master behind this investigation. Greg does an excellent job taking you through many of the points and angles of such a claim. The Google EU policy blog also comments:

Though each case raises slightly different issues, the question they ultimately pose is whether Google is doing anything to choke off competition or hurt our users and partners. This is not the case. We always try to listen carefully if someone has a real concern and we work hard to put our users’ interests first and to compete fair and square in the market. We believe our business practices reflect those commitments.

Google comments specifically about Foundem and Ciao as well.

As you can imagine, something like this drives a lot of SEO and webmaster discussion.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

I covered the news that Xerox is suing Google & Yahoo over an alleged patent infringement. In short, Xerox has two patents they feel Google and Yahoo is using, in some form, and they want money.

Xerox is known for their copy machines, by the way and that business, as I understand it, is not doing too well. For more about the law suit, see my article linked to above.

Here are comments from WebmasterWorld on the lawsuit:

There are two sides to every side of the story.

Wreaks of Xerox trying to do a cash grab.

xerox ... isn't that a printer company?! ;-)

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Note: I just landed in Jerusalem, after an 11 hour flight. I am typing as fast as I can, so please excuse typos, grammar and any non-sense.

There are several new things going on with YouTube and since I am a big time YouTube director (kidding), they interest me.

(1) The YouTube Bulk Uploader tool will be taken down shortly. Liz from the YouTube team explained that Google is improving their normal updated to support Google Gears. She said:

In order to consolidate engineering efforts, the team has decided to retire the bulk-uploader and concentrate on improving the regular uploader moving forward. Please note that the regular uploader also lets you upload up to 10 files at the same time.

We suggest that you use the following link to upload your video files:
http://upload.youtube.com/my_videos_upload?restrict=gears

Make sure that you have Google Gears installed - you can get Google Gears by visiting: gears.google.com

(2) AudioSwap feature is causing a black screen in the videos. This is a known issue that should be resolved now, if not, let them know.

(3) Some YouTubers that are trying to upload are not succeeding. There is another known issues thread that is discussing just that. Liz said:

Some of you may have experienced recent upload processing delays, and then the file you're trying to upload eventually fails. This is a known issue and our engineering team have been working on resolving the situation. For those of you who were impacted and the video failed to upload to the site, we recommend re-uploading your file.

The team is working on a fix so that the files will not fail in the future and you should also receive clearer messaging explaining what occurred.

(4) If your account was hijacked or compromised in some way, Liz announced there is a new way to report the issue. A new document details the steps on how to contact Google/YouTube about hijacked accounts. Liz said:

The information you provide in the form will go directly to the Team here and we will investigate the matter. Once we've looked into the case, you will receive an email update letting you know your options and whether we were able to help you retrieve the account.

There you have it, four quick YouTube bytes for you.

Google announced a new product named DoubleClick for Publishers. In short, this is ultimately going to replace Google Ad Manager, a product we use here to manage and deliver our ads.

More tools is nice - but we will see when I get migrated over to it, how smooth that is and how much I, the publisher, benefits from it.

This is from the announcement:

DFP comes in two flavors, tailored for different publishers' needs: DoubleClick for Publishers, for the largest online publishers, and DFP Small Business, a simple, free version designed for growing online publishers. We'll be upgrading current DART for Publishers publishers to DoubleClick for Publishers over the next year as we continue to add features and modules, and we'll be moving Google Ad Manager customers to DFP Small Business in the coming weeks.

To reflect our continued investment in DoubleClick's products, as well as the central role of DoubleClick's technology products within Google's display advertising business, we're also today unveiling some changes to the DoubleClick logos — including typeset changes, incorporating a new "by Google" theme and retiring the "DART" brand.

A WebmasterWorld thread has some comments from publishers:

Yet another way to track what you do when you do it and ... .dare I say it who you do it with....

They cater to the advertiser, ignoring the User's privacy. Period. Due to the fact they own Doubleclick. Try watching major TV stations over the NET without coooooooockie/URI of Doubleclick.NET blocked...

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

A Google Web Search Help reports several users receiving an email from resume-thanks@google.com thanking them for submitting their resume to Google. The issue is, the email is fake.

Emails from resume-thanks@google.com containing the subject "Thank you from Google!" are fake. They also contain a virus and they ask you to open the virus. Here is a copy of the text of the email:

We just received your resume and would like to thank you for your interest in working at Google. This email confirms that your application has been submitted for an open position.

Our staffing team will carefully assess your qualifications for the role(s) you selected and others that may be a fit. Should there be a suitable match, we will be sure to get in touch with you.

Click on the attached file to review your submitted application.

Have fun and thanks again for applying to Google!

Google Staffing

So whatever you do, do not open that attachement.

Forum discussion at Google Web Search Help.

A WebmasterWorld thread reports that one person spotted a product that is being sold under the claim that it is "Powered by Google PageRank Certification" of "PR=6." You say what? Yes, a product is claiming it has PageRank certification from Google with a PR of 6.

The product is on a site called ExamSoon.com and here is a screen capture:

How funny for those who know this is a joke or just there to fool some one. But to those unaware - there is no such thing as Google PageRank certification.

Forum discussion at Google Webmaster Help.

Google is open sourcing the Living Stories news article concept at Google Code. What is a living story? Well, instead of writing an article for each new event that happens on a certain topic, you update an existing story with the latest information. If you think about it, there are tons of articles out there on the web, that are stale, outdated and often useless. Having a single, constantly updated story, makes more sense, at least for web consumption - according to Google.

Google ran this experiment with some papers and decided to make it available to all. First, here is a video explaining it:

They are even incorporating it more in the new Google News design.

Fred from Google wrote in the Google News Help thread about it. He said:

The Living Stories project was originally the result of a one-time collaboration between Google, the New York Times, and the Washington Post. Our goal was to innovate on existing presentations of journalism that take greater advantage of technological capabilities on the Web.

The general response was excellent. Since we launched this proof-of-concept test on Google Labs in December, 75% of people who filled out our feedback form said they preferred the Living Stories format to the traditional online news article. Users also spent a significant amount of time exploring stories. That tells us that there's a strong appetite for great journalism displayed in a compelling way.

In addition to the positive input from users, we've also heard from publishers interested in telling their own stories through the format. That's why we released Living Stories to the public to see what you can do with it. In February 2010, we open-sourced the code so all developers can build their own Living Story pages. (You can also use this Help Forum to ask and answer general support questions.) In coming months we're going to look into creating software tools that make Living Stories even easier to use for news organizations. Until then, we can't wait to see what fascinating works of journalism developers, reporters and editors, working together, create using the open-sourced Living Stories code.

You can get the Living Stories code here:
http://code.google.com/p/living-stories/

Forum discussion at Google News Help.

We knew Google was dropping support for IE6 and other older browsers, starting in March for some of their software. But what I did not know was that this would impact YouTube.

A YouTube Help thread reports that some users are receiving warnings that their browsers will no longer be supported by March 13th.

The YouTube help document linked to explains which browsers will be impacted. Yes, Internet Explorer version 6, IE6, will be on the chopping block. Google's YouTube says the following browsers will no longer be supported:

• Any browser older than Microsoft Internet Explorer 7.0
• Any browser older than Mozilla Firefox 3.0
• Any browser older than Google Chrome 4.0
• Any browser older than Safari 3.0+

Ready or not, IE6 is dying - so just upgrade already to a new browser. Of course, Google would like you to use Google Chrome, but there are plenty of alternatives.

Forum discussion at YouTube Help.

A couple months ago, Google mailed businesses Google Maps decals that they can proudly place in their store windows. There was some early confusion about how they worked and some bugs that caused a bit of a panic amongst business owners, but overall, things on this topic have quieted down a bit.

Nowadays, one of the more frequent requests I see on this topic is that some businesses want replacement decals for either lost or damaged decals. Google promised there would be a way to order replacement decals, and a few weeks ago, they fulfilled that promise.

Google Maps Guide, Cecelia, explained in a Google Maps Help forum, how to get your replacement decals or report a broken QR code. She said:

Hurray, we have a form to report lost, stolen Favorite Places decals. You can also use this form to report a broken QR code.

Please note a couple of things about this form.
- This form is only for users who have already received a decal, and need a replacement. This form isn't a way to request a decal for the first time.
- We can't guarantee when you'll receive a new decal. Timeframe will depend on the number of requests we receive.

So....here's the form!

maps.google.com/support/bin/request.py?contact_type=decal_request

Thanks for your patience!
Cecelia

So if you need a replacement decal or you have a bug with your QR code, use this form to contact Google.

Forum discussion at Google Maps Help.

Google announced they are going to try to become an ISP, a fast ISP, with gigabit fiber routing directly to your home. Greg Sterling has a lot of history on how and why this is happening.

I was asked why this is happening by some real reporters and I will link to their story later, when it goes live. In short, it is about getting more people to click on more Google ads.

We have threads on the topic at WebmasterWorld and Google Web Search Help. Probably my favorite comment is the first one at WebmasterWorld:

What's next with Google? Change your muffler?

Outside of that, there are some serious concerns about this project. Concerns on the business side, infrastructure side, privacy side and webmaster side. If I had more time, I'd write up a five page document on those concerns, but most of you are bright and can read my mind by now.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld and Google Web Search Help.

Update: Here is that USA Today piece with some quotes from me.

So Google launched Google Buzz yesterday at buzz.google.com. It is being rolled out now, I am some limited access now, but it is fun to play with. I will not write about what it does, there is exhaustive coverage about Buzz already, read it at Techmeme.

I did start a buzz topic which has a number of comments already, so check that out. Also, my buzz conversations should be linked up on my Google Profile - and you may be able to follow me there as well. So go do it.

Here is a short video explaining Google Buzz:

One thing that they said at least twice in yesterday's press conference about this service is that Google Buzz content will be "indexed immediately," in real time and available in Google web search results.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld, DigitalPoint Forums, Google Mobile Help & Google Webmaster Help.

Six months after the Google News RSS feed validation issues were reported in Google News Help forums, Google has fixed the issue.

The first report came in a Google News Help thread on August 7, 2009. Yesterday, on February 8, 2010, Inbal from Google, said the issue was resolved. Inbal said:

This issue should be fixed. If you're still seeing issues, please send us the exact steps you're taking as well as the OS/Browser you're using. Finally, if you could either send a screenshot via a link or via the Report an Issue contact form, that should help us look into this further.

I am not sure why it took over 6 months to fix, but now it is resolved.

Forum discussion at Google News Help.

Since the devastating disaster in Haiti, companies and individuals are looking for creative ways to help. Several AdSense publishers asked via WebmasterWorld and Google AdSense Help if there are ways to donate their AdSense income.

Last Thursday, the Google AdSense blog announced a way to do just that. Google said, "you can donate a portion or all of your entire unpaid balance as of the end of January. Whether you have a balance of $0.10 or $100 in your account, we invite you to participate within the next week."

To do so, you need to fill out a donation form. The donation form, if you are logged into your AdSense account, will pre-fill your AdSense unique IDs.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld and Google AdSense Help.

Back in December, I spotted a WebmasterWorld thread with a webmasters asking why Google is pulling in commands from 1e100.net, as opposed to Google.com. At first, I thought it was nothing and let the thread go.

But now, it appears that this is a significant domain. Back then, Tedster, the administrator at the forum said:

Some thoughts about the domain name itself. Google probably wanted to use 10e100, since that character string means 10 to the 100 power - in other words, a googol. Not sure why they settled for 1e100, because that only comes out to a measly 1.

The Register today reported that this domain, 1e100.net, "is now visited by nearly three per cent of all net users, making it the 44th most visited domain on the interwebs." The Register asked Google about this, and reported back:

Asked for comment, Google merely said the domain is used to "identify the servers on our network," and it hinted that such identification involves reverse DNS lookup - the process of determining which domain name is associated with a particular IP address. Reverse DNS is often used by anti-spam services to verify email senders, but it's also used a general means of ensuring a network is working as it should be working.

Might just be one of those geek factors, Google is so well for.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

There are several threads at the Google News Help Forums with reports that Google News has updated their home page.

I personally do not see the new home page, and I can't track down a picture of it. If you see one, please post a comment with a link to a picture. Here is the best description of the new layout that I can find:

The format of news.google.com inexplicably changed on one of my PCs, and I don't like it. The version that I don't like focuses on only one category of news at a time, such as Top Stories. In order to get any news in other categories such as World, U.S., Sports, etc., you have to click on that category. The only other categories shown on this page are "Recent," "Spotlight," and "More News." I prefer the old format. I know that it's still available because when I load Google News on two other PCs, this old, familiar format appears. Here's a description of it: At the top left of the page is Top Stories with 3 headlines. Directly to the right of Top Stories are six or eight links to some of the top headlines from Google News; usually about nine links to names in the news; and lastly, links to Living Stories. Also appearing in the old format (underneath Top Stories) are the following categories with usually about three headlines per category: World, U.S., Business, Sci/Tech, Entertainment, Sports, Health, and Spotlight. At the bottom of the page is Google Fast Flip. In the old format, if you want to view more than the three top headlines highlighted in a given news category, all you have to do is click on the category name, and you are taken to another page with more news stories for that category. Can someone please tell me how to return to the old format? There must be some way of resetting or formatting the web page because, as I mentioned, I'm still able to use the old format on two other PCs.

I will keep looking for a picture, but Google basically confirmed the test is happening. Inbal from Google said:

At Google, we run anywhere from 50 to 200 experiments at any given time on our websites all over the world. Right now, we are running a small test of a new Google News homepage design. More information about how Google runs experiments can be found at:

http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2008/08/search-experiments-large-and-small.html

We'd love to hear your feedback. Please let us know what you think at:

http://www.google.com/support/news/bin/request.py?contact_type=report_news&source=redesign

Regards,

The Google News Team

Forum discussion at Google News Help Forums.

Update: A week later I was able to secure a picture of this, to see it, click here.

A Google Maps Help thread reports that Google accidentally removed the send feature to Garmin GPS. Here is an old video that shows how that worked:

The bug was first reported on January 31st and a Googler replied a day or so ago, saying:

I wanted to let you all know that the Maps team is aware of this issue and is working to fix the feature soon. I know this is an important feature for several users and I can assure you that it's not our intention to remove it from Google Maps.

I'll post an udpate here when I hear more news!

It is still not fixed, as far as I can tell. In any event, Google will likely be adding it back soon.

Forum discussion at Google Maps Help.

Yesterday, there were several reports on YouTube Help forums that uploading videos to YouTube would have a delay.

Liz from YouTube support posted a notification about the issue. She said:

We're seeing many of you reporting that you're having trouble with uploads- your uploads are not processing completely and are getting stuck before going to live.

Our team is aware of the issue and has a fix in the works. Uploads should return to normal soon.

In the meantime, please be aware that trying to re-upload your video will not resolve the situation. Your original upload will go through and complete processing, its just somewhat delayed and will take longer than usual to go live (as you've noticed).

We appreciate your understanding, and as always, thank you all for your reports alerting us of this situation.

So, upload the video as you would, but don't worry, the videos will be published eventually. There is no need to reupload your videos.

Forum discussion at YouTube Help.

Yesterday, Google announced a new feature for Google News. The feature lets users "star" news items. You can "star" news clusters by clicking on the blue pale stars.

Here is a picture:

What does starring news items do?

(1) It lets Google know that you're interested in that subject.

(2) When there are significant updates, Google will alert you by putting the headline in bold so you can get more information.

(3) You can also follow your 20 most recent starred stories in the "Starred" section of Google News.

It also confuses some people. A Google News Help thread had one person ask:

Why are there pale blue stars in front of main stories?

Nothing is wrong: I'm just puzzled.

Forum discussion at Google News Help.

Google announced they will be phasing out support for Internet Explorer 6 browsers on their apps. Google said:

Many other companies have already stopped supporting older browsers like Internet Explorer 6.0 as well as browsers that are not supported by their own manufacturers. We’re also going to begin phasing out our support, starting with Google Docs and Google Sites. As a result you may find that from March 1 key functionality within these products -- as well as new Docs and Sites features -- won’t work properly in older browsers.

Of course, there are so many companies that only run IE6 on their computers. Plus there are tons of home bound computers that use it. By Google dropping IE6 support when users are trying to access their software, it may force users to upgrade to a newer browser. Guess which browser Google will recommend?

A WebmasterWorld thread has lots of discussion around this move. Some can't believe people still use the old browser. Some people say their company forces them to use it. Some can't wait for IE6 to die so they can stop testing for it. Some ask, whey Microsoft isn't doing a better job moving people off IE6 and onto IE8 or a newer browser.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Over the weekend, there were four reports of Google Maps users complaining that they received spam emails, containing pornography, from Google. The complaints come via a Google Maps Help thread and to be honest, it is not clear what exactly is happening. I know that Google is not sending out pornographic emails, but is someone targeting Google Maps local listings with spam? Why are these users complaining?

The first complaint came in on Saturday and read:

I just got a porn spam email sent via Google Maps. How did that happen? How did they find me? I DO NOT want to be on Google maps and I certainly DON'T need spammers emailing me from there. How do I stop this?

Maybe a spammer is using the email link feature, and somehow using a Google Maps URL to redirect unsuspecting users to pornographic sites? This happens often with Google Sites URLs.

There are more details, with email headers - which shows me the emails don't appear to be coming from a Google server - in the threads.

Forum discussion at Google Maps Help.

Google ran a Doodle4Google competition in Australia and Jessie won with this Doodle:

When they posted the Doodle on the Google.com.au web site, it was missing the Aboriginal Flag. Here is a picture:

I mentioned this in passing in Google's Kuwait Doodle mistake. But now, Google came to the Google Web Search Help forums explaining the issue. Jaime from Google said:

Thanks for voicing your concern here in the forum. Just to make sure everyone is aware of what took place I wanted to explain here that due to the Aboriginal Flag having copyright, we requested permission from the Aboriginal Copyright owners to display the original doodle with the flag on the Google homepage. They declined the permission and as such, in consultation with Jessie, we had to gently alter the doodle so we could proudly display her wonderful artwork - of which we are very proud.

It is a shame Google was unable to get rights to show the flag there. But Jessie seemed like a good sport!

Forum discussion at Google Web Search Help.

I live off RSS, live off of it. You don't have an RSS feed, I don't keep track of you. That is until Google Reader announced that they now can track changes to any web page out there (assuming they do not specifically block Google).

If the web page does not have an RSS feed, don't worry. Take the URL, paste it into the subscription box at Google Reader and Google will create a custom feed out of the URL. It will then check the page for changes. How often will it check? Google doesn't say, I assume it has to do with how often the page is crawled.

How is this useful?

• Track product pricing changes on web sites
• Track competitors web sites
• Track terms of service or guideline changes
• Track news feeds without them having a feed
• Track anything!

There are other services that offer this type of service with even more features. However, it is nice to have them built into Google Reader.

A WebmasterWorld thread has feedback from Webmasters. In short, they do not like the opt out options. Either you block Googlebot completely from pages you do not want to be tracked, or you add a noarchive tag to the pages you do not want tracked. Noarchive will also remove the cache link in the Google search results. There is no specific tag to block only Google Reader from tracking changes to your pages - maybe there should be?

If you do not want to do any of these things and still do want to block Google Reader. Then set up an RSS feed and give that feed less content then you want. Google Reader should not override the auto-discover RSS feed and thus, it can stop people from tracking your pages.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Google had a Doodle slip up this morning, as first reported by Michel. Google posted the National Day logo on Google Kuwait this morning. It was live for over five hours before anyone reported it. The issue is, it was posted a month prior to the official National Day of Kuwait, which takes place February 26th.

Here is the logo:

Google took down the logo about 15 minutes after TechCrunch posted the story.

There were a couple Google Web Search Help threads complaining about Google posting this logo on the wrong day.

Speaking of Google logos, there are some complaints about the Google Australia doodle at Google Web Search Help as well.

In any event, can anyone speculate what Google Kuwait's National Day logo will be this year? :)

Forum discussion Google Web Search Help.

Remember, a few months ago, I wrote how some Google Maps reviews were being posted on competitors Google Local Business listings? In summary, a Doctor was complaining that his competitors were obtaining his reviews, even though his business has a different name.

What I did not see then was that his competitor(s) have the same phone number as he does. Yes, there are many doctors share an office and the office staff with their competitors to cut costs. I honestly see this all the time in New York, where I live. You call a Doctors office and the same person who answers the phone for your doctor, would answer the phone for another doctor.

So these doctors are at the same location, offer the same medical expertise, compete with each other and even share a phone number. I honestly did not know the doctors don't have their own numbers. But I guess in some cases (possibly many cases) this is the fact, competing doctors share a phone number.

Because of this issue, Google is placing the reviews from one doctor to an other. Google's Joel explained:

It's a difficult problem to solve. I'm not saying we're doing the right thing in every case, but I am trying to give you guidance on how to satisfactorily resolve the issue on your end. If this is a distinct competitor, it seems to make sense to have a separate phone line. Even if the front office is shared.

In response to that, the doctor replied:

I appreciate your help up to this point, but I hardly think suggesting your paying advertisers change their business practices to accommodate your company's inability to fix a problem is appropriate. I hope this is not a signal that Google is changing into just another corporate giant, stepping on the heads of small businesses.

Sorry to be harsh, but these reviews were entered under my name in your system and then changed to a different name. I find it hard to believe that this is unfixable.

From a technology point of view, I see the issue but from a users point of view, this is serious.

Forum discussion at Google Maps Help.

Last night, Google announced their 4th quarter earnings. Guess what? They beat expectations and overall, everything was up. Greg Sterling posted the key highlights and nice graphs:

• Revenues – Google reported revenues of $6.67 billion in the fourth quarter of 2009, representing a 17% increase over fourth quarter 2008 revenues of $5.70 billion.
• Google Sites Revenues – Google-owned sites generated revenues of $4.42 billion, or 66% of total revenues, in the fourth quarter of 2009. This represents a 16% increase over fourth quarter 2008 revenues of $3.81 billion.
• Google Network Revenues – Google’s partner sites generated revenues, through AdSense programs, of $2.04 billion, or 31% of total revenues, in the fourth quarter of 2009. This represents a 21% increase from fourth quarter 2008 network revenues of $1.69 billion.
• International Revenues – Revenues from outside of the United States totaled $3.52 billion, representing 53% of total revenues in the fourth quarter of 2009, compared to 53% in the third quarter of 2009 and 50% in the fourth quarter of 2008... Revenues from the United Kingdom totaled $772 million, representing 12% of revenues in the fourth quarter of 2009, compared to 12% in the fourth quarter of 2008.
• Paid Clicks – Aggregate paid clicks, which include clicks related to ads served on Google sites and the sites of our AdSense partners, increased approximately 13% over the fourth quarter of 2008 and increased approximately 9% over the third quarter of 2009.

You can watch the investors call on YouTube.

Here are some comments from members of WebmasterWorld on this financial news:

Hah, mere pocket change.

That's about 300-400 million net profit off Adsense. Not bad for a program that serves ads.

There is more analysis of the announcement in the thread.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

There are two bugs to report in the Google Maps space. The first is that the Google Maps Terrain view has removed the country labels from the maps. The second is that categories are being added to business listings without them being added by the business owner in the local business center.

The maps terrain issue was reported in the Google Maps Help forum. Here is a picture of what I see in the terrain view. As you can see, the country labels seemed to have disappeared:

Brian from the Google Maps team said, "Thanks for reporting. I made sure this issue was escalated to the appropriate folks and I'll post an update here when I see it."

The other bug has to do with the Google Local Business Center. Some are reporting that unwanted categories are being applied to their business listings automatically. A different Google Maps Help thread is tracking this issue. Google Maps employee, Linda said, "Thanks for starting this thread. I will gather some information and get back to you all soon."

Hopefully both of these bugs will be resolved shortly.

Forum discussion at Google Maps Help.

Back in May 2009, we first reported of issues with pornography on iGoogle. Ever since then, there have been issues that popped up here and there. That is the overall issue with having user generated content (i.e. user generated gadgets).

The latest batch is in the form of "live cams" and the issue was submitted to Google Web Search Help forums recently, in an older thread. This batch comes up for a search on to do list in the iGoogle Directory. They were also submitted by the same user, Mandy. Here are some safe pictures:

There are several more and they all seem to be in the form of cams. I have a good blocking system here for this type of stuff, so the videos won't render on my computer. Here is a safe picture, what I find funny is that it is being monetized by Google ads.

In any event, Google was notified about this issue. Paul from Google said:

Thanks for letting us know -- we're investigating this now. I really appreciate your taking the time to bring these to our attention.

Forum discussion at Google Web Search Help.

A Google Maps Help thread has reports of some map developers having issues embedding the street view versions of Google Maps on their web site.

The issue was first reported 9 days ago by a guy who runs StreetViewing.com. The old embeds are no longer working for him, so now he has to go in and replace all of those with the new code. That can take a lot of time.

Brian from the Google Maps team actually confirmed the issue on Friday and said he notified the team. Brain B from Google said:

Just wanted to hop in here and assure everyone that the team is looking into this issue. When I have information to share, I'll post it here.

Thanks for all of the detailed reports.

Forum discussion at Google Maps Help.

The Google Lat Long Blog announced businesses can now add real time information to their business listings. How does it work? It is honestly a bit tricky.

You would think you would "Edit" your business listing in Google Local Business Center. But no, instead you click on the "View report" link under the statistics section of that page. Then you are presented with a box to add a quick real-time message to your business listing (Places Page) on Google Maps.

On the top right of the statistics page is this box where owners can add information:

Here is me adding some info that may expire soon:

And here is that information showing up on my business listing in minutes:

Clearly, if you have a very active Google Maps listing, this can come in handy.

Forum discussion at DigitalPoint Forums.

If you happen to visit Google China, you may notice that there are people who are placing flowers and candles by their Google sign outside the building. There are actually a ton of pictures of this being done inside and outside of the Google China office on Flickr.

Here is one picture taken from DigitalPoint Forums.

This is clearly the reaction by some Chinese searchers on Google's decision to back out of China if China continues to censor them.

Forum discussion at DigitalPoint Forums.

Ever wonder if there is a limit on the number of business listings you can have in your Google Local Business Center? A Google Maps Help thread has Maps Guide Linda saying that limit is currently 100 listings.

Linda said:

100 individual listings is the maximum number we permit in Local Business Center accounts.

But what if you have more than a 100 offices? That is what one person wanted to know. He said:

Thanks for the quick reply! What do I do if we have 800 offices we want to include? Can I open multiple Google accounts with the same email address, but using different passwords? If not, what are my choices?

I assume that would work but is this the right way to handle it?

Forum discussion at Google Maps Help.

A Google Webmaster Help thread has the owner of NYCDentist.com (great domain by the way) complaining his images are being blocked by Google's SafeSearch filter.

He said:

I personally write and publish NYCdentist.com, which offers over 2,500 pages of free content in academic dentistry. The content shows dental procedures including surgery in detail based upon visitor choices. There is NO sexual content in all 2,500 pages

I didn't know this, but it does make sense, Google may block "particularly graphic or violent" images. And if you look at some of the images on that site, I think some of you may get a bit queazy in the stomach. But what is interesting to me, is that the dentists don't see it that way. I have a dentist right next to me in my office building. He borrowed my camera once to take before and after pictures. I had to email those pictures to him afterwards and let me tell you, they were extremely graphic!

In any event, Googler, Susan Moskwa said:

I'll pass this along, but FYI SafeSearch filters non just sexually-related content, but also stuff that's particularly graphic or violent. Some of your surgery photos may be graphic enough that they fall under our filtering criteria. I'll try to get some more feedback on this from the Image Search team. Thanks for reporting this here.

So technically, I am not sure where this would fall - but personally, I would not like to see these images come up for a search on [teeth].

Forum discussion at Google Webmaster Help.

Back in 2007, Google released a message center in Google Webmaster Tools. It was used for penalty notifications, hacks, exploits, bandwidth issues, and many other webmaster oriented technical issues.

Today, I log into my Google Webmaster Tools account to find, what appears to me, as Google Ad Planner advertisements. Now, I am a big fan of Ad Planner, it is a really neat, free tool. But it just didn't seem incredibly webmaster related, on the technical side. I received about six of these "messages", each for a different site.

Here is what they said:

Increase Your Website's Visibility with AdvertisersJanuary 7, 2010

Dear Webmaster Tools User,

If your website accepts advertising, we invite you to increase your site's visibility with advertisers in Google Ad Planner, a free media planning tool used by tens of thousands of media planners and buyers. This is done through the Google Ad Planner Publisher Center, a section within Ad Planner that lets you take charge of your site profile.

THREE STEPS TO VIEW YOUR SITE PROFILE

To see how your site profile looks in Google Ad Planner, follow these steps:
1. Visit www.google.com/adplanner
2. Type your site's URL into the blue box that says "View a site listing"
3. Hit "enter" to get to your site's profile
If your site profile is not complete, don't worry, we have lots of ways for you to add information to the profile.

EIGHT WAYS TO UPDATE YOUR SITE PROFILE

Use the Google Ad Planner Publisher Center at www.google.com/adplanner/publisher to make your profile more complete. For example, you can claim your domains or subdomains, write a site description, provide a URL for advertising, and update your site's content categories and ad specifications.

You can also opt-in your site's Google Analytics data, invite additional users to edit and maintain your site, and promote your profile with a Google Ad Planner Site Badge.

GET STARTED

Sign in with your Google Account today at www.google.com/adplanner/publisher to get started.

-- The Google Ad Planner Team

I have some pictures here and here.

Again, this is likely useful information, but just doesn't seem all that technically relevant to the Google Webmaster Tools area.

Forum discussion at Google Webmaster Tools.

Back in 2007, Google released a message center in Google Webmaster Tools. It was used for penalty notifications, hacks, exploits, bandwidth issues, and many other webmaster oriented technical issues.

Today, I log into my Google Webmaster Tools account to find, what appears to me, as Google Ad Planner advertisements. Now, I am a big fan of Ad Planner, it is a really neat, free tool. But it just didn't seem incredibly webmaster related, on the technical side. I received about six of these "messages", each for a different site.

Here is what they said:

Increase Your Website's Visibility with AdvertisersJanuary 7, 2010

Dear Webmaster Tools User,

If your website accepts advertising, we invite you to increase your site's visibility with advertisers in Google Ad Planner, a free media planning tool used by tens of thousands of media planners and buyers. This is done through the Google Ad Planner Publisher Center, a section within Ad Planner that lets you take charge of your site profile.

THREE STEPS TO VIEW YOUR SITE PROFILE

To see how your site profile looks in Google Ad Planner, follow these steps:
1. Visit www.google.com/adplanner
2. Type your site's URL into the blue box that says "View a site listing"
3. Hit "enter" to get to your site's profile
If your site profile is not complete, don't worry, we have lots of ways for you to add information to the profile.

EIGHT WAYS TO UPDATE YOUR SITE PROFILE

Use the Google Ad Planner Publisher Center at www.google.com/adplanner/publisher to make your profile more complete. For example, you can claim your domains or subdomains, write a site description, provide a URL for advertising, and update your site's content categories and ad specifications.

You can also opt-in your site's Google Analytics data, invite additional users to edit and maintain your site, and promote your profile with a Google Ad Planner Site Badge.

GET STARTED

Sign in with your Google Account today at www.google.com/adplanner/publisher to get started.

-- The Google Ad Planner Team

I have some pictures here and here.

Again, this is likely useful information, but just doesn't seem all that technically relevant to the Google Webmaster Tools area.

Forum discussion at Google Webmaster Tools.

A WebmasterWorld thread has both publishers, advertisers and searchers complaining about the number of ads they see for the Google Nexus One phone on the internet. Yes, it is no surprise the Nexus One ads are shown on the Google home page. But they are all over every AdSense spot I can find. Of course, not 100% of the time, but extremely often.

Here are two pictures of the ads:

Incredibill, the moderator of the AdSense WebmasterWorld forum said:

I couldn't believe I was actually adding "google.com" into my competitive ad filter.

Have you gone to that extreme?

I wonder if I put a Google AdSense unit below this line, if it will show a Nexus One ad? It is contextual relevant, no?

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Google just recently added the Fast Flip feature to the News home page. Some love it and some hate it, but should Google be showing topless women from Playboy in the Fast Flip news feature? That is what someone asked at a Google News Help thread.

If you go to Google News Fast Flip and click on "most viewed" and scroll a bit, you will see Iga/Eva topless. Here is a picture:

Should that come up on the Google News home page? Should it come up in Fast flip?

The searcher in the thread said:

New feature 'fastflip' started last week and front page of playboy showed up, topless woman in underwear. How do we disable fast flip? Parental control software is not catching it yet. Thanks

I assume as Google gets their feet wet with Fast Flip they will get better at censoring out adult-oriented news items.

Forum discussion at Google News Help.

Google has added the news fast flip feature of Google News to the bottom of the Google News home page.

If you go to Google News and scroll to the bottom of the page, you will see this just added to the bottom:

A WebmasterWorld thread has discussion around this feature. One person liked it so much, they want it on the Google web results, not just news results. Another person said he hated it, so he hit the "X" to remove it right away.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

This is a pretty bad slip up by Google. The Google Maps and Local team seemed to have sent out a batch of updates on how well a business's Google Maps listings are doing, but to the wrong businesses.

Last night, just before 10pm (EST), I received an email from Google about how well my local business listing is doing in Google. The issue was, it was not for my business! It was for a place called Polk Mechanical based in Texas. That is exactly 1,576 miles away from my business's location and would take me a full day to drive to, according to Google Maps.

Here is how well Polk Mechanical is doing in Google Maps:

I am not the only one who saw this. There is a report of it in Google Maps Help forum, David Dalka got one, so did Mike Blumenthal and Danya Henninger.

I emailed Google about this and I hope to get an understanding of why this happened.

The data shared by Google here is not all that sensitive, but it is still data.

Forum discussion at Google Maps Help.

Update: Google sent me a statement, it reads as follows:

As you're aware, we send a monthly newsletter to our Local Business Center users, featuring product news and a glimpse at the Dashboard statistics which show the traffic Google properties drive to their listing. Shortly after sending the newsletter to a small portion of our users last night, we discovered that some emails included incorrect business listing information. We promptly stopped sending any further emails and investigated the cause, which we found to be a human error while pulling together the newsletter content. We'd like to sincerely apologize to all the business owners impacted and assure all our users that we're working hard to ensure that nothing similar will happen again.

Update #2: Google sent an automated apology to those who received other companies information:

Google Maps Guide, Cecelia wrote in a Google Maps Help thread that Google will be enabling Google Local Business Favorite places to reorder lost or damaged Google QR code decals.

Ever since Google has been sending these out, I have seen threads from business owners asking how they can get replacement decals. For one reason or another, these people have lost or damaged the decals, and had no way to replace them.

Cecelia said in the thread:

We're working to create a way for you to request a new Favorite Places decal if something happened to the original one. In the meantime, please hold tight and know we're working on this.

Seems like it is coming soon, probably within the Google Local Business Center. When it does go live, we will let you know.

She also answered a frequently asked question:

Can a business which didn't receive a decal request one?

No, it is not possible for a business to request becoming a Favorite Place. Businesses can sign up for Local Business Center to become eligible and if they meet our criteria, they may receive a decal in the next wave.

Forum discussion at Google Maps Help

For those of you who use the Google Custom Search Engine (Google CSE), you may have run into an issue with modifying the settings for your custom search engine this morning and yesterday.

A Google Custom Search Help thread has confirmed reports of a bug that prevented users to maintain their Google CSE. There are several reports of the issue in that forum, but here is one report:

Today (january 06, 2010) when i access the URL http://www.google.com/cse/manage/all?auth=[BIG AUTH KEY HERE] to manage my custom search engine, i get 'Server Error':

We're sorry.

The service you requested is currently unavailable.

Also the XML with the custom search results doesn't work. I have a Business Acoount attached to my search engine. Thanks!

Google employee, Prathap Reddy, confirmed the issue and wrote:

We are aware of the issue; We are working very hard to fix this as early as possible.

This is an intermediate issue and will be addressed as early as possible.

I personally tried it myself and it seems to work fine. I guess at the time I tried it, it was working.

Forum discussion at Google Custom Search Help.

Many of those in the SEO, SEM, Web Design and related businesses find themselves working on holidays such as New Years and Christmas. I think it is more about the self-employed mentality versus it being computer related. Of course, computer related jobs tend to be good to work at any time. In any event, it is nice to know that you are not the only one working on these days. That is why we have Twitter and such. :)

I tend to report every year that I spot Googlers working on these holidays. Googlers were working on this past Christmas and they, JohnMu, was working on New Years day.

I spotted John posting not in just the Happy New Year thread but also in a couple webmaster related threads.

This is not new to John or Googlers, they did it New Years 2009 New Years 2008. Also Christmas 2009, 2008, 2007 and 2006.

Happy New Year all!

Forum discussion at Google Webmaster Help.

Mike reported how Google likes you to report Google Maps business listing spam to them. Google Maps, especially the local business center, has been a target for spammers in the past couple years. Google has tried numerous ways to have people report spam to them.

I guess recently, Google changed it to ask people to report a problem with the business listing via the "report a problem" link either on the map itself or on the business's place page. As Mike said, Maps Guide Cecelia noted that the "time frame [for spam removal] most likely varies based on the number of reports we receive."

To report spam on a business's places page, you go to the "more info" link on the search results of that listing and then click on the "more" link. The more link will open up options, such as "report a problem":

After you click the "report a problem" link, a form pops up asking for more information:

Forum discussion at Sphinn.

A search in Google for [movie: nine nyc] directs you to a Google Movie results page. It shows you the typical movie theaters in that area and movie times, as you would expect. However, it also shows "Showtimes for September 11 attacks" in the blue bar under the search box.

That, to me, is incredibly weird. Here is a picture:

Also, others are reporting a search in Google for [movie: nine ny] directs you to a Google Movie results page. It shows you the typical movie theaters in that area and movie times, as you would expect. However, it also shows "Showtimes for US Airways Flight 1549" in the blue bar under the search box.

The US Airways Flight was the one that safely emergency landed in the Hudson River in New York.

I am not sure why these weird, cryptic messages are coming up in Google Movie search.

Forum discussion at Google Web Search Help.

Sherri Davidoff posted an article named Our Google Government after seeing one of those Google Docs ads on a site. The ad reads, "Over 60% of the U.S. state governments have gone Google." Here is a picture of it:

Of course this worries many, including myself. But you have to understand that while maybe 60% of the U.S state government has "gone Google" it doesn't mean that the U.S.'s most sensitive data is on Google's servers. It is possible that some small government offices have switched to Google Apps for email or document management. But to house sensitive intelligence on a hosted Google owned server? That has not happened.

How am I so sure? Well, I am not. But I recently watched a 60 minute show (or something like it, I forget, it was a few months back), which was about how countries are hacking into other countries to steal intel and money from each other. One of the concerns was using Google to host the information. A top government official said that while many governments use Google for everyday use, the most sensitive information is stored on government built and maintained hardware and software.

In fact, the official said that they cannot trust hardware or chips made in some countries because they have seen cases where those chips actually are programmed to secretly send over data from the computer to a remote location. So to trust Google with that information, simply doesn't make sense. And that is what the official said. It costs the government a lot more than it would if they outsourced it to Google, but in some cases, it is not about saving money.

Of course, some U.S. offices might receive sensitive information in their Google hosted applications. And the risk of that increases daily as more data is sent back and forth and more offices "go Google." But this all needs to be kept in perspective.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Merry Christmas! Although I have about five items to write about today, I figured I hold off on them until Monday. Trust me, I know how it is to be swamped and buried in feeds and news to catch up on while I am celebrating a Jewish holiday - so I will spare you all. Plus, I finally am making the move to Google Chrome, using Chromium on my Mac - so it is nice to take it slow to get up to speed on it.

If you are reading today, make sure to check out our Christmas logos for 2009, which I just updated this morning to add several more logos from other search engines. In short, there are logos from Google, Yahoo, Bing, Ask.com, and many others - so check it out.

In addition, I caught Googlers working on Christmas again. For the past few years, I have caught Googlers helping webmasters in the forums. This year is no different. JohnMu from Google posted in at least two threads on Christmas eve. One was the Merry Christmas Google thread and the other was a more technical webmaster question. Googlers did the same in 2008, 2007 and 2006. They also worked on New Years last year and the year before.

Finally, I will be working on my weekly search video recap today. Expect it to go live later today and you can watch (or just listen to) it at your leisure.

Merry Christmas and in our tradition, forum discussion at Search Engine Roundtable Forums, Cre8asite Forums, Google Toolbar Help, HighRankings Forums, WebmasterWorld, DigitalPoint Forums, Google Maps Help, Google AdWords Help & Google Webmaster Help.

As a continuation of Brett Tabke calling out Google for stiffing webmasters over the Christmas gift this year, Brett explains more of why he is a bit upset with Google in 2009. Brett lays out what he believes Google is moving towards and it seems to really upset him and other webmasters. Brett explained:

• Google retracts almost every webmasters/siteowner outreach program it had in 2009.
• They left the trade show circut. Other than what they had contracted a year earlier, they eliminated their participation in trade shows.
• Left their own speakers to pay for their own way to industry conferences. (denying expense receipts).
• Eliminated AdWords account support.
• Layed off hundreds (thousands according to some reports) temp advertising support reps.
• Canceled the Google customer support party (Google dance).
• Eliminated the vendor appreciation programs for AdSense and Adwords.

Brett said "Everything Google has done in the last year has screamed, 'AdSense and AdWords markets are maximized or tapped out. Put it into maintenance mode and lets go see where else we can make money.'"

Is it true? Well, Google only held one Webmaster Chat session this year, which was last month, before that, in 2008 and 2007, they held tons of these. It seems like Google limited their sponsorship of conferences in 2009, including not sponsoring PubCon and did limited sponsorships for SMX and SES events this past year (i.e. sponsored sessions) I believe. I also know they cut back on sending representatives to shows, but I do not know the extent of that. They have cut AdWords rep support, laid off temp workers, did not hold the annual Google Dance, cut gifts in exchange of the donations they give anyway, and so on.

However, I did notice a step up in the support forums. They upgraded the support forum software (slowly) and added representatives to them. They added features to Webmaster Tools, posted a ton on the Webmaster Blog, Matt produced tons of support videos and so on. So it does seem like overall, they may have spent a lot less money on webmaster/advertiser relations and focused on the less expensive routes. 2009 was a recession for many businesses, but was Google recession proof? Should they have not made these cuts? I am not really to judge.

I do believe Google will be sending more reps to conferences this year, and that they are less concerned about the economy in 2010 then they were in 2009. Maybe sponsorship of events will grow in 2010? Maybe the Google Dance will come back? Maybe?

I hate to judge how other companies use their money. 2009 was an extremely tough year for many businesses. It seemed to us that Google sailed through the year with no problems at all. But who knows what decisions they made early on to help with that? This is a very sensitive topic but being that Google is a public company, I guess these questions can be asked.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

A search for [dreadlocks] sports one of those Google definitions links at the top right of the page that leads to an 'offensive' categorization of those who have dreadlocks as their hairstyle. The Google Definition of dreadlocks uses it in a sentence as, "He was turned down for a driving job when he refused to cut his dreadlocks."

Now one person takes offense to this and posted his dissatisfaction in a Google Web Search Help forum. He wrote:

While it's true that this kind of thing (unfortunately) does happen, is it crazy to anyone else to be in a dictionary? It'd be like having the definition for Asian American being "He was turned down for the driving job because he was Asian American."

Here is a picture of the definition:

If Google stayed with Answers.com as their definitions provider, they might not be taking flack for this.

Personally, I find these types of posts funny - which is why I am highlighting this one.

Forum discussion at Google Web Search Help.

A few weeks ago, I was the first to report about Google decals going to wrong places and then we saw a flood of people complaining about the issue.

It turns out that the primary iPhone app recommended by Google for scanning these decals was made by QuickMark. QuickMark had a bug that was introduced just about the time these decals came out. The bug impacted where users were taken after they scanned a QR code.

The bug was fixed yesterday and it now works perfectly for me. The bug fixes included:

• Fix incorrect URL bug
• Allow Move & Scale for Take Photo method

Forum discussion at Google Maps Help.

There are dozens of complaints from Christian Google users with their dissatisfaction over the wording of the Google Holiday logo. In short, the complaint is that Google is saying "Happy Holidays" instead of "Merry Christmas." Christians are asking why Google is saying "Happy Holidays" when no other holiday overlaps with Christmas this year. Chanukah was earlier this month and the other holidays don't seem to fall out during Christmas, so why not say it as it is?

Here are pictures that illustrate the 'politically correct' holiday message from Google:

You can see the logos at google.com/logos/holidays-2009.html.

Here is one of the many complaints in the forum:

For the entirety of Google's history (including this year) they put up a variety of Christmas-themed logos between approximately December 22 and December 25, but they say "happy holidays" and not "Merry Christmas"!!

What other holiday occurs between Dec. 22 and 25?? Why must Google be so politically correct? "Merry Christmas" is one of the most popular greetings in the world! This is ridiculous, why is Google forcing me out of the Christmas spirit?

Forum discussion at several Google Web Search Help threads.

We thought Google was notgoing to give out holiday gifts, and in exchange, inviting publishers to lunch. But starting yesterday, Google began sending out a holiday e-mail card to both advertisers and publishers. The card basically said Google is doing something a bit different this year and instead of giving out presents, they are giving $20 million to charity on our behalf.

Here is a picture of the e-card which leads to google.com/advertising/holiday2009:

Here is a picture of the landing page:

Overall, people are happy with this as their gift this year. We have thread at DigitalPoint Forums & WebmasterWorld.

Want to see the previous years gifts? See 2008, 2007, 2006, and 2005.

Forum discussion at DigitalPoint Forums & WebmasterWorld.

Google Maps has tons of features, but some of those features are not available in all regions due to many reasons. In order to help document what is and what is not available in certain regions, Google created a page named the Mapping Tool Availability to help you see which Google tools are available for mapping your area.

Google breaks the page down by several regions including Africa, Asia, Caribbean, Central America, Europe, Middle East, North America, Oceania and South America. When you open a region, Google shows you a matrix of what features are available in that area, features such as the Local Business Center, Community Edits, My Maps, Map Maker or Building Maker. Here is a screen capture of the North America matrix:

This will come in handy for the folks in the Google Maps forum and for local business consultants.

Forum discussion at Google Maps Help.

A local mover reported in a Google Maps Help thread that his competitor has successfully removed his listing from Google Maps by having hundreds of people report his address as "inaccurate" in the Google search results.

Back in October, Google added a link to the map results found in the results to enable users to mark a business listing as accurate or not and this person is claiming that his competitor was able to use that to remove his listing in Google Maps. He said:

He has now used those same fake user accounts to report my addresses as invalid - probably hundreds of times with the number of ID's that he has. The likely automated trigger at Google goes off and the map spammer with the 40 fake address and hundreds, if not thousands, of fake reviews from from bogus accounts wins the day. It's easy to report a bogus address.

Now, I am not sure if this is indeed possible. You can always try to reproduce it, but that might be a bad thing to try to reproduce.

A Google Maps representative, Maps Guide Linda, did reply to this thread saying:

Thanks for reporting this instance of spam to us. We will effectively deal with this user since they are violating our Business Listing Quality Guidelines. Please take a look at our guidelines yourself to make sure your listings comply.

I am not sure if she is referencing the abuse of the "inaccurate" reporting feature or the abuse of this mover posting dozens of duplicate companies in Google Maps.

So can you use the "is this accurate" link to remove competitors from Google?

Forum discussion at Google Maps Help.

On Friday afternoon, I reported My Google Favorite Place Decal Was Hijacked. In short, it turned out the QR code was indeed correct, but if the QR code scanner reads it wrong, it can take you to a different business. Which is what happens when I use certain scanners or if the lighting is poor when I scan using certain apps.

Here is a quick video of how this went down on Friday afternoon:

Now, I am not the only one experiencing these problems. I have spotted at least four threads (I know there are more) with complaints about their QR codes not working.

Let me pull out the various complaints from the four Google Maps Help threads I found:

The card I received in the mail from Google indicating we are a "Favorite Place" takes the user to the wrong business. Hundreds of miles away.

My card takes users to the generic google mobile home page?!?!?!

Same issue, mine goes to the generic google home page.

I got someone with an iPhone to test it out and it goes to info on some store in New York City, not my store, Epic Biking (www.epicbiking.com), in Saratoga Springs UTAH.

Once our Favorite Place decal is scanned it directs to the Double Tree Marriot in Palm Beach Gardens, FL as opposed to our listing Land Rover Palm Beach.

We're having the same exact issue. Except, ours is Starwood Hotels in New York when it should link to OK4WD. I scanned the thing probably a good five or six times too

When I had my issue, Ryan Hayward from Google contacted me immediately. I learned from him that in my case, it was not a data issue on Google's side, but rather an issue with the scanner reading the code incorrectly or missing pieces of the code. From what I understand, the code itself stores data in it, such as addresses, URLs, names and so on. So technically, I do not think Google printed these codes with a specific unique identifier in them for your business to match up in the Google Local Business Center. I think Google printed these codes to have address information and that is all. I can be wrong, but I think this is how it is working.

The overall issue here is that the codes are not working for many many businesses and searchers. It doesn't matter if it is a Google bug or a scanner bug, it is not working for a lot of people and lot of the time.

Forum discussion at Google Maps Help threads.

Update: Ryan from Google sent me a note that many of this complaints are due to a QuickMark bug in their latest release. QuickMark sent an update to Apple and they hope it is approved soon. QuickMark wrote about the bug over here.

Ryan added:

Obviously we're not happy that any users are having trouble with applications to scan their decals. We are in close contact with QuickMark, and are planning to notify our Favorite Places decal recipients when the bug is fixed. In the meantime, various other apps should be working fine, and the QuickMark bug only applies to the latest release which came out Dec. 11. Once the new release is live in iTunes' app store, all users will be able to download the update.

Update 12/22/2009: QuickMark's update is now available for download in the iTunes App Store. It fixed the issues for me.

It appears that Google is not giving out holiday gifts this year, as expected. But in a surprise twist, AdSenseAdvisor in a WebmasterWorld thread basically invited all 'good standing' AdSense publishers out for lunch at Google.

First, AdSenseAdvisor explained that she/he doesn't "know about gifts this year," and added that she/he "haven't heard anything" about it. AdSenseAdvisor then goes on to invite AdSense publishers out for Christmas lunch!

AdSenseAdvisor said:

If you're a publisher in good standing with AdSense and you're ever in the Bay Area, shoot me a private message and I'd be happy to invite you to lunch at Google.

So, if you are upset you didn't get a holiday gift from Google and want to go out for lunch with AdSenseAdvisor, you know what to do. Go to the WebmasterWorld and send AdSenseAdvisor a private message.

In related news, WebmasterWorld moderator, martinibuster, said he sent Google a thank you Christmas card. He explained in a WebmasterWorld thread:

I sent the AdSense Team a Christmas Card to thank them for hanging out in this forum, for listening to our feedback, for acting on our feedback. 2009 is the year that the AdSense Team kicked butt on a number of fronts, including rolling out new ways for us to block unwanted ads, decreasing the time for ads to stop showing once we add them to our filters, for being responsive during the several glitches we have experienced and correcting them swiftly.

So if you want to mail holiday cheer to Google, you can send it to:

AdSense Advisor
c/o The AdSense Team
1600 Amphitheater Pkwy
Mountain View, CA 94043

How nice!

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Update: Google sent out e-cards to advertisers and publishers on December 21st announcing this year's gift is $20 million donated to charity.

If you visit Google today, you will see a special logo that celebrates L. L. Zamenhof's 150th birthday. Zamenhof was born on December 15, 1859 and died on April 14, 1917. He is known as the inventor of Esperanto, a constructed language designed for international communication.

Here is Google's special Doodle for his birthday:

Google has a special page just searching for this language at google.com/intl/eo.

Zamenhof was Jewish and died in Warsaw, Poland. You can read his full bio at Wikipedia.

With almost all Google Doodles, there are always complaints. We have two Google Web Search Help threads. One is thanking Google for commemorating L. L. Zamenhof life, while the other is upset Google picked L. L. Zamenhof over the ratification of the U.S. Bill of Rights, which happened on December 15, 1791 (218 years ago).

Forum discussion at Google Web Search Help.

The big Google shock from last night was that they are launching a URL shortener using goo.gl. Currently, it only works by using the Google Toolbar or within FeedBurner. You cannot simply create a short URL by going to goo.gl, you need to do so via the Google Toolbar or FeedBurner.

Why is Google doing this? They want to make it easier to share within the Toolbar and FeedBurner. Why not use Bit.ly or Tiny URL? Google said they have an infrastructure that they trust is stable, secure and speedy.

I see why SEOs are a bit skeptical. But flip it around. SEOs have been recommending that we build our own URL shorteners ourselves. Heck, I did for RustyBrick, for example we use rb.tc, so rb.tc/barry goes to www.rustybrick.com/barry.

Google hasn't yet opened it up for use outside of the Toolbar or FeedBurner, but trust me, it will be used plenty that way and shared tremendously. Google said, "if the service proves useful, we may eventually make it available for a wider audience in the future." So, how long do you give it? A month, two?

Many just feel bad for the url shortening services out there.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld & DigitalPoint Forums.

If you are living under a rock, you might not have heard this yet, but then why would you be reading this site? The buzz over the weekend was that Google confirmed they will be building and distributing a real Google phone. Right now, Google has Android which is the Operating System for many of the "Google phones" currently out there. But the hardware is developed by someone else.

It appears that Google is designing their own device on the hardware level. Which, I guess, would compete directly with the iPhone - which is what is currently happening with the HTC, Droid and comparable devices.

Anyway, that is all I have to say about this. You can read the news stories on Techmeme and then join the forum discussions.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld and DigitalPoint Forums.

Starting over the weekend, if you tried to update a Google Maps business listing in the Google Local Business Center, you would get a weird error. We have many reports in the Google Maps forums, many.

The error sometimes looks like this:

System Error

We're sorry, but we are unable to serve your request at this time. Please try back in a few minutes.

Try again document.write("|\n\x3ca href\x3d\x22/local/add/businessCenter?hl\x3den-US\x26amp;gl\x3dUS\x22 onclick\x3d\x22history.go(-1); return false;\x22\x3e

Return to previous page\x3c/a\x3e"); | Return to previous page

Google Maps Guide Linda replied to many of the threads with the same message, it read:

Hi,

We're aware of this system error issue and we hope to have this fixed by next week. Please check your account again next week to verify your business listing.

Thanks for your patience.

Best,
Maps Guide Linda

The Google Maps threads include these four help threads, but I believe there are many more.

Forum discussion at Google Maps Help Discussions.

Liz from YouTube Support announced in a YouTube Help thread that a long requested feature is now available - the ability to block subscribers from your channel.

Why would you want to block specific subscribers? Maybe you got 'pervs' watching your videos? Maybe you don't like certain commentators on your videos? Maybe you are anti-social?

How do you do it?

1. Sign into your YouTube account
2. Go to http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=[YOURUSERNAME]&view=subscribers
3. On this page you'll be able to see the users who are subscribed to your channel and the thumbnail icon from their channel. Below the thumbnail image you'll see a "Block" button.
4. If you click the "Block" button you'll remove the user's subscription to you, and you'll also block them if their account is active on YouTube.

After that, Liz explains:

You'll receive a confirmation asking you whether or not you want to remove the user from your subscribers list first before you actually remove the user. This is just in case you accidentally click the "Block" button. We all know accidents happen.

Here is a picture of the block button:

I won't block you, so feel free to subscribe to the RustyBrick YouTube Channel which is what I use to do my weekly search videos, amongst other videos. I still need to make that page look better, one day - one day.

Forum discussion at YouTube Help.

Update: Google reached out to me and asked me to try a new app to scan it, such as Barcode Scanner for Android of QuickMark for iPhone. I tried it and both QuickMark and Barcode Scanner return my business. So a poor quality QR scanner will return a bad listing. I guess technically, this is not a Google bug.

We are aware of Google Maps listings being hijacked, that is nothing new. But remember Google is sending out favorite places decals? Well, I got mine today and I decided to try it out.

Guess what? When you scan the QR bar code it takes you to a different business!

RustyBrick is my company and here is my Google Place:

Here is a video with proof:

Here is a link to the Citrus Grille which is what comes up after you scan my code.

Here is a video of me "unboxing" the decal today:

I am not sure how Google can fix this? Either:

(1) Send me a new decal with new bar code?
(2) Update their database so they do not have to send me a new decal?

The thing is, I just hope I don't get calls from the Citrus Grille, that would be annoying!

Forum discussion at Google Maps Help.

Voting is open for the UK's edition of the Doodle 4 Google competition. Google has run this competition in both the US and UK for four years now.

This years competition:

We're asking young people aged 5–16 from across the UK to design their own doodle. This year's theme is 'My Hero'. We'd love to see the figures young people look up to represented in their doodles, whether family, friends, people in the community, or world figures. We're interested in the people considered heroes for the 21st century and how entrants represent them using images.

To vote, go to this page. You can vote for each of the four brackets, 5-7 years old, 7-11 years old, 11-14 years old and 14-16 years olds.

Forum discussion at Google Webmaster Help.

A Google Web Search Help thread reports several users not being able to see the frame at the top of the Google Image searches. I initially thought it had to do with frame busters of some sort, but it seems more wide spread than that. Maybe Google is dropping the framed image feature? I am not sure.

I personally see the frame with the "see full size image" option link:

It really seems to be that this is a frame buster type of thing going on. Frame busting is code that prevents other sites from framing you site in their site, like Google Images does after you initially click on an image result.

Forum discussion at Google Web Search Help.

Google has announced they are now legally going after those companies who have been scamming unsuspecting people since March of this year. We first wrote about the Google Money Scams in March, then in June the scams got worse. In July, Google warned the public about these scams but still many fell for it. Some scammers took to the phone to scam more and more people. They even began banning scammers from AdWords in July and continued that bans throughout. In fact, they recently stepped up the bans and made them permanent, even this month there was a big ban event.

Google said they filed suit against Pacific WebWorks (here is PDF of complaint). Google said, "To fight back, we're working to stop various fraudulent "Google Money" schemes, and this week filed suit against Pacific WebWorks and several other unnamed defendants."

It is sad to see it got this bad where this had to happen, but I am glad Google is taking serious action.

Forum discussion at Google AdSense Help.

Google also announced that they are sending out stickers to be placed in shop windows that have QR barcodes. The goal is to allow people to scan the sticker and look up more information about that place.

You can see some samples of these businesses in LA over here. How do you get one of these stickers for your business? Well, make sure you are a verified business on Google Local Business Center. Make sure to complete your profile to the T. Then, it is up to Google. TechCrunch reports Google has "PlaceRank" algorithm to determine in which order do businesses get these decals.

Google will be adding these businesses incrementally. "They are selected based on their PlaceRank," says John Hanke, VP of Google Earth, Maps, and Local. PlaceRank is like PageRank for places It tries to figure out how prominent a place is based on factors such as "references on the Web, reviews, photos," says Hanke, "how many people know about it, how long its been around."

Bill from SEO By The Sea covered this PlaceRank algorithm years ago.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Tony Ruscoe, the co-editor at Google Blogoscoped has confirmed he will be joining the Google team next month. Tony has been writing at Google Blogoscoped since 2006, he has broken so many stories by digging deep into Google and finding tons of hidden treasures.

Tony is becoming a Googler in January 2010. He will be working in Google's London office as part of the Google Webmaster Team. He said he is not exactly sure what he will be working on at Google yet, but likely in the same role as JohnMu who also joined Google from the webmaster ranks back in August 2007. John has been a huge asset to the webmaster community before and even more so after joining Google.

Googlers are obviously delighted to have Tony join the team there. A Google Blogoscoped Forums thread has comments from Googlers. Matt Cutts said, "w00t! I'm so excited that you're joining Google. :) I can see it now: "Day 1: Clean up the home page a bit. Make sure it's smaller but validates. Day 2: ..." :)" JohnMu said:

Congratulations, Tony! I'm excited to see that you're coming aboard & really looking forward to catching you in London or perhaps on a visit to the Zuerich office :-).

Tom, if you have worked out how cloning works, I have a list of names ... :-)

Tony, the webmasters will miss you as being part of the team but I am sure we will all benefit more from you moving over to Google.

Forum discussion at Google Blogoscoped Forums.

Part of Google's blitz of announcements yesterday were several mobile announcements including a really neat feature named Google Goggles.

Google Goggles basically lets you snap pictures on your Android mobile device and Google will return search results based on that picture. It works best with landmarks, books, contact information, artwork, places, wines and logos. Here is a video on how it works:

Other announcements include Search by Voice in other languages, such as Japanese, English and Mandarin. Search by Location on Android, and Search by Sight which is Google Goggles.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld and Google Mobile Help.

If you visit Google today, you will see a logo of Popeye. The logo is to celebrate Popeye's creator, E. C. Segar's 115th birthday. E. C. Segar was born on December 8, 1894. Popeye, the character, was first introduced on January 17, 1929 in a comic strip Thimble Theatre, which was renamed to Popeye later (I believe).

In any event, the logo on the Google.com home page looks like this:

Google typically only shows Google Doodles for light hearted events, such as this. Which is why there was no Doodle for Pearl Harbor yesterday, December 7th. But it did not stop dozens of complaints in the Google Web Search Help Forums.

Forum discussion on Popeye at Google Webmaster Help and DigitalPoint Forums.

For those of you who use the Google Custom Search Engine, like we do here, you may have noticed that it is having issues reading your XML Sitemap file. Yes, with a Google CSE (custom search engine), you can feed it your pages, like you do with normal web search, with your Sitemap file.

If you do that now, you may see an error that reads:

Oops! We were not able to retrieve a list of Sitemaps associated with your current Google account.

A Google Custom Search Help thread has confirmation of the bug. Googler, Prathap Reddy, explained that this is indeed a bug, but it is only a display bug and has no impact on your Google Custom Search Engine.

He added:

We are aware of listing of sitemaps is not working in Control panel. We are working on that issue.

The issue is basically a cosmetic issue and shouldn't affect the functionality of Google Site Search in any way.

You can submit the sitemap for on-demand indexing by entering the URL in sitemap URL text box in Google Site Search Control panel -> Indexing Tab.

So do not panic, the display issue should have no impact on the functionality of your Google CSE. Plus, the display issue should be resolved sooner than later.

Forum discussion at Google Custom Search Help.

Over the past few months, there have been sporadic reports on the wrong local news showing up in Google News. One such thread at Google News Help has several comments about the issue by a Googler named Inbal.

What appears to be the issue when Google shows non-relevant local news in the local search of Google News is that Google is matching incorrectly. Inbal from Google explains, most recently, the root cause of the issue:

The root of most problems reported in this thread is bad geocoding on zipcode: some zipcode maps to the right name (like xxxxx --> Springfield, Mass), but we then think that text is for some other place with the same name. Our engineers have been fixing these zipcode related bugs following your reports, so please keep them coming!

In other cases, the searcher has entered the wrong zip code - but that is not common - what is more common is the issue above.

Finally, the last reason why the local news in Google might not be local is because there simply is not enough local news sources for your area. Inbal said, "there are just not enough news sources to show from a small town, as we may not be indexing some local sources."

Those are three possible reasons why Google News may not be providing locally relevant news for you.

Forum discussion at Google News Help.

Google announced the launch of the Google Public DNS service, which is a free public domain name system. It is a lot like OpenDNS, but without any of the administrative controls for blocking sites or redirecting mismatched domains to a special landing page (which is where OpenDNS makes their money).

Google's DNS IPs are pretty sweet, they are 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4. If you want to use it, here are the configuration instructions.

Google said they are doing this for one reason and one reason alone. To make the web faster. Google knows which sites are the most popular out there and they will precache those pages so it doesn't have to be done at the time of the DNS request. Most DNS servers cache sites based on the last time a user of theirs accessed it, Google will anticipate that without usage - at this point. Google likes speed, as we discussed time and time again over here.

Google is convinced you will like their DNS server because it will speed things up, make things more secure and they won't do any type of redirection at all.

You think Google will use the data to track you? Well, Google very specifically detailed what they will be tracking and for how long. The "temporary logs" contain IP level information, but Google will destroy "temporary logs within 24 to 48 hours." However, Google will be storing specific information on an aggregate level, those details can be found here.

As I said, webmasters are wary and there is a long WebmasterWorld thread with comments:

With it being such an easy way to track who goes where, I'm surprised Google is just getting into this now.

Would this really benefit anyone besides Google?

Reading their gumph, they claim that having a large, common caching database will mean faster performance for all, but is it really worth the slight boost in performance in exchange for giving Google even more of your data?

Google claim that their service will attempt to send users to their geographically closest data centre.

But I still reckon it's wisest to just stick with your own ISP's DNS offering, unless you know what you're doing.

Personally, I use OpenDNS because of the security and the ability to block access to specific sites on the DNS level - which is nice. Would I switch? Who knows. But I do like how the OpenDNS blog responded to this Google news, "to think that Google’s DNS service is for the benefit of the Internet would be naive." Now that is classic!

Forum discussion WebmasterWorld.

Every year Google gives some of their AdWords advertisers and AdSense publishers holiday gifts. Typically, the gifts are delivered by now - but not one advertiser or publisher have posted in a forum or on a blog about receiving a holiday gift from Google this year.

A WebmasterWorld thread wonders if there will be any gifts this year or not. This year was the "great recession," but Google is clearly back in spend mode (if you watch their business activities closely, you would notice this).

In the past four years, the gifts were typically received by this week. Last year, the gifts were received by December 3, 2008, then by December 4, 2007, in November 2006, the latest was the second week of December 2005, but typically, we get them by this week in December.

Do you think there will be holiday gifts from Google?

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Update: Google sent out e-cards to advertisers and publishers on December 21st announcing this year's gift is $20 million donated to charity.

Did you know that there are countries out there that have a dispute on where their border begins and ends? Yea, you know that. But did you know that Google will show different borders depending on how and where you access Google Maps?

A Google Maps Help thread has a post from Brian from the Google Maps team who explains how this works. He said:

It is Google's standard practice to show all disputed regions around the world on its global properties, such as on maps.google.com. It has been Google’s consistent and global policy to depict disputed regions as per the claims made by the disputing/claiming nations on its global properties. This does not in any way endorse or affirm the position taken by any side but merely provides complete information on the prevailing geo-political situation to our users of global properties in a dispassionate and accurate manner. Products that have been localized to the local domain of a region such as maps.google.co.in may depict that country’s position as per the mandate of their local laws.

For example, compare Google India Maps to Google Maps and you will see the border lines look a bit different. Here are screen captures:

Google Maps India, The Border:

Google Maps US, The Border:

Notice the dotted lines in the US map, how it doesn't seem sure.

Forum discussion at Google Maps Help.

A Google Maps Help thread has confirmed reports that searching for user generated content via My Maps seems to no longer be returning results.

ehg, a helpful Google Maps forum member helped debug this. He said, all of my maps of MyMaps created until 20 Oct 2009 are still to search. Here a sample map "GRZG" which is still to search [1] when searching "related maps" and "GRZG". Here searching for a user- created content ("ghghgh5656") of the same map [2] I created the map 10 Oct 2009. And here a search for the last map I can search & find (created 20 Oct 2009 - the second map is a copy of the first one I created at this date) [3].

Googler, Brian B, said, "I'm looking into this and will give an update here. Thanks for escalating."

Forum discussion at Google Maps Help.

This is old news, back in August Google told us they are now crowdsourcing traffic data in order to provide better and more accurate traffic reports on Google Maps. Let me quote Google:

When you choose to enable Google Maps with My Location, your phone sends anonymous bits of data back to Google describing how fast you're moving. When we combine your speed with the speed of other phones on the road, across thousands of phones moving around a city at any given time, we can get a pretty good picture of live traffic conditions. We continuously combine this data and send it back to you for free in the Google Maps traffic layers.

Yep, Google Navigation for Android 1.6 or 2.0 I am sure does this as well.

Why do I bring this up now? Well, a Google Maps Help thread has one Google Maps user asking how Google has traffic data for local streets? He said, "Just curious as to how google maps aggregates the data for traffic conditions of local surface streets, not freeways. Is it through the sensors in the streetlights?"

Useful, but a tad scary. I tested it on some of my local roads that I know are always congested and it does indeed work.

Forum discussion at Google Maps Help.

A Google Maps Help thread has an interesting report of one business having the reviews of another. If you look at the Thomas French, DC, Chiropractor reviews, they look great, but when you look at Dr Keith Overland, it seems like he has reviews for Dr. French.

Here are the reviews on Dr. Keith Overland's page, which all reference Dr. French:

Two things could of happened here:

(1) It could be a technical glitch with Google Maps where reviews moved from one business listing to another.

(2) The people who left reviews accidentally put it on the wrong business listing?

Both businesses are in Norwalk, Connecticut - so who knows.

Forum discussion at Google Maps Help.

The Google Mobile blog announced that Google Maps Navigation, which was originally only available on Android 2.0, is now also available on 1.6 of the Android mobile OS.

Google Navigation is a free navigation system that works on mobile devices with Android 1.6 or 2.0. For more details, see this page.

Tom in the Google Mobile Help forum added a few more details that are not in the blog post.

(1) Android 1.6 that is a build off of the userdebug (test-keys) of the Android OS is not working with navigator. Google is working on a fix for this.

(2) Part of 1.6 also includes Layers functionality and My Maps access.

(3) There is also a bug fix for Traffic layer failing due to memory issues.

Forum discussion at Google Mobile Help.

Earlier this month we reported on nudity & seductive Google Maps listings for London Escort services, amongst others. When we investigated the issue, it turned out to be a worldwide issue with nude and seductive images being displayed both in the UK and US for certain business listings. It seems like all the business listings I reported then have been cleaned up.

However, now we have new business listings with nude and pornographic images and videos in their business listings.

The new batch was reported by James in a Google Maps Help thread. Here are the three listings he pointed out. Here is a screened out picture of one:

In fact, one of those listings has a video hosted on YouTube with a nude picture in it (the video is a slide show). Clearly this goes against both the Google Business Listing guidelines and YouTube guidelines.

Joel H. from Google confirmed the issue and said:

Thanks for the report James. I'm looking into this know and will remove content based on our policies.

I believe Google Maps needs to grab someone from the Google Images team to help them with this issue. Handling it by hand, is something that is likely not recommended.

Forum discussion at Google Maps Help.

Gone mostly unnoticed, Google has updated their Gmail and Google Calendar interface on iPhone and Android mobile devices. Google did announce a new mobile news look for these devices, but no word on the Gmail interface.

I spotted this update via the Google Mobile Help forums, where Googler, Ethan, confirmed the update. He said:

Gmail updated its look & feel in the browser on Android and iPhone devices today. Some of Google's other mobile apps, like Calendar, have also gotten the new look. Other than the 're-skinning,' features are unchanged for now.

Here is what the new 'skin' looks like on the iPhone:

Here is the old one:

Small difference, but someone noticed.

Forum discussion at Google Mobile Help.

A Google Maps Help thread reports that at least one satellite image in South Africa has a weird posterization effect to it.

You can see it yourself at 33°55'7.79"S, 25°35'2.40"E, or Port Elizabeth, South Africa. Here is a picture:

This looks like a heavily posterized image to me, but I doubt that was the case. There must have been some type of interference when the image was captured?

Forum discussion at Google Maps Help.

For years, email spammers have been looking for ways to encourage people to click on their links. And for years, Google has been a target. Why? Well, when someone sees a link that has google.com in it, people trust it. So over the years, Google URLs that redirect to other sites have been a target by spammers.

The most recent Google property targeted by such attacks is Google Reader.

A Google Reader Help thread has reports of such cases, with a Googler confirming it is an issue. Several people are reporting receiving email spam with URLs that look some thing like:

http://www.google.com/reader/item/tag:google.com,2005:reader/item/3c49b76cf8cb8ba0

Clicking on that URL would have redirected you to a non-Google site.

Googler, Roger said:

It looks like some spammers have taken a liking to Google Reader - we're currently trying to find the best way to limit this kind of automated abuse without impacting the experience of real users such as yourselves. Hopefully we'll have a solution that works for everyone soon. Thanks for your patience and understanding in the meantime-

So be on the look out.

Forum discussion at Google Reader Help.

If you mossy your way over to the iGoogle Help Forum today, you may notice a bunch of threads complaining about how Google removed the top tabs from iGoogle and is forcing users to use the left hand navigation tabs.

Actually, this news is somewhat old. Back in June, many folks complained that they wanted top iGoogle tabs over left tabs and we offered a way to get those. Then it rolled out to other countries in July. It seems like now everyone has to have the left hand tabs, no matter what override you tried in the past.

Picture of Old Top iGoogle Tabs:

Picture of Current Left iGoogle Tabs:

There is seriously about twenty different threads over the past couple days on this topic.

Forum discussion at iGoogle Help Forum.

I love new fun search features that have eye candy, such as the recently announced Google Image Swirl Google Labs project. It is a bit like Google Wonder Wheel but more images.

The best way for me to explain it is either have you try it or look at the pictures below:

I search for Apple and then click on images to be swirled my way through the various search refinements:

Neat and tasty, don't you think?

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Google announced a major upgrade for Google Translate. I am personally very impressed.

The new features include:

• New layout
• Instant translation
• Shows reading phonetically in English
• Speaks English translation for you (i.e. text to speech)
• Type phonetically also

Here is a video demonstrating the new features:

There are both compliments and anger about the change in the Google Translate Group.

Forum discussion at DigitalPoint Forums and Google Translate Group.

The Google LatLong blog announced an upgrade that is currently now available in the iTunes App store for the iPhone. Google Earth 2.0 is out and it has new features, including:

• My Maps Integration
• Performance Improvements
• Improved "Icon" Selection
• Added 13 languages, now 31 languages in total

With iPhone App updates, when they are available in the iTunes App Store, they might not be available for all users. Kind of like when a Google update is out, some people see it and some don't, early on. Why? Cause of multiple servers and the syncing of those servers can take time.

Forum discussion at Google Mobile Help.

Like many, when Google announced you can now buy more storage for less, I decide to buy more storage. So I went through the purchase storage process, paid the bill, got the order receipt and waited.

3 days later, I am still waiting to receive that upgrade. I ordered an additional 20GB of storage, here is my email receipt:

But when I log in to check my storage available, it still shows the old amount.

Gmail View:

Admin Account Management View:

So I follow all the Gmail Storage Troubleshooting tips and get no where. I then click on the "If you are still unable to access your Google paid storage, please contact us" link. The link is to google.com/support/contact/bin/request.py?contact_type=contact_storage but when you click it, it redirects you to the generic Google help with no way to get real help.

I am not the only person with this issue, there are a couple complaining at the Gmail Help forum.

It is only $5, so I don't mind donating the money but I do really want the extra storage.

Forum discussion at Gmail Help.

A Google Webmaster Help thread had one webmaster who received an email from Google warning of a phishing attempt on this person's site. The webmaster asked if it was real. The email said he/she should "submit a safebrowsing report at http://sb.google.com/safebrowsing/report_error/."

JohnMu from Google replied that if you want to make sure the email is real, that you should login to the Google Webmaster Tools and see if there is a message there about it. If yes, then it is legit, if not - not.

In addition, John explained that "the sb.google.com URL you mentioned is the correct one to submit feedback on the safebrowsing status of the flagged URL on your site."

Give sb.google.com a try. :)

Forum discussion at Google Webmaster Help.

The Google blog also announced they teamed up with U.S. Department for Health and Human Services (HHS) to provide a Google Maps mashup to help people find flu shots in their area.

You can access the Google Maps mashup at google.com/flushot or go to flu.gov for other information.

One person asked in a Google Maps Help thread, how does he get his facility on the Google Maps list? I believe the way to do this is to go to Flu.gov, find your state and then navigate to the government office that is handling the list. Then submit your facility to that government office.

Anyway, here are the local places in Las Vegas that have flu shots:

Forum discussion at Google Maps Help.

This is cute, AdWordsPro Sarah posted a note at the Google AdWords Help forum showing that she baked a cake to celebrate the forums birthday. She wrote:

A birthday is not a birthday without cake- and while virtual photo cake is not as delicious as the real thing- I have never made cake for thousands of people (and if I did, you probably would not want to eat it). So this little cake is a gesture to say thank you to everyone who helped this little (or not so little now) forum grow this past year. I am truly touched by the generosity that is exhibited here on a daily basis. It makes me proud to be a part of this community.

Make a wish!
AdWordsPro Sarah

Sarah's Happy Birthday Forum Cake: http://cli.gs/vVgz4R

Here is a picture of the completed cake, but if you want to see the process of baking this pumpkin cake, see over here.

Now, if we can just get Adam Lasnik to bake a cake for the Webmaster Central forum. :)

Forum discussion at Google AdWords Help.

Starting on November 4th, Google began displaying logos for Sesame Street's 40th anniversary. Today is Sesame Street's official anniversary, the previous logos all led up to today. That is why we have a collage of all the characters, all in one logo:

Yes, 12 Sesame Street personalities in total were displayed. Not all on Google.com, some on regional Googles. Here they all are:

Honestly, I think I may have even missed one. :)

For all those wishing Google give up the Sesame Street logos, I think today is the last day. Personally, I liked it...

Forum discussion at Google Web Search Help.

Update: The Google Blog posted a link to the logos in high-resolution.

Today, if you visit Google.com, you will see Count Von Count as the Google logo (doodle) on the home page. This is the 6th day, and 11th Sesame Street logo, Google has posted in celebrating of Sesame Street's 40th anniversary. We have all the Sesame Street logos that have currently been posted over here.

Like, I said, today's logo is Count Von Count, another lovable Sesame Street logo:

But today, if you visit Google.de, you will see a logo commemorating the fall of the Berlin Wall 20 years ago, on November 9, 1989.

Personally, I felt it would be best to stop with Elmo, yesterday, on Sunday. There are several people upset that Google has not made the Berlin Wall logo more prominent by posting it on all of Google's properties. Especially since Google is on their 6th day and 11th logo for Sesame Street's 40th anniversary, which was 6 days ago. There are even some people upset Elmo usurped UK's Remembrance Sunday.

Clearly, Google likes to show fun logos over sad ones. But 6 days of Sesame Street?

Forum discussion at several threads at Google Web Search Help.

A disgruntled searcher posted a thread at Google Maps Help forum complaining that he spotted a nude photo on a Google Maps business listing for a London based escort service. I personally don't think I see a nude photo, but the photos are seductive in nature. You can see the business listing over here (also a screen capture).

The individual reported this on Saturday, November 7th, but no one really noticed (it was Saturday). Here is his post:

This is a serious breech of Google quality guidelines ever. Spammer added price £120 on the title of the listing . On the other hand spammer has added nude picture on the Gallery section to get more clicks from surfer .

What a shame, how could some do such things . Please take immediate action.

This is not the first time we found adult oriented content in Google Maps. We found adult spam in Google Maps listings in a much worse way, disguised as a normal business listing. That spam was cleaned up.

Now, I don't think escort services is an issue in Google Maps - I am not sure. But are these pictures an issue? Nudity is, but these?

Forum discussion at Google Maps Help.

Update: There are some that actually do have nudity. Do not click if you do not want to see nudity. Here are some examples, this one, this one, and probably many many more. Even many in the US, such as this one, this one, this one and many more. So there is plenty of nudity on Google Maps Business Listings.

In the past few days, many users of the iPhone and Gmail Push service through active sync have been reporting that it is not working. A large Google Mobile Help thread has dozens of posts from unhappy Gmail users.

Google confirmed the issue and blamed the iPhone OS 3.1.2 build, which was out just about a month ago. So I am not sure why people are beginning to complain now.

Robin from the Google Mobile team confirmed the issue and wrote a few responses in the thread. They include:

We're aware of some issues with Gmail sync and are working to resolve them. OS v. 3.1.2 has broken a few things on our build, and we've also had a bug with certain formatting characters in email that has caused sync to stop altogether. We're working on to get a fix out for these items first, and can then start troubleshooting other possible causes.

While 3.1.2 has been a source of problems, there are a few issues across other platforms and OS version as well that we're working on. A number of bugs have been fixed over the past month, so it's unlikely that the source of your problems then is the same as it is now. Also, many folks have been able to sync just fine - sometimes it's a matter of sorting out setup issues and other device-specific variables. We're trying to fix the main bugs that we know about first and then can dive into the 1:1 troubleshooting.

Andrew554321, I did want to address your question about Google Apps. Push email is not currently covered by the Google Apps Premier Edition SLA: http://www.google.com/a/help/intl/en/admins/sla.html

While we do apologize for any disruption, please keep in mind that this is a Beta product that was just recently released; you are of course welcome to go back to IMAP or however you were checking your Gmail before implementing Google Sync. Otherwise, we hope you'll stick with us as we are actively trying to resolve these issues!

Yes, Google Sync uses Microsoft's Mail for Exchange, which is a separate protocol from IMAP and will thus behave differently. There's no link between these services, other than the fact that they can both access your Gmail and that Google doesn't control the protocal for either of them :P

So, if you pay for the Google Apps premier, you are out of luck. Gmail push for the iPhone is a beta product and is thus not covered.

Forum discussion at Google Mobile Help.

Google has seven different doodles (logos) on the day of Sesame Street's 40th anniversary. Then yesterday and today, they had two different logos, celebrating the same anniversary.

November 5th was Cookie Monster:

Today, November 6th is Ernie & Bert:

What is Google's obsession with these lovable Sesame Street characters?

Forum discussion at Google Web Search Help and Google Webmaster Help.

One of the more obvious complaints about Google is not about their products but rather how to find all their products and manage how you have access to those products. Google just launched the Google Dashboard which brings many - not all - of this in one place.

The Dashboard includes over "20 products and services, including Gmail, Calendar, Docs, Web History, Orkut, YouTube, Picasa, Talk, Reader, Alerts, Latitude and many more." Here is a video demo on how it works:

A WebmasterWorld thread has early discussion around this topic. Right now, the feedback includes "it's about time" and "Well, it is a start..."

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

So when I visited Google.com, I saw Big Bird's legs. It is the 40th anniversary of Sesame Street and Google made a Doodle for it. But then I noticed other Google properties not only sporting Sesame Street but also Doodles for other learning programs that are popular in those regions. We have Google logos for the 20th birthday of Wallace & Gromit, and these other regional characters: Abigal, Boombah Chamki, Ieniemienie, Abelardo Montoya and Kami.

Here are the logos:

Big Bird's Sesame Street found at Google.com, Google.ca, Google.es, Google.hr, Google.co.kr, Google.co.jp, Google.com.ly, Google.fr, Google.com.ph, Google.com.qa, Google.pl, Google.com.bh, Google.com.hk, Google.com.kw, Google.ps, Google.com.sa, Google.ae, Google.com.eg, Google.co.id, Google.jo, Google.com.lb, and Google.com.om.

Wallace & Gromit found at Google.co.uk, Google.com.tw, Google.co.th, Google.rs, Google.pt, Google.de, Google.ro, Google.ch, and Google.at.

Ieniemienie' Sesame Street found at Google.be and Google.nl.

Kami from Sesame Street found at Google.co.za:

Boombah Chamki from Sesame Street found at Google.co.in:

Abelardo Montoya from Sesame Street found at Google.com.mx:

Abigal (אביגיל) from Sesame Street found at Google.co.il:

I don't think I missed any, but you can check yourself at the bottom of this page.

Happy 40th Sesame Street and 20th Wallace & Gromit!

Forum discussion at Google Web Search Help.

Update: The Google Blog just posted about the peanut butter and sandwiches. :)

November 5th a Cookie Monster logo:

November 6th, an Ernie & Bert logo:

November 7th, Oscar the Grouch:

November 8th, Elmo:

November 9th, Count Von Count:

November 10th, the official anniversary day, seems to be the collage and last logo:

A couple weeks ago, Google began helping business owners find themselves with a link in their Google Local Business Center that read "See your listing on Google Maps."

The thing is, for some, when you click on that link, it doesn't show you are listing in Google Maps. Why? Google isn't sure. But they did ask for help.

A Google Maps Help thread has Googler, Linda asking for help in finding the issue. She asked business owners to post their business listing information, if they cannot see their listings. Linda said:

If you've clicked "See your listing on Google Maps", but do not find your business on Maps, please provide us with your:

1) Business Name
2) Address

Please provide us with the information above or we will not investigate your issue.

We are aware of this issue and we hope to have a fix for this soon. Thank you for reporting.

So if you fall into this category and want this feature to work, join the thread.

Forum discussion at Google Maps Help.

Google has just updated the Business Listing Quality Guidelines for Google Maps. There are many changes to this guidelines page - in fact - it seems like it was completely revised.

So I will show you the old version and then the new version:

Old Version:

Google Maps aims to provide value for users and business owners alike. We've implemented a number of guidelines that align with these intentions. To protect users, businesses, and the integrity of our search results, we reserve the right to terminate Local Business Center access or broader Google access to individuals or businesses violating these guidelines.

These points cover the general guidelines for creating business listings through the Local Business Center, but are not an exhaustive list of policies. Some actions not specifically prohibited here may still be cause for removal from Maps. If you have any question about whether or not a tactic is deceptive, we recommend you stand on the side of caution. You may also request clarification by posting in our Maps Help Forum.

• Only enter listings for businesses that you own or are explicitly authorized to represent.
• Represent your business exactly as it appears in the offline world. The name on Google Maps should match the business name, as should the address, phone number and website.
• Do not attempt to manipulate search results by adding extraneous keywords into the title field, and do not include phone numbers or URLs in the title along with your proper business name.
• Create only one listing for each physical location of your business. Do not create more than one listing for each business location, either in a single account or multiple accounts. Service area businesses, for example, should not create a listing for every town they service. Likewise, law firms or doctors should not create multiple listings to cover all of their specialties.
• When entering categories, use only those that directly describe your business. Do not submit related categories that do not define your business. For example, a taxi company might properly categorize itself as "Airport Transportation", but it would be inaccurate to also use the category "Airport". Also, please use each category field to enter a single category. Do not list multiple categories or keywords in one field.
• Provide information that best identifies your individual locations and provides users with the most direct path to your business. For example, you should provide individual location phone numbers in place of central phone lines and the precise address for the business in place of broad city names or cross-streets.
• Provide the one URL that belongs to your business both in terms of the landing page and the displayed URL. Pages that redirect to another domain, or act as "click through" sites may lead to penalization.
• Use the description and custom attribute fields to include additional information about your listing. This type of content should never appear in your business's title, address or category fields.

If you believe that another business is abusing Google's quality guidelines, we encourage you to report the listing. Your reports help us to improve the overall Google Maps experience for everyone.

If you find that your listings were removed from Google Maps or you're unable to access your Local Business Center account, please file a reconsideration request. All requests are reviewed, and the decision of Google in this regard shall be final and binding. Please note that we won't necessarily respond to each individual request.

Your business information on Google Maps:

Should you have questions about how to add or how to edit your business information, please visit the Local Business Center help pages.

New Version:

Business Listings in Local Business Center must have correct information about physical, local businesses, as they appear in the real world. Google reserves the right to suspend access to Local Business Center or to other Google Services to individuals or businesses violating these guidelines.

• Only business owners or authorized representatives may claim their business listings on Google Maps.

• The business name on Google Maps must be your full legal business name.
• Do not attempt to manipulate search results by adding extraneous keywords or a description of your business into the business name.
• Do not include phone numbers or URLs in the business name.

• Do not create listings at locations where the business does not physically exist.
• PO Boxes do not count as physical locations.
• Do not create more than one listing for each business location, either in a single account or multiple accounts.
• Businesses that operate in a service area as opposed to a single location should not create a listing for every city they service. Service area businesses should create one listing for the central office of the business only.
• Businesses with special services, such as law firms and doctors, should not create multiple listings to cover all of their specialties.
• The precise address for the business must be provided in place of broad city names or cross-streets.
• A property for rent is not considered a place of business. Please create one listing for the central office that processes the rentals.

• Provide a phone number that connects to your individual business location as directly as possible. For example, you should provide an individual location phone number in place of a call center.
• Provide one URL that best identifies your individual business location.
• Do not provide phone numbers or URLs that redirect or 'refer' users to other landing pages or phone numbers other than those of the actual business.

• Use the description and custom attribute fields to include additional information about your listing. This type of content should never appear in your business's title, address or category fields.
• Please see this page of the LBC User Guide for examples of acceptable custom attributes.

• Use a shared, business email account, if multiple users will be updating your business listing.
• If possible, use an email account with a domain that matches your business URL. For example, if your business website is www.giraffetoys.com, a matching email address would be you@giraffetoys.com.

• Report Spam on Maps.
• Request Reinclusion if your Local Business Center account has been suspended.
• Request Verification for your bulk upload.
• Post in our Help Forum.

For more information about the Local Business Center, please visit the Local Business Center user guide.

Forum discussion at Google Maps Help.

Google News has dropped the "Text Version" feature sometime over the past week or so. A Google News Help thread has some complaints dating back to October 22nd.

Personally, I don't think I ever used the text option for Google News, but some have. I did spot a screen shot with the option on Flickr, over here, just look on the left hand column. Now, if you go to Google News, you won't see the "Text Version" link anymore.

Why did Google drop it? Fred from the Google News team said in the Google News Help thread:

We're always experimenting with ways to make Google News more useful. Occasionally, this also means we have to re-evaluate our efforts to be sure we focus on features that make the most sense for our users.

We decided to phase out Text view, in part, because we believe Headline view provides much of the same functionality. You can select Headline view and see all of the article links that Google News has to offer. If you're on a slow connection, Headline view should be faster than the default Google News homepage.

We apologize for any frustration this might cause. We remain committed to helping all of our readers discover as much news content as possible, while helping publishers find and reach new audiences online.

Farewell text version of Google News!

Forum discussion at Google News Help.

Five days after Google announced adding music playable search results to their index, I am now able to see it. It only took about five days, but it is there. Yes, Yahoo has been doing this for a really long time, so Google is playing catch up.

Here is a sample result:

And if you click the play button a window opens up and plays a sample of the song:

Just an FYI - Google had music search back in 2005, just about four years ago. But here is how it now works:

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

If you scope out Bondi Beach in Australia you will see a little easter egg:

See it? I would be shocked if this was not mentioned elsewhere or if this was not some public stunt that I missed.

But a Google Maps Help thread brought this to my attention.

Forum discussion at Google Maps Help.

A few days ago, we reported on complaints that Google Maps for Israel was in Hebrew, people wanted it to be English or to have the option. Well, Googler Dave updated the Google Maps Help thread to inform us it was a bug. He said:

Thank you for reporting this issue. This was due to a error in one of our internal software settings. We're aware of the problem and are working to return the language settings back to their previous state. I hope it won't take much longer for us to complete our fix, and we'll roll it out as soon as it's ready.

Now, I see English cities and data on the maps (new next to old):

English:

Hebrew:

Want Hebrew back? Just change the hl=en to hl=he in the URL, for example, here is the URL for Hebrew text, http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=he&geocode=&q=Jerusalem,+Israel&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=59.769082,101.601563&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=Jerusalem,+Israel&t=h&z=12.

Forum discussion at Google Maps Help.

I spotted this old thread at Google Maps Help that has very useful information and yet, we have not covered it (go figure). In short, the thread goes through the possibility of having a single business listed in your Google Local Business Center console multiple times. The questions are:

(1) Do you delete the repetitive listings?
(2) If so, which ones?
(3) If not, do you make sure they are in sync with each other?

For example, I have duplicate listings, two unverified, which I am afraid to delete:

Back in March, Joel H. from the Google Maps team wrote:

The only time you want to remove the listing from Maps is when the business is permanently closed OR you never want it to appear on Maps. If there are duplicates in your account, keep them. When I initially posted, I didn't think about the ongoing process we have to merge duplicate listings on Maps. Because we do our best to merge duplicate listings on Maps, it's possible that selecting Remove this listing from Google Maps may actually suppress a preferred listing in the future (the process of conflating listing happens regularly). We'll keep our eye out for duplicate, Local Business Center verified listings, and work to refine our systems to merge the right listings as soon as we can. Until then, keep the conversation going on this topic, and we'll be happy to continue to help as best we can.

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In the case of differing statistics (impressions/views), they are distinct listing on Maps, and Remove this listing from Google Maps is the right option. It's likely you'll want to choose the listing with less impressions or views.

Forum discussion at Google Maps Help.

Update: You also 100% want to check out Mike B's post on this.

Update 2: See Joel's comment (he works at Google):

There's a bit of confusion here - the 'Delete' link has two options:

- Remove this listing from Google Maps
- Remove this listing from my Local Business Center account

The first option should be avoided, per the warning you quoted. The second option won't cause a listings to be removed from Maps.

The second option won't cause a business to be removed from Maps entirely -- it will just delete it from your account. That's the option you should use to get rid of extra copies of your business in your Local Business Center account.

So, if you ever have more than one listing for the same business in your account, choose one to keep, and go ahead and select: 'Delete' > 'Remove this listing from my Local Business Center account' for the others. In this case, keep your verified listing and delete the others.

A thread at Google Web Search Help has a person from Turkey who is saying that him and many of his friends are happy that Google has a Doodle on

This person explained:

Google is my homepage and when i opened my browser today i saw that Google arranged a special logo for Republican day. Its really nice but my friends and i wonder if why the colour of logo is green? It has to be red colour actually, which is our flame colour. But we feel really disturbed since the colour is green because green colour means islamic pressure and terror since we've been in hard times because of mentioned situations.

Do people in Turkey really think Google made the logo green to support terrorism? Should Google have known to make this logo red instead?

Forum discussion at Google Web Search Help.

The big news the other day was on the Google Maps Navigation for the new Android 2.0 OS which will run first on the Verizon Wireless Droid starting November 6th for $199 with a contract.

Android is not as 'sexy' as the iPhone, but the Google Maps Navigation tool is an extremely 'sexy' application that make iPhone users drool. Just take a look at this video demo:

Heck, it makes me want to buy my wife a Droid, even though I know she won't use 99% of the features. Don't worry, I won't get her a Droid, but I will encourage one of my employees to pick one up so we can mess around with the device.

Will these features ever come to the iPhone? Possibly. Who wouldn't want a free navigation system on their phone? Heck, Google's application looks way better than most paid options.

Why is Google doing this for free? I assume data collection and the ads they can eventually embed in the software.

Forum discussion at Google Mobile Help and WebmasterWorld.

An ongoing Google Mobile Help thread with complaints on the Google Mobilizer feature has an update on that feature. In short, Google Mobilizer will convert a web page to make it render better on mobile devices. Google has updated it to include a "new mobilizer engine, which is faster, cleaner, closer to the look of the unadapted page," said Zeke from the Google Mobile team.

Zeke explained how to access this one devices:

On most devices:
1. Go to www.google.com
2. Go to Settings, turn "Format pages for your phone" to On, and be sure to Save.
3. Do a search. Clicking on search results will take you to the Google Mobilizer

On some smartphones:
- Go to www.google.com
- Do a search. Click on Options (next to each search result) and select "Mobile formatted". You should get a mobilized page.

Here is a sample of how it works on my iPhone:

Here is how the mobilized page looks like:

You can actually see it yourself on any browser, via this URL.

Forum discussion at Google Mobile Help.

There have been some recent complaints in the Google Maps Help forum from English speaking people who live in Israel. In short, Google seems to have recently changes the Israel data to show street and city names in Hebrew (עברית).

Here is one complaint:

I too am having the same problem, in Israel for a month and it worked perfectly in English till two days ago then poof it changed to Hebrew which makes it very difficult for us English speakers.

Yes, Google Maps in Israel was in English and now is in Hebrew. Here are pictures:

Do keep in mind, embedding maps, maps on mobile devices or via the API for Israel show basically nothing due to licensing rights. The only way to see this level of detail is accessing maps.google.com on your desktop. But that is an other complaint.

Forum discussions at Google Maps Help.

Update: This was a bug and is now fixed.

You heard about the Twitter news from Bing and Google but did you see the video demo from Google's Marissa Mayer on how Google will handle searches within the social network of an individual? If Google knows who your friends and family are, they can make image search, product search, web search, much more personalized.

Want to see how? Check out this video of Google's Social Search labs project that hopefully will launch in the next couple of weeks.

For many, handing over such data to Google can seriously improve the 'relevancy' of many of their search queries. But those worried about privacy should realize that for Google to get this information, you probably need to provide it.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

I spotted an old Google Maps Help thread that reported that in the past, a competitor was able to add a coupon to this guys business listing. So if you visited his business, you would see a coupon for another company. Clearly this guy was upset and it seemed like Google may have never resolved his issue (it is unclear).

It seems like now some business owners are having trouble deleting live coupons from their Google Local Business Listing. For example, Chautauqua Lodge has a coupon that doesn't look all that professional:

I wonder if it is still possible to add coupons to competitors local business listings in Google Maps.

Forum discussion at Google Maps Help.

I am a huge Google Reader, in fact, I might be one of the most active Google Reader users on the planet. So when they add features, I get a bit giddy. Yesterday, they added two features; an explore section and magic sorting.

The explore section loops in "recommended" sources, which is an old feature, but also adds "popular." Popular basically shows you what Google deems to be important RSS items on the web but personalized based on my reader and web history. So it shows me items I may have missed that are popular and likely to be on interest to me. I can tell you that most of the items in my popular section were not exactly of interest to me. But if I am ever bored (not likely) I may browse that section in the future. This feature does get better as you "like" and "share" items in Google Reader.

The magic sorting is pretty neat, it basically sorts all your unread items in order of what they think would be most important to you. Like the previous feature, the magic sort gets better as you "like" and "share" items in Google Reader. I can see this feature being useful for many Google Reader users, but for me, I don't mind going through the feeds in old-school chronological order - being that I have to go through every feed anyway.

Forum discussion at Google Reader Help.

I always find it weird writing the word "cut" after mentioning Matt Cutts, but sometimes you just have to do it.

Remember when we 'reported' that Matt Cutts of Google became the hot guy of the industry after having his hair shaved off? We posted some videos on that in that post, but just yesterday, the Google Webmaster Central team celebrated their one millionth view on YouTube with a video of the actual hair cut at Google.

Here it is for all to enjoy.

Matt is a great sport! I wonder if he is still sporting the hairless look or if he is growing it back for the winter?

Forum discussion at DigitalPoint Forums and Google Webmaster Help.