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Video Recap of Weekly Search Buzz :: May 7, 2010

On May 7, 2010, In SEO, by rustybrick

This week I cover the new Google interface, nicknamed Jazz, is now live for all to see. SEOs and webmeisters are reporting a new Google update named MAYDAY. Google also is updating the image search index. Google added average position and stars to the search query report in Webmaster Tools. Google dropped the search suggestions for some religions. Google is pushing brands in search queries. Is more white hat seo techniques being considered black hat? Google is posting warnings to AdSense publishers. Google is testing phone numbers in between the AdWords ad title and ad descriptions. Ask.com is dead, but yet they brought back Teoma. We have tons of Google logos to share, including them not doing a Cinco de Mayo logo. 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 or to see the YouTube version in higher quality, click play & hit “HD.”

Search Topics of Discussion:

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

This week I cover the new Google interface, nicknamed Jazz, is now live for all to see. SEOs and webmeisters are reporting a new Google update named MAYDAY. Google also is updating the image search index. Google added average position and stars to the search query report in Webmaster Tools. Google dropped the search suggestions for some religions. Google is pushing brands in search queries. Is more white hat seo techniques being considered black hat? Google is posting warnings to AdSense publishers. Google is testing phone numbers in between the AdWords ad title and ad descriptions. Ask.com is dead, but yet they brought back Teoma. We have tons of Google logos to share, including them not doing a Cinco de Mayo logo. 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 or to see the YouTube version in higher quality, click play & hit “HD.”

Search Topics of Discussion:

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

Video Recap of Weekly Search Buzz :: New Years Day 2010

On December 31, 2009, In SEO, by rustybrick

In our New Years day video recap, I covered the last week of 2009 in search at the Search Engine Roundtable. I first showed off the various logos for New Years by Google, Yahoo, Bing, Ask.com and many others. Google also had a PageRank update on New Years eve. Google uses ccTLDs over server location. Google slapped SEOs by dropping them and web designers from the local pack. Bing’s MSNBot is up to no good again, crawling fake file names. Google AdWords advertisers feel paralyzed. Increase your click through rate with women in thongs in your Google ads. Google launched the advertising professional search feature. Google had a weird bug related to the September 11 attacks. Finally, Google’s porn filter had some issues this week. That was the last week of 2009 in search at the Search Engine Roundtable! Happy & Healthy 2010!

FYI – Sorry for the volume, you will have to crank it up to hear me.

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. Here is the YouTube version of the feed:

For the original iTunes version, click here or to see the YouTube version in higher quality, click play & hit “HD.”

Search Topics of Discussion:
New Years:

2010 New Year Logos from Search Engines: Yahoo, Bing, Ask.com & Google

Google SEO:

Bing SEO:

Bing’s MSNBot Crawling Fake File Names?

Google AdWords:

Google Issues:

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

In our New Years day video recap, I covered the last week of 2009 in search at the Search Engine Roundtable. I first showed off the various logos for New Years by Google, Yahoo, Bing, Ask.com and many others. Google also had a PageRank update on New Years eve. Google uses ccTLDs over server location. Google slapped SEOs by dropping them and web designers from the local pack. Bing’s MSNBot is up to no good again, crawling fake file names. Google AdWords advertisers feel paralyzed. Increase your click through rate with women in thongs in your Google ads. Google launched the advertising professional search feature. Google had a weird bug related to the September 11 attacks. Finally, Google’s porn filter had some issues this week. That was the last week of 2009 in search at the Search Engine Roundtable! Happy & Healthy 2010!

FYI – Sorry for the volume, you will have to crank it up to hear me.

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. Here is the YouTube version of the feed:

For the original iTunes version, click here or to see the YouTube version in higher quality, click play & hit “HD.”

Search Topics of Discussion:
New Years:

2010 New Year Logos from Search Engines: Yahoo, Bing, Ask.com & Google

Google SEO:

Bing SEO:

Bing’s MSNBot Crawling Fake File Names?

Google AdWords:

Google Issues:

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

Google & Lightbox JavaScript: Can GoogleBot Index Images in Lightbox JS?

On December 28, 2009, In SEO, by rustybrick

A WebmasterWorld thread has discussion around getting Google to index a popular image feature sites use to show off images on their web site. It is called Lightbox JS and it basically uses JavaScript to open up a neat larger view of the image on the page.

I use it on many sites, but you can see a quick example on the RustyBrick Mobile Portfolio. Just click on the image and it opens up a larger picture of that image. Here is a screen capture showing the larger image as it overlays on top of the page:

The issue is, GoogleBot is having a tough time capturing these images in their index. WebmasterWorld administrator, Tedster, explained:

I’ve been up against the same challenge. Even though regular Google search is aggressively discovering URLs and content by spidering JavaScript, apparently the image bot is not so inquisitive at this point. This surprised me, because there are many images being displayed through Lightbox scripts these days.

Yes, GoogleBot is able to execute JavaScript, but is GoogleImageBot able to at the same pace?

Tedster is exploring other ways to get GoogleBot to index Lightbox JS. He tried the following method, but it doesn’t seem to work:

My latest attempt involves making the anchor part of the link a thumbnail image – but the thumbnail is not just a smaller version of the larger image. I use the same exact image file for the anchor, but I resize it on the the page with the HTML width and height attributes. This means that the page loads more slowly, but at least the image bot gets a direct <img src=[url]> style mark-up.

If you have a solution, let us know.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

A WebmasterWorld thread has discussion around getting Google to index a popular image feature sites use to show off images on their web site. It is called Lightbox JS and it basically uses JavaScript to open up a neat larger view of the image on the page.

I use it on many sites, but you can see a quick example on the RustyBrick Mobile Portfolio. Just click on the image and it opens up a larger picture of that image. Here is a screen capture showing the larger image as it overlays on top of the page:

The issue is, GoogleBot is having a tough time capturing these images in their index. WebmasterWorld administrator, Tedster, explained:

I’ve been up against the same challenge. Even though regular Google search is aggressively discovering URLs and content by spidering JavaScript, apparently the image bot is not so inquisitive at this point. This surprised me, because there are many images being displayed through Lightbox scripts these days.

Yes, GoogleBot is able to execute JavaScript, but is GoogleImageBot able to at the same pace?

Tedster is exploring other ways to get GoogleBot to index Lightbox JS. He tried the following method, but it doesn’t seem to work:

My latest attempt involves making the anchor part of the link a thumbnail image – but the thumbnail is not just a smaller version of the larger image. I use the same exact image file for the anchor, but I resize it on the the page with the HTML width and height attributes. This means that the page loads more slowly, but at least the image bot gets a direct <img src=[url]> style mark-up.

If you have a solution, let us know.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Porn on Google Image Search with Strict Search On

On December 28, 2009, In SEO, by rustybrick

A DigitalPoint Forums thread reports that a search on (beware before you click) [cricket talks] in Google Image search returns a pornographic image. It happens both on standard safe search and strict safe search, but goes away completely when you turn off the safe search feature.

Here is a picture, which I cropped a bit to show the result here:

I personally see the image on the 3rd row when strict search is on and the second row when safe search is in standard or moderate mode.

What is interesting is that it is hosted on a pretty bad domain, i.e. asianteenmovieslesbiananal.info. OpenDNS for me blocks the domain due to the domain and network containing pornography and nudity. I guess Google got mixed up with this one.

On a related note, a Google News Help thread reports that Google News had an image of a PlayBoy teaser on their most viewed section. I personally did not see it, but it would not have been the first time seductive or nude images showed up on the front page of Google News.

Forum discussion at DigitalPoint Forums & Google News Help.

A DigitalPoint Forums thread reports that a search on (beware before you click) [cricket talks] in Google Image search returns a pornographic image. It happens both on standard safe search and strict safe search, but goes away completely when you turn off the safe search feature.

Here is a picture, which I cropped a bit to show the result here:

I personally see the image on the 3rd row when strict search is on and the second row when safe search is in standard or moderate mode.

What is interesting is that it is hosted on a pretty bad domain, i.e. asianteenmovieslesbiananal.info. OpenDNS for me blocks the domain due to the domain and network containing pornography and nudity. I guess Google got mixed up with this one.

On a related note, a Google News Help thread reports that Google News had an image of a PlayBoy teaser on their most viewed section. I personally did not see it, but it would not have been the first time seductive or nude images showed up on the front page of Google News.

Forum discussion at DigitalPoint Forums & Google News Help.

Google Images Trying Bing’s “Infinite Scroll”?

On December 14, 2009, In SEO, by rustybrick

I may be totally misunderstanding a post from swainzy in Cre8asite Forums, but maybe not. Swainzy is upset that she cannot change the number of results shown in Google Image Search, just like this person at the Google Web Search Help thread.

But what Swainzy added later seemed to imply to me that Google is testing Bing’s infinite scroll feature, which continues to show you more and more pictures as you scroll the page.

She said:

G. may be over riding how many images you can see on one page but wow, it’s much faster and the new page stays where you were on the last page. So if you are at the bottom, you don’t have to see the image ads anymore.

Is Google copying Bing, who copied someone else?

I personally like the infinite scroll on Bing. Give it a try for red panda at Bing, just scroll and you will see what I mean.

Forum discussion at Cre8asite Forums.

Update: Google confirmed this test, a spokesperson told me:

We’re continually testing new interfaces and features to enhance the user experience. What you describe below was one such test, which only a small percentage of users saw. We don’t have any additional details to share at this time but I hope that helps. For more information on the experiments we run, please see: http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2006/04/this-is-test-this-is-only-test.html

I may be totally misunderstanding a post from swainzy in Cre8asite Forums, but maybe not. Swainzy is upset that she cannot change the number of results shown in Google Image Search, just like this person at the Google Web Search Help thread.

But what Swainzy added later seemed to imply to me that Google is testing Bing’s infinite scroll feature, which continues to show you more and more pictures as you scroll the page.

She said:

G. may be over riding how many images you can see on one page but wow, it’s much faster and the new page stays where you were on the last page. So if you are at the bottom, you don’t have to see the image ads anymore.

Is Google copying Bing, who copied someone else?

I personally like the infinite scroll on Bing. Give it a try for red panda at Bing, just scroll and you will see what I mean.

Forum discussion at Cre8asite Forums.

Update: Google confirmed this test, a spokesperson told me:

We’re continually testing new interfaces and features to enhance the user experience. What you describe below was one such test, which only a small percentage of users saw. We don’t have any additional details to share at this time but I hope that helps. For more information on the experiments we run, please see: http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2006/04/this-is-test-this-is-only-test.html

Google Images “See Full Size Image” Frame Missing For Some?

On December 10, 2009, In SEO, by rustybrick

A Google Web Search Help thread reports several users not being able to see the frame at the top of the Google Image searches. I initially thought it had to do with frame busters of some sort, but it seems more wide spread than that. Maybe Google is dropping the framed image feature? I am not sure.

I personally see the frame with the “see full size image” option link:

It really seems to be that this is a frame buster type of thing going on. Frame busting is code that prevents other sites from framing you site in their site, like Google Images does after you initially click on an image result.

Forum discussion at Google Web Search Help.

A Google Web Search Help thread reports several users not being able to see the frame at the top of the Google Image searches. I initially thought it had to do with frame busters of some sort, but it seems more wide spread than that. Maybe Google is dropping the framed image feature? I am not sure.

I personally see the frame with the “see full size image” option link:

It really seems to be that this is a frame buster type of thing going on. Frame busting is code that prevents other sites from framing you site in their site, like Google Images does after you initially click on an image result.

Forum discussion at Google Web Search Help.

Larger Google Images & Region Tags In Google Search Results

On December 3, 2009, In SEO, by rustybrick

Google announced two changes to the search results. The first is larger images in the search results for some searches and the second is region tags in the search results. Let me explain both.

The larger images may show up in the search results, when Google thinks an image should be highlighted. For example, the before and after:

Before:

After:

Google also announced a new regional tag that will show up in certain situations in the Google search results. The region tags tell the searcher that the site is from a specific country or region. This region tag will only show on about 1% of the search results, Google said. And they have to meet these criteria:

We currently show region tags only for certain domains such as .com and .net where the location information would otherwise be unclear. We don’t show region tags for results on domains like .br for Brazil, because the location is already implied by the green URL line in our default display. In addition, we only display region tags when the region supplied by the site owner is different from the domain where the search was entered.

Here is a picture:

Forum discussion at Webmaster World.

Google announced two changes to the search results. The first is larger images in the search results for some searches and the second is region tags in the search results. Let me explain both.

The larger images may show up in the search results, when Google thinks an image should be highlighted. For example, the before and after:

Before:

After:

Google also announced a new regional tag that will show up in certain situations in the Google search results. The region tags tell the searcher that the site is from a specific country or region. This region tag will only show on about 1% of the search results, Google said. And they have to meet these criteria:

We currently show region tags only for certain domains such as .com and .net where the location information would otherwise be unclear. We don’t show region tags for results on domains like .br for Brazil, because the location is already implied by the green URL line in our default display. In addition, we only display region tags when the region supplied by the site owner is different from the domain where the search was entered.

Here is a picture:

Forum discussion at Webmaster World.

Google Buys Search Ad For Offensive Michelle Obama Image Result

On November 23, 2009, In SEO, by rustybrick

If you search on for [Michelle Obama] in Google Image Search you will see a racist and offensive image of the first lady. We first reported this image back in ten days ago and then gave Google a hard time for removing the Obama result.

Well, the result is now back, hosted on a new site. But this time, Google bought a search ad explaining why the result is there and why Google cannot remove it:

If you click on the ad, you are taken to google.com/resultsinfo.html which reads:

An explanation of our search results.

Sometimes Google search results from the Internet can include disturbing content, even from innocuous queries. We assure you that the views expressed by such sites are not in any way endorsed by Google.

Search engines are a reflection of the content and information that is available on the Internet. A site’s ranking in Google’s search results relies heavily on computer algorithms using thousands of factors to calculate a page’s relevance to a given query.

The beliefs and preferences of those who work at Google, as well as the opinions of the general public, do not determine or impact our search results. Individual citizens and public interest groups do periodically urge us to remove particular links or otherwise adjust search results. Although Google reserves the right to address such requests individually, Google views the integrity of our search results as an extremely important priority. Accordingly, we do not remove a page from our search results simply because its content is unpopular or because we receive complaints concerning it. We will, however, remove pages from our results if we believe the page (or its site) violates our Webmaster Guidelines, if we believe we are required to do so by law, or at the request of the webmaster who is responsible for the page.

We apologize if you’ve had an upsetting experience using Google. We hope you understand our position regarding offensive results.

Sincerely,
The Google Team

You find a similar message for when you search on [jew], which leads to google.com/explanation.html.

I am not sure how I feel about either. On the one hand, I hate to see this type of stuff in Google’s results. On the other hand, I’d hate to see Google remove results based on a manual review and on their own ethical beliefs.

Forum discussion continued at Google Web Search Help.

If you search on for [Michelle Obama] in Google Image Search you will see a racist and offensive image of the first lady. We first reported this image back in ten days ago and then gave Google a hard time for removing the Obama result.

Well, the result is now back, hosted on a new site. But this time, Google bought a search ad explaining why the result is there and why Google cannot remove it:

If you click on the ad, you are taken to google.com/resultsinfo.html which reads:

An explanation of our search results.

Sometimes Google search results from the Internet can include disturbing content, even from innocuous queries. We assure you that the views expressed by such sites are not in any way endorsed by Google.

Search engines are a reflection of the content and information that is available on the Internet. A site’s ranking in Google’s search results relies heavily on computer algorithms using thousands of factors to calculate a page’s relevance to a given query.

The beliefs and preferences of those who work at Google, as well as the opinions of the general public, do not determine or impact our search results. Individual citizens and public interest groups do periodically urge us to remove particular links or otherwise adjust search results. Although Google reserves the right to address such requests individually, Google views the integrity of our search results as an extremely important priority. Accordingly, we do not remove a page from our search results simply because its content is unpopular or because we receive complaints concerning it. We will, however, remove pages from our results if we believe the page (or its site) violates our Webmaster Guidelines, if we believe we are required to do so by law, or at the request of the webmaster who is responsible for the page.

We apologize if you’ve had an upsetting experience using Google. We hope you understand our position regarding offensive results.

Sincerely,
The Google Team

You find a similar message for when you search on [jew], which leads to google.com/explanation.html.

I am not sure how I feel about either. On the one hand, I hate to see this type of stuff in Google’s results. On the other hand, I’d hate to see Google remove results based on a manual review and on their own ethical beliefs.

Forum discussion continued at Google Web Search Help.

Video Recap of Weekly Search Buzz :: November 20, 2009

On November 20, 2009, In SEO, by rustybrick

In this week’s search video recap, I try a new format, breaking the news up in segments – do let me know if you like it. I am sorry the video is so long, just lots of information to cover. We start with Google’s new user interface that is now being seen by some searchers – it is pretty jazzy. Google is showing breadcrumbs instead of URLs in the search results on occasion. Google is testing Image Swirl, it is pretty tasty. Google Social Search labs is now back in action after going offline. Page load time will be a ranking factor in 2010. Is Google’s Caffeine index live in a data center? Why did FeedBurner ruin the search engine friendly web? Did Google preform a hand change to the index for Michelle Obama? Microsoft Bing is updating now. Bing UK when out of beta, was it too soon? AdWords goes on another banning spree – but they now have an appeals process. Check out all that Polish Google ad spam. Google no longer allows exceptions to their 35 character display URL limit. Google expanded their product ads beta. AdSense places gold stars near featured ads. I now have access to the new AdSense beta interface. Publishers are being banned over using Tamper Data as a Firefox plugin. Yahoo added a developing news box to some search results. Finally, Danny took us back to the first ever search marketing conference. 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. Here is the YouTube version of the feed:

For the original iTunes version, click here or to see the YouTube version in higher quality, click play & hit “HD.”

Search Topics of Discussion:
Google Search:

Google SEO:

Google Other:

Google Removed Negative Search Result Michelle Obama, Should They Have?

Bing:

AdWords:

AdSense:

Yahoo:

Yahoo Adds Tweets In New Developing News Box

SEM Industry:

Danny Sullivan Looks Back at Starting Search Marketing Conferences

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

In this week’s search video recap, I try a new format, breaking the news up in segments – do let me know if you like it. I am sorry the video is so long, just lots of information to cover. We start with Google’s new user interface that is now being seen by some searchers – it is pretty jazzy. Google is showing breadcrumbs instead of URLs in the search results on occasion. Google is testing Image Swirl, it is pretty tasty. Google Social Search labs is now back in action after going offline. Page load time will be a ranking factor in 2010. Is Google’s Caffeine index live in a data center? Why did FeedBurner ruin the search engine friendly web? Did Google preform a hand change to the index for Michelle Obama? Microsoft Bing is updating now. Bing UK when out of beta, was it too soon? AdWords goes on another banning spree – but they now have an appeals process. Check out all that Polish Google ad spam. Google no longer allows exceptions to their 35 character display URL limit. Google expanded their product ads beta. AdSense places gold stars near featured ads. I now have access to the new AdSense beta interface. Publishers are being banned over using Tamper Data as a Firefox plugin. Yahoo added a developing news box to some search results. Finally, Danny took us back to the first ever search marketing conference. 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. Here is the YouTube version of the feed:

For the original iTunes version, click here or to see the YouTube version in higher quality, click play & hit “HD.”

Search Topics of Discussion:
Google Search:

Google SEO:

Google Other:

Google Removed Negative Search Result Michelle Obama, Should They Have?

Bing:

AdWords:

AdSense:

Yahoo:

Yahoo Adds Tweets In New Developing News Box

SEM Industry:

Danny Sullivan Looks Back at Starting Search Marketing Conferences

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

Tasty: Google Image Swirl

On November 18, 2009, In SEO, by rustybrick

I love new fun search features that have eye candy, such as the recently announced Google Image Swirl Google Labs project. It is a bit like Google Wonder Wheel but more images.

The best way for me to explain it is either have you try it or look at the pictures below:

I search for Apple and then click on images to be swirled my way through the various search refinements:

Neat and tasty, don’t you think?

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

I love new fun search features that have eye candy, such as the recently announced Google Image Swirl Google Labs project. It is a bit like Google Wonder Wheel but more images.

The best way for me to explain it is either have you try it or look at the pictures below:

I search for Apple and then click on images to be swirled my way through the various search refinements:

Neat and tasty, don’t you think?

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Video Recap of Weekly Search Buzz :: May 7, 2010

Porn on Google Image Search with Strict Search On

Google Images Trying Bing’s “Infinite Scroll”?

Google Images “See Full Size Image” Frame Missing For Some?

Larger Google Images & Region Tags In Google Search Results

Google Buys Search Ad For Offensive Michelle Obama Image Result

Tasty: Google Image Swirl

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