This day in search marketing history: February 29
Spreading Santorum drops on Google, plus: Bing artificially increases market share, local mobile search in apps, Susan Wojcicki and more.
Topic: Rick Santorum
This day in search marketing history: February 17
Microsoft introduces the Bing Network, plus: Standard Shopping campaigns, Google Panda eats Demand Media, Google Social Search and more.
This day in search marketing history: February 10
Google refreshes Page Layout Algorithm, plus: Google's ads impact on advertisers, poor grammar, Google Buzz reaction and more
This day in search marketing history: February 8
Google Chrome's 'not secure' warning, plus: Search Ads 360, Google News and Discover penalties, content farms and more.
This day in search marketing history: January 26
LinkedIn Ads launches, plus: holiday retail insights, crappy results, Google Panda 3.2, sitemap testing, DuckDuckGo and more.
This day in search marketing history: January 4
Rap Genius gets out of Google jail, plus: how Rick Santorum made his Google problem worse, Yahoo's new CEO and more
10 big changes with search engines over my 20 years of covering them
Search Engine Land founding editor Danny Sullivan looks at how search has changed over the two decades he's been writing about it.
New US Presidential “Candidate Cards” Are A Disaster For Google’s Search Quality
An experiment to allow US presidential candidates to have an unprecedented guaranteed spot at the top of Google's search results turned into a megaphone for one.
This Holiday Shopping Season, Searching Google For “Pearl Necklace” Leads To NSFW Surprise
Those using Google to find the perfect pearl necklace for their significant other this holiday season may be in for a rude surprise. If you search for “pearl necklace,” one of the top results is a definition from Urban Dictionary, which is completely not safe for work. A reader sent us an email about the shock […]
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 […]
SearchCap: The Day In Search, March 9, 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: Four Seriously Cool Information Resources As a librarian, researcher and frequent blogger, I’m constantly coming across incredibly useful online information resources that are most effectively searched using their own site search […]
Santorum’s Changing “Google Problem” — & Search Engine Land — Make The Rachel Maddow Show
As we covered last week, Google’s search results for a search on “santorum” have gotten a lot cleaner recently. The change was featured on The Rachel Maddow Show last night, and Search Engine Land’s coverage got a big shout-out. The clip is below, as well as an update on all things Santorum and Google. Santorum […]
Keeping Up With Google: Bing Launches New “Search Quality Insights” Series
Want to understand better how Bing creates its search results? Bing has announced a new “Search Quality Insights” series to provide a more behind-the-scenes look at its search engine. You know, like “Search Quality Highlights” series that Google launched last December. What’s going on with these? And how does Bing’s latest post help Google on […]
SearchCap: The Day In Search, February 29, 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: Optimizing Search Engine Marketing For Seasonal Opportunities Many in-house search marketers operate within a seasonal framework, whether a retail high season culminating in Christmas, a peak summer travel season, or another […]
“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 […]
Bing & Google: “Spreading Romney” Ranking Tops For “Romney” Is Normal
Bing and Google have weighed in on the amazing rise in less than a month of the Spreading Romney site to the first page of their results for a search on “romney.” That’s apparently business as usual. Prepare for further “Spreading” sites for other candidates to rank as well? Perhaps, but without some Rachel Maddow-like mentions, […]
SearchCap: The Day In Search, February 10, 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: 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 […]
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 […]
SearchCap: The Day In Search, February 8, 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: Bing Testing New Search Results Design Bing is testing a new design for the search results layout. The new design seems a lot cleaner, fresher and more organized compared to the […]
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 […]
SearchCap: The Day In Search, January 27, 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: Search In Pics: David Beckham At Google, Google’s Moscow Office & Bing Bar In this week’s Search In Pictures, here are the latest images culled from the web, showing what people […]
Dear Google: Crappy Results Like This Don’t Give The Impression You Care About Search
The debate about what should — and shouldn’t — show in a Google search result for “santorum” has been well-documented, at this point. But I’d like to use this now famous search to illustrate something else: how it appears Google is taking its eye off the ball of being a search engine. Searching For Santorum: […]
2011: The Year Google & Bing Took Away From SEOs & Publishers
Increasingly over the years, search engines — Google in particular — have given more and more support to SEOs and publishers. But 2011 marked the first significant reversal that I can recall, with both linking and keyword data being withheld. Here’s what happened, why it matters and how publishers can push back if Google and Bing don’t […]
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 […]
Google: Parked Domains, Scraper Sites Targeted Among New Search Changes
In what’s now to be a monthly update on search changes, a new Google “Inside Search” blog post today tells us that life is getting tougher for those with parked domains, life may get better for those plagued by scraper sites and those hoping to “push down” negative listings may have a tougher challenge. New […]
AOL In 2011: Charlie Sheen #Winning Over Other Celebrities
AOL announced its most popular global searches (United States, United Kingdom and Canada) in 2011 at https://hot.aol.com. While other search engines have ranked Justin Bieber and Kim K at the top for the year, Charlie Sheen proved he won the hearts of AOL users by climbing to the top of their most searched for celebrity list. Most […]
A Look At Google+ Direct Connect For Google+ Pages
Along with the big announcement of Google+ pages yesterday, a search-specific feature called “Google+ Direct Connect” was also announced. The Google+ Direct Connect functionality will help to give Google+ pages more visibility in the search engine results pages when custom operators are used. What Exactly Is Direct Connect? Last month, Google retired the “+” operator, most likely in anticipation of […]
Even Google Thinks “Romney Can’t Win”
US presidential candidate Republican Mitt Romney can’t seem to catch a break even from Google. Not only does it suggest that he can’t win, if you start typing in Romney’s name, but if you disagree, Google tries to correct you. Suggestion: Romney Can’t Win Start typing in Romney, and Google as its top suggestion “romney can’t […]
Google: No Longer Guessing About Celebrity Sexual Orientation
Wondering if some celebrity is Gay, Lesbian, Straight or Bisexual? Plenty of people do and turn to Google to find out. But the search engine just stopped offering direct answers about these questions, after they became more noticeable. Google’s “Best Guess” About Sexual Orientations Here’s an example of one of the answers that were being shown, […]
Santorum & Google’s Search Quality Czar Matt Cutts Makes The Colbert Report
The search industry is getting a little more mainstream recognition every day, as tonight’s episode of The Colbert Report picked on Google’s handling of the Spreading Santorum situation. This time the target was software engineer Matt Cutts, long known to search industry insiders as head of Google’s Web Spam and search quality team, he doesn’t […]
SearchCap: The Day In Search, September 21, 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: Bing “Action Buttons” Lets You Book Flights, Rent Cars & More Bing announced a new feature in the search results named “Action Buttons.” Action buttons give you quick links to perform […]
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 […]
SearchCap: The Day In Search, September 20, 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: Up Close With Google+ Search It seemed pretty odd that a social network from the leading search company, Google, didn’t offer a way to search through all its posts. But that […]
Disturbing Michelle Obama Image Makes A Case For Facial Recognition In Google’s New Image Search
Do you remember that disturbing, Photoshopped image of First Lady Michelle Obama that made big news a couple years ago? It’s hard to find now in Google Image Search unless you know exactly what to type into the search box. Type “michelle obama” and you probably won’t ever see it. (More on that at the […]
Google’s “Me On The Web” Pushes Google Profiles — Take That, Facebook?
Google has launched a new “Me On The Web” section within its Google Dashboard area, which seems designed to push more people toward creating Google Profiles, as well as create greater awareness of how things that leak out of Facebook and other social networks may end up on Google. The Facebook Factor Perhaps I’m reading […]
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 Santorum’s “Google Problem” Makes Daily Show
Former Senator and likely Republican Presidential candidate Rick Santorum hasn’t yet figured out what to do about his “Google Problem” — a negative listing orchestrated by gay syndicated sex columnist Dan Savage, which results in the association of Santorum’s name with anal sex. And the search issue is getting attention from that much-watched political “fake […]
SearchCap: The Day In Search, February 17, 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: Google Congratulates Watson On Twitter; IBM Says Thanks Among those watching IBM’s Watson win Jeopardy last night were folks at Google, which just tweeted congrats over to IBM. In response, IBM […]
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 […]