Wait, you didn’t realize Rick Santorum has a “Bing problem” that’s exactly the same as his well-documented “Google problem,” where a search for “santorum” lists a web page defining that word as the by-product of anal sex above Santorum’s official web site?

He does. In fact, Santorum’s had his Bing problem for months, if not years. It’s just that everyone fixates on Google. Even Santorum does when he gets asked about it, such as telling Politico last year:

“I suspect if something was up there like that about Joe Biden, they’d get rid of it,” Santorum said. “If you’re a responsible business, you don’t let things like that happen in your business that have an impact on the country.”

He continued: “To have a business allow that type of filth to be purveyed through their website or through their system is something that they say they can’t handle but I suspect that’s not true.”

It’s A Search Engine Problem, Not A Google Problem

In the wake of Santorum’s win, and no doubt eventual questions in some quarters about why Google still isn’t “fixing” things for him, I thought it was worthwhile to flip things around and discuss his Bing issue.

It’s worth stressing that this isn’t just some gay-loving-Google-liberal-leaning-hates-Santorum thing and more a general problem Santorum has with the major search engines. In particular, it’s a problem that’s ultimately down to Santorum’s anti-gay views.

Santorum & Bing: Just Like Google

Here’s what Bing currently shows for santorum:

You can see that just after the special news area that Bing inserts above the regular results, the first listing that the arrow points to is for SpreadingSantorum.com, with a description that reads:

Santorum 1. The frothy mix of lube and fecal matter that is sometimes the byproduct of anal sex. 2. Senator Rick Santorum

Santorum’s own official site, RickSantorum.com, appears third on the list.

Over at Google, which gets all the attention, the same issue happens:

Google’s news box appears further down on the page, probably because of the special election results box that appears at the top. Spreading Santorum, the anti-Santorum web site, appears as the first regular result. The official Rick Santorum web site appears fourth in the regular listings, one further down than with Bing.

By the way, the same thing also happens at Yahoo. Since Yahoo largely depends on Bing’s results, a search on “santorum” brings up the anti-Santorum site first, as it does with Bing — though after Yahoo’s own news units.

The news is better for searches for Rick Santorum’s full name, rather than just the word “santorum.” In that case, his official site ranks tops. Here’s Bing:

And here’s Google:

Does It Matter?

It’s becoming clear that Santorum’s Bing problem, as with his Google problem, isn’t stopping many Republican voters from selecting him over other candidates. So should Google or Bing really worry about trying to somehow fix it, especially when any type of change like that opens them up to accusations about censorship or political favoritism?

Perhaps.

The SafeSearch Solution

The biggest issue to me might be the fact that as interest in Santorum grows, you’ve got more children in schools likely to be searching on his name. Getting a fairly explicit description in their search results talking about “lube and fecal matter” and “anal sex” might not be what a lot of parents want them seeing.

Both Bing and Google have a SafeSearch filter that is set to “Moderate” by default, which means it only filters out explicit images. Setting this to “Strict” will keep the Spreading Santorum site from appearing in text listings. That’s something parents and teachers can use.

It’s Not An Irrelevant “Google Bomb”

How about a manual intervention to solve this problem, which has mistakenly been called a “Google Bomb.” Didn’t Google do something like that for President George W. Bush?

“Liberal leaning” Google did. The Google Bomb fix wasn’t specifically designed just for Bush, who found people were linking to his biography in a way to make it rank tops for “miserable failure.” It was meant to fix any type of case where people tried to make pages rank for odd phrases that they weren’t relevant for. But questions about the prominent Bush listing helped prompt the fix.

The Spreading Santorum site isn’t ranking because of some type of Google Bomb campaign. It ranks because it is entirely relevant for “santorum.” It was created years ago as a protest against Rick Santorum’s anti-homosexual views. Those views are entirely relevant, in fact arguably more relevant the further Santorum advances as a candidate to be president of the United States.

To drop the site, Bing and Google would actually be making the type of political move that Santorum seems to think that Google is already doing (he clearly doesn’t seem to think about or care about Bing).

But How About A Disclaimer?

There is something that Google is long overdue to implement. Consider what it used to show when you’d search for “miserable failure” and got the George W. Bush biography:

See the ad above the listings that the arrow points to, which say:

Why these results? These results may seem politically slanted. Here’s what happened

The ad led to an explanation at the official Google Blog. Google does a similar thing today, for a search on jew, which brings up an anti-Jewish web site:

It’s long past time for Google to do something similar for searches on “santorum.” They are going to confuse some people, who will assume Google’s trying to advance a political agenda with its search results.

I’d say Bing should do the same thing, but Bing’s never even tried to have explanations like this. Maybe it should consider it.

But Spreading Santorum Is Here To Stay

As for Rick Santorum, as I wrote before, the best way to solve his Google and Bing problems would be to change his views on homosexuality or make a donation to a gay marriage-rights group. That’s what Dan Savage, who created the Spreading Santorum site, told Mother Jones in 2010:

Savage has not forgiven Santorum for his seven-year-old comments: “Rick would have prevented me and my partner from being able to adopt my son,” he points out. But Savage does have a deal for the politician. “If Rick Santorum wants to make a $5 million donation to [the gay marriage group] Freedom to Marry, I will take it down. Interest starts accruing now.”

That’s unlikely to happen, so Santorum will have to continue living with the Spreading Santorum site showing up alongside his own.

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The employee is Jonathan Rockway. Google confirms he’s a new Googler — or Noogler — as new employees are known. He started in early January. Google didn’t explain what his job is, but he doesn’t appear to be involved in Google’s web search listings process.

SEO Isn’t Good?

That didn’t prevent Rockway from making comments about SEO and ads in a discussion on the Hacker News web site. While sticking up for his new employer, and its move to bring more social content and signals into its search results, Rockway said:

If the social features are relevant, though, then users are getting a better experience. And that’s a good thing, even if individual pages get less traffic from Google. Instead of being able to SEO the entire Internet, businesses can now only affect the search results for a tiny percentage of users. That’s a good thing because SEO can’t scale, and SEO isn’t good for users or the Internet at large.

I’ve bolded the key part. SEO isn’t good for users? As you’d expect, that’s got the attention of some SEOs. Aaron Wall highlighted Rockway’s comments on his SEO Book blog. So did Barry Schwartz on Search Engine Roundtable. I’ve also see references to Rockway’s comments making the rounds on social media channels I follow.

Google Says: SEO Isn’t Spam

Google’s official stance is that SEO isn’t bad. The company has repeatedly said this over time. In fact, last October, the head of Google’s web spam team, Matt Cutts, did an entire video on how Google doesn’t see SEO as spam. You can watch for yourself:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Google confirmed to me today that the video above “accurately protrays Google’s position” on SEO, rather than what Rockway said.

Ads For Ranking Well?

Perhaps more worrisome, however, was Rockway’s comments about ads. He said:

If you look at the Google experience from the standpoint of customers, it’s pretty good. Users get relevant search results and ads. Advertisers get their content on top of everything else. It’s a good compromise between advertising and usability, and it works really well. It’s a bug that you could rank highly in Google without buying ads, and Google is trying to fix the bug. Manipulating Google results shouldn’t be something you feel entitled to be able to do. If you want to rank highly in Google, be relevant for the user currently searching. Engage him in social media or email, provide relevant information about what you’re selling, and, generally, be a “good match” for what the user wants.

Again, I’ve bolded the key part. That comment suggests that Google is working to change things so that if you want to rank well on Google, you need to be buying ads. That’s pretty loaded stuff.

It’s also not something that seems reasonable. Yes, perhaps this new employee managed to slip-up about the grand master plan. Far more likely, he simply doesn’t know what he’s talking about.

Ads Don’t Matter

Three days after his original comment, Rockway made a 180 degree turn:

I shouldn’t have mentioned ads here. Position on the results page should only depend on the quality of your content; if your site has the best content on the Internet for the user’s search terms, you should be the top result. You shouldn’t be able to change your position in the organic results any other way, like by exploiting bugs in Google’s ranking algorithm. The specifics of the ranking algorithm may change, but if your site is the best, you won’t have to worry about it.

That took care of the ads issue; it still left SEO looking like some type of exploit.

For the record, Google told me this:

As always, Google search rankings are completely unrelated to Google’s paid advertising services and other partnerships, and there is absolutely no way for a webmaster to pay money to increase search rankings.

When it comes to SEO, many owners of high-quality sites can and do get their site listed well in Google’s search results without any outside help. Some site owners prefer to have someone else check and optimize their sites, and for these folks we’ve published some guidelines relating to evaluating SEO companies.

Overall, I’d agree with Cutts, who commented on Twitter that it’s nice to see more Googlers communicating. But I’d say I want that communication from Googlers who actually know what they’re talking about. That didn’t seem to be the case here.

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• Google’s SPYW, Kenya Imbroglios An “Ink Blot” Test For Google As Good Or Evil
• “Ask On Google+” Links Appearing In Google’s Search Results
• “Don’t Be Evil” Tool — Backed By Facebook & Twitter — Shows Google’s “Search Plus Your World” Can Go Beyond Google+
• A Proposal For Social Network Détente

Google: Legal

• Larry Page “CEO Of The Year” — Investors Business Daily
• Class Action Lawsuit Against Google For Ads On Parked Domains Turned Down
• Koreans Accuse Google Of “Obstructing” Antitrust Investigation
• Google’s SPYW, Kenya Imbroglios An “Ink Blot” Test For Google As Good Or Evil
• Report: FTC Expanding Anti-Trust Investigation Of Google To Include Google+
• Google Blackens Its Logo To Protest SOPA/PIPA, While Bing & Yahoo Carry On As Usual
• WSJ: Federal Prisoner Helped U.S. Sting Against Google’s Pharmacy Ads
• Major Entertainment Groups Accuse Google, Bing Of Directing Users To Illegal Content
• Matt Cutts Convinces Some South Korean Govt. Websites To Stop Blocking Googlebot

Google: Logos

• 2012 New Year’s Day Logos From The Search Industry
• Google Logo Honors Addams Family Creator, Charles Addams
• Google Logo For Nicolas Steno: Father Of Modern Geology
• Google Honors Martin Luther King Jr. Day With “I Have A Dream” Logo
• Google Blackens Its Logo To Protest SOPA/PIPA, While Bing & Yahoo Carry On As Usual
• Google’s 5th “Doodle 4 Google” Contest Opens For K-12 Students
• Google Logo For Largest Observed Snowflake

Google: Maps & Local

• Larry Page “CEO Of The Year” — Investors Business Daily
• The History Of Google Places, All On One Page
• Big Chains Launch “Hulu For Hotels”
• Google Maps Now Highlighting Borders Of Cities, Postal Codes & More
• Nokia Now “Powering” Bing Maps
• Google’s “Find Hotels By Travel Time” Offers Some Of That “Innovation” Google Was Talking About
• Emergency In Your Area? “Public Alerts” On Google Maps Shows Warnings
• Google’s “Trusted Photographers” Turns Business Photos Into A Self-Serve Product
• Study: Reviews & Images Drive Clicks In Mobile
• Google & Bing: We’re Not Involved In “Local Paid Inclusion”

Google: Marketing

• Larry Page “CEO Of The Year” — Investors Business Daily
• Google’s Jaw-Dropping Sponsored Post Campaign For Chrome
• Google: Yes, Sponsored Post Campaign Was Ours But Not What We Signed-Up For
• Google’s Chrome Page No Longer Ranks For “Browser” After Sponsored Post Penalty

Google: Mobile

• Larry Page “CEO Of The Year” — Investors Business Daily
• Koreans Accuse Google Of “Obstructing” Antitrust Investigation
• December “Explicit” Search Numbers: Bing Now Ahead Of Yahoo
• Google Search App For Android Updated
• Google Swallows Hard, Renews Effort In China
• AdWords Gets More Granular With New Mobile Targeting Options
• Projecting 2012 Google Mobile Revenues: $4 or $6 Billion?
• Study: Reviews & Images Drive Clicks In Mobile

Google: Offers

• Larry Page “CEO Of The Year” — Investors Business Daily

Google: Other

• Google Launches US Election Hub Website

Google: Outside US

• Koreans Accuse Google Of “Obstructing” Antitrust Investigation
• Iran: Google Is A Spying Engine
• Google Swallows Hard, Renews Effort In China
• Google’s SPYW, Kenya Imbroglios An “Ink Blot” Test For Google As Good Or Evil
• Bing Out Of “Betaphase” In Germany, Claims 10 Million Users
• Matt Cutts Convinces Some South Korean Govt. Websites To Stop Blocking Googlebot

Google: Panda Update

• Google Panda 3.2 Update Confirmed

Google: Personalized Search

• Google’s Results Get More Personal With “Search Plus Your World”

Google: Place Pages

• The History Of Google Places, All On One Page

Google: Rich Snippets

• Google Announces “Megasitelinks,” Image Search Improvements & Better Byline Dates

Google: Search Customization

• Google: Ability To Block Sites From Search Results Will Return, But When?

Google: Search Plus Your World

• Google’s Results Get More Personal With “Search Plus Your World”
• Real-Life Examples Of How Google’s “Search Plus” Pushes Google+ Over Relevancy
• Google “Search Plus” Impact on Local: Limited So Far
• “Don’t Be Evil” Tool — Backed By Facebook & Twitter — Shows Google’s “Search Plus Your World” Can Go Beyond Google+
• Two Weeks In, Google Says “Search Plus Your World” Going Well, Critics Should Give It Time

Google: SEO

• Google’s Jaw-Dropping Sponsored Post Campaign For Chrome
• Google: Yes, Sponsored Post Campaign Was Ours But Not What We Signed-Up For
• Google’s Chrome Page No Longer Ranks For “Browser” After Sponsored Post Penalty
• Google Announces “Megasitelinks,” Image Search Improvements & Better Byline Dates
• 2011: The Year Google & Bing Took Away From SEOs & Publishers
• How To Blackout Your Site (For SOPA/PIPA) Without Hurting SEO
• Google Slows Web Crawlers To Help Blackouts Sites
• Pages With Too Many Ads “Above The Fold” Now Penalized By Google’s “Page Layout” Algorithm
• An Interview With A Google Search Quality Rater
• Google Revamps Submit Content Page
• Google Changes Definition Of Average Search Ranking Position
• Google Panda 3.2 Update Confirmed
• Dear Google: Crappy Results Like This Don’t Give The Impression You Care About Search
• 3 Essential Features For Multinational Content Delivery
• Matt Cutts Convinces Some South Korean Govt. Websites To Stop Blocking Googlebot

Google: Sitelinks

• Google Announces “Megasitelinks,” Image Search Improvements & Better Byline Dates
• “Don’t Be Evil” Tool — Backed By Facebook & Twitter — Shows Google’s “Search Plus Your World” Can Go Beyond Google+

Google: Social Search

• Google’s Results Get More Personal With “Search Plus Your World”

Google: Travel Search

• Big Chains Launch “Hulu For Hotels”
• Google’s “Find Hotels By Travel Time” Offers Some Of That “Innovation” Google Was Talking About

Google: Web Search

• Google Announces “Megasitelinks,” Image Search Improvements & Better Byline Dates
• Real-Life Examples Of How Google’s “Search Plus” Pushes Google+ Over Relevancy
• To Understand Google Favoritism, Think “If Google+ Were YouTube”
• Google: Ability To Block Sites From Search Results Will Return, But When?
• Pages With Too Many Ads “Above The Fold” Now Penalized By Google’s “Page Layout” Algorithm
• An Interview With A Google Search Quality Rater
• “Ask On Google+” Links Appearing In Google’s Search Results
• “Don’t Be Evil” Tool — Backed By Facebook & Twitter — Shows Google’s “Search Plus Your World” Can Go Beyond Google+
• Google Search Showing Results For Punctuation Marks
• Google Changes Definition Of Average Search Ranking Position
• Google Panda 3.2 Update Confirmed
• Dear Google: Crappy Results Like This Don’t Give The Impression You Care About Search
• Two Weeks In, Google Says “Search Plus Your World” Going Well, Critics Should Give It Time

Google: Webmaster Central

• 2011: The Year Google & Bing Took Away From SEOs & Publishers
• Google Webmaster Tools Adds Useful Download Options
• Google Revamps Submit Content Page
• Google Changes Definition Of Average Search Ranking Position
• Google Panda 3.2 Update Confirmed
• Now Test Your Sitemaps Before Submitting Them To Google

Google: YouTube & Video

• Dear Google: Crappy Results Like This Don’t Give The Impression You Care About Search

How To

• How To Improve Site Credibility Through Search & Social Media
• 5 Questions To Streamline Your Keyword Research
• Justified – Beginning Steps To Proving Your Internet Marketing Point
• 12 Steps To Optimize A Webpage For Organic Keywords

How To: Analytics

• Justified – Beginning Steps To Proving Your Internet Marketing Point

How To: Mobile Marketing

• How To Improve Mobile Commerce SEO Using JQM

How To: SEM

• PPC Planning Matrix

How To: SEO

• How To Improve Site Credibility Through Search & Social Media
• 5 Questions To Streamline Your Keyword Research
• 12 Steps To Optimize A Webpage For Organic Keywords

How To: Social Media Marketing

• How To Improve Site Credibility Through Search & Social Media

How To: Twitter

• How To Track U.S. Congress Members’ Tweets

In House Search Marketing

• 5 In-House Search Marketing Game Changers In 2011
• Google Fails To Trounce Bing (Again): The Fallacy Of The Superior Search Engine Revisited
• How To Build A “Navy Seal 6 Team” Of Search Marketers

Infographics

• Infographic: Search & Call Tracking
• Infographic: How Much Does SEO Cost?

Intermediate

• How To Improve Site Credibility Through Search & Social Media

Keywords & Content

• 5 Questions To Streamline Your Keyword Research
• Rich Snippets & Learning To Love Not Being #1
• 12 Steps To Optimize A Webpage For Organic Keywords

Legal: Censorship

• Google To Join Anti-SOPA “Blackout Day” With Home Page Protest
• Google Blackens Its Logo To Protest SOPA/PIPA, While Bing & Yahoo Carry On As Usual

Legal: Copyright

• Google To Join Anti-SOPA “Blackout Day” With Home Page Protest
• Major Entertainment Groups Accuse Google, Bing Of Directing Users To Illegal Content

Legal: General

• Class Action Lawsuit Against Google For Ads On Parked Domains Turned Down
• Google To Join Anti-SOPA “Blackout Day” With Home Page Protest

Legal: Regulation

• Google To Join Anti-SOPA “Blackout Day” With Home Page Protest
• Google Blackens Its Logo To Protest SOPA/PIPA, While Bing & Yahoo Carry On As Usual
• WSJ: Federal Prisoner Helped U.S. Sting Against Google’s Pharmacy Ads
• FairSearch.org Introduces Anti-Google “Good To Know” Ad Campaign

Link Building

• Link For The Real World, Not Just Your Site

Link Building: General

• 2011: The Year Google & Bing Took Away From SEOs & Publishers
• Link For The Real World, Not Just Your Site
• Link Building Tool Review: WordTracker Link Builder

Link Week

• Link Building Tool Review: Ontolo
• Link For The Real World, Not Just Your Site
• Linking Strategies For Google Plus Your World
• Infographics: Why They Fail For Link Building
• Link Building Tool Review: WordTracker Link Builder

Local Search

• Predictions For Local Search In 2012 – Year Of The Dragon
• Simplicity Is Key To Converting Local Consumers To Customers
• Google Plus Connections Are The New Link
• 10 Basic Bing Local Optimization Tips

Microsoft: adCenter

• Search Alliance Begins First AdCenter Testing In Europe
• PPC Planning Matrix
• Bing Out Of “Betaphase” In Germany, Claims 10 Million Users

Microsoft: Bing

• Bing Tests New Bottom Home Page Bar
• Nokia Now “Powering” Bing Maps
• Bing’s New Ad Campaign: Bing Is For #Doing
• Major Entertainment Groups Accuse Google, Bing Of Directing Users To Illegal Content
• Yandex Joins Bing, Yahoo In Using Nokia-Navteq Map Data

Microsoft: Bing Maps & Local

• Bing Makes Driving Directions Twice As Fast
• Nokia Now “Powering” Bing Maps
• 10 Basic Bing Local Optimization Tips
• Google & Bing: We’re Not Involved In “Local Paid Inclusion”

Microsoft: Bing Mobile

• Nokia Now “Powering” Bing Maps

Microsoft: Bing Webmaster Tools

• 2011: The Year Google & Bing Took Away From SEOs & Publishers

Microsoft: Marketing

• 2012 New Year’s Day Logos From The Search Industry
• Bing’s New Ad Campaign: Bing Is For #Doing

Microsoft: Mobile

• Nokia Now “Powering” Bing Maps

Microsoft: Outside US

• Bing Out Of “Betaphase” In Germany, Claims 10 Million Users

Microsoft: Partnerships

• Bing Out Of “Betaphase” In Germany, Claims 10 Million Users

Mobile Search

• How To Improve Mobile Commerce SEO Using JQM
• 6 Mobile Search Optimization Trends For 2012
• 10 Search & Social Resolutions For A Very Mobile 2012
• How To Achieve Mobile Search Ranking Clarity
• What You Need To Know About Targeting iPad & Tablet Searchers

Multinational Search

• Can New Multilingual Markup Create Advantages For Big Brand Optimisation?
• Will Yahoo Remain A Global Player Under Scott Thompson?
• A New Year, New Markets & New Keywords
• Did International Markets Cause Google’s Loss Of Love On Wall Street?
• 3 Essential Features For Multinational Content Delivery

Paid Search

• How Savvy Is Your AdWords Account? 7 Areas To Audit
• Tips For Managing Negative Keywords In PPC Campaigns
• Paid Search: The Bright-Line Divide
• 10 Form Optimization Tips For Landing Pages
• 8 Quick Ways to Increase Your AdWords CTR

Panda Update News

• Google Panda 3.2 Update Confirmed

Search & Analytics

• How Much Is A Click Really Worth?
• Justified – Beginning Steps To Proving Your Internet Marketing Point
• How America’s Search Trends From 2011 Makes Google+ Stand Out
• Report Affirms Strong Q4 Search Growth In 2011, Offers Additional Insights

Search & Conversion

• Four Things You Can Do With Inconclusive Split Tests
• When A/B Testing Prices, Proceed With Caution

Search & Display

• The New Era Of Display: 5 Reasons Search Marketers Should Care
• Understanding Keywords In Search Retargeting
• 2012 Is The Year To Cut Your Site Retargeting Budget

Search & Retail

• 2012: The Year Of The Independent Search Marketer?
• Increase Retail Sales From Mobile Devices In 2012
• 3 Keys To Online Retail In 2012: Doing More With Less

Search & Social

• Optimize Facebook Open Graph Tags: They Are the 50%
• How To Improve Site Credibility Through Search & Social Media
• Google+ Growing Your Social Network: Quantity vs. Quality

Search & Society: General

• How Rick Santorum Is Making His “Google Problem” Worse
• Ask.com Has The Most Long-Winded Searchers, Report Says

Search & Usability

• 10 Search & Website Usability New Year Resolutions for 2012
• Website Usability 101 For SEO Professionals

Search Ads: General

• Report: Social Media Spending Threatens To Overtake Paid Search Among SMBs

Search Engines: Government Search Engines

• Google Launches US Election Hub Website
• A Roundup Of New U.S. Government Search Tools

Search Engines: Location / Checkin Services

• Foursquare Launches “Personalized Search For The Real World”

Search Engines: Maps & Local Search Engines

• Foursquare Launches “Personalized Search For The Real World”

Search Engines: Mobile Search Engines

• How To Improve Mobile Commerce SEO Using JQM

Search Engines: Other Search Engines

• Yandex Joins Bing, Yahoo In Using Nokia-Navteq Map Data

Search Engines: People Search

• How To Track U.S. Congress Members’ Tweets

Search Engines: Real Time Search

• How To Track U.S. Congress Members’ Tweets

Search Engines: Travel Search Engines

• Google Flight Search Expands, Now Showing More Routes
• Big Chains Launch “Hulu For Hotels”

Search Engines: Wolfram Alpha

• Wolfram|Alpha Scores Again With Rich NFL Data

Search Engines: Yandex

• Yandex Joins Bing, Yahoo In Using Nokia-Navteq Map Data

Search In Pictures

• Search In Pics: Google Bumper Sticker, Knitted Android Sleeve & Yahoo’s CEOs
• Search In Pics: Google Cockroach, Cutts With Horse Mask & Google Beer Pong
• Search In Pics: Google Boxers, 90+ Million Google+ & Gundotra Google+ Cadbury Bar
• Search In Pics: David Beckham At Google, Google’s Moscow Office & Bing Bar

Search Marketing

• Report Affirms Strong Q4 Search Growth In 2011, Offers Additional Insights

Search Marketing Toolbox

• PPC Planning Matrix
• AdGooroo Trademark Insight Tool Makes Infringement Monitoring A Breeze

Search Marketing: Mobile

• How To Improve Mobile Commerce SEO Using JQM
• Reports: Mobile Search Impressions Explode, CTRs Beat PC
• 10 Search & Social Resolutions For A Very Mobile 2012
• What You Need To Know About Targeting iPad & Tablet Searchers

Search Marketing: Multinational

• Did International Markets Cause Google’s Loss Of Love On Wall Street?

Search Marketing: Search Term Research

• Ask.com Has The Most Long-Winded Searchers, Report Says

Search Month

• Search Month: December 2011 Search News, In Review

SEM Industry: Conferences

• Attend SMX West for What Works and What’s New in Search Engine Marketing – Feb. 28 to March 1
• Keep Pace with Changes in Search Marketing: Attend SMX West, Feb. 28-Mar. 1 in San Jose
• Keep Pace with Search Marketing Changes – Attend SMX West
• 130 Experts Speaking at Search Engine Land’s SMX West – Conference Rates Increase Saturday
• Search Engine Land’s SMX West Conference Rates Increase Saturday – Register Now!
• Pass Options for SMX West – Sessions, Networking and More

SEM Industry: General

• Trada Secures Additional $9M In Funding From Google Ventures & Foundry Group
• 2011: The Year Google & Bing Took Away From SEOs & Publishers
• An Interview With A Google Search Quality Rater
• Infographic: How Much Does SEO Cost?

SEM Industry: Stats

• Infographic: How Much Does SEO Cost?

SEO – Search Engine Optimization

• Don’t Fall Into The Made-For-SEO Website Trap
• 3 Essential Features For Multinational Content Delivery

SEO: Blocking Spiders

• How To Blackout Your Site (For SOPA/PIPA) Without Hurting SEO
• Google Slows Web Crawlers To Help Blackouts Sites

SEO: Duplicate Content

• How To Blackout Your Site (For SOPA/PIPA) Without Hurting SEO

SEO: General

• 2011: The Year Google & Bing Took Away From SEOs & Publishers
• An Interview With A Google Search Quality Rater
• 3 Essential Features For Multinational Content Delivery

SEO: Host Crowding & Clustering

• 3 Essential Features For Multinational Content Delivery

SEO: Local

• Report: Social Media Spending Threatens To Overtake Paid Search Among SMBs

SEO: Mobile Search

• How To Improve Mobile Commerce SEO Using JQM
• 6 Mobile Search Optimization Trends For 2012
• 10 Search & Social Resolutions For A Very Mobile 2012
• What You Need To Know About Targeting iPad & Tablet Searchers

SEO: Spamming

• Google’s Jaw-Dropping Sponsored Post Campaign For Chrome
• Google: Yes, Sponsored Post Campaign Was Ours But Not What We Signed-Up For
• Google’s Chrome Page No Longer Ranks For “Browser” After Sponsored Post Penalty

SEO: Submitting & Sitemaps

• Now Test Your Sitemaps Before Submitting Them To Google

SMX & SMN Alerts

• Attend SMX West for What Works and What’s New in Search Engine Marketing – Feb. 28 to March 1
• Last Call To Speak At SMX West
• Keep Pace with Changes in Search Marketing: Attend SMX West, Feb. 28-Mar. 1 in San Jose
• Two webcasts next week: “The Buyers’ Journey,” and “Content, Freshness and SEO for Large Sites”
• Keep Pace with Search Marketing Changes – Attend SMX West
• Webcasts next week: Social Media Analytics (Wed) + Pay Per Call Advertising (Thurs)
• 130 Experts Speaking at Search Engine Land’s SMX West – Conference Rates Increase Saturday
• Search Engine Land’s SMX West Conference Rates Increase Saturday – Register Now!
• Mobile Search: The Agency Opportunity – SMN Tuesday, Jan. 31
• Pass Options for SMX West – Sessions, Networking and More

Stats

• Report Affirms Strong Q4 Search Growth In 2011, Offers Additional Insights

Stats: comScore

• December “Explicit” Search Numbers: Bing Now Ahead Of Yahoo

Stats: General

• Infographic: Search & Call Tracking
• Report: Search Ad Spend To Rise 27% In 2012

Stats: Popularity

• December “Explicit” Search Numbers: Bing Now Ahead Of Yahoo
• Reports: Mobile Search Impressions Explode, CTRs Beat PC
• DuckDuckGo Sets New Traffic Record, But Stats Show How Dominant Google, Others Are
• Bing Out Of “Betaphase” In Germany, Claims 10 Million Users

Stats: Relevancy

• Dear Google: Crappy Results Like This Don’t Give The Impression You Care About Search

Stats: Search Behavior

• Reports: Mobile Search Impressions Explode, CTRs Beat PC
• Ask.com Has The Most Long-Winded Searchers, Report Says
• Report Affirms Strong Q4 Search Growth In 2011, Offers Additional Insights
• Study: Reviews & Images Drive Clicks In Mobile

Stats: Size

• Reports: Mobile Search Impressions Explode, CTRs Beat PC
• Report Affirms Strong Q4 Search Growth In 2011, Offers Additional Insights
• Bing Out Of “Betaphase” In Germany, Claims 10 Million Users

Stats: Spend Projections

• Q4 Reports: Search Advertising Growing In Efficiency
• Report: Search Ad Spend To Rise 27% In 2012

Twitter

• “Don’t Be Evil” Tool — Backed By Facebook & Twitter — Shows Google’s “Search Plus Your World” Can Go Beyond Google+

Twitter: Business Issues

• A Proposal For Social Network Détente

Twitter: Search

• How To Track U.S. Congress Members’ Tweets

Yahoo: Business Issues

• It’s Official: PayPal President Scott Thompson The New Yahoo CEO
• Yahoo’s Co-founder Jerry Yang Resigns

Yahoo: Employees

• It’s Official: PayPal President Scott Thompson The New Yahoo CEO
• Yahoo’s Co-founder Jerry Yang Resigns

Yahoo: General

• It’s Official: PayPal President Scott Thompson The New Yahoo CEO

Yahoo: Maps & Local

• Yandex Joins Bing, Yahoo In Using Nokia-Navteq Map Data

Yahoo: Mobile & Go

• It’s Official: PayPal President Scott Thompson The New Yahoo CEO

Yahoo: Outside US

• Bing Out Of “Betaphase” In Germany, Claims 10 Million Users

Yahoo: Partnerships

• It’s Official: PayPal President Scott Thompson The New Yahoo CEO
• Search Alliance Begins First AdCenter Testing In Europe
• Bing Out Of “Betaphase” In Germany, Claims 10 Million Users

Yahoo: Search

• It’s Official: PayPal President Scott Thompson The New Yahoo CEO

Yahoo: Search Ads

• Search Alliance Begins First AdCenter Testing In Europe
• Bing Out Of “Betaphase” In Germany, Claims 10 Million Users

Yahoo: Site Explorer

• 2011: The Year Google & Bing Took Away From SEOs & Publishers

The “Local Paid Inclusion” service launched officially today. The site’s home page pitches:

Local Paid Inclusion is a Google, Yahoo and Bing contracted service and is offered as an approved official program in cooperation with those search engines.

Local Paid Inclusion promotes a local business’ profile page, like those found in Google Places, Yahoo Local and Bing Local, into a top position on the search result page for up to 30 keywords per profile page.

This is a NEW program offered by Google, Yahoo!, Bing and 18 other major directories and indexes that places a business profile into a premium area above all other local profiles. Combine this with all of your other optimization programs to maximize your traffic.

What this means is local businesses that participate can essentially pay for the top local ranking position!

That copy reads like the type of email I’d normally delete as spam, if my spam filter didn’t catch it first. But since the service is backed by Bruce Clay, Inc. — a long-standing company in the SEO space — it really causes a double-take.

Clay dropped me an email late yesterday saying the service was going live, but I missed that (I have a lot of email I’m getting through) until some of the fireworks on Twitter erupted after his Facebook post went up and a story that Search Engine Watch did about the new service appeared

But Bing tells us:

Bing has no interest in paid inclusion into the local algo that artificially impacts ranking of algo results…. Microsoft does not have an agreement with UBL today.

UBL, for Universal Business Listings, appears to be a company that Clay is working with on the Local Paid Inclusion product.

As for Google, it tells us:

We are not working on any program that enables a site to pay to increase ranking in organic search results.

I’ve asked Clay for a further explanation, and we’ll update, when we hear more.

Postscript: Clay’s told me that he’s taken down the site while he investigates things further with UBL. Again, we’ll update, when we hear more.

Suffice to say, the claims are pretty unbelievable to me. I’ve also been seeing a lot of discussion about this on Twitter. So, in hopes of perhaps calming some concerns….

The idea that any one of these search engines would guarantee placement outside of their clearly marked advertising areas is pretty far-fetched. It’s not the way they’ve operated. The idea that all three would unite to do this in cooperation with an third-party company? Crazy.

So anyone believing this, or worrying about it, I’d relax. The denials above should be enough to do that, but they clearly aren’t for some people. But rather than the search engines having gone insane, it’s more likely there’s some massive confusion going on between UBL and Bruce Clay, Inc.

I get the impression that UBL — which I’ve never looked at closely — may provide data into local listings at the major search engines. Many companies do this type of thing. It doesn’t provide them any types of super-ranking powers. Some companies may try to stretch these type of relationships into some sort of endorsement by the major search engines. They shouldn’t be taken that way.

I get the impression (and this is solely my impression from afar, looking at all this), that Bruce Clay, Inc. is confused about what UBL can actually provide.

The idea that any company is going to guarantee an organic result simply makes no sense. It would be especially tricky in the local space. Google’s local results change significantly based on the city someone’s searching from. It literally becomes impossible to guarantee any ranking in that type of situation.

Postscript 2: UBL has posted:

Universal Business Listing denies any association with articles and news reports about a “paid inclusion” business listing service. The company has made no such announcements or claims, particularly in regards to Google. It has no product announcements pending.

Bruce Clay Inc is a reseller of UBL’s existing business listing syndication service and is not currently testing any new service from our company.

The site itself didn’t make a connection with UBL over this service, but the Search Engine Watch article did — and Clay himself also suggested a connection when he emailed that he was checking things with UBL. So, I’ll check with them further, too.

Postscript 3: Doyal Bryant, CEO of UBL, has emailed me:

We have no program or service with Bruce Clay providing this type of service as we gave put out in our website.

He also said that he would follow up more tomorrow. So stay tuned.

Postscript 4 (Feb. 1): UBL has updated their earlier statement to add:

UBL continues to innovate and experiment in the area of business listing syndication, and this includes methods to directly feed data into publishers on a free or paid basis. There are several methods of listing submission deployed by UBL and other companies in the field, so this should not be surprising to anyone. Some of these are indeed in an “Alpha” stage of development. However, there is absolutely no discussion under way with Google, nor have we ever represented it so. Furthermore, it would be a massive leap and hyperbole to describe any of this as “paid inclusion” which we would understand to imply preferential placement or ranking

Postscript 5 (Feb. 1): Bruce Clay Inc has now posted a statement, saying:

Late Monday, we announced the service “Local Paid Inclusion,” which we said gives local merchants higher rankings in the Places and local search results in Google, Yahoo! and Bing. We believed that the service offering was finalized between our backend partner and the aforementioned search engines.

So far, we have determined that it is not a released program, made even more complicated by statements of confidentiality agreements that put the kibosh on further discussion. Bruce Clay, Inc. has ceased to engage in Local Paid Inclusion while we dig into confusing and contradicting statements.

We announced what we believed to be a legitimate program where Bruce Clay, Inc. was going to be one of several distributors of this service. Our understanding of this service was that it impacted the sequence of entries within the Places or local results in search engines. And within that separate area of the results, this service would validate local profiles, assuring those entries would naturally result in appearing higher in the local results.

There was misinterpretation of the information surrounding this service; mainly that it would impact the organic search results, instead of only the local results. We take responsibility for an unclear message being announced in an untimely manner, where specifics of the program were not disclosed and the messaging was jumbled.

Bruce Clay, Inc. also takes responsibility for the early promotion of the service Local Paid Inclusion without taking the extra steps to verify these contracts existed as we understood them. For that, we apologize.

We believed at the time that the offering was valid and acted accordingly. We did not collect money at this time, choosing to only set up a notification contact list dubbed “pre-registration” for when the program formally released.

Bruce Clay, Inc. has always been committed to ethical search engine marketing practices that work alongside the values of the search engines: to serve the end user and provide exposure to businesses. This program seemed to be a solid way for local merchants to validate themselves online and to have their companies be found.

At this time, it’s our highest priority to be as clear as possible on this issue with the business and search communities. Bruce Clay, Inc. is prepared to openly discuss this matter as best we can with media and community to be as transparent as possible.

We will make every effort to answer looming questions as soon as we know more, but please understand that we are forced to work within confidentiality agreements, and may be unable to talk specifics.

We are currently working to better understand all of the contractual agreements in place, if any, with those search engines regarding this service.

We also need to thank the various social communities and search marketers for their passion regarding this matter; the voices were heard loud and clear, showing there’s no lack of diligent, inquisitive and knowledgeable marketers and business people in our community.

In the meantime, Bruce Clay, Inc. has withdrawn Local Paid Inclusion pending our further research into this matter. And the site LocalPaidInclusion.com has been taken down while this issue is resolved.

Postscript 6 (Feb. 2): Chris Silver Smith (a board member of UBL) weighs in with his speculation about what happened. He says that the LocalPaidInclusion concept was largely a notion dreamt up and/or predicted by Bruce Clay.

The bottom line: It doesn’t appear that there’s any type of top-ranking program that existed with the major search engines.

How Bruce Clay, Inc. came to believe there was such a program, to the degree it constructed an entire web site to sell it, still remains fairly unclear.

Top News

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• Major Entertainment Groups Accuse Google, Bing Of Directing Users To Illegal Content
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Ask: Web Search

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B2B Search Marketing

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DuckDuckGo

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Enterprise SEM

• What The Holidays Tell Search Marketers

Facebook

• “Don’t Be Evil” Tool — Backed By Facebook & Twitter — Shows Google’s “Search Plus Your World” Can Go Beyond Google+
• A Proposal For Social Network Détente

Featured

• 130 Experts Speaking at Search Engine Land’s SMX West – Conference Rates Increase Saturday
• A Proposal For Social Network Détente
• 4+ Recommendations To Enhance B2B SEO Initiatives
• Google Panda 3.2 Update Confirmed
• Major Entertainment Groups Accuse Google, Bing Of Directing Users To Illegal Content
• Bing Out Of “Betaphase” In Germany, Claims 10 Million Users

Features: Analysis

• 130 Experts Speaking at Search Engine Land’s SMX West – Conference Rates Increase Saturday
• A Proposal For Social Network Détente
• Google Panda 3.2 Update Confirmed
• Two Weeks In, Google Says “Search Plus Your World” Going Well, Critics Should Give It Time

Google: AdWords

• WSJ: Federal Prisoner Helped U.S. Sting Against Google’s Pharmacy Ads

Google: Analytics

• Google Changes Definition Of Average Search Ranking Position

Google: Antitrust

• “Don’t Be Evil” Tool — Backed By Facebook & Twitter — Shows Google’s “Search Plus Your World” Can Go Beyond Google+
• A Proposal For Social Network Détente
• FairSearch.org Introduces Anti-Google “Good To Know” Ad Campaign

Google: Business Issues

• A Proposal For Social Network Détente

Google: Content Central

• Google Revamps Submit Content Page

Google: Critics

• “Don’t Be Evil” Tool — Backed By Facebook & Twitter — Shows Google’s “Search Plus Your World” Can Go Beyond Google+
• A Proposal For Social Network Détente
• FairSearch.org Introduces Anti-Google “Good To Know” Ad Campaign
• Major Entertainment Groups Accuse Google, Bing Of Directing Users To Illegal Content
• Two Weeks In, Google Says “Search Plus Your World” Going Well, Critics Should Give It Time

Google: Google+

• “Don’t Be Evil” Tool — Backed By Facebook & Twitter — Shows Google’s “Search Plus Your World” Can Go Beyond Google+
• A Proposal For Social Network Détente

Google: Legal

• WSJ: Federal Prisoner Helped U.S. Sting Against Google’s Pharmacy Ads
• Major Entertainment Groups Accuse Google, Bing Of Directing Users To Illegal Content

Google: Logos

• Google Logo For Largest Observed Snowflake

Google: Maps & Local

• Emergency In Your Area? “Public Alerts” On Google Maps Shows Warnings
• Google’s “Trusted Photographers” Turns Business Photos Into A Self-Serve Product
• Study: Reviews & Images Drive Clicks In Mobile

Google: Mobile

• Projecting 2012 Google Mobile Revenues: $4 or $6 Billion?
• Study: Reviews & Images Drive Clicks In Mobile

Google: Outside US

• Bing Out Of “Betaphase” In Germany, Claims 10 Million Users

Google: Panda Update

• Google Panda 3.2 Update Confirmed

Google: Search Plus Your World

• “Don’t Be Evil” Tool — Backed By Facebook & Twitter — Shows Google’s “Search Plus Your World” Can Go Beyond Google+
• Two Weeks In, Google Says “Search Plus Your World” Going Well, Critics Should Give It Time

Google: SEO

• Google Revamps Submit Content Page
• Google Changes Definition Of Average Search Ranking Position
• Google Panda 3.2 Update Confirmed
• Dear Google: Crappy Results Like This Don’t Give The Impression You Care About Search

Google: Sitelinks

• “Don’t Be Evil” Tool — Backed By Facebook & Twitter — Shows Google’s “Search Plus Your World” Can Go Beyond Google+

Google: Web Search

• “Don’t Be Evil” Tool — Backed By Facebook & Twitter — Shows Google’s “Search Plus Your World” Can Go Beyond Google+
• Google Search Showing Results For Punctuation Marks
• Google Changes Definition Of Average Search Ranking Position
• Google Panda 3.2 Update Confirmed
• Dear Google: Crappy Results Like This Don’t Give The Impression You Care About Search
• Two Weeks In, Google Says “Search Plus Your World” Going Well, Critics Should Give It Time

Google: Webmaster Central

• Google Revamps Submit Content Page
• Google Changes Definition Of Average Search Ranking Position
• Google Panda 3.2 Update Confirmed
• Now Test Your Sitemaps Before Submitting Them To Google

Google: YouTube & Video

• Dear Google: Crappy Results Like This Don’t Give The Impression You Care About Search

Infographics

• Infographic: How Much Does SEO Cost?

Legal: Copyright

• Major Entertainment Groups Accuse Google, Bing Of Directing Users To Illegal Content

Legal: Regulation

• WSJ: Federal Prisoner Helped U.S. Sting Against Google’s Pharmacy Ads
• FairSearch.org Introduces Anti-Google “Good To Know” Ad Campaign

Link Week

• Infographics: Why They Fail For Link Building

Local Search

• Google Plus Connections Are The New Link
• 10 Basic Bing Local Optimization Tips

Microsoft: adCenter

• Bing Out Of “Betaphase” In Germany, Claims 10 Million Users

Microsoft: Bing

• Major Entertainment Groups Accuse Google, Bing Of Directing Users To Illegal Content

Microsoft: Bing Maps & Local

• 10 Basic Bing Local Optimization Tips

Microsoft: Outside US

• Bing Out Of “Betaphase” In Germany, Claims 10 Million Users

Microsoft: Partnerships

• Bing Out Of “Betaphase” In Germany, Claims 10 Million Users

Mobile Search

• How To Achieve Mobile Search Ranking Clarity
• What You Need To Know About Targeting iPad & Tablet Searchers

Multinational Search

• Did International Markets Cause Google’s Loss Of Love On Wall Street?

Paid Search

• 10 Form Optimization Tips For Landing Pages

Panda Update News

• Google Panda 3.2 Update Confirmed

Search & Analytics

• Report Affirms Strong Q4 Search Growth In 2011, Offers Additional Insights

Search & Conversion

• When A/B Testing Prices, Proceed With Caution

Search & Display

• 2012 Is The Year To Cut Your Site Retargeting Budget

Search & Retail

• 3 Keys To Online Retail In 2012: Doing More With Less

Search & Society: General

• Ask.com Has The Most Long-Winded Searchers, Report Says

Search In Pictures

• Search In Pics: David Beckham At Google, Google’s Moscow Office & Bing Bar

Search Marketing

• Report Affirms Strong Q4 Search Growth In 2011, Offers Additional Insights

Search Marketing: Mobile

• What You Need To Know About Targeting iPad & Tablet Searchers

Search Marketing: Multinational

• Did International Markets Cause Google’s Loss Of Love On Wall Street?

Search Marketing: Search Term Research

• Ask.com Has The Most Long-Winded Searchers, Report Says

SEM Industry: Conferences

• 130 Experts Speaking at Search Engine Land’s SMX West – Conference Rates Increase Saturday
• Search Engine Land’s SMX West Conference Rates Increase Saturday – Register Now!

SEM Industry: General

• Infographic: How Much Does SEO Cost?

SEM Industry: Search Marketing Expo – SMX

• 130 Experts Speaking at Search Engine Land’s SMX West – Conference Rates Increase Saturday
• Search Engine Land’s SMX West Conference Rates Increase Saturday – Register Now!

SEM Industry: Stats

• Infographic: How Much Does SEO Cost?

SEO: Mobile Search

• What You Need To Know About Targeting iPad & Tablet Searchers

SEO: Submitting & Sitemaps

• Now Test Your Sitemaps Before Submitting Them To Google

SMX & SMN Alerts

• 130 Experts Speaking at Search Engine Land’s SMX West – Conference Rates Increase Saturday
• Search Engine Land’s SMX West Conference Rates Increase Saturday – Register Now!
• Mobile Search: The Agency Opportunity – SMN Tuesday, Jan. 31

Stats

• Report Affirms Strong Q4 Search Growth In 2011, Offers Additional Insights

Stats: Popularity

• DuckDuckGo Sets New Traffic Record, But Stats Show How Dominant Google, Others Are
• Bing Out Of “Betaphase” In Germany, Claims 10 Million Users

Stats: Relevancy

• Dear Google: Crappy Results Like This Don’t Give The Impression You Care About Search

Stats: Search Behavior

• Ask.com Has The Most Long-Winded Searchers, Report Says
• Report Affirms Strong Q4 Search Growth In 2011, Offers Additional Insights
• Study: Reviews & Images Drive Clicks In Mobile

Stats: Size

• Report Affirms Strong Q4 Search Growth In 2011, Offers Additional Insights
• Bing Out Of “Betaphase” In Germany, Claims 10 Million Users

Twitter

• “Don’t Be Evil” Tool — Backed By Facebook & Twitter — Shows Google’s “Search Plus Your World” Can Go Beyond Google+

Twitter: Business Issues

• A Proposal For Social Network Détente

Yahoo: Outside US

• Bing Out Of “Betaphase” In Germany, Claims 10 Million Users

Yahoo: Partnerships

• Bing Out Of “Betaphase” In Germany, Claims 10 Million Users

Yahoo: Search Ads

• Bing Out Of “Betaphase” In Germany, Claims 10 Million Users

Most Google users are happy, Singhal said. Of course, Search Plus Your World isn’t perfect, he admits, but it’ll improve. As for including content from social networks like Twitter and Facebook, Google’s open to that, as long as long-term deals can be reached that give Google faith it can build new features that will last.

I talked today with Singhal — the “Google Fellow” who oversees all of Google’s search algorithms — about the reaction to Search Plus Your World. Here’s the Q&A, questions in bold, answers from Singhal indented below them.

What’s been your overall reaction or thoughts as you’ve seen all the debate about Search Plus Your World?

The overall takeaway that I have in my mind is that people are judging a product and an overall direction that we have in the first two weeks of a launch, where we are producing a product for the long term.

We’re clearly not done. The product is not complete. It will improve, and we are going to add more things to it. We — Google — always launch products and learn from our launches.

Let me also add one thing. Here is something that I’ve been noticing. The user feedback we have been getting has been almost the other side of the reaction we’ve seen in the blogosphere. The users who have seen this in the wild are liking it, and our initial data analysis is showing the same.

With Universal Search or Google Instant, there were more initial complaints, then even later, people were delighted with it.

NOTE: Earlier this week, I was reviewing Google’s web search support forums myself. There really isn’t any massive outcry as we’ve seen with other launches, such as when Google Reader integrated Google+ sharing last year.

There are two main changes that Search Plus Your World introduced. One was the ability to search through privately-shared content along with public content. Some have written they dislike this. Your reaction?

Every time a real user is getting those results, they really are delighted. Given how personal this product is, you can only judge it based on personal experiences or by aggregate numbers you can observe through click-through.

Like everything else, we will improve the rankings and so on. But out of the gate, whereas we had limited users to train this system with, I’m actually very happy with the outcome of the personal results.

How about the concerns that Google+ is being favored too much?

Once again, the blogosphere, they’re just judging the book by the cover.

NOTE: I then mentioned there have been some examples of these blogged, such as by John Battelle, Mat Honan and just today, Tom Blue wrote about how personalized results made searches for things like “television” or “knives” seem to have irrelevant listings. Singhal then said….

I wouldn’t disagree that there may be a few examples out there where our system could be better, but there are millions of queries where our system could be better.

But specifically, there are concerns Google+ is being favored too much not in the privately-shared results but rather as suggestions in the search box or in the new People & Pages results.

This goes back to the point we have been making, that we only have access to personal content and personally shared content from Google Plus. We don’t have that access from other companies.

But what about the Don’t Be Evil tool launched this week, showing that you can create People & Pages results that do go beyond Google+ content.

This is where I’m saying most people are jumping to a conclusion based on the first two weeks of the product. We’re designing a product which it will work for all individuals. It will have identities as a fundamental ingredient of search and relationships as another fundamental ingredient of search.

All this debate is centered around these very popular people out there, and what you could have done for them, and what makes the most sense. But when you’re developing a product, you don’t want to develop it for one segment of the population.

I’ve not seen the debate that I have a [personal] friend named Ben Smith, and when I try to search for him, I get bad results. If you actually build a product only for popular people, then it undermines what we are trying to do. You can’t build a product that behaves differently for one class of people then differently for the real relationships that matter for you.

I feel like this point has not been emphasized enough. People have gotten stuck on these very popular names, and no one has been focused on the cool part of the product where you can find people you care about.

But the People & Pages section does seem focused on famous people or big companies right now.

This is the first two weeks of the product. We have designed for the future of the product. We have designed a product not just for how it works for today, and what we really want is for it to work for tomorrow. Going forward, we’d be interested in doing things like if you’re looking for a destination, we’d like to present to you people that you know who may have something to say about that destination.

People are coming to a conclusion about the product today, within the first two weeks, and they’re not fully seeing the potential where we can build this product around real identities and real relationships.

Is what we have now in People & Pages a promotion for Google+ or search results meant to be more than pushing Google+?

What we are thinking about that product is that if you’re interested in something, who are the people you are potentially related to that you should know about? If they have shared things with you, that’s the obvious thing. It’s easier to build the early system with popular people, but that’s just the beginning of the product.

But how about now? Is this more a Google+ promotional unit?

We don’t think of this as a promotional unit now. This is a place that you would find people with real identities who would be interesting for your queries.

Currently, that place I would admit is occupied by really popular people. So what we are trying to do with this product is indeed bring that aspect that there’s this real society out there that you should know about.

Why not show the additional social links there? For example, you show Britney Spears with her Google+ page in a search for “music.” She links to her Twitter and Facebook accounts from her Google+ page. Couldn’t those be listed as alternative links within People & Pages?

If people click on her Google+ page, those links are available on her About page. Once again, this is possible for us [to maybe show alternative links] because we know much more about the real identities on Google Plus. We can’t provide that for other [lesser known] people.

But what if the people I really want to know about are on those other social networks?

Now I go back to watching how people are acting [with Search Plus Your World]. For example, if someone is not active on Google+, indeed, we shouldn’t be showing their very old posts. That’s one big lesson I’ve learned from watching this in the wild. We’re learning how we can improve the product. We’re already starting to launch some of these improvements as we speak.

What do you need from companies like Twitter and Facebook to integrate them into Search Plus Your World?

Fundamentally, what we learned with our great Realtime Search product is that once you build a great product that users love, then someone else can decide the fate of that product [because when the Twitter deal wasn't renewed, the Google's Realtime Search service depended so much on Twitter that it had to be closed].

That was a very bad experience for Google’s users, and it was a bad experience for our teams. They put their heart and souls into building a great product, just to see that go to waste.

We’re very open to incorporating information from other services, but that needs to be done on terms that wouldn’t change in a short period of time and make our products vanish.

What if you got the Twitter firehose of data without needing a deal. Would that work?

The question that comes down to is under what terms all that’s under. I’m just very wary of building a product where the terms can be changed.

But what if you were given all the posts that people make, no deal needed, just full access to the firehose. Would that be enough?

There’s more to it. A good product can only be built where we understand who’s who and who is related to whom. Relationships are also important alongside content. To build a good product, we have to do all types of processing. But fundamentally, it’s not just about content. It’s about identity, relationships and content. Anything else trivializes a very hard product.

What about if you were also given a feed about identities and relationships. Who someone is, all their social connections that are made public?

We’re very open to talking to all the parties on what does it take to build a proper identity product for users, with proper relationships managed.

Wasn’t something like the Open Social Graph API supposed to provide this? Or aren’t there these type of standards already?

I wish there were such standards that were widely adopted out there. One problem we already have observed is there are all types of link spam connections on Google Plus. We have to develop sophisticated analysis, say if someone posts with a particular pattern, we can tell they aren’t a real person.

There’s a lot more. It’s not just about content. It’s about identity, and when you start talking about these things and what it takes to build this, the data needed is much more than we can publicly crawl.

Moving Forward

That’s the interview. On a personal note, I’ve viewed the debate around Search Plus Your World as perhaps an opportunity to break the stalemate that’s existed between Facebook and Google for years over sharing data, as well as resolve the loss of Twitter data that happened last year.

Both Facebook and Twitter have real reasons to fear that Google — with its own Google+ social network — might use their data in a way that would threaten their own businesses.

However, both Facebook and Twitter also have good reasons for wanting to be better included in Google’s search engine. Similarly, Google’s search engine would benefit by having more social content within it, as well as a better understanding of social relationships.

That also means I think Google’s search engine would benefit if it could socially connect with any social network, not just Google Plus. I especially want to see the Google search engine continuing to do what I’ve depended on it to do, list the best content from across the entire web, regardless of where it is located.

I covered the strange balancing act Google has to walk between its social network and its search engine at the end of my article about the Don’t Be Evil tool from Facebook and Twitter that launched this week.

As for the balancing act Facebook and Twitter face with Google, I covered more about that — and some potential solutions — in my other post from earlier this this week: A Proposal For Social Network Détente.

Please consider reading both of those articles to understand more about these issues. There’s also related background reading below.

Related: Twitter-Google Deal

• Google Launches Real Time Search Results
• As Deal With Twitter Expires, Google Realtime Search Goes Offline
• Google Realtime Search & The Aftermath Of The Google-Twitter Split
• Twitter Renews Deal With Bing; Google Deal Remains MIA

Related: Facebook-Google Data Dispute

• Facebook On Social Search: ‘We Want To Work With Everybody’
• Facebook: You’ve No Right To Export Email Addresses (Unless It’s To Yahoo & Microsoft)
• Google & Facebook: If You’re So Smart, Work It Out!
• How Facebook Enables The Google Social “Scraping” It’s Upset About
• Google To Close Social Graph API, Not OpenSocial

Related: Google’s Search Plus Your World

• Google’s Results Get More Personal With “Search Plus Your World”
• Schmidt: Google+ Not Favored, Happy To Talk Twitter & Facebook Integration
• Twitter Cries Foul Over Google “@WWE” Search, But Google Still Beats Bing
• “Don’t Be Evil” Tool — Backed By Facebook & Twitter — Shows Google’s “Search Plus Your World” Can Go Beyond Google+
• FAQ: What’s The Debate About Google’s Search Plus Your World?
• A Proposal For Social Network Détente

Searching For Santorum: A New Surprise

I did a search for santorum a few minutes ago, and this is what I got:

See the YouTube link showing up there? It helps illustrate all that I think many people are feeling is wrong with Google right now. It’s a pretty bad result, and it’s also something getting there probably because Google’s not catching some potential old-school search engine spamming.

Universal Search Picked This?

The video result is showing up as part of Google Universal Search. That’s a system that blends content from Google’s various “vertical” or specialized search engines into its regular search results. It’s only supposed to inject this type of specialized content if it’s deemed especially relevant to the search topic.

Certainly, you can imagine that there’s video content relevant to a search on “santorum” from across the web. The Daily Show and The Colbert Report alone have over ten different Santorum comedy clips that might all be relevant.

Beyond comedy, there are news reports from across the entire web. The same search at Bing gives some examples of this, of how video content from Bing Video, as well as Fox News and CNN is inserted into its own search results for “santorum,” as you can see here:

Out of 20,000 potential matches on YouTube, out of 21 million potential video matches across the web, what does Google’s supposedly sophisticated Universal Search algorithm pick out to display as the top video content to be shown within the top search results?

A cartoon created by a company pitching its SEO software on YouTube as a way for Santorum to solve his Google problem. Wow.

You Couldn’t Have Picked….

That’s the most relevant thing that Google can show? I think most people would agree it’s not. I mean seriously, it’s better than these?

• Any of the Colbert Report or Daily Show clips
• Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum arguing with a student on gay marriage
• Dan Savage explaining how his campaign against Rick Santorum ultimately caused searches on Google and Bing to show a definition as “santorum” being related to anal sex

You Couldn’t Have Caught A 65% Like Ratio?

It’s embarrassing for Google to be doing this. And it’s worse when you look at the views the video has received: only about 2,000, at this point. That’s nothing compared to some of the other clips relevant to santorum, if you’re considering views to be one possible ranking factor. How does this video get such a boost?

Well, there’s another clue when you look at the number of likes the video has received: about 1,300, at this point. That means about 65% of people who viewed the video also liked it, a ratio that is hugely out of proportion to what you normally see.

For example, the classic Honey Badger video — which is hilarious — has a like ratio of 0.5%. How about the classic Double Rainbow video? Hey, 0.5% again. The Bedroom Intruder song? A tiny bit better, 0.6%.

Either this SEO tool video is something like 130x more likeable than any of these other videos or something abnormal is happening — something that you’d think Google’s spam detection systems would have flagged.

Can I Haz My Relevancy Back?

In this particular example, the poor relevancy isn’t caused by any of the ongoing Google+ification of Google. This result is what anyone would see, even if they are logged out of Google. It’s not caused by Search Plus Your World or anything like that.

But Google has spent so much time and energy shoving Google+ into seemingly every nook and cranny that it can find that this type of relevancy screw-up feels like another bit of evidence that Google’s original core mission, delivering awesome search results, is being forgotten.

Related Articles

• Google 2.0: Google Universal Search
• Google Universal Search Expands
• How The “Focus On First” Helps Hide Google’s Relevancy Problems
• Should Rick Santorum’s “Google Problem” Be Fixed?
• Google’s “Gold Standard” Search Results Take Big Hit In New York Times Story
• How Rick Santorum Is Making His “Google Problem” Worse
• After Santorum’s Win, The Daily Show & Colbert Report Laugh Again At His Google Problem
• An Interview With A Google Search Quality Rater
• Pages With Too Many Ads “Above The Fold” Now Penalized By Google’s “Page Layout” Algorithm
• Google Announces “Megasitelinks,” Image Search Improvements & Better Byline Dates
• FAQ: What’s The Debate About Google’s Search Plus Your World?

Top News

• The Big Preview Post: Search Engine Land’s SMX West 2012 Search Marketing Conference Comes To San Jose
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• Pages With Too Many Ads “Above The Fold” Now Penalized By Google’s “Page Layout” Algorithm
• An Interview With A Google Search Quality Rater
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• A Proposal For Social Network Détente

All Things SEO

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B2B Search Marketing

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Enterprise SEM

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Enterprise SEO

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Facebook

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• A Proposal For Social Network Détente

Featured

• Yahoo’s Co-founder Jerry Yang Resigns
• Google Blackens Its Logo To Protest SOPA/PIPA, While Bing & Yahoo Carry On As Usual
• How To Build A “Navy Seal 6 Team” Of Search Marketers
• Pages With Too Many Ads “Above The Fold” Now Penalized By Google’s “Page Layout” Algorithm
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• Wolfram|Alpha Scores Again With Rich NFL Data
• 130 Experts Speaking at Search Engine Land’s SMX West – Conference Rates Increase Saturday

Features: Analysis

• The Big Preview Post: Search Engine Land’s SMX West 2012 Search Marketing Conference Comes To San Jose
• Pages With Too Many Ads “Above The Fold” Now Penalized By Google’s “Page Layout” Algorithm
• 130 Experts Speaking at Search Engine Land’s SMX West – Conference Rates Increase Saturday
• A Proposal For Social Network Détente

Features: General

• An Interview With A Google Search Quality Rater

Google: AdWords

• AdGroup-Level Impression Share Metrics Coming To AdWords
• AdWords Gets More Granular With New Mobile Targeting Options

Google: Antitrust

• “Don’t Be Evil” Tool — Backed By Facebook & Twitter — Shows Google’s “Search Plus Your World” Can Go Beyond Google+
• A Proposal For Social Network Détente

Google: Business Issues

• Google: Paid Clicks Up 34% While Cost Per Click Down 8% YoY
• A Proposal For Social Network Détente

Google: Critics

• “Don’t Be Evil” Tool — Backed By Facebook & Twitter — Shows Google’s “Search Plus Your World” Can Go Beyond Google+
• A Proposal For Social Network Détente

Google: Google+

• “Ask On Google+” Links Appearing In Google’s Search Results
• “Don’t Be Evil” Tool — Backed By Facebook & Twitter — Shows Google’s “Search Plus Your World” Can Go Beyond Google+
• A Proposal For Social Network Détente

Google: Legal

• Google Blackens Its Logo To Protest SOPA/PIPA, While Bing & Yahoo Carry On As Usual

Google: Logos

• Google Honors Martin Luther King Jr. Day With “I Have A Dream” Logo
• Google Blackens Its Logo To Protest SOPA/PIPA, While Bing & Yahoo Carry On As Usual
• Google’s 5th “Doodle 4 Google” Contest Opens For K-12 Students

Google: Maps & Local

• Google Maps Now Highlighting Borders Of Cities, Postal Codes & More
• Nokia Now “Powering” Bing Maps
• Google’s “Find Hotels By Travel Time” Offers Some Of That “Innovation” Google Was Talking About

Google: Mobile

• AdWords Gets More Granular With New Mobile Targeting Options
• Projecting 2012 Google Mobile Revenues: $4 or $6 Billion?

Google: Search Plus Your World

• “Don’t Be Evil” Tool — Backed By Facebook & Twitter — Shows Google’s “Search Plus Your World” Can Go Beyond Google+

Google: SEO

• How To Blackout Your Site (For SOPA/PIPA) Without Hurting SEO
• Google Slows Web Crawlers To Help Blackouts Sites
• Pages With Too Many Ads “Above The Fold” Now Penalized By Google’s “Page Layout” Algorithm
• An Interview With A Google Search Quality Rater

Google: Sitelinks

• “Don’t Be Evil” Tool — Backed By Facebook & Twitter — Shows Google’s “Search Plus Your World” Can Go Beyond Google+

Google: Travel Search

• Google’s “Find Hotels By Travel Time” Offers Some Of That “Innovation” Google Was Talking About

Google: Web Search

• Pages With Too Many Ads “Above The Fold” Now Penalized By Google’s “Page Layout” Algorithm
• An Interview With A Google Search Quality Rater
• “Ask On Google+” Links Appearing In Google’s Search Results
• “Don’t Be Evil” Tool — Backed By Facebook & Twitter — Shows Google’s “Search Plus Your World” Can Go Beyond Google+
• Google Search Showing Results For Punctuation Marks

Google: Webmaster Central

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How To: Twitter

• How To Track U.S. Congress Members’ Tweets

In House Search Marketing

• How To Build A “Navy Seal 6 Team” Of Search Marketers

Keywords & Content

• Rich Snippets & Learning To Love Not Being #1

Legal: Censorship

• Google To Join Anti-SOPA “Blackout Day” With Home Page Protest
• Google Blackens Its Logo To Protest SOPA/PIPA, While Bing & Yahoo Carry On As Usual

Legal: Copyright

• Google To Join Anti-SOPA “Blackout Day” With Home Page Protest

Legal: General

• Google To Join Anti-SOPA “Blackout Day” With Home Page Protest

Legal: Regulation

• Google To Join Anti-SOPA “Blackout Day” With Home Page Protest
• Google Blackens Its Logo To Protest SOPA/PIPA, While Bing & Yahoo Carry On As Usual

Link Week

• Linking Strategies For Google Plus Your World

Local Search

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Microsoft: Bing

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Microsoft: Bing Maps & Local

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Microsoft: Bing Mobile

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Microsoft: Marketing

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Microsoft: Mobile

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Mobile Search

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Multinational Search

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Paid Search

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Search & Analytics

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Search & Display

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Search & Retail

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Search & Usability

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Search Engines: People Search

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Search Engines: Real Time Search

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Search Engines: Wolfram Alpha

• Wolfram|Alpha Scores Again With Rich NFL Data

Search In Pictures

• Search In Pics: Google Boxers, 90+ Million Google+ & Gundotra Google+ Cadbury Bar

Search Marketing Toolbox

• AdGooroo Trademark Insight Tool Makes Infringement Monitoring A Breeze

Search Marketing: Mobile

• 10 Search & Social Resolutions For A Very Mobile 2012

SEM Industry: Conferences

• Keep Pace with Search Marketing Changes – Attend SMX West
• 130 Experts Speaking at Search Engine Land’s SMX West – Conference Rates Increase Saturday

SEM Industry: General

• An Interview With A Google Search Quality Rater

SEO: Blocking Spiders

• How To Blackout Your Site (For SOPA/PIPA) Without Hurting SEO
• Google Slows Web Crawlers To Help Blackouts Sites

SEO: Duplicate Content

• How To Blackout Your Site (For SOPA/PIPA) Without Hurting SEO

SEO: General

• An Interview With A Google Search Quality Rater

SEO: Mobile Search

• 10 Search & Social Resolutions For A Very Mobile 2012

Twitter

• “Don’t Be Evil” Tool — Backed By Facebook & Twitter — Shows Google’s “Search Plus Your World” Can Go Beyond Google+

Twitter: Business Issues

• A Proposal For Social Network Détente

Twitter: Search

• How To Track U.S. Congress Members’ Tweets

Yahoo: Business Issues

• Yahoo’s Co-founder Jerry Yang Resigns

Yahoo: Employees

• Yahoo’s Co-founder Jerry Yang Resigns

Beyond Blame, Believing In Cooperation

Let’s set aside blame, because blame isn’t going to move anything forward.

Let’s also assume that all the players can be taken to some degree at their word, that they do indeed want to work together in some ways.

What does everyone want?

The Wants & A Game Changer

Google has wanted its own social graph for some time. By social graph, I mean a way for it to see how people are interconnected, which could potentially improve Google’s search results. Better ways to target ads, new “sticky” content where people spend huge amounts of time are other things it wants, but let’s focus on the search aspects.

Twitter has wanted, well, clearly money along with other non-disclosed things for what is mistakenly assumed to be its most valuable asset, its “firehose” of tweets. What’s really Twitter’s most valuable asset is actually its sharing activity, but I’ll get back to that.

Facebook has wanted, well, I don’t know — maybe to be the best social network out there. Don’t laugh. If Google once had a laser-like focus on being the best search engine out there, Facebook can have the same focus on social. That’s a vision that Facebook probably doesn’t want ruined by Google encroaching on its territory. A vision that, of course, makes Facebook plenty of money by tapping into social actions.

We also now have something new that both Facebook and Twitter say they want — to be better represented in Google’s search results. It’s not as if they haven’t been there. But releasing today’s Don’t Be Evil bookmarklet — which alters the Google’s Search Plus Your World service — was a game changer in these Cold War years between the search and social superpowers.

The Bill Of Social Data Rights

Can everyone get what they want, all succeeding in their own ways, without further banging of virtual shoes in outrage?

I think they can. Or at least, I think there are some ways forward, some common ground that has emerged. I’ll lay these out in what I’ll call a Bill Of Social Data Rights. I’m open to better names, believe me — that name I know has been used for other things than I’m covering. But hopefully you get the point.

1) Public Is Public

If someone posts something public on a social network, that’s public for any search engine to index. It’s not up to Twitter or Facebook or Google+ to decide if Google or Bing get to index it through some special deal. The content of what was written belongs to the person who wrote it. If that person publishes publicly, then search engines can spider what they find.

Posts are, after all, web pages. People who create them can choose to block them from search engines if they want. People can choose to withdraw public posts after they’ve been published and know that, like with any web page, the posts will eventually be dropped from search engines.

Social networks have lots of content. Search engines like Google and Bing could bring them to a halt, if they tried to grab everything without special arrangements. So make the “firehose” arrangements, and make them on behalf of the users, who might actually want to find their own content in the search engines of their choice.

This helps solves, by the way, the concerns that Facebook and Twitter have raised about not being included enough in Google. Much of their content is included. Much more of it could be included, if deal making was set aside in favor of the Public Is Public principle.

2) Profiles Are Meta Data

If someone creates a public profile, certain types of information from that profile should be expressed in an easy, machine-readable format. Any social network should provide the profile’s name, the number of followers, the number of people being followed, as well as a flag to indicate if a profile is somehow verified or trusted. A trusted way to link that profile to other profiles or web sites should be implemented.

Search engines need this type of information, so that they really know who someone is, in order to return search results. That’s true even if the person is using a pseudonym. You still want to know that the pseudonym account that comes up is the right one, not some faker.

Providing meta data abut profiles will help. Search engines won’t have to guess where to scrape for key information such as follower counts, which can be used to tell if an account might be real or not, in the case of celebrities. Cross-linkage can help avoid problems that both Google and the Don’t Be Evil tool have, where Larry Page gets listed with Facebook and Twitter profiles that aren’t really his.

If Facebook and Twitter really want better inclusion in things like “People & Pages” listings at Google, this type of data will help. Similarly, if Bing wants to include Google+ profiles, it could use the information as well.

3) Your Friends Are Yours

If I have friends on one service, I should be able to import those friends in some machine-readable format to another service. That doesn’t mean a list of text names, as Facebook’s tool will kick out for me.

It might mean email addresses, as Facebook will give me for Yahoo or Microsoft but not for Google.

It really means some way that the geniuses at our social networks can concoct, I’m sure, so that if I want to find my Twitter friends at Google+, I can. If I want Path to know a particular Google+ circle of friends I have, I can do that. If Pinterest wants to know my Facebook friends, they are my friends to take — not Facebook’s to decide.

What is there really to fear, by allowing this? Even if I take my 50 friends to a new social network, if that social network is crap, no great victory has been won. Heck, taking the names doesn’t mean any of the 50 will actually follow me over.

4) Social Shares & Social Actions Are Proprietary

The real gem each of the social networks has isn’t our posts, isn’t our profiles, isn’t our friends. It’s knowing what we do, how we interact with our friends, how we interact with content.

That’s where the walls should remain. Facebook and Twitter, for example, have real reasons to fear that handing over streams of data to Google might allow it to better understand how people are acting on their services.

So don’t. Make content public, yes. But find a way to agree that the actions — the number of tweets, the number of likes, whatever — are declared off-limits for use by other search engines. If things like robots.txt and the nofollow attribute can work for search, the social networks can figure out their own mechanisms.

Moving Forward

Does everyone get what they really want with this?

Google already has a social graph that’s building in Google+. It really doesn’t need to be worried about getting social shares or actions from the other services — though if they want to offer this, that’s their option. But giving Google the additional information I’ve outlined will allow it to do a better job of exposing content from these other services in search.

Twitter doesn’t get some big payday for its feed, but it’s not getting that now. What it does gain is people who stop complaining they can’t find their own tweets. It gains the chance that with decent meta data, Google will rethink the Google+ification of its search results and return to the idea that search results can be social using anyone’s network. And Twitter’s content gains more exposure, important for a service that more and more talks about itself as being a content play.

Facebook gets even more exposure within Google than it has now. Opening up keeps pressure on Google, as with Twitter, that there can’t just be some Google+ification with the excuse that Google has no choice, because Facebook won’t do a deal. And Facebook potentially avoids the anti-trust critics that almost certainly will come for it in a few years, just as they’ve come for Google now, claiming that Facebook is staying to closed and using its market dominance to keep others out.

I know these proposals may sound naive. Some of what I describe might already exist. But we do need a way forward. Search and social have been colliding, but we don’t need a collision. We need a collusion, and not in the negative sense but a collusion where the users really are being served best by the services they depend on. That can happen, even supporting healthy competition, but without the social superpowers going to war.

(Stock image via Shutterstock. Used under license.)

Related Stories

Looking to understand more about some of the issues in the data war between Google, Facebook and Twitter? See especially the first two articles:

• Google’s Results Get More Personal With “Search Plus Your World”
• FAQ: What’s The Debate About Google’s Search Plus Your World?
• “Don’t Be Evil” Tool — Backed By Facebook & Twitter — Shows Google’s “Search Plus Your World” Can Go Beyond Google+