Posts on State of Search about ‘News’

Be Careful: Google Adwords Phishing Going Around

adwords-phising-intro

Just a quick warning that some people have noticed there are phishing mails out there who are targeting Adwords account owners. In the e-mails (see examples below) the Adwords account owners are warned that their ads have stopped running based on “a number of issues”.

The owners are asked to verify the status of their Adwords accounts and notify Google if the ads do not appear online. When they go online they are led to a place which looks a lot like Adwords where they have to fill in their account details. (more…)

Did Google Turn Back Panda 2.5?

Panda-dance

Only little over a week ago Google threw Panda 2.5 into the US market. That latest update gave food to a lot of discussion. Some sites seemed to be hit by the update which might not have supposed to be hit. The Next Web for example was mentioned, even though the people at the Next Web themselves didn’t see a direct consequence.

Now it seems as if Google has reversed the Panda 2.5 update. Searchmetrics tells us they are seeing a large-scale recovery in ranking data before and after Panda 2.5. (more…)

Facebook pulls review functionality from pages – next steps for SMBs

facebook-block-logo

Last week admins for Facebook pages that were utilizing the Reviews application were warned that this functionality (along with discussions) would cease to exist from the 31st October, with Facebook taking the official line that:

“We’ve found the best way to encourage conversation and feedback is through posts and comments on your Wall, so we’re removing the Reviews and Discussions tabs for now.  We’re working hard to help you moderate, filter and manage content in one powerful place.  Stay tuned.

You won’t be able to access your reviews and discussions once they’re removed, so please save this content if you’d like to keep it for future reference.

On place pages with a location, fans can still write a recommendation for their friends or others from the right-column that says Recommendations” (more…)

Is Microsoft Going For A Second Attempt to Buy Yahoo?

microhoo_logo

When Carol Bartz was fired in a way the “Bold and the Beautiful” writers could have thought of immediately rumors started about Yahoo possibly being up for sale. So far there is no official news around that, but now there are rumors that Yahoo’s partner in crime when it comes to search, Microsoft, might be considering a new attempt to buy Yahoo.

In 2008 Microsoft also tried to buy Yahoo bidding up to an amount of 44.6 billion dollars in a hostile take over attempt. That take over then was prevented and Yahoo and Microsoft found each other in a special search deal with Bing. (more…)

Panda 2.5 “Hits” the US: YouTube ‘Wins’

Google-Panda

Google’s Panda Update has been going around the world this summer and now it has returned home. The latest version of the feared update has ‘hit’ the US last week, confirmed by Google. This time YouTube again seems to be the big ‘winner’ when it comes to SEO visibility. Google’s video site saw a 10% increase in visibility.

The losers list which was released by Searchmetrics however shows the more interesting names. News wire-sites like Business Wire and PR Newswire seem to have been hit fiercely as were well known sites like The Next Web and Technorati. (more…)

Eight Google Birthday Doodles

Google-7th_birthday

Google celebrates its thirteenth birthday today. And they do that like they have done it in the past 8 years: with a doodle. Google started using the birthday doodles in 2002 and has since every year created a special birthday doodle. To be honest, they are a lot less “breathtaking” than some of the doodles they have made in the recent past. Still it is a nice overview of doodles. (more…)

Google Hits Puberty Today

Google-13-years

Today is the day Google hits puberty. Why? Simply because the search engine today turns 13. Thirteen years ago Sergey Brin and Larry Page decided to name their idea “Googol”, which turned into “Google”. Since then they have grown their company to be the leading company in Tech and a company which dominates how we behave on the web.

Google celebrates its thirteenth birthday with a special doodle, which surprisingly goes to Google.co.nz, to promote the fact that that is now available in Māori. (more…)

Google Removes Blue Arrows, Adds Previews for Sitelinks

Google-sitelinks-enhancements

One of the most successful posts on State of Search ever is this one. It is a post I actually wrote on the plane, on my iPad, because I was so annoyed with a new feature which Google launched: the blue arrows.

Apparently many agree with me (and some disagree) that they are annoying for those using the arrows to scroll. Now when I’ve finally gotten used to them and a different way of scrolling (still not using the arrows though) Google decides enough is enough: they are gone.

Together with that change Google also added Instant Previews to the sitelinks. Now your sitelinks can be previewed. It also seems like Google has added some extra rich content to the previews. (more…)

Google Analytics Can be Used in Germany without Complaint

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The Germans have a long history of privacy matters, even outside of the Internet. They are especially keen on protecting their citizens from unwanted collection of data. That has lead to some strange situations, like for example people opting-out their houses from Streetview and then talking about that, with a picture in front of their houses, in the German newspapers.

One of the ‘targets’ of this privacy-sensitive policy has for a long time been Google Analytics. A few years ago it even looked like the Hamburg Data Protection Officer was going to get Analytics declared illegal in Germany. The Data Protection Officer has been working with several commissions and webmasters, as well as Google, to come to a solution. They have now declared officially that Google Analytics can be used in Germany without complaint from the German data protection authorities. (more…)

Bryan Eisenberg Launches The Online Marketer’s Toolbox: Tools, Tools, Tools!

Online-Marketing-Tools

Like tools? Well, you are in for a treat! Today Marketing Optimization expert and well known speaker Bryan Eisenberg launches a website which will full fill many people’s needs and dreams. For the past few years Eisenberg, aka @thegrok, has been ‘collecting’ tools and writing about them. He has now put all these tools on one website: websitetestingtools.com.

The website gives us insight in many tools, currently already 150. And counting, because Bryan wants to keep extending the website with tools he finds on the web and uses. (more…)

Eric Schmidt at Google Hearings: Close to Monopoly, but we’ve not Cooked Anything

Image source: New York Times

Is Google a monopoly? And is Google deliberately pushing down competitors in their own search results? These are the main questions a US Senate subcommittee is trying to get answered in a special Google hearing this week.

With a market share of over 65 percent in the US and close or even over 90 percent in many European countries and with the enormous amount of acquisitions Google is doing these days this is not such a strange question to be asking. The hearing was triggered by complaints from Google competitors like Yelp.

One of the people being heard is Eric Schmidt. Now we all know he likes to throw around some quotes we all find either amusing or interesting. And at the hearing we were not disappointed. Schmidt claimed that Google had learned from mistakes that Microsoft made in the past, he also almost said that Google indeed was a monopoly (isn’t that like close to a confession?) but did not “cook anything” and while he was at it he kind of explained how Google tests algorithm changes. (more…)

Finally Google+ Has Search (and more)

Google-search

When Google last week opened up its API’s I predicted that pretty soon we would also be seeing a search within Google+. Something which has strangely been missing from the start. If it wasn’t going to be Google itself, with the API surely a developer would come up with the search functionality pretty soon, after all we saw the same happening with the share functionality on Google Plus.

But this time Google didn’t let the developers beat them. The search box on top of Google Plus, which used to only search for people now searches through Google+. (more…)

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