Can any start-up search engine “be the next Google?” Many have wondered this, and today’s launch of Cuil (pronounced “cool”) may provide the best test case since Google itself overtook more established search engines. Cuil provides what appears to be a comprehensive index of the web, offers a unique display presentation, and emerges at a […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web.
Microsoft tries to one-up Google PageRank from News.com reports on a research paper from Microsoft named “BrowseRank: Letting Web Users Vote for Page Importance (PDF). The paper describes the downside of Google’s PageRank algorithm and describes how Microsoft’s “BrowseRank” algorithm fills in the holes. BrowseRank uses browsing behavior, such as analyzing a user’s web browsing […]
Google is currently updating the PageRank values found in the Google toolbar. A post from Google’s Matt Cutts announced and confirmed the update is taking place. In addition, Matt said they will be “expiring” some of the penalties with this update. I assume the penalties refer to the toolbar PageRank massacre that began about ten […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web.
For search engine marketers and clients to communicate effectively, they must utilize a shared, common vocabulary. Some search engine marketing terms and concepts are easy to explain, such as query terms, commonly referred to as keywords or keyword phrases. And some concepts require a little more clarification. For example, it might take me weeks or […]
We’ve been assured that just because content sits on Google’s Knol site, it won’t gain any ranking authority from being part of the Knol domain. OK, so a day after Knol has launched, how’s that holding up? I found 1/3 of the pages listed on the Knol home page that I tested ranked in the […]
It’s fairly safe to say: 1) patent law is a mess, 2) patent law is in transition, and 3) newer court rulings are reducing the rights of patent holders. But in a very provocative argument, based on recent cases, the PatentlyO law blog argues that new rules and tests imposed by courts (though not yet […]
A new generation of search engines is starting to become publicly available, so it’s time to start thinking about how it will affect SEO efforts. The new search engines I’m talking about are the semantic search engines, meaning they are search engines that can be queried using natural language (not keywords like when using Google). […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web.
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web.
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web.
As I watch search marketers often continue to obsess about things like PageRank, I wanted to do a personal post / wake-up call related to our SMX Local & Mobile Search Marketing show happening next month in San Francisco, July 24-25. Because for all the buzz that goes on around link building, link baiting, PageRank […]
Coming back from our SMX Advanced conference last week, I found myself doing some soul searching. How was it that some people could wonder if advanced SEO means spamming search engines? And have I been contributing to this confusion? For the record — no, advanced SEO doesn’t mean you have to spam. Not in my […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web.
In the last column, we explored some studies that indicate that conscious will might not be the cause of our actions, but instead might be just one of the effects of a motivator still undefined. Conscious will could simply be a feedback mechanism that helps us keep track of our actions and hides the degree […]
Udi Manber, VP Engineering, Search Quality at Google, wrote a fairly long post at the Google Blog on introducing search quality to the public. In short, Udi explains the various teams within the search quality group and explains what each team does. I will highlight below the parts I personally found most interesting:
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web
We recently had a great turn out at our quarterly lunch meeting of the Virginia SEO MeetUp. The afternoon flew by as the group talked and shared ideas on everything connected to SEO. There were lots of questions on things like which conference should they budget to attend and what new tools were out there. […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web
Over the past few days, many webmasters and SEOs have been noticing an update to the PageRank score found in the Google Toolbar. Usually PageRank updates aren’t that noteworthy, but it seems something is different about this PageRank update
This morning I reported at the Search Engine Roundtable that several webmasters began noticing three values being displayed under some AdWords ads that might reveal some details on how Google may rank AdWords ads. The scores include the “Pscore,” “mCPC,” and “thresh.” Danny and I took guesses at what each might mean and the mCPC […]
A variety of interesting research papers on search have come out of WWW2008, the 17th International World Wide Web Conference. Some I’ve blogged already. Below is a rundown on those and some other papers that may be of interest. For the attention-challenged, I’ve also included my now patented "Twitter" summary for some of the interesting […]
A new research paper from Microsoft looks at how surfing behavior — as logged by a search toolbar — can be used to improve search results.
A Google Prototype for a Precision Image Search from the New York Times covers a new research paper (PDF format) from Google that talks about a way of ranking images based on analyzing "visual links" between them.
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web
If Hakia were using an automotive analogy, the site might be saying to Google, “We’re BMW, you’re Chevrolet.” The Hakia blog explains how the engine is taking a “quality” approach, trying to assess the credibility of sites in ranking them, together with the help of professional librarians. Hakia specifically discusses this in the context of […]
It is no secret that human review has been playing a bigger role at Google over the past couple years. And we are emotional beings… no matter how logical the guidelines may be, emotions cause human errors. But not all sites that get penalized are penalized in error. Many deserve it. Sadly, Google’s guidelines for […]
In The Trenches is a weekly spotlight of tips, tricks, and news about the tools search engine marketing professionals use to give them a leg up on the competition. Today: News from the search engines, today’s in-depth look, “What You Don’t Know About Quality Scores May Kill You,” and this week’s free tips and tools.
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web.
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web.
The first day of SES NY is now complete. Here is the live blogging coverage I found throughout the day for the event. I’ll add any new coverage to tomorrow’s recap.
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web.
For the past few months, I have been listening to some of my colleagues talk about the nofollow attribute and how to use it to sculpt a page’s PageRank. I heard this SEO advice first at SMX in Stockholm and most recently at SMX in Santa Clara. Stephan Spencer wrote about it in a recent […]
Pole Positioning Marketing has compiled yet another link building advice article. This one is very good — it asks 12 link building experts to provide a link building tip that you might not find elsewhere. The advice comes in both short and long form from Patrick Altoft, Hamlet Batista, Jim Boykin, Rand Fishkin, Peter van […]
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 […]
“Content is king.” If you’re like me, you’ve heard that phrase more times than you can count. And for the most part, it’s true. Truly unique content can make or break your link development campaign. If you have it, you’ll find attracting quality links takes minimal effort for exceptional results. Without it, you’ll find link […]
Lee Odden posted a ten-minute interview with Google’s Adam Lasnik. Adam is well-known for being one of the many Googlers who work on Webmaster communication. In this interview, Lee asked Adam questions on: Google compliant Flash and JavaScript capabilities Duplicate content issues and if there are penalties Using the nofollow to “sculpt PageRank” Best way […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web.
Ask any link builder what link issues they’re consistently asked about and one of them will be linking tools. Link building is such a time consuming and detailed process that it’s only natural people look for tools and techniques to maximize their time. Those who spend a lot of time link building are familiar with […]