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Don’t Search Google for 123456

On December 11, 2009, In SEO, by rustybrick

A Google Web Search Help thread reports that he was testing to make sure his boss’s computer network had connectivity, so he searched for [123456] in Google and up came a porn video hosted on Google Video in the top result.

Here is a picture:

The video on the right is complete adult pornographic material – so don’t click on it (unless you want porn, then click on it).

The person who spotted this was very disturbed. He said:

I was assisting our CEO’s secretary today, and to test whether she had connectivity, I did a quick search on google for “123456″.

She thought I was being disgusting, but I eventually convinced her it was a freak occurrence.

Can you imagine that, this woman thought this guy was playing a trick on her or something. How sad.

Forum discussion at Google Web Search Help.

A Google Web Search Help thread reports that he was testing to make sure his boss’s computer network had connectivity, so he searched for [123456] in Google and up came a porn video hosted on Google Video in the top result.

Here is a picture:

The video on the right is complete adult pornographic material – so don’t click on it (unless you want porn, then click on it).

The person who spotted this was very disturbed. He said:

I was assisting our CEO’s secretary today, and to test whether she had connectivity, I did a quick search on google for “123456″.

She thought I was being disgusting, but I eventually convinced her it was a freak occurrence.

Can you imagine that, this woman thought this guy was playing a trick on her or something. How sad.

Forum discussion at Google Web Search Help.

Google Tells AdSense Publishers, Your Earnings are “Estimated”

On December 11, 2009, In SEO, by rustybrick

Yesterday at about 3:30pm (EST) Google changed the AdSense console overview page to show the word “estimated” by “Today’s Earnings.” So now it reads, “Today’s estimated earnings” instead of just “Today’s earnings.” A WebmasterWorld thread was started to ask questions about this change, and then the Google AdSense Blog confirmed the change.

Here is a picture highlighting the change:

Google explained:

In order to be more transparent about how our system calculates earnings, we’ve added the words “Estimated” and “Finalized” next to “Earnings” throughout your account. Rest assured these terminology changes don’t reflect a change to the way your finalized earnings are calculated. It’s simply intended to give you a clearer idea of what’s our estimation of your earnings and what’s finalized.

Don’t like it? Not happy? Got more questions?

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Yesterday at about 3:30pm (EST) Google changed the AdSense console overview page to show the word “estimated” by “Today’s Earnings.” So now it reads, “Today’s estimated earnings” instead of just “Today’s earnings.” A WebmasterWorld thread was started to ask questions about this change, and then the Google AdSense Blog confirmed the change.

Here is a picture highlighting the change:

Google explained:

In order to be more transparent about how our system calculates earnings, we’ve added the words “Estimated” and “Finalized” next to “Earnings” throughout your account. Rest assured these terminology changes don’t reflect a change to the way your finalized earnings are calculated. It’s simply intended to give you a clearer idea of what’s our estimation of your earnings and what’s finalized.

Don’t like it? Not happy? Got more questions?

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Job Applicants, Google AdSense Can’t Be Used As a Job Reference

On December 11, 2009, In SEO, by rustybrick

A person seeking new employment asked in a WebmasterWorld thread if he can use Google as a reference for his interviews. Why does he feel he might be able to use Google in this way? Well, he never really worked as a Google employee, but he did get checks from Google via their AdSense program.

AdSenseAdvisor, from Google said:

I love that AdSense has been your primary source of income. Sadly, I don’t personally know enough about you or your work to provide you with a reference.

Yes, it doesn’t work that way does it? How can Google vouch for someone that they do not directly manage?

Ironically, this is not the first time we covered this topic. We said it clear with Google AdSense Publishers Are Not Employed By Google over two years ago. You simply cannot put down Google on your resume, even if you made money with Google AdSense. That doesn’t mean you cannot show interviewers how much you made and what tactics you deployed to make your sites successful.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

A person seeking new employment asked in a WebmasterWorld thread if he can use Google as a reference for his interviews. Why does he feel he might be able to use Google in this way? Well, he never really worked as a Google employee, but he did get checks from Google via their AdSense program.

AdSenseAdvisor, from Google said:

I love that AdSense has been your primary source of income. Sadly, I don’t personally know enough about you or your work to provide you with a reference.

Yes, it doesn’t work that way does it? How can Google vouch for someone that they do not directly manage?

Ironically, this is not the first time we covered this topic. We said it clear with Google AdSense Publishers Are Not Employed By Google over two years ago. You simply cannot put down Google on your resume, even if you made money with Google AdSense. That doesn’t mean you cannot show interviewers how much you made and what tactics you deployed to make your sites successful.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

New Region Tags For .com, .net TLDs

On December 11, 2009, In SEO, by Nick Stamoulis

Google announced on Dec. 1 that it had added a new region tag to top-level domains where a website’s location could not be discerned by a title tag or snippet and where the country code isn’t a clue. In other words, for .com, .net and .org TLDs.

Why would Google do that? Obviously, it’s because [...]

Google announced on Dec. 1 that it had added a new region tag to top-level domains where a website’s location could not be discerned by a title tag or snippet and where the country code isn’t a clue. In other words, for .com, .net and .org TLDs.

Why would Google do that? Obviously, it’s because things can get confusing if you are looking for a specific result and you know where an organization is located, but you don’t know its URL. You perform your search and the results do not give you the clues you need to find what you want. Google’s example can be found on the official Webmaster Central Blog.

I think this is going to be a helpful tag and if you want to give away your location to help searchers find you more easily, all you need to do is log in to Webmaster Tools, click on Site Configuration – Settings – Geographic Target. Choose a country or region to associate with your site and your region tag will appear when appropriate.

My only concern with this is will you get pigeonholed into that region? Will, at some point, Google decide to show your website only to people searching from that region or will your site still be available globally? I hope the latter. I’d hate to see people’s businesses fall off because a search engine decided that because you are located in South Africa your site should only be seen by South Africans. That would be bad of that business conducted business throughout the world.

Google Promises to Speed Up AdSense for GoogleBot

On December 10, 2009, In SEO, by rustybrick

Since Google has released the Site Performance reports in Webmaster Tools and page speed is Google’s 2010 ranking factor promise, Webmasters have been somewhat obsessed with speeding up their sites.

Webmasters are concerned with scripts they do not control. Such as Google Analytics slowing down their page load times. In fact, we just reported that Google is going to add a trustworthy indicator to site performance reports in order to alleviate some of the webmaster stress over speed performance.

Now, we see reports that Google AdSense is slow. But instead of Google just telling us not to worry about it, which they have told us for this. Google is actually going to speed up the AdSense load time specifically for GoogleBot.

AdSenseAdvisor said in a WebmasterWorld thread two things. The first was not to worry about it and the second was that they will be improving the speed of AdSense specifically for GoogleBot.

Let me quote AdSense Advisor:

(1) “The Page Speed suggestions on Webmaster Tools are based on the content served to Googlebot. In this case, AdSense serves the javascript uncompressed to Googlebot, but does actually compress it with gzip for regular users. So, the AdSense javascript is already optimized for your site’s users. AdSense works very hard at making sure that it doesn’t slow down the page load.”

(2) “We are changing AdSense to send compressed content to our Googlebot so that the recommendation in Webmaster Central accurately reflects how AdSense works.”

Now some may ask if this is a form of serving different content to GoogleBot versus a human – i.e. cloaking. I don’t think this falls under that.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Since Google has released the Site Performance reports in Webmaster Tools and page speed is Google’s 2010 ranking factor promise, Webmasters have been somewhat obsessed with speeding up their sites.

Webmasters are concerned with scripts they do not control. Such as Google Analytics slowing down their page load times. In fact, we just reported that Google is going to add a trustworthy indicator to site performance reports in order to alleviate some of the webmaster stress over speed performance.

Now, we see reports that Google AdSense is slow. But instead of Google just telling us not to worry about it, which they have told us for this. Google is actually going to speed up the AdSense load time specifically for GoogleBot.

AdSenseAdvisor said in a WebmasterWorld thread two things. The first was not to worry about it and the second was that they will be improving the speed of AdSense specifically for GoogleBot.

Let me quote AdSense Advisor:

(1) “The Page Speed suggestions on Webmaster Tools are based on the content served to Googlebot. In this case, AdSense serves the javascript uncompressed to Googlebot, but does actually compress it with gzip for regular users. So, the AdSense javascript is already optimized for your site’s users. AdSense works very hard at making sure that it doesn’t slow down the page load.”

(2) “We are changing AdSense to send compressed content to our Googlebot so that the recommendation in Webmaster Central accurately reflects how AdSense works.”

Now some may ask if this is a form of serving different content to GoogleBot versus a human – i.e. cloaking. I don’t think this falls under that.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Bing Requires 3 MSNBot Crawls To Register 301 Redirects

On December 10, 2009, In SEO, by rustybrick

I spotted a useful tidbit for SEOs in the Bing Forums today. Brett Yount from Bing Webmaster Center team explained how Bing picks up on 301 redirects.

Brett said it can take two to three crawls from Bing to register a 301 redirect in their index. Brett said:

By design, our crawler usually takes 2-3 crawls before it registers the redirect.

I wonder how many crawls Google takes to do the same thing? I can see why you would want to wait at least for a second crawl to confirm a 301 redirect is indeed legit.

We had some reports recently that Bing is handling 301s much better now than they have in the past.

Forum discussion at Bing Forums.

I spotted a useful tidbit for SEOs in the Bing Forums today. Brett Yount from Bing Webmaster Center team explained how Bing picks up on 301 redirects.

Brett said it can take two to three crawls from Bing to register a 301 redirect in their index. Brett said:

By design, our crawler usually takes 2-3 crawls before it registers the redirect.

I wonder how many crawls Google takes to do the same thing? I can see why you would want to wait at least for a second crawl to confirm a 301 redirect is indeed legit.

We had some reports recently that Bing is handling 301s much better now than they have in the past.

Forum discussion at Bing Forums.

Vote For The Doodle 4 Google UK Winner

On December 10, 2009, In SEO, by rustybrick

Voting is open for the UK’s edition of the Doodle 4 Google competition. Google has run this competition in both the US and UK for four years now.

This years competition:

We’re asking young people aged 5–16 from across the UK to design their own doodle. This year’s theme is ‘My Hero’. We’d love to see the figures young people look up to represented in their doodles, whether family, friends, people in the community, or world figures. We’re interested in the people considered heroes for the 21st century and how entrants represent them using images.

To vote, go to this page. You can vote for each of the four brackets, 5-7 years old, 7-11 years old, 11-14 years old and 14-16 years olds.

Forum discussion at Google Webmaster Help.

Voting is open for the UK’s edition of the Doodle 4 Google competition. Google has run this competition in both the US and UK for four years now.

This years competition:

We’re asking young people aged 5–16 from across the UK to design their own doodle. This year’s theme is ‘My Hero’. We’d love to see the figures young people look up to represented in their doodles, whether family, friends, people in the community, or world figures. We’re interested in the people considered heroes for the 21st century and how entrants represent them using images.

To vote, go to this page. You can vote for each of the four brackets, 5-7 years old, 7-11 years old, 11-14 years old and 14-16 years olds.

Forum discussion at Google Webmaster Help.

Google To Add “Trustworthy Indicator” to Site Performance Tool

On December 10, 2009, In SEO, by rustybrick

A Google Webmaster Help thread has reports of page load time speeds spiking up to ridiculous numbers in the new Google site performance reports. Google’s response to these reports was pretty interesting, I’ll get to that soon, firs the context.

A Top Contributor in the forum wrote:

After about 6 months of “flat line” Site Performance reports of averagepage load time around 1 or 2 seconds, I am now seeing in Tools a report that: “On average, pages in your site take 83.1 seconds to load (updated on Dec 7, 2009).” and of course the graph has shot up and I’m tol that my site’s average page load time is “slower than 100% of sites”.

However, the only two pages listed in that report both show load times of 1 to 2 seconds.

Now a Googler with the code name “sreeram” replied saying:

The 83s number is bogus. Your site’s toolbar traffic dropped by more than an order of magnitude in the last few days. You should ignore the average for now. We’ll soon be showing site owners some indication of how trustworthy the numbers are, so you can decide when to ignore it and when not to.

Not all URLs may have toolbar traffic, so it’s possible to have many URLs indexed, and even visited by users, but only a couple may show up on Site Performance. In addition, when there’s very little data for a given URL, we won’t display it (for privacy reasons), though it will be included in the overall site average.

So in this case, the site’s traffic as seen by the Google Toolbar dropped significantly, which caused a weird spike in the webmaster’s site performance reports. Thus, Google promised to provide an “indication of how trustworthy the numbers are” in this report.

Clearly, some of these numbers are not trustworthy, such as factoring in Toolbar fluctuations or Google Analytics speed.

Forum discussion at Google Webmaster Help.

Update: John Mueller from Google sent me a note about this:

The Webmaster Tools team is constantly working on ways to improve the product as well as the data provided there. In general, we prefer not to comment on possible future releases. The Labs section in Webmaster Tools allows us to easily try out and iterate on new and innovative features, which is one reason we launched the Site Performance tool there. Personally, I found the data provided there quite actionable and have seen a lot of positive feedback from webmasters around this tool. To fine-tune a website with regards to speed, it can be useful to start with the information provided here and then to look into the details using browser-based tools such as Page Speed and Speed Tracer.

We’re always looking into ways we can take our products and services to the next level. We appreciate all of the feedback and coverage that you provide! I’ll get in touch with you once I have more information that I can share.

A Google Webmaster Help thread has reports of page load time speeds spiking up to ridiculous numbers in the new Google site performance reports. Google’s response to these reports was pretty interesting, I’ll get to that soon, firs the context.

A Top Contributor in the forum wrote:

After about 6 months of “flat line” Site Performance reports of averagepage load time around 1 or 2 seconds, I am now seeing in Tools a report that: “On average, pages in your site take 83.1 seconds to load (updated on Dec 7, 2009).” and of course the graph has shot up and I’m tol that my site’s average page load time is “slower than 100% of sites”.

However, the only two pages listed in that report both show load times of 1 to 2 seconds.

Now a Googler with the code name “sreeram” replied saying:

The 83s number is bogus. Your site’s toolbar traffic dropped by more than an order of magnitude in the last few days. You should ignore the average for now. We’ll soon be showing site owners some indication of how trustworthy the numbers are, so you can decide when to ignore it and when not to.

Not all URLs may have toolbar traffic, so it’s possible to have many URLs indexed, and even visited by users, but only a couple may show up on Site Performance. In addition, when there’s very little data for a given URL, we won’t display it (for privacy reasons), though it will be included in the overall site average.

So in this case, the site’s traffic as seen by the Google Toolbar dropped significantly, which caused a weird spike in the webmaster’s site performance reports. Thus, Google promised to provide an “indication of how trustworthy the numbers are” in this report.

Clearly, some of these numbers are not trustworthy, such as factoring in Toolbar fluctuations or Google Analytics speed.

Forum discussion at Google Webmaster Help.

Update: John Mueller from Google sent me a note about this:

The Webmaster Tools team is constantly working on ways to improve the product as well as the data provided there. In general, we prefer not to comment on possible future releases. The Labs section in Webmaster Tools allows us to easily try out and iterate on new and innovative features, which is one reason we launched the Site Performance tool there. Personally, I found the data provided there quite actionable and have seen a lot of positive feedback from webmasters around this tool. To fine-tune a website with regards to speed, it can be useful to start with the information provided here and then to look into the details using browser-based tools such as Page Speed and Speed Tracer.

We’re always looking into ways we can take our products and services to the next level. We appreciate all of the feedback and coverage that you provide! I’ll get in touch with you once I have more information that I can share.

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.

SES Chicago ’09 Live Coverage Recap

On December 9, 2009, In SEO, by rustybrick

This wraps up the sixth time we have covered SES Chicago in our history of covering conferences. The show was really jammed packed of useful content and fun presentations. I would like to thank the folks at SES for having us, our readers, our sponsors and the volunteer bloggers. Live blogging is a hard job, so a huge thank you to Brian Ussery aka Beussery, Marty Weintraub from aimClear, and Chris Boggs of Rosetta.

Here is our coverage of the past few days:

SES Chicago ’09 Day One Coverage:

SES Chicago ’09 Day Two Coverage:

SES Chicago ’09 Day Three Coverage:

Day three was pretty weak, I apologize, just really bad weather in Chicago and we all wanted to make sure to get home.

Thanks again and I hope you enjoyed our coverage.

This wraps up the sixth time we have covered SES Chicago in our history of covering conferences. The show was really jammed packed of useful content and fun presentations. I would like to thank the folks at SES for having us, our readers, our sponsors and the volunteer bloggers. Live blogging is a hard job, so a huge thank you to Brian Ussery aka Beussery, Marty Weintraub from aimClear, and Chris Boggs of Rosetta.

Here is our coverage of the past few days:

SES Chicago ’09 Day One Coverage:

SES Chicago ’09 Day Two Coverage:

SES Chicago ’09 Day Three Coverage:

Day three was pretty weak, I apologize, just really bad weather in Chicago and we all wanted to make sure to get home.

Thanks again and I hope you enjoyed our coverage.

Don’t Search Google for 123456

Job Applicants, Google AdSense Can’t Be Used As a Job Reference

New Region Tags For .com, .net TLDs

Bing Requires 3 MSNBot Crawls To Register 301 Redirects

Vote For The Doodle 4 Google UK Winner

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

SES Chicago ’09 Live Coverage Recap

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