Kingish.com It's a way of life

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.

Techmeme is buzzing about the news that Yahoo Japan has selected Google to power its search engine, as opposed to Bing, which is powering Yahoo here in the U.S.

I can honestly say, I am not surprised. Yahoo Japan had the option to go with Bing or someone else like Google and they picked Google. Back in the day, before Yahoo had their own search engine, Google powered Yahoo's search results (screen shot).

The Google Japan blog wrote about it and Yahoo Japan published a press release. Here is the translated text...

Google:

From 2004 to 2001, Yahoo Inc., Google was providing search engine. And, today announced that the technology was licensed to search again for Yahoo Inc. Based on this non-exclusive agreement, Yahoo Inc. (a subsidiary of Softbank, Yahoo has invested some) is, Google is the fastest in Japan, and confidence is the most advanced will be able to provide users with search technology. In addition, Yahoo Inc. auction, shopping and Answers and content to be added to the Google provides search results in Japanese. This is both more comprehensive services can increase the effect.

Yahoo Inc. Yahoo! JAPAN on the site, for users to fit their own, Google is able to provide customized search services Search service. This is the Yahoo! JAPAN which will look like on the site search service, including such things as how you can experience the user search. As a result, users Yahoo! JAPAN on the site, and Google will continue on the site is considered to be a different experience.

Google is also for Yahoo Inc. to provide search advertising delivery platform. In other words, Google's technology to provide search advertising for Yahoo Inc., will be the target and report back end support. Yahoo Inc. will perform the acquisition and development of advertising campaigns continue. The data for advertisers and advertising companies and are kept completely separate.

Both companies are independent operators as far as deploying search services and advertising services, without sharing information about customers and prices will continue to be actively competing in the Japanese market will continue. Through this transaction, also spurred innovation in advertising and search each other, but more restrictive conflict involving other companies, ultimately we hope to bring about better services for users and partners.

And the Yahoo release also has an image and a FAQs:

Q1: Google Does a partnership with a range where? A1: The deal is subject to the Web, images, video, mobile 4 in the area are limited to receiving the service delivery system search engine and search advertising.

Q2: Google rival and what happens?
A2: Google is Yahoo! JAPAN offers a search engine for. However, Yahoo! JAPAN is for users to fit, YST / YSM as Yahoo! JAPAN tweak your own with our customized Google search services. This is the Yahoo! Japan will look like on the site of the search service which includes such things as how you can experience the user search. As a result, users Yahoo! Japan on the site, and Google will continue on the site is considered to be a different experience.
?Google is also Yahoo! JAPAN to provide sponsored search results distribution system. In other words, Google's technology, Yahoo! JAPAN provide search advertising will be supported by the target and back-end reports. However, Yahoo! JAPAN will perform its own acquisition and development of advertising campaigns continue. The data of both advertisers and advertising, customer and price information will be retained search services available to completely separate.
?Through the deal, spurring further innovation in advertising and search each other, we will compete, including areas other than the more restrictive the search service but also involving other companies.

Q3: duration of the contract, the right to update what's going on?
A3: distribution system to provide search advertising search engine Yahoo! JAPAN term of the contract is received by the first two years after Yahoo! JAPAN will be automatically extended by two years but they refuse. If it is possible to update both sides agree about that later. In addition, Yahoo! JAPAN term contract offer from Google in the first two years the data will be updated in principle, then an additional two years. If both parties agree for a later, can be updated every two years.

Q4: Yahoo! JAPAN how to provide better data from what?
A4: Google will collect data by robots now (crawling), but to the future, Yahoo! JAPAN to be provided directly from, and is reflected in faster search results page is updated, the freshness of the search Better search and up will be better used for your convenience.

Q5: The Future Yahoo! Inc. What is the relationship between changes in there?
A5: This change is the only delivery system provides a search engine and search advertising, Yahoo! Inc. Is still in search services and other services Yahoo! JAPAN change is not a strategic partner. Capital will continue the current relationship.

Q6: What impact will a performance?
A6: In the short term will probably not have much effect. In the long term, Yahoo! JAPAN things better and sponsored search services and search services will maximize sales.

Q7: What is the timing of when did you move?
A7: as soon as possible, is now considering a more even distribution system to help move the search engine and search advertising.

Q8: Yahoo! Inc. Once you've completed the YST and switching YSM, Yahoo! JAPAN immediately stop what they can to support?
A8: No, the distribution system search engine and search advertising in Japan to switch to Google, Yahoo! JAPAN is supported by the popularity of the search service will continue to operate YST YSM and continued development.

Q9: What would change in a user-friendly search service of the deal?
A9: We will continue to provide support to our views that the current user interface, change your experience in particular. Yahoo! JAPAN is for users to fit, YST / YSM as Yahoo! JAPAN tweak your own with our customized Google search services. This is the Yahoo! JAPAN which will look like on the site search service, including such things as how you can experience the user search. As a result, users Yahoo! JAPAN on the site, and Google will continue on the site is considered to be a different experience.

Q10: What's Fair Trade Commission has been consulted on this matter?
A10: The consultation and the Japanese Fair Trade Commission in advance, we have confirmed is unquestionable.

Q11: impact on competition in the Japanese search service?
A11: Google and Yahoo! JAPAN even with the same search engine, Yahoo! JAPAN is able to provide customized search services, and to provide our own user interface as conventional We will. Thus, Google will compete with the situation and other competitors is not different in any way.

Q12: Yahoo! JAPAN formerly Yahoo! Inc. I have received offers from other search engines?
A12: Yahoo! JAPAN transition to supplement the search engine directory search service, from March 2001 until May 1998 from the goo, then from May 2004 until April 2001 Google Orimashita by us.

Q13: Yahoo! JAPAN Softbank Mobile (SBM) that provides mobile search, the opportunity to change something in this case available?
A13: No, Yahoo! JAPAN mobile search service, with mobile advertising, as in the past will provide the SBM.

Q14: Do you have a financial impact?
A14: There is no profit impact significantly change the structure.

Q15: impact on advertising revenue?
A15: The experience has changed the search advertising delivery system in the past, the impact could be minimal. We aim to maximize revenue and better services now taking this opportunity as well.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld and Google Blogoscoped Forums.

Tedster started a thread at WebmasterWorld about aged links. He said that there is a debate about if search engines, such as Google, "age" links. If they do, is aging a link a good thing or a bad thing? He came up with four possibilities of what an aged link can mean and it includes:

(1) One is that as months go by and a backlink stays in place, then it potentially gets a bit of a boost - because it's more trusted as it proves that it's stable.

(2) Another possibility is that as a linking page ages and show no further life, no change, and gathering no further backlinks of its own, then the links it offers to target pages have less and less value.

(3) And yet another is that a new fresh backlink is at its most powerful when first found - part of the "freshness" obsession.

(4) And then there's still another point of view - that the patents don't mean very much and that a backlink's value will only change as the linking page's own value goes up or down, or the number of links on the page changes.

Do you agree that links age over time and if so, which route do they age in?

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Google announced an update to Google Maps for Android. The big update is a new "Places" feature that allows you to find places near you via Google Maps.

Places is a separate "App" that can be found self installed after you update your current Google Maps app on your Android device.

You click on places and it asks you what places near you do you want to find. Such as restaurants, coffee, bars, hotels, attractions, ATMs, gas stations and more. When you click on a place, you can pretty much check into the place via Google Buzz or read about it, get driving directions and so on.

This reminds me a lot of Foursquare, which let's you check into places. The only main difference is that you don't get badges for checking in. You do however get tips.

Forum discussion at Google Mobile Help.

For those of you with multi-lingual web sites, you want to make sure to keep your languages set on each URL of your web site. Try not to have some English and some French on the same page, keep the different languages on different pages when possible.

A Google Webmaster Help thread has Google's JohnMu clearly saying you do not want two different languages on the same page. He said:

In general, we recommend sticking to a single language per page. If you have multi-lingual content on your website, I'd recommend using separate pages per language. Our language recognition tries to find the most relevant language from your content, so that we can send you users searching in that language. Having the language in the URL (as Robbo suggested) is a great way to make the language of the pages clear to users, so if you can do that, it might make sense (Google determines the language based on the content, so it's not necessary for us).

Of course, there are exceptions.

Forum discussion at Google Webmaster Help.

If you do a search for [tenacious] or persistent] or other words and Google may show you a redesigned definitions box. Here is a picture:

As you can see, it is placed at the top of the results and has links to four online dictionaries. The dictionaries include Dictionary.com, Answers.com, Merriam-Webster & The Free Dictionary.

Google wrote about the change on Sunday. They didn't mention the new look of the result or the new links added, but did say they added "implicit triggering, which means you can simply search for [flummox] and find the definition, you don't have to search for [define flummox] or [what is flummox]." Google also said they "improved the definition result snippet to show more details such as parts of speech and pronunciation."

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

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.

Google's Matt Cutts spoke at a SEO conference in Belgium named Search University II. He spoke for about twenty minutes about a lot of SEO topics. The specific topic he put more stress on was about hacked sites - which is a big concern out there. I'll post the video below for all to watch.

I spotted three relevant threads over the weekend, so I thought I discuss them all in this single post.

A Google Web Search Help thread has a classic example of a site being hacked to target a search query that is timely. The search query was mentioned on TV, a site was hacked to take advantage of it and the first result was impacted. The thread creator said:

I happened to be watching Deadliest Catch on Discovery tonight and when I went to Google and searched for 'phil harris' the top result is corneliamarie.com but the title of the search result is:

Cheap Cipro (Ciprofloxacin) Online - Reliable Online DrugStore...

Google's JohnMu was quick to respond, saying:

It looks like that website has been modified (probably by a third-party) to return pharmaceutical content to Google. In other words, when Googlebot looked at those pages, we saw something with that title (you can see the whole page by clicking on the "Cached" link for the search result), and not the content that you see when you visit yourself. This is something the website owner needs to fix, so I sent a short email to let them know about it :).

Matt Cutts said Google would take immediate action on certain sites that are hacked or intentionally are manipulating the results, when necessary. In a case like this, where a computer can be infected, you can see Google pull the result quickly.

A WebmasterWorldthread talks about Google hand editing search results. The consensus in that thread is that Google does not hand edit the top 10 results, but of course, when spam or hacked content gets in, they would.

In a Google Webmaster Help thread, Googler JohnMu gives advice to a webmaster who recently saw his site hacked. John said:

- You can help verify the age of a cached page by automatically adding today's date to your pages (it could be in a HTML comment, if you want).

- Set up Google Alerts for your site with problematic keywords (eg add "site:eliwhitney.org viagra|ringtones|casino" as an alert). Google Alerts is a fast way to get notified of new, potentially problematic content.

- Use the "Fetch as Googlebot" feature to double-check any suspicious page.

And now for that video:

Forum discussion at Google Webmaster Help.

A featured WebmasterWorld thread is titled "Shocked to See Many Sites Using My Adsense Code." It is a common story, you have a popular site with Google AdSense ads on them. There are many people out there that copy your site and put it on their own spammy sites. They not only copy your content, but copy your AdSense code.

Great! You get money for people stealing your content! Not so fast! Yes, you may get some incremental income from those who stole your content, but it may also lead to Google thinking that site is owned by you and ultimately get you banned from AdSense due to violating their spam guidelines.

Seems ridiculous? Perhaps, but it is not unheard of. Some have thought that this is why DigitalPoint was banned from AdSense until someone at Google took a closer look.

Heck, even Brett Tabke, the founder of WebmasterWorld, said:

That is a classic AdSense attack. Someone is trying to get you kicked out of AdSense by linking you to a bad neighborhood.

Getting a site listed on a block list such as repetitive email spammer, malware host, or phising host will get a hand check on that site 100% of that time if it is in the AdSense program.

People specifically try to get sites banned from using AdSense over this type of spam attack. It works and it is hard for both the publisher and Google to stay on top of.

Yes, AdSense built an allowed sites feature, but I never use it. I don't care to spend my time allowing each site manually. Plus, this feature was added as an afterthought years after AdSense went live. Honestly, I am not sure why it was ever set up this way. Allowed sites should have been the method originally.

You sign up, you add a site/application to the list of sites allowed to show ads and you stick generic ad code on the site. Google then determines who the ad income goes to based on the site or application showing the ad. Yes, this would kill revenue sharing forums and sites as they are set up now, but there are other ways to set that up.

As a publisher, I don't and I won't spend my time looking for sites trying to hurt me. I will spend time trying to build relevant, useful content that helps my audience and I enjoy writing.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

One of the more typical questions you find in the Google Webmaster Help forums is why do not search query reports in Google Webmaster Tools look wrong.

In one explanation from a Googler, he explains how the numbers actually work. Google employee, Asaph Zemach, said in the thread:

The keywords you see in webmaster tools "Search Queries" feature correspond to the AdWords tools when you set your matching mode to "[exact]" (use the box at the bottom left of the screen). If you do that you will see that the total monthly search volume for [trading software] is actually 14,800. What the information in WMT is telling you is that of those ~15K queries, you showed up in ~2400 with an average position of 8. Given that your site ranks towards the bottom of the page, it's quite likely that under different circumstances (different users, different locales, etc) it would drift between the first and second page, so the ratio of 2400 impressions for you vs 15K global impressions does not seem unreasonable.

This may be one of the clearest and most precise answers I have seen to this question. Of course, it is pretty detailed and specific but if you read it a few times, it should make things crystal clear.

Forum discussion at Google Webmaster Help.

As many of you know, Google recently redesign Google News and yea, made several tweaks after the never ending user complaints. Still people hate it but one of the biggest issues prior to the redesign was not being able to block sites you don't want to show up on Google News.

Most of those complaints come from people who either hate conservative angled news sources or hate liberal news sources. Last December we wrote a post on how many people were upset over Fox News showing in Google News. I suggested Google News should add a liberal - conservative slider. But instead, they added "news settings" or "source preferences."

To access it, go to Google News, click on the settings at the top right and then select news settings:

You are then taken to a form where you can personalize your news tastes by telling Google sites you like or dislike:

So for all of you who love or hate Fox News, you can now actually change how Google News shows you news.

This should be applauded.

Forum discussion at Google News Help.

Yahoo has one upped Google today, with a special logo for the 20th anniversary or birthday of the Americans with Disabilities Act. The act was set up on July 26, 1990 by the 101st United States Congress. You can learn more about this law at Wikipedia.

Google has no mention of the important day on Google.com, but Yahoo does. Here is Yahoo's animated logo:

Here is a static version of the logo:

The logo links to yahoo.com/accessibility/2010/.

Forum discussion at Google Blogoscoped Forums.

This week at the Search Engine Roundtable, I show screen shots of Bing actually powering Yahoo. Yes, up to 25% of Yahoo's search sessions will be powered by Bing. Google misclassified some sites as parked domains, killing their rankings. Google did a minor PageRank update. Twitter is ranking incredibly well in Google. Bing revamped their Webmaster Tools, there are pros and cons. Google totally redesigned Google Images, again, pros and cons. Google continued to test pink backgrounds for AdWords ads. Google finally restored the AdSense publisher who was hacked and out $25,000. Google Places charts and reports are delayed. Google, Microsoft and Yahoo all announced earnings this week. Half of the SEOs out there don't listen to Matt's nofollow advice. SEOs are also split on buying links from brokers or not. The logos from this week include Moon Day, Nam June Paik, Columbia Doodle, Alphonse Mucha, P.S. Kroyer and today is Hot Dog day. That was this past week at the Search Engine Roundtable.

Make sure to subscribe to our video feed or subscribe directly on iTunes to be notified of these updates and download the video in the background. You can also watch this live and ask questions during the show, typically Friday mornings around 9:30 (EST) at seroundtable.com/live, follow @rustybrick to be notified when we air. Here is the YouTube version of the feed:

For the original iTunes version, click here.

Search Topics of Discussion:

• Screen Shot: I Am Seeing Bing Results on Yahoo
• Searchers Seeing Bing Powered Yahoo Results
• Google Misclassifying Some Sites As Parked Domains & Booting Them From Search Results?
• Minor Google PageRank Update : July 2010
• Twitter Usernames Ranking Very Well in Google
• Bing Launches New Webmaster Tools, Drops Link Reports
• Webmasters Complain Over New Google Image Design
• More Pink Google AdWords Ads
• Google Restores Hacked & Robbed AdSense Account
• Google Places (Maps) Reports Delayed
• Google, Yahoo & Microsoft Report Earnings (GOOG, YHOO, MSFT)
• 50% Of SEOs Use Nofollows Internally & 50% Don't
• SEOs Split On Buying Links From Brokers
• Today Is Moon Day, Google's Nam June Paik & Columbia Logos
• Google's Alphonse Mucha & P.S. Krøyer Logos & Hot Dog Day

Please do subscribe via iTunes or on your favorite RSS reader. Don't forget to comment below with the right answer and good luck!

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.

Google (GOOG), Yahoo (YHOO) and Microsoft (MSFT) all reported earnings this week. Overall, I think the only company that truly impress analysts and wall street was Microsoft. Let me quickly share the financial statements with you and forum discussion.

Google's announcement highlights as I see it:

• Revenue up 24% to $6.82 billion.
• Paid clicks decreased approximately 3% from the previous quarter.
• Cost per click increased approximately 2% from previous quarter.
• Net income was up a bit, cash is up and head counts are up.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Yahoo's PDF release as I see it:

• Revenue up slightly
• Income up a lot
• It is hard to get PPC and CPC data from this report

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Microsoft's announcement as I see it:

• Revenue at $16.04 billion, up 22%
• Operating and net income both up about 50%, $5.93 billion and $4.52 billion, respectively.
• Online advertising revenue increased $79 million or 19% to $494 million
• Specific PPC and CPC data is hard to find

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

A WebmasterWorld thread has two moderators offering some basic tips on how to garner more links for your web site.

The easiest method is to find links you already have but might not be counting.

Buckworks from the forum suggested using Google Webmaster Tools, going to the "Not Found" report in crawl errors and making sure to 301 redirect those URLs to the relevant URLs that currently exist on your site.

Yes, this is a basic SEO tip, not just for link building but for overall good SEO practice. We know it only takes a couple weeks for a 301 to pass the link juice from the old URL to the new. But we also know there is a minor dampening factor for 301ed link juice.

The moderator of the WebmasterWorld link building forum, martinibuster, also suggested that you look for links to pages that don't really link anywhere. Pages such like PDF files, Word documents, and other non-HTML pages and suggest the linker link to the HTML page instead.

There are tons of tips like this, so make sure to join the thread and chime in.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

We had two PageRank updates in June of this year already. However, this latest Toolbar PageRank update seems to be relatively minor and impacts only a small percentage of web sites out there.

Starting on June 20th or June 21st, some people began reporting seeing their PageRank change in the Google Toolbar.

We have threads at DigitalPoint Forums and several at Google Webmaster Help.

This is minor, most people were not impacted. It may be one of those PageRank penalty cycles where sites are hit for buying or selling links. But again, it is a minor update and not noticed by most.

Forum discussion at DigitalPoint Forums and Google Webmaster Help.

If you visit Google Germany today, you should see a logo for P.S. Krøyer. P.S. was born 159 years ago on July 23, 1851 and died in November of 1909. He was a well-known Norwegian-Danish painter and the most liked Skagen Painters. Here is that Doodle:

Tomorrow, if you visit Google Czech Republic you should see a Doodle for Alphonse Mucha. Alphonse Mucha was born a 150 years ago and was a well-known Czech Art Nouveau painter and decorative artist. He was best known for his art of women. Here is that Doodle, discovered TOMHTML two days early:

Finally, today is national Hot Dog day, so we have a theme for that here:

Forum discussion at Search Engine Roundtable Forums, Google Blogoscoped Forums.

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.

I spotted two isolated issues where a Googler confirmed a weird bug in Google's web search & quality classification system. TheJack from Google posted responses in two different Google Webmaster Help threads.

On one he said a site was having issues showing up in Google's search results due to Google having "misclassified the site as a parked domain." He added:

Looks we misclassified the site as a parked domain. Apologies that you were hit by this bug. We're working on getting this fixed. Should be cleared up in the next couple days.

This specific problem was only effecting this particular site. Outside of Google there's no way to tell unfortunately when this type of issue crops up. These are very rare occurrences so best thing for folks to do is to post here if they are seeing very fishy things happening with their ranking.

I then spotted an additional thread within the same time frame where TheJack, a Google employee, said a similar thing:

The drop in ranking is in no way related to anything you've done. This was simply a bug in one of our classifiers. Being fixed now so you should see things go back to normal over the next couple weeks.

This was a very specific issue. It was just this particular site, no cause for alarm.

He recommends, in some cases, if you are having issues with your rankings, it's best to post them at Google's forums.

Forum discussion at Google Webmaster Help.