This day in search marketing history: January 25
Google defuses miserable failure, plus: Topics API replaces FloC, value-based bidding, average search ranking position and more.
Topic: Google bombing
Trolls propel Trump to top Google ratings for ‘idiot’
People upset with Trump's recent actions and policies have used several SEO techniques to get pictures of the president at the top of image search results for the word 'idiot'
SearchCap: Bing Image Age, Google iOS App Indexing & Apple Proactive Search
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Report: Apple May Launch Google Now Competitor At June WWDC Event New “Proactive” search capability built in part on earlier Cue acquisition. Google Won’t Say If Google Local Changes Due To […]
Google Won’t Say If Google Local Changes Due To Googlebomb Fix
Google has noted the local ranking changes but will not confirm that it was related to the Googlebomb fix for the racist local results in Google Maps.
Google Local Search Results Shifting After Google Maps Bomb Fix?
Google seems to have made an update to their local search ranking factors, where many local SEO experts and reporters are noticing major shifts in the local results.
SearchCap: Google Maps Apology, Matt Cutts Replaced & App Indexing Data
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Search In Pics: Google Carnival, Google Now Mug & The Breaker Lab In this week’s Search In Pictures, here are the latest images culled from the web, showing what people eat […]
Google To Implement Googlebomb Fix To Prevent Racist Listings In Google Maps
Crowdsourcing the entire web goes bad with Google Maps, causing many locations to be relevant for slurs and derogatory words. Google promises a fix is on the way.
According To Google, Barack Obama Is King Of The United States
Ask Google who is the [King Of United States] and Google will inform you that it is Barack Obama, the current President of the United States. The Google Answer is pulled from Breitbart, a story they posted five days ago named All Hail King Barack Obama, Emperor Of The United States Of America! It appears […]
George Bush “Miserable Failure” Google Bomb Back, This Time In Knowledge Graph
The Google Bomb is back! Searching for [miserable failure] in Google now returns George W. Bush’s knowledge graph in the search results. The Google Bomb first became popular back in 2004 when Google and some other search engines ranked George W. Bush as the number one result for a search on [miserable failure]. In 2007, […]
SearchCap: The Day In Search, October 11, 2012
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Ask CEO Doug Leeds Proclaims Search Wars “Over,” Says Yahoo Can Be Great Again Ask.com has 3.5 percent of the search market according to comScore. Ask.com CEO Doug Leeds told Bloomberg […]
Google Images Dominated By Pictures Of Romney For “Completely Wrong” Search
It’s not a Google Bomb, but that doesn’t make it less embarrassing for US presidential candidate Mitt Romney or Google, that a search on Google Images for “completely wrong” brings up results that are dominated by Romney’s picture. Completely Wrong & Google Images Here’s an example of what you currently see in a search for “completely […]
Did Penguin Make Google’s Search Results Better Or Worse?
Google’s latest search algorithm change designed to fight spam and improve its search results went live yesterday. Plenty of people are seeing its impact already. Better or worse? It’s easy to find some examples of things being bad; it’s hard to say overall if there’s been a net improvement or not. Judging Relevancy Is Tricky […]
“Spreading Santorum” Drops At Google; New Site Keeps Anal Sex Definition At Number One
As Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum loses two primary races to rival Mitt Romney, perhaps he can console himself with, ironically, another loss. Spreading Santorum, the page defining “santorum” as a by-product of anal sex, has finally dropped from the top results on Google. The related anti-Santorum blog, however, remains. And a page from Urban […]
Now, Mitt Romney Has A Santorum-Like Bing & Google Problem
Perhaps Google may finally have to figure out a “fix” for Rick Santorum’s “Google Problem,” now that an anti-Romney site is making it appear that anyone can rank any protest page for any politician’s name. Bing has the same problem, but no one ever seems to care about that. Spreading Romney I was pretty surprised […]
Why Does Microsoft’s Bing Search Engine Hate Rick Santorum?
US presidential candidate Rick Santorum pulled off a surprise last night, winning caucuses and primaries in three states. So what’s with Bing listing an anti-Santorum web site first in its results in a search for his last name? Does Microsoft have some type of liberal agenda! Wait, you didn’t realize Rick Santorum has a “Bing […]
How Rick Santorum Is Making His “Google Problem” Worse
US Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum made a surprise leap ahead to practically tie Mitt Romney in yesterday’s Iowa caucus results. Now people are searching to find out more about him and discovering THAT result which makes comedy show hosts like Jon Stewart giggle. But rather than blame Google (or Bing), as Santorum has in the […]
For “Define An English Person,” Google Suggests The C-Word
I’ve seen some weird Google results in my time, but this one is pretty strange. Search for “define an english person” or some related queries, and Google brings up the Wikipedia page about the C-word in response. As spotted by Search Engine Roundtable, people were asking in Google’s help forums why various searches related to […]
Should Rick Santorum’s “Google Problem” Be Fixed?
Is Google (and Bing, by the way) not being “responsible” by failing to remove an anti-Rick Santorum web site? The Republican presidential candidate believes so, speaking out this week against an unfavorable listing for his name. But “fixing” Santorum’s “Google problem” isn’t as easy as it sounds. Defining Santorum For those who aren’t familiar with […]
Why Google Panda Is More A Ranking Factor Than Algorithm Update
With Google Panda Update 2.2 upon us, it’s worth revisiting what exactly Panda is and isn’t. Panda is a new ranking factor. Panda is not an entirely new overall ranking algorithm that’s employed by Google. The difference is important for anyone hit by Panda and hoping to recover from it. Google’s Ranking Algorithm & Updates […]
SearchCap: The Day In Search, May 10, 2011
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Just Weeks Away, A Preview Of The Google +1 Button For Websites Today at the Google I/O conference, Google gave developers a preview of how the Google +1 button can be […]
Presidential Hopeful Rick Santorum Stymied By Search Problem
As former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum sets his sights on the White House, he has a lot of awareness-raising to do, and he desperately needs some help with search, a Roll Call piece this week shows. Currently, when you search for Santorum, the first result is a blog apparently started by gay syndicated sex columnist […]
2002 In Review: Google Powers AOL; AdWords Go Cost-Per-Click
This article is part of a series, a review of the 2000 decade and search developments. Below, major events from the year 2002 in consumer search. For the complete series, see the introduction, The Google Decade: Search In Review, 2000 To 2009. Google Powers AOL Search The deal for Google to provide search results for […]
2001 In Review: Search Engine Marketing Gets Respect, As Does Search Generally
This article is part of a series, a review of the 2000 decade and search developments. Below, major events from the year 2001 in consumer search. For the complete series, see the introduction, The Google Decade: Search In Review, 2000 To 2009. Search Marketing Gets Respect For me, the biggest story of 2001 was the […]
Offensive Michelle Obama Image Returns, Google Buys Ad To Explain
Google is buying ads to explain why an offensive image of the First Lady is back in its index and ranking so highly on searches for Michelle Obama in Google Image Search. As we reported last week, Google had originally removed the Michelle Obama image on the grounds that the site hosting the image violated […]
Obama: Tops For “Who Is Failure” In Google
I’d thought the googlebombs relating to “miserable failure” and “failure” had finally been defused earlier this year. Guess not. Ranking tops in Google right now, the official White House page for US President Barack Obama: I’ve not heard of any active campaign to linkbomb Obama to the top for these words, so I’m guessing this […]
Google’s Next Doodle, Hans Christian Ørsted Birthday
Google’s home page is featuring a Google Doodle for the birthday of Hans Christian Ørsted, who was born today on 1777. He is known for figuring out that a magnetic field can be induced by electric currents. In other words, he noticed that an electric current can make a compass needle move to the magnetic […]
SearchCap: The Day In Search, March 31, 2009
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web.
SearchCap: The Day In Search, January 30, 2009
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web.
Obama Is “Failure” At Google & “Miserable Failure” At Yahoo
I told you so. Or I told anyone who cared. I even tried to reach the Obama administration in four or five different ways. Do a search on Yahoo right now for miserable failure, and you’ll find President Barack Obama’s page ranking either in the top spot or the second spot. Given a redirect that […]
Despite Inauguration, Google & Others Still Think It’s President Bush, Not President Obama
President Barack Obama took office officially today plus launched a new White House web site as part of his transition. But the major search engines have yet to catch up with the power change. Google still lists President George W. Bush as being in power, sort of: The screenshot above shows what you get in […]
Bush: Fix Your “Miserable Failure” Googlebomb Legacy Before Obama Takes Office
Few realize that outgoing US president George W. Bush has left behind a unique legacy for future presidents, including Barack Obama — that they are all condemned to rank tops for a search on “miserable failure” in major search engines. It’s my hope that Bush will correct this before leaving office, or that Obama will […]
SearchCap: The Day In Search, August 28, 2008
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web.
Cuil Fast Test – Relevancy Isn’t A Google Killer
Now that Cuil is live, I wanted to do a few fast queries to get a sense of how it seems to stack up against Google. With the huge caveat that nine queries are far from letting anyone conclude anything, I still didn’t come away with a sense that Cuil has Google-beating relevancy. Instead, it […]
SearchCap: The Day In Search, July 24, 2008
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web.
SearchCap: The Day In Search, June 23, 2008
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web.
John McCain’s Google Bomb
Chris Bowers is trying to push in certain articles into the Google search results for a search on [john mccain]. His goal is to “Google Bomb” these articles into the search results before Labor Day. ComputerWorld has a write up on his efforts. But as Danny described in the past, this type of Google Bomb […]
SearchCap: The Day In Search, March 31, 2008
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web.
Google Takes Top Prize At SMX Search Bowl
Last night was the first ever SMX Search Bowl. Basically, the Search Engine Land team created fifty questions that were asked to the various teams. The teams consisted of two players from Google, Yahoo, Ask.com, Live Search, and the SEM All Star team. Danny displayed the questions on the screen and the first team to […]
SearchCap: The Day In Search, February 22, 2008
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web.
Bush – Tops For “Who Is A Failure” On Google
For years, US President George W. Bush was tops on Google for searches on miserable failure until last year’s Googlebomb "fix" solved his problem on Google. But Bush is back, sort of. People are spotting that Bush’s official White House page is ranking tops for who is a failure on Google. A new Googlebomb? If […]