Daily Search Forum Recap: June 5, 2008

Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today, through the eyes of the Search Engine Roundtable and other search forums on the web.

Search Engine Roundtable Stories:

• Beware of More Google AdWords Phishing Scams
  Over the past few days, I have personally received about six emails from a phishing scam asking me to renew my Google AdWords account. The email originates from customersolutions--ysm@google.com but is really masked from the server pacobond.com, I believe. The renewal link goes to http://yms-words.com/adwords/select/Login.htm, which is clearly not Google, so don't go there. Here is a screen capture of one of those emails: Annoys me how they ask again, at the bottom, for: Please
• Yahoo Directory Has No PageRank
  Just a few weeks ago, people started noticing that the Yahoo Directory lost Google PageRank. Well, not the home page of the Yahoo Directory, but the inside directory listing pages. The pages that link to your site and, in the past, past PageRank and link juice. I am skimming through the pages, even the pages closest to the top of the directory are showing nothing in terms of Google PageRank. For example, the arts section
• Google Downgrades .Info TLDs Again?
  Just over a week ago, we had reports that Google dropped most .info TLDs from the search results. Today, we are getting more early reports of the same thing happening, after it recovered quickly last time. We have reports from DigitalPoint Forums and new posts at the old WebmasterWorld thread. Here are some quotes: Looks like Google is doing more experimenting - my .info is once again gone from the SERPS. I have lost again
• Can Google's First Click Free Program be Used for Web Search?
  Last night, I had a nice chat with Googler, JohnMu. I joked around with John, asking if he has messed up yet, in terms of Google communication with webmasters. He said not really - which I agree with. But he knows I am waiting for him to slip up and I may have found it. A new Google Groups thread asks about using Google News's First Click Free program within web search. I.e. if you
• SMX Advanced 2008 Conference Coverage Recap
  What an outstanding two days of search marketing. SMX Advanced Seattle 2008 is now complete. The sessions were awesome, the food was delicious and the networking was excellent. I am proud to say we were able to cover twenty sessions between Tamar, David Wallace, Justin Davy and myself. Thank you for your help guys, I personally appreciate it and I know the industry appreciates it also. Here is the coverage recap: Day One: Keynote with

Other Great Search Forum Threads:

• Email from Google - Is it real?, DigitalPoint Forums
• Google Crawling HTML Forms IS Harmful to Your Rankings, Sphinn
• Google Takes R&D Offices at NASA Lab, WebmasterWorld
• google.com/sponsoredlinks is broken?, WebmasterWorld
• New "Site Search" Service From Google, WebmasterWorld
• Out-of-stock product pages, redirect or not redirect?, Search Engine Watch Forums