IndustryDaily SearchCast, June 20, 2006: Google’s Got Spam! – Everyone’s Got Spam! – Spam Spam Spam!; Oh Where Or Where Has My Google Answers Question Gone; Ask Helps Treasure Hunters & More!

Daily SearchCast, June 20, 2006: Google's Got Spam! - Everyone's Got Spam! - Spam Spam Spam!; Oh Where Or Where Has My Google Answers Question Gone; Ask Helps Treasure Hunters & More!

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!

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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

Resources

The 2023 B2B Superpowers Index

whitepaper | Analytics The 2023 B2B Superpowers Index

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Data Analytics in Marketing

whitepaper | Analytics Data Analytics in Marketing

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The Third-Party Data Deprecation Playbook

whitepaper | Digital Marketing The Third-Party Data Deprecation Playbook

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Utilizing Email To Stop Fraud-eCommerce Client Fraud Case Study

whitepaper | Digital Marketing Utilizing Email To Stop Fraud-eCommerce Client Fraud Case Study

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