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:
- Video Recap of Weekly Search Buzz :: March 26, 2010
This week the big news was that Bing updated their user interface a bit and also added Foursquare checkins to Bing Maps. Google is testing a domain instead of IP address for cache access. Google's English or /NCR interface is not working for Chinese users, it is a bug. Another Google Bug was thought to be a Chinese hack. AdWords launched "Search Funnels" that helps tracks keywords that assisted in conversions. Google may stop partners - Google Webmaster Tools Verification Goes Down
There are dozens of reports in the Google Webmaster Verification Help section from disgruntled webmasters where they cannot verify their web sites with Google Webmaster Tools. Jonathan Simon and other Googlers are replying to webmasters that this is a bug and will be fixed soon. In one Google Webmaster Help thread, Jonathan said: Our verification service has been experiencing intermittent issues today. Please retry verifying your site and post back here if you're still seeing - Google To Fix Google China Bug With /NCR URL
We all know what is going on with Google and China. But a few days ago we reported a weird occurrence where Chinese Google users cannot access Google.com not even through the google.com/ncr URL which should give international users access to Google.com. Rubin from the Google web search team posted a thread at Google Web Search Help explaining that this issue is indeed a bug. He said: There is currently a bug on the google.com.hk - Google Backs 3rd Part AdWords Webinar by Top Forum Contributor
As you know, Google hosts webinars every now and then, especially for AdWords related training and sales. Sarah from the Google AdWords team posted about a new webinar in the Google AdWords Help discussion forums. The difference here is that this webinar is not run by Google, instead it is run by a respected top contributor in the Google AdWords forum. Sarah said: I am excited to announce that one of our Top Contributors, MrsC, - Speculation: Google To Disallow Search Partners From Changing User's Default Settings
Before I even start, I want to say this is high on the speculation meter. A single post at WebmasterWorld said he heard via an investor, Bill Burnham, that Google is changing their policies for traffic partners. The specific policy they are changing, as said in the thread, is that Google is considering changing their policies to prevent search traffic partners from changing users' home page & default search settings. That means, if you are - Bing Updates UI, Improves Search Results & Adds Foursquare to Maps
Bing announced feature upgrades to Bing at SES New York yesterday, if you missed it, you can read our live blog coverage of the announcement. The announcement included the following updates to Bing: Updated user interface designed to get the answer fasterMore celebrity and sport answersWay to filter auto resultsMobile improvements with Windows 7Foursquare added to Bing Mapsand more Here are some screen captures: Overall, the new features are welcomed to Bing. Forum discussion at
Other Great Search Forum Threads:
- AdWords Remarketing For Content Network, WebmasterWorld
- There is No Duplicate Content Penalty, Sphinn
- Great Keynote from Yusuf about Bing today!, Bing Community
- Open ended URL's - why not close them with trailing dash or something., WebmasterWorld
- Strange Adwords non-English message on logout, WebmasterWorld
