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:
- Google Was Down, Says Google & Twitter & Me
Google went down sometime around 3pm (EST) for many people. I know it was down for me in New York and if you look at tweets around that time for [google down] you will see hundreds of people saying the same thing. But it is even neater to use Google's new Twitter Search and if you go to a search on [google down] on there, you will see a massive spike around 3pm to 3:30pm - Google Showing "Brands For..." In Google Jazz Interface
Malcolm Coles spotted a possible new feature in Google Search. This feature is only in the colorful Google Jazz interface, and shows up for searches like [digital cameras], [cheap laptops], [label printers], [fishing rod] and others. Basically, Google is showing "brands for" the products you are searching for. For example, if you search for digital cameras, Google may show you Canon, Olympus, Sony and so on in this top brand filter. Here is a screen - Google AdSense Tries New Layouts & New Features Ads Light Bulbs
A WebmasterWorld thread has a couple AdSense publishers reporting that Google is testing a new AdSense layout. The new layout hows the ad title and ad description on a single line. This is instead of showing the ad title and then a break and then a ad description. Here is a picture of the new ad format, which I found on Digital Inspiration: Another thing I noticed, which may not be all that new, is - Are Mobile Sites A Duplicate Content Issue?
Bryson Meunier wrote a piece at Search Engine Land named Don't Penalize Yourself: Mobile Sites Are Not Duplicate Content. The article basically explains that if you have a mobile web address, i.e. different URLs for your mobile content, with the same content you have on your main URLs, it is NOT duplicate content. He said, Google is smart enough to figure out your mobile content is not duplicate to your main content - because they - Google UK Drop UK Country Filter?
In an ongoing and constantly updated WebmasterWorld thread, it appears some people are reporting major shifts in Google UK. People are saying that the search results dramatically changed. But some suspect that the UK specific filter that makes Google UK, umm, UK specific, was turned off. Here are some of the reports in the thread: I have noticed that all of a sudden my rankings are back to when caffine done it's first roll out. - Google Starts Caring About Canada, Changes Maps Data Provider
I believe there is a saying that Canada is under appreciated and people tend to overlook the country due to their neighbors. I believe I heard the phrase, once or twice, that "no one cares about Canada," or something like that. If you tracked the various Google Maps forums, you would have seen many complaints about Google Maps data in Canada. Not only is the data often stale, it is often inaccurate in some places.
Other Great Search Forum Threads:
- AOL Sells ICQ To DST For $187.5 Million, WebmasterWorld
- The Definitive Guide to Web Spam for SEOs, Sphinn
- beta YouTube player, Google Blogoscoped Forum
- Doodle Karl Drais, Google Blogoscoped Forum
- Hackers Abuse Servage Hosting to Poison Google Image Search, Google Blogoscoped Forum
- Link Building Campaign Prep: 6 Steps BEFORE You Start Link Prospecting, Sphinn
- Offering a "gadget" to get a link, WebmasterWorld
