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Dec. 29, 2006 at 2:55pm Eastern by Danny Sullivan
SearchCap: The Day In Search, Dec. 29, 2006
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web:
From Search Engine Land:
- Of Disappearing
Sex Blogs & Google Updates
Last week, Barry Schwartz reported there seemed to be a Google update going, based on forum activity he was seeing. Google's Matt Cutts quickly followed up with a short refresher on the difference between algorithm updates, data refreshes and index updates. The purpose was to explain that any changes some people were seeing were likely small and seemingly restricted to individual sites as new data flowed in, rather than a massive algorithm change similar to the great Florida update of November and December 2003. All fine and good and reassuring until the great sex blog disappearance happened this week. Folks... - Google Pushes
Forward With Newspaper Ads
Google Set To Expand Newspaper Ad Program at the Washington Post reports that Google's newspaper tests were a success according to the company. They want to expand the tests in the coming months. The pilot results were triple in volume of ads sold, compared to what they expected. FYI, the first ad test was deemed unsuccessful.... - Google Jet
Spotted At Christchurch Airport, New Zealand
Stuff.co.nz reports that the Google Jet was reportedly spotted at Christchurch airport in New Zealand yesterday afternoon, complete with a nice picture of the plane. They do not know who was on the plane owned by Google's founders. Reportedly, the plane's tail number was blocked out so that it cannot be tracked by the public via internet tracking sites. No official statement from Google has been made to confirm this news.... - Google
Accidentally Deletes Email Of 60 Gmail Users
GigaOM and TechCrunch report that some Gmail users have noticed some or all of their mail has been deleted. Google has responded with an official statement, explaining there was a bug that affected about 60 Gmail users. Here's the statement via GigaOM:... - Yahoo Removes
Message Boards: What Is To Come?
This morning, I was searching for a specific Yahoo message board and came up with nothing, so I assumed it was not there. Then I see that Slashdot reported the message boards have been removed. Yahoo informs us that they are "working on new ways for readers to comment on the news and participate in a discussion around it."... - Defending SEO,
Yet Again!
SEM and SEO, Rocket Science, or Just Plain Science? (Part 1) from Kevin Lee at ClickZ has Kevin jumping formally into the "SEO is easy versus SEO is rocket science debate" and digging a hole even deeper for himself, as far as I'm concerned. Sorry, Kevin. Kevin writes: To recap the roots of the controversy, my business partner of over 10 years, David Pasternack, touched a nerve recently when he wrote an article for his DMNews column, Troubled Times for SEO Firms, in which he stated, "SEO isn't rocket science." Apparently, a segment of the SEO blogosphere hopes to continue... - The People
Behind Google Maps, Yahoo Maps, MapQuest & Other Mapping Software
Cartographers hit the road to bring updated online maps by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch tells the story behind the individuals who draw the maps we use in our GPS devices or via our favorite online mapping software. NAVTEQ is the company that MapQuest, Google, Yahoo and others use for their mapping database. They travel the globe, document new roads, old roads, construction issues and more. One thing I found particularly interesting is what construction effort warrants a map change at MapQuest; MapQuest manager Christian Dwyer said his company typically adjusts its maps any time a construction project exceeds three months;... - Google's Not So
Top Terms & Top US Gainers For 2006
Last week, I wrote The Lies Of Top Search Terms Of The Year covering how the top terms of 2006 from Google turned out not to be the top terms at all in raw popularity. I caught up with Google at the end of that week to talk about this more but didn't have a chance to post a follow-up before Christmas hit. Now Google's done a blog post -- How we came up with year-end Zeitgeist data -- explaining that the top searches list really should have been called the "top gaining searches" list. More on that below, plus... - PhraseRank, Not
PageRank, To Fight Search Spam
Can indexing phrases from pages be an effective approach in identifying and filtering keyword stuffed pages, and honeypot pages aimed at attracting visitors solely to have them click upon ads? A new patent application published yesterday and assigned to Google, Detecting spam documents in a phrase based information retrieval system, presents a reasonable argument in favor of the method. Ok, so "Phraserank" doesn't appear in the document. But it's a term that might be worth thinking about. It may do much more than just help fight spam.... - YellowPages.com
Adds 'Send to Mobile'
Joining Yahoo Local, Windows Live Local, Google Maps, and IAC-owned Citysearch and AskCity, YellowPages.com announced a new "send to mobile" feature. The listing and contact details are sent via text to the user's mobile phone. Here's a result for the search "Plumbers, New York." (Send to mobile is on the upper right of each ad.)...
Search News Headlines From Elsewhere:
- 2006: The Year in Search Reviewed, Avenue A / Razorfish
- A tale of two social newsfilter sites: Digg and Newstrust, Boing Boing
- Trust is Hard to Gain, Easy to Lose, Blake Ross
- Google Self-Promotion Over the Top?, Search Engine Showdown
- Get Disorganized with Google Desktop?, Google Blogoscoped
- Google’s Orkut Down For 13+ Hours, TechCrunch
- N.C. pursues Google division expansion, The Charlotte Observer
- Interview with Google about duplicate content, Natural Search Blog
- Is desktop search over?, Geeking With Greg
- Overlap Showdown: Only at 1 of 6, Search Engine Showdown
- Best of 2006, Google AdSense Blog
- Need Content Removed From Google Quickly? Expedited Google Content Removal, Search Engine Roundtable
- Google Drops Ads Automator for New AdWords Campaigns, Search Engine Roundtable
- When Google sneezes, the internet gets flu, The Register
- Yahoo to offer full auction refunds in Japan case, Webwereld
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By Danny Sullivan
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Thanks for the link Danny!