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SearchCap: The Day In Search, January 13, 2009

Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Help Google Find ‘Empty Review Sites’Following up on his call last week for help identifying spam issues Google should address in 2009, Matt Cutts today is asking for specific help identifying […]

Barry Schwartz on January 13, 2009 at 5:41 pm | Reading time: 7 minutes

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Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web.

From Search Engine Land:

Help Google Find ‘Empty Review Sites’
Following up on his call last week for help identifying spam issues Google should address in 2009, Matt Cutts today is asking for specific help identifying what he calls “empty review sites” or “no results pages.” That problem was mentioned most often in the public feedback from last week’s post. An empty review site, or “no results page,” might be something like this screenshot below, which is one of the top 10 results on a Google search for [sd880is reviews]: In today’s blog post, Matt says pages like this might …
Google Maps Adds Public Transit Data In 50 Cities
Already recognized in some quarters as the most feature-rich of the major mapping sites, Google Maps has announced the addition of public transit data in more than 50 cities around the world. The new Transit Layer is available as a choice under the MORE button on the Google Maps interface: Once selected, the Transit Layer will display public transportation lines/routes for the area you’re viewing. Google describes it as a “virtual metro map on top of Google Maps.” It doesn’t provide full schedules and routing details like Google Transit does, but …
Autodesk Exec. Carol Bartz Chosen As Yahoo CEO
According to news out today from the Wall Street Journal, Carol Bartz, the former CEO (and current executive chairman) of software company Autodesk, will be named the new Yahoo CEO. Bartz has been praised for her management and deal brokering skills but has never run an internet company, nor does she have an advertising background. General reaction seems to be mixed. Bartz’s background has led some to speculate that she will simply be a transitional figure to restart talks with Microsoft, which said it was interested in new discussions with Yahoo once a new CEO was in place. However, …
Obama Stimulus, Predictions And Search
In retrospect it appears that relative search query volumes (Obama vs. McCain) did presage the outcome of the November election. Now it appears they predicted the recession as well. The Yahoo Search Blog says that search query trends subtly predicted the recession long before its formal designation by economists: Though we learned only a month ago that America has been in a recession for a year, searches on unemployment and how to invest more safely had already started to bubble as early as last July. As people mulled over their investment strategies over the holidays, our search data showed that …
Think Like A Blackhat By Matt Cutts
Google’s Matt Cutts posted a twenty minute video summarizing two presentations he gave last year. The video goes over what he considers to be virtual “blight,” or when a site or community becomes stale with spam. In addition, Matt shows us how to put on a “blackhat” and think like a spammer. The video is pretty interesting to all levels of SEOs, so I embedded it below. In short, he summarized the three types of blight, including link spam, open landing pages and hacking. He then goes into how to think like a blackhat, in the “blackhat mindset” segment.
Spice Up Your ASCII AdWords Campaign With Animated ASCII URLs
Just over a year ago, we reported how you can spice up your AdWords ads with ASCII art. I was unable to reproduce it back then and it might have been a link bait stunt, but I found it interesting so I shared it. The same company wrote how you can brand your URLs to match that AdWords ASCII art, with animated ASCII art in the URL. In short, they somehow used JavaScript to insert ASCII art in the URL and made the art, which was a car, drive down from the right side of the URL to the left side of the URL. Below is a YouTube video which shows it in action. I was unable to reproduce this as well.
You’re Up A Link Creek Without An Anchor
Hey everyone, Happy New Year! I wanted to start the year off talking about one of the most important components of link popularity – anchor text. As far as I’m concerned, getting an anchor text link on an authority site ranks right up there with hitting the Powerball or finding out you’re having a baby. The rush is indescribable and something worth celebrating.
Joshua Schachter Lands At Google
TechCrunch reports that Joshua Schachter, founder of the Delicious.com bookmarking service and a former Yahoo executive, had his first day on the job today at Google. Schachter joined Yahoo when it purchased del.icio.us in December 2005. Schachter then left Yahoo in June 2008, calling his time there “an incredibly frustrating experience.” Schachter’s LinkedIn profile says he’s a “Member of Technical Staff” at Google, but he told TechCrunch that he hasn’t been assigned to a specific project yet. There’s more discussion at Techmeme.