Given the saga of Germany’s ill-conceived and poorly implemented “ancillary copyright law” one would have thought that another European government wouldn’t immediately duplicate the mistake. But that’s exactly what’s happened in Spain. Spanish newspaper publishers, hoping to turn Google into a source of compulsory licensing revenue, worked to pass a new law that imposes strict fines for the […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Growing Your Business With Customer Reviews – October 30 Webcast Learn how capitalizing on the insights from customer reviews can increase search traffic and landing page conversion rates. Join Chris Silver […]
German publishers want their snippets and thumbnails back. A consortium of roughly 200 companies, together known as “VG Media,” have said that the loss of traffic from the disappearance of these elements could cause some of their members “to go bankrupt.” The publishers have been trying for more than a year to collect money from Google for their […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Google: Penguin Refresh May Come As Early As Next Week Google’s Gary Illyes, Webmaster Trends Analyst and Search Quality Engineer, said at Search Marketing Expo East that Google may be launching […]
German news and magazine publishers are determined, one way or another, to get Google to pay them for their content. They’re not upset about the content appearing in Google News or search. They want it to appear — they just want Google to pay for it. Google doesn’t want to pay. And there’s no U.S.-style “fair use” copyright exception in […]
As we discussed last week, the current Europe-Google antitrust settlement is dead. This is a surprising turn of events considering that it was once described by European regulators as essentially a done deal. Outgoing European Competition Commissioner Joaquin Almunia confirmed last week in a talk at Georgetown University that a deal could not be finalized before he leaves office in a […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Bing Ads Launches Close Variants Test In US Earlier this month, Google made waves when it announced it is removing the option to turn off close variants targeting, making true exact […]
The convoluted saga of Google News in Germany took another turn on Friday when regulators declined to pursue an antitrust claim against the company brought by “VG Media,” a consortium of German publishers including publishing giant Axel Springer. Reuters covered the decision but didn’t do a very good job of explaining it or providing context. […]
In a Google+ post from Google head of search Amit Singhal, Google shares they have made “more than 890 improvements to Google Search last year alone.” In 2009, Google told us they made between 350 to 400 changes to search and in 2010, they said they made 550 improvements to search in the past year. […]
Over the weekend, Google has sent out mass link penalty notifications throughout Europe for those sites partaking in specific link networks with the goal of manipulating their rankings in Google. Google’s Johannes Mehlem posted on Twitter that Google has “taken action on one European and one German linking network.” We have taken action on one […]
There’s a basic feeling among traditional news publishers throughout Europe, and among some in the U.S., that Google has benefited enormously from their content but failed to offer anything in return. Furthermore, many publishers see Google as directly responsible for the decline of their traditional advertising and circulation revenues. The counter-argument that Google sends traffic […]
Jon Wiley, Principal Designer for Google Search, participated in a Reddit AMA (Ask Me Anything) discussion, where in one question, he was asked to share something cool he is working on. He shared that Google is working on a feature to listen to multiple languages at the same time and be able to process them […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Rather Than Opt-Out Of Google, German News Publishers Demand 11% Cut Of Revenue German news publishers are picking up where the Belgians left off, a now not-so-proud tradition of suing Google […]
Google announced that their App Indexing protocol, the ability for Google to link search results to your mobile apps direct deep content now supports eight new languages. App Indexing lets developers markup their content so that if a searcher has an Android app installed on their phone, and the search result comes up, it would […]
Last night at the Re/Code Conference, Microsoft demoed real-time translation over Skype. Imagine talking to someone over a video call, they spoke a completely different language than you did, but the technology did real time translation as you spoke. Microsoft has a beta they demonstrated last night at the conference. Gurdeep Pall, Corporate Vice President […]
Frustrated by what it sees as the European Commission’s capitulation to Google, a new group called the “Open Internet Project” (OIP) seeks to derail the current Google antitrust settlement or create a new investigation. A mixture of French and German publishers and companies are behind the initiative. The OIP claims to represent hundreds more European […]
The floodgates have opened. According to a Reuters story, following Tuesday’s European Court ruling establishing a Europe-wide “right to be forgotten” (RTF), Google is preparing for an anticipated “flood” of removal requests across the 28 country jurisdiction. The ruling provided a right to individuals to request (and ultimately compel) removal of unflattering or undesired information about […]
Google’s head of search spam, Matt Cutts, announced on Twitter this morning that Google has “taken action” on seven different link networks in Japan. Over the past several months, Google has not only been manual taking action against link networks or link schemes in the US, but they have been widening their efforts across the […]
It appears that Google has taken action on spammers, potentially link spammers, in Greece recently. Matt Cutts, Google’s head of search spam, responded on Twitter to a webmaster noticing that many websites in Greece received penalties. Matt responded saying “ah, you noticed the action in Greece?” Here is Matt’s tweet: @realpoisom ah, you noticed the […]
Google’s head of search spam, Matt Cutts, announced really early this morning on Twitter that Google has taken action on “a large guest blog network.” Cutts previously warned the webmaster and SEO community that guest blogging is done, at least for SEO and link building purposes. Well, it might not have been done — it […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Google Penalizes Two German Link Networks; One Being efamous Google’s head of search spam, Matt Cutts, announced on Twitter today that they have penalized and taken action on two additional German […]
Google’s head of search spam, Matt Cutts, announced on Twitter today that they have penalized and taken action on two additional German link networks. He mentioned one by name: efamous. efamous looks like a typical ad network, but I guess they passed PageRank through their link network, which is against Google’s guidelines. Cutts also said […]
Less than a month after Google targeted Polish link spammers and German link spammers, Google’s head of search spam, Matt Cutts announced that the company is targeting more countries. Cutts announced warnings to Spanish and Italian webmasters and SEOs not to use unnatural links to promote their sites. He posted both announcements on Twitter and […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: AdWords Flexible Conversion Counting Officially Lauched, Welcome “Converted Clicks” and “Conversions” Earlier this month, we covered Google’s news to select advertisers that it would be rolling out new options for tracking […]
Google lead of search spam Matt Cutts posted on Twitter that Google has taken action on two link networks operated in Poland this week. Matt wrote that Google is “not done with Germany yet, but we just took action on two Polish link networks.” The Google Poland Webmaster Blog posted a reminder today about unnatural […]
Millions of us have asked Google to play weatherperson. In order to get an answer to one of our oldest and most basic questions, we type a variety of words and numbers — city names, neighborhoods and ZIP codes, plus words like “weather,” “forecast” or maybe “temperature” — into the Google search box, and Google […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: YP Wants To Compete Directly With Google And Yelp In Local When one looks across the local digital landscape there are many companies and apps but few consumer “brands.” In specific […]
Soon after Google has warned Germany SEOs about paid links and link schemes, Google’s head of search spam, Matt Cutts, posted on Twitter that they took action on a German agency and their clients for link schemes. Matt Cutts wrote, “this week we took action on a German agency’s link network/clients.” He added that Google […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Google Brings Search Funnels Attribution Modeling Tool To AdWords Google announced it is adding a Search Funnels Attribution Modeling Tool to AdWords to help marketers better understand how AdWords campaigns are […]
Google head of search spam Matt Cutts posted on Twitter this morning another stern warning to German webmasters about a link penalty looming for them. Matt Cutts tweeted: A reminder (in German) that paid links that pass PageRank violate our guidelines: https://t.co/u1MpvL7kh4 — Matt Cutts (@mattcutts) February 3, 2014 The blog post is written […]
Google’s head of search spam, Matt Cutts, announced on Twitter earlier this morning that Google has taken action on another “link network” named Buzzea. His tweet read, “Today we’re taking action on a French link network that violates our quality guidelines (Buzzea).” In addition, Matt added that they are working on a German based link […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: SMX West Rates Increase Saturday – Register Now, Save $200! Early Bird rates for Search Engine Land’s SMX West conference expire Saturday. Register now and get three days of exceptional content […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: The Test Begins: Do Google Shopping & Other Shopping Search Engines Give You The Best Deals? It sounds pretty damning. Two recent surveys suggest that Google Shopping isn’t leading searchers to […]
Google announced an international upgrade to the Google Search App, which enables the voice response answers that work currently in English to also work in French, German or Japanese. So not only can you ask your question in English, French, German or Japanese or other languages via voice search — Google will respond to that […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the Web. From Search Engine Land: Five Years Later, Ex-Farecast Founder Asks “What Is Bing Doing?” Oren Etzioni, the founder of Farecast who sold it to Microsoft in 2008, says he’s “disappointed” with Bing’s development and “expected […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the Web. From Search Engine Land: New AdWords Integration For Analytics Changes Campaign Name Reporting Google has announced a new AdWords integration for Google Analytics that starts rolling out today. The biggest immediate change is that campaign […]
Today, Google’s logo celebrates the 130th birthday of one of the most influential authors of the 20th century, Franz Kafka. Born into a German-speaking family in Prague on July 3, 1883, Franz Kafka’s publishing career began with a number of short stories published in German literary magazines such as Hyperion and Bohemia. Kafka’s frequently referenced […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the Web. From Search Engine Land: Getting Away From Our PPC Campaigns This Summer Having just finished marching in three parades and playing Taps at Memorial Day observances to honor our deceased veterans, I find myself looking […]
Microsoft is expanding the Bing Ads Accredited Professional Program to include three new languages. The “Pro Bingers” certification program is now offered in French, German and Brazilian Portuguese. Three new sites have been set up for each of the new languages. The sites include 29 training modules, an intro video and the exam in each […]
According to a report from IDG News, a “toned down” version of an earlier, more restrictive “ancillary copyright” law has been published in Germany and will go into effect in August. The ”ancillary copyright” rule was proposed in August of 2012. In its initial form it would have required Google and others that indexed or […]