Today’s search podcast covers concerns that Google is letting too much spam
through; concerns that all the search engines could do better; Google pulling a
question about itself from Google Answers; search engines ask for federal
guidelines on privacy; Ask helps treasure hunters 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.
Below are links to items discussed:
- Google
Yanks Sites 5 Billion Pages After Spam Complaint
I covered a DigitalPoint thread which uncovered several domains that was able
to rank billions of pages at the top of the Google results within a couple of
weeks. The methods deployed to rank the pages seemed to include excessive use
of subdomains, cloaking, content theft scraping, alexa traffic boosting and
blog comment spam. I listed the documented steps here. Some suspect that
Google’s new URL handling with the big daddy update allowed “old school”
cloaking to begin working again….
- Google
Sub Sub Domain Issues Clearly Visible
Threadwatch reveals some more examples of issues Google is having. They note a
search on queer forum returns CraigsList 97 times out of the top 100 results.
That is not all, a search on wedding forum returns about 50 of 100 results
from CraigsList’s site, just scroll down to number 50 and you will see. Is
CraigsList spamming? No! Is Google suffering? 🙂 Google is clearly having
issues with sub sub domains. Continued coverage of Google’s public index
issues. Postscript From Danny: Comments at Threadwatch also note Yahoo has the
same issue. MSN does not as badly (but that could…
Craigslist Adds Cities, Now 300 Strong
- It’s Not
Just Google With Disappointing Results
We have been poking hard at Google for disappointing search results, but
Google is not the only search engine that has been disappointing me recently.
You can group Yahoo and MSN and even Ask.com into the search engines that I
have been disappointed with. Over at the Search Engine Roundtable I cover what
I call, “forum buzz,” the discussions taking place within the SEM/SEO
community. I tend to pick up on algorithm shifts and post the details at my
site. Today I covered two threads, one I named Yahoo! Also Easy To Spam and
the other MSN Asks Webmasters What…
- Google
Pulls Question About Google From Google Answers
Peter Da Vanzo reports on an individual who posted a question on Google
Answers that was removed by Google. The question was, “What percentage of
Google searches are contextual?” Specifically, the person wanted to know what
percentage of Google searches give back results based on the content of a page
someone is reading. You can see the thread title in the cache or via this
image capture, at this moment in time, where the poster was willing to pay $20
for the answer. A Google editor removed the question, stating:…
- Google
Search Results Differ On Mac Versus PC?
Threadwatch links to a blog post named Google SERPs Platform Dependant? that
shows how a search for a query on Google, on the same network but on two
computer operating systems, can product a different result set. The screen
captures documented show the differences between a Mac and a PC….
- Google’s
Mobile Operations Expected To See Largest Growth
The Times Online UK reports that Google’s mobile division, which is based in
London, is expected to “become the biggest driver of new business” for Google.
Search on mobile phones, wireless laptops and personal digital assistants (PDAs)
are seen as a huge opportunity for many search companies. In Britain, there is
a mobile phone for every person, but in some other areas, like Scandinavia,
“mobile ownership is almost double that rate.”…
- Google
To “Internationalize” All Products
InsideGoogle reports that Google has asked University of Limerick based in
Ireland to help find an “experienced localization guru” to help localize and
“internationalize” all of Google’s products. The PC World article goes into
more details about the job, describing that job calls for an “executive with
10 or more years of product management experience to serve as group product
director of internationalization.”…
- A Web of
Local Search Services
The major search engines tend to capture the lion’s share of press, but there
are dozens of other players in the local search space, offering myriad
opportunities for search marketers trying to get in front of people searching
for local products and services. I’ve got a review of an excellent guide to
many of these services in today’s SearchDay article, Who’s Who in Local
Search….
- Canada’s
YellowPages.ca Launches New Local Search Site
Since this is Local Search Day at Search Engine Watch, here’s some additional
news. Canada’s yellow pages publisher, Yellow Pages Group, which also operates
city guides and a variety of other Canadian web destinations, has launched a
new beta version of its flagship site, YellowPages.ca. The new interface is
considerably more appealing and the new site has a number of improvements,
outlined in the press release. YellowPages.ca provides the content for Google
Microsoft, Google & Others Call For Unified Federal Privacy Protection
Microsoft bravely took part in the search privacy panel we did at our SES New
York show earlier this year (coverage here and here), saying it would welcome
better US federal protections on privacy issues. Why? It would let Microsoft
and the searchers it serves know exactly what data government agencies could
and could not have. Now Microsoft, along with Google and other tech companies,
are pushing to make this happen….
- Ask.com
Sponsors NBC’s Treasure Hunters
I was flipping through the channels (actually, my wife was, I wanted to watch
the NBA finals) and saw some people wearing Ask.com t-shirts on TV. It was a
new show on NBC named Treasure Hunters. The Ask blog says that Ask is the
“Official Search Engine of Treasure Hunters.” I did not watch the whole show,
so I am not sure how beyond the t-shirts and commercials Ask promoted
themselves in the show. Postscript: Got word back from an Ask rep on what took
place. Team members conducted searches at Ask for “us presidents” and another
for “mount theodore…
- Summer Solstice 2006 At
Stonehenge Tips & Info