Today’s search podcast covers Googler execs selling stock but not buying; is
the Washington Post’s new text links ad program for bloggers heading for
problems with search engines?; goodbye to some old-school blog search engines;
another click fraud lawsuit filed against Google; Google gains
googlecheckout.com from someone who was planning the so-called “Go Ogle
Checkout” dating site and more!
Tune-in by listening to this
MP3
file, listening via WebmasterRadio
at 11:30am Eastern and repeated at 2pm Eastern Tuesday through Friday, via our
Odeo channel or through
iTunes via this
link (or use alternative iTunes instructions explained
here) or
though our Yahoo Podcasts
channel. Need more help tuning in live or finding the chat room? See the
Daily
SearchCast FAQ.
- Aug. 18,
2006 Search News Forecast: Sunny!
After reviewing Techmeme, scanning over 100 feeds and consulting with Barry
Schwartz on search forums activity, the official Search Engine Watch Blog
forecast for search news today is sunny.
- Googlers
Only Have Sold GOOG Stock – Cause Of Drop In Stock Price?
Bloomberg has a very interesting report on why they believe Google’s stock has
been falling this year, down about 7 percent this year. They say that Google’s
executives have sold off a boatload of stock since the IPO….
- Google
Data Refresh: More Supplemental Results?
Wednesday night, Thursday morning, forum threads starting popping up about a
Google “data refresh” taking place. A data refresh is like a small Google
update, and many webmasters have noticed a change in the search results at
Google. Google has not yet confirmed that there has been an update, nor has
there been a ton of discussion on the topic, as of yet. That is why I believe
this is a “data refresh” and not a full fledge algorithmic change. Part of the
data refresh seems to have put many pages into the supplemental index, an
index that no webmaster…
Washington Post Selling Text Links?
Steve Rubel reported that the Washington Post launched a sponsored blogroll
product that allows people to pay to be listed in the blogroll. You can see it
live on the right hand bottom portion of the WashingtonPost.com web site. I
dug into the source code to discover the blogroll is not using the search
engine suggested nofollow attribute, which Google in particular pushes to be
used for paid links. However, it is using some sort of JavaScript tracking
code, that may or may not limit the PageRank and link popularity to flow to
those sites advertised….
- Seevast:
It’s Kanoodle & More
Catching up on some industry news earlier this month, Kanoodle has done some
restructuring. Previously, Kanoodle offered both search and contextual ads.
Now, Kanoodle only offers search ads. Contextual ads are being sold through a
sister business unit, Pulse 360. Meanwhile, the Moniker domain traffic service
has been acquired and will run as a third sister business. Above all of these
is a new operating company, Seevast. For more, see this ClickZ story: Kanoodle
Makes Acquisition, Becomes Seevast….
- So Long
Daypop & Blogdex
Back in 2003, I wrote about a number of blog search engines emerging at that
time. Feedster was brand new and Technorati still pretty young. Both were
babies compared to Daypop and Blogdex. Sadly, Gary Price over at ResourceShelf
notes in A Brief Tribute to Dan Chan, Daypop, and MIT’s Blogdex that neither
of these pioneering services has made it to 2006….
- Third
Click Fraud Lawsuit Filed Against Google, But Does It Even Have A Chance?
Third Time’s a Charm? Google Sued for Click Fraud (Again) from eWeek covers
Google being sued for click fraud again. This follows on the recent settlement
in the Lane’s Gifts class action click fraud case, a settlement that makes it
questionable whether this new case will even succeed….
- Levi.com
Quietly Drops Google Checkout Due To A “Particular Issue”
MarketWatch reports that Levi Strauss & Co.’s has dropped the Google Checkout
option from Levi.com, their main web site. Steve Davis, from the firm that
Levi used to integrated Checkout, said they dropped it from Levi.com due to a
“particular issue,” which was not disclosed (as far as I can tell). What is
important to note is that Levi Strauss left Google Checkout on the dockers.com
web site, so that issue couldn’t of been a huge one or even a global issue (I
suspect). I personally have yet to implement Google Checkout on any site, so I
cannot speak from…
- Fighting
For GoogleCheckout.com & More Google Complaints Against Others Who Registered
Google-Like Domain Names
ResourceShelf has compiled sources of historical complaints Google has issued
to those who have registered Google-like domain names…
- More On
Google’s Warp Speed Run Into The Star Trek Convention
I wrote earlier about how Google was going to be hunting for engineers at the
5th Annual Official Star Trek Convention this week in Las Vegas. Now more news
about that and more….