Florida Fever: The Google Update Uproar:
Conclusion: "A number of forum posts indicated that Google was taking aim at SEO. I don't believe so. I think Google is trying to wipe out bad SEO and affiliate programs and unfortunately there are a number of innocent bystanders who got hit in the crossfire. But every indication from Google itself (both from posts to forums and in replies to help requests) seems to indicate that Florida is a work in progress. "
The filter: the Florida update was rolled out November 16th. It appears to be a new filter that is applied to commercially based searches, triggered by certain words in the query. The filter clears out many of the sites that previously populated the top 100.
The sites affected: The target is pretty clear. Its affiliate sites, with domains that contain the keywords, and with a network of keyword links pointing back to the home page of the site. The filter is remarkably effective in removing the affiliate clutter. Unfortunately, legitimate commercial sites with lower page rank are being removed as well. There seems to be a PageRank threshold above which sites are no longer affected by the filter.
Friday, December 05, 2003
Thursday, December 04, 2003
Google should understand this
Google should understand this: "1) A webmaster's point of view:
Google owes its existence to Adwords. Adwords supply the revenue for serving the 'free' results.
If I spend money on advertising with any media, I expect that media to be of reasonable standard and observe some deontology.
As an Adwords advertiser, I expect from Google to serve 'free' results that are unbiaised and independent from their advertising section.
If (this is only an 'if' ) it was proven that Google:
- have used Adwords data, in any way, to influence their 'free' results;
- have tampered with their 'free' results in order to get more Adwords revenue;
- have introduced one or several 'spies' into the webmaster community with the purpose of disseminating supposedly helpful, but in reality fallacious information that will lead to the fall of money-making websites, and lead their owners to hopefully buy more Adwords;
If any of the above was true, I would then tend to think that this is a case for an ethic committee... or maybe even for a criminal court?
2) A consumer's point of view:
Google is not free. I pay for the 'free' results by purchasing any item that is being sold through Adwords. I expect the 'free' results to be unbiaised and independent from their advertising section. If it was proven that Google are tampering with the free results to gain financial advantage, I would feel deceived and I would then tend to think that this is a case for an ethic committee... or maybe even for a criminal court?
-- "
Google owes its existence to Adwords. Adwords supply the revenue for serving the 'free' results.
If I spend money on advertising with any media, I expect that media to be of reasonable standard and observe some deontology.
As an Adwords advertiser, I expect from Google to serve 'free' results that are unbiaised and independent from their advertising section.
If (this is only an 'if' ) it was proven that Google:
- have used Adwords data, in any way, to influence their 'free' results;
- have tampered with their 'free' results in order to get more Adwords revenue;
- have introduced one or several 'spies' into the webmaster community with the purpose of disseminating supposedly helpful, but in reality fallacious information that will lead to the fall of money-making websites, and lead their owners to hopefully buy more Adwords;
If any of the above was true, I would then tend to think that this is a case for an ethic committee... or maybe even for a criminal court?
2) A consumer's point of view:
Google is not free. I pay for the 'free' results by purchasing any item that is being sold through Adwords. I expect the 'free' results to be unbiaised and independent from their advertising section. If it was proven that Google are tampering with the free results to gain financial advantage, I would feel deceived and I would then tend to think that this is a case for an ethic committee... or maybe even for a criminal court?
-- "
Google should understand this
Google should understand this: "If many, many companies/websites enjoyed high rankings for a variety of search phrases and these rankings were procured in a 'legal and ethical way' and then lost all their rankings because of an algorithm change that again, unfairly penalized these companies for no apparent reason (while other competing companies remained unscathed) then these companies ABSOLUTELY would have a bonafide legal argument against Google.
Google has a wide reach on the internet (some might say a monopoly as it pertains to search results) and with that comes alot of responsibilty AND scrutiny, warranted or not"
Google has a wide reach on the internet (some might say a monopoly as it pertains to search results) and with that comes alot of responsibilty AND scrutiny, warranted or not"
Cre8asite forums. Google - Google is stemming now. [ Search Engine Optimization, Usability and Web Design. ]
Cre8asite forums. Google - Google is stemming now. [ Search Engine Optimization, Usability and Web Design. ]: "Quote:
Google now uses stemming technology. Thus, when appropriate, it will search not only for your search terms, but also for words that are similar to some or all of those terms. If you search for 'pet lemur dietary needs', Google will also search for 'pet lemur diet needs', and other related variations of your terms. Any variants of your terms that were searched for will be highlighted in the snippet of text accompanying each result.
This is taken from the Google Search Tips. Until recently it said quite the reverse. That's a pretty fundamental change to bring in without a fanfare!"
Google now uses stemming technology. Thus, when appropriate, it will search not only for your search terms, but also for words that are similar to some or all of those terms. If you search for 'pet lemur dietary needs', Google will also search for 'pet lemur diet needs', and other related variations of your terms. Any variants of your terms that were searched for will be highlighted in the snippet of text accompanying each result.
This is taken from the Google Search Tips. Until recently it said quite the reverse. That's a pretty fundamental change to bring in without a fanfare!"
Forbes.com: Change to Google ranking system irks merchants
Forbes.com: Change to Google ranking system irks merchants: "SAN FRANCISCO, Dec 2 (Reuters) - Some business owners who depend on Google driving Internet users to their Web sites are angry over a change to the top search engine's ranking system, which they say threatens to dent their revenue during the holiday shopping season."
Traffick | Minding the Internet Search Engines' Business
Traffick | Minding the Internet Search Engines' Business: "I suggested that Google was making more effort to discern the 'type' of information on a page (resource/discussion/information, store/affiliate, company, etc.) 'was heading down the right path.' Norvig even went so far as to agree that the type of thing Google 'might' do would be to look for information such as 'how long a company has been established, what kind of information is it showing to the site visitor, etc.' "
Prepare to be Monetized, Punk: Google Plays Sherriff with Commercially-Oriented Search Listings
Prepare to be Monetized, Punk: Google Plays Sherriff with Commercially-Oriented Search Listings:
"The shortest path to the truth seems to be the following rule: 'where there is a critical mass of advertisers, Google has chosen to re-rank the index.'
Google is doing what search engines have been doing for years: studying common SEO techniques and trying to ensure that clever marketers don't get the upper hand in the "free" index. What's different is how much is at stake if Google can indeed dislodge the best-laid plans of free-riders at this crucial stage.
We've seen trends towards giving more top-ten listings to sites that involve discussion, comparison, content, resources, etc.. It's just been accelerated now, and made more aggressive.
Another revenue angle to consider: Google now actually stands to make money from quality content sites which get ranked well. That's because many of these sites now show AdSense ads, and Google gets a little revenue share from them, too.
Advertisers who have always struck the right balance between paid and unpaid listings, between interesting content and company information, and commercial pages, won't have been caught flat-footed by this latest diabolical Google reshuffle.
But plenty of cocky search-marketing cowboys -- those who felt a growing sense of entitlement to rankings they "earned" for their sites on the strength of little more than a few cheap parlor tricks -- have been knocked to the dirt hard in this latest dustup. Most will pick themselves up, knock back a couple of shots of the hard stuff, and prepare themselves to fight again. But some won't."
"The shortest path to the truth seems to be the following rule: 'where there is a critical mass of advertisers, Google has chosen to re-rank the index.'
Google is doing what search engines have been doing for years: studying common SEO techniques and trying to ensure that clever marketers don't get the upper hand in the "free" index. What's different is how much is at stake if Google can indeed dislodge the best-laid plans of free-riders at this crucial stage.
We've seen trends towards giving more top-ten listings to sites that involve discussion, comparison, content, resources, etc.. It's just been accelerated now, and made more aggressive.
Another revenue angle to consider: Google now actually stands to make money from quality content sites which get ranked well. That's because many of these sites now show AdSense ads, and Google gets a little revenue share from them, too.
Advertisers who have always struck the right balance between paid and unpaid listings, between interesting content and company information, and commercial pages, won't have been caught flat-footed by this latest diabolical Google reshuffle.
But plenty of cocky search-marketing cowboys -- those who felt a growing sense of entitlement to rankings they "earned" for their sites on the strength of little more than a few cheap parlor tricks -- have been knocked to the dirt hard in this latest dustup. Most will pick themselves up, knock back a couple of shots of the hard stuff, and prepare themselves to fight again. But some won't."
Wednesday, December 03, 2003
News: Google France fined for trademark violation
Implications....
News: Google France fined for trademark violation: "Luteciel and Viaticum claimed intellectual property rights in 'bourse des vols' and 'bourse des voyages,' which roughly translate to travel market and airflight market."
News: Google France fined for trademark violation: "Luteciel and Viaticum claimed intellectual property rights in 'bourse des vols' and 'bourse des voyages,' which roughly translate to travel market and airflight market."
Search Engines And Legal Issues - previous case list
Search Engines And Legal Issues: "Legal experts urge webmasters to think carefully before using tactics such as competitors' words in meta tags or buying trademarked keywords on search engines."
Got any top tips re Google Adwords? : e-consultancy.com
ADWORDS:
Got any top tips re Google Adwords? : e-consultancy.com:
Google Adwords explained
-------------------------------------------
Jim at Web Diversity provides detailed information on the four tiers
that Google's technology uses to determine where to place a listing.
Essential reading for those that pay for placement on Adwords, or
those thinking about doing so.
"There are 4 types of keywords you can have in Google Adwords :
1. Broad match - your ad is shown if the words you are bidding on show anywhere in your list.
2. Phrase match - your ad is shown if the phrase you are bidding on is shown within the context of the search made
3. Exact match - your ad is shown if the phrase you are bidding on is shown EXACTLY as the search made.
4. Negative match - your ad is NOT shown if one of the stop words you choose is used"
Got any top tips re Google Adwords? : e-consultancy.com:
Google Adwords explained
-------------------------------------------
Jim at Web Diversity provides detailed information on the four tiers
that Google's technology uses to determine where to place a listing.
Essential reading for those that pay for placement on Adwords, or
those thinking about doing so.
"There are 4 types of keywords you can have in Google Adwords :
1. Broad match - your ad is shown if the words you are bidding on show anywhere in your list.
2. Phrase match - your ad is shown if the phrase you are bidding on is shown within the context of the search made
3. Exact match - your ad is shown if the phrase you are bidding on is shown EXACTLY as the search made.
4. Negative match - your ad is NOT shown if one of the stop words you choose is used"
Search engine news, on Web searching and search engine optimization
Search engine news, on Web searching and search engine optimization: "Google's global usage share has reached has increased from 55.2 percent to 56.1 percent since OneStat's previous report.
According to OneStat the seven largest search engines on the web are:
Google 56.1%
Yahoo 21.5%
MSN Search 9.4%
AOL Search 3.7%
Terra Lycos 2.3%
Altavista 1.9%
AskJeeves 1.6%"
According to OneStat the seven largest search engines on the web are:
Google 56.1%
Yahoo 21.5%
MSN Search 9.4%
AOL Search 3.7%
Terra Lycos 2.3%
Altavista 1.9%
AskJeeves 1.6%"
Tuesday, December 02, 2003
Google: Current Algo Update-Dance -> High Rankings Search Engine Optimization Forum
Google: Current Algo Update-Dance -> High Rankings Search Engine Optimization Forum: "believe that it is not a simple matter of the hilltop algorithm,.. there is much more in play here. Another interesting algorithm is the Topic-Sensitive-Pagerank algorithm. This algorithm consideres up to 16 or more different PageRank factors.
The original PageRank formula considered only 1 factor. It also failed to recognize any unrelated links. Google tried to compensate for this with things like looking at the anchor text,.. but all these things were just minor updates to compensate for what the original PageRank was missing. This new update does a much better job as it improved determination of relevancy of a back link"
The original PageRank formula considered only 1 factor. It also failed to recognize any unrelated links. Google tried to compensate for this with things like looking at the anchor text,.. but all these things were just minor updates to compensate for what the original PageRank was missing. This new update does a much better job as it improved determination of relevancy of a back link"
One more theory...Google: Current Algo Update-Dance -> High Rankings Search Engine Optimization Forum
Google: Current Algo Update-Dance -> High Rankings Search Engine Optimization Forum: "the results are dominated by quasi, directory-like web pages. This is what leads me towards concluding that G has implemented something similar to Hilltop. Studying that document closely compels me think it is likely that an Expert Page can also become an Authority Page.
Expert Pages are described as pages 'about a certain topic with links to many non-affiliated pages about that same topic'.....operative words are 'many' and 'non-affiliated'
Authority Pages are described as 'an authority on the certain topic if and only when some of the best expert pages link to it'.
Directory-like sites that are informational- based fit the profile of both Expert and Authority. Typically, those type of sites would not have an abundance of affiliated links.
IMO, they have been rewarded by fitting the descriptions and having backlinks that are typically non-afilliated."
Expert Pages are described as pages 'about a certain topic with links to many non-affiliated pages about that same topic'.....operative words are 'many' and 'non-affiliated'
Authority Pages are described as 'an authority on the certain topic if and only when some of the best expert pages link to it'.
Directory-like sites that are informational- based fit the profile of both Expert and Authority. Typically, those type of sites would not have an abundance of affiliated links.
IMO, they have been rewarded by fitting the descriptions and having backlinks that are typically non-afilliated."
Saturday, November 29, 2003
BW Online | November 25, 2003 | These Sites Are a Shopper's Dream
BW Online | November 25, 2003 | These Sites Are a Shopper's Dream: "In October, Yahoo launched an even bigger initiative: scanning the entire Internet for product listings, though without returning pricing data. That looks like a broadside at Google's online product search engine, Froogle. Launched last December, Froogle doesn't offer side-by-side comparisons, but it does allow shoppers to arrange product listings by price. It pulls in hundreds of thousands of unique visitors each month and is growing smartly -- and selling ads.
'We don't usually monetize beta products, but we do monetize Froogle,' says Marissa Mayer, director of consumer products at Google. While Google contends that Froogle isn't a shopping-comparison site but rather a search engine to help customers find products, analysts wonder if the search leader has bigger plans. 'If Google starts taking the online shopping-comparison part of its business more seriously, Shopping.com and the others in that group could have a big problem,' says Nielsen's Leathern.
The sector's leaders say they aren't afraid of Google. They argue that its basic search technology, called PageRank, might prove difficult to adapt to online shopping. 'With PageRank, the thesis is you can always rank the most relevant results at the top and the least relevant results at the bottom. In shopping, relevancy is a function of the user. Is it the brand first? Is it the lowest price? There's no PageRank that will solve what's in your head vs. what's in my head,' says Tolia.
Froogle's Mayer says its product does what it's intended to do very well, which is find products and not necessarily supply comparison features. And Froogle can perform the most important relevancy calculation, namely ranking product offerings by price."
'We don't usually monetize beta products, but we do monetize Froogle,' says Marissa Mayer, director of consumer products at Google. While Google contends that Froogle isn't a shopping-comparison site but rather a search engine to help customers find products, analysts wonder if the search leader has bigger plans. 'If Google starts taking the online shopping-comparison part of its business more seriously, Shopping.com and the others in that group could have a big problem,' says Nielsen's Leathern.
The sector's leaders say they aren't afraid of Google. They argue that its basic search technology, called PageRank, might prove difficult to adapt to online shopping. 'With PageRank, the thesis is you can always rank the most relevant results at the top and the least relevant results at the bottom. In shopping, relevancy is a function of the user. Is it the brand first? Is it the lowest price? There's no PageRank that will solve what's in your head vs. what's in my head,' says Tolia.
Froogle's Mayer says its product does what it's intended to do very well, which is find products and not necessarily supply comparison features. And Froogle can perform the most important relevancy calculation, namely ranking product offerings by price."
Price war predicted after Virgin deal - 28-Nov-03. - 06 Nov 2003
Price war predicted after Virgin deal - 28-Nov-03. - 06 Nov 2003: "Industry commentators are predicting a price war on routes from London to New York and Sydney after Virgin Atlantic came a step closer to launching a service between Hong Kong and Sydney. "
Thursday, November 27, 2003
Google: Current Algo Update-Dance -> High Rankings Search Engine Optimization Forum
One more set of "conclusions"...
Google: Current Algo Update-Dance -> High Rankings Search Engine Optimization Forum: "Saying this future of SEOs are still bright as Dan said if you get the clue you win if not you loose. We have to do a lot of research on the current algo and one thing that is special about this algo is if we rank we have the chance of ranking for all the keywords in our theme, Google has clearly said in their guidelines,
QUOTE
Think about the words users would type to find your pages, and make sure that your site actually includes those words within it.
This is just a way to broad band matching instead of matching a query to a keyword phrase, I have clearly explained how to win this game in my previous posts here is a small briefing.
Sprinking the words related to your site all over your site,
breaking down anchor text to match different keywords,( examples personalized)
proper internal internal link structure to support the theme of your site link to pages in your site with appropriate keyword in it avoid phrases here too,
Linking you site to some high quality sites in your category,
getting links from authority pages, directories, relevant sites,
adding your domain name or company name to the anchor text,
giving enough food(contents- I am talking about contents around 400+ words per page) to the robots to make our site more relevant to the matching query,
avoid any type of stress on your phrases like the way we used to add it once in header, once in title, once in bold, once in italic avoid anything like this.
Just add it promptly somewhere on your page may be on your header or your body or title somewhere other than that just distribute the keywords related to your site all over your place"
Google: Current Algo Update-Dance -> High Rankings Search Engine Optimization Forum: "Saying this future of SEOs are still bright as Dan said if you get the clue you win if not you loose. We have to do a lot of research on the current algo and one thing that is special about this algo is if we rank we have the chance of ranking for all the keywords in our theme, Google has clearly said in their guidelines,
QUOTE
Think about the words users would type to find your pages, and make sure that your site actually includes those words within it.
This is just a way to broad band matching instead of matching a query to a keyword phrase, I have clearly explained how to win this game in my previous posts here is a small briefing.
Sprinking the words related to your site all over your site,
breaking down anchor text to match different keywords,( examples personalized)
proper internal internal link structure to support the theme of your site link to pages in your site with appropriate keyword in it avoid phrases here too,
Linking you site to some high quality sites in your category,
getting links from authority pages, directories, relevant sites,
adding your domain name or company name to the anchor text,
giving enough food(contents- I am talking about contents around 400+ words per page) to the robots to make our site more relevant to the matching query,
avoid any type of stress on your phrases like the way we used to add it once in header, once in title, once in bold, once in italic avoid anything like this.
Just add it promptly somewhere on your page may be on your header or your body or title somewhere other than that just distribute the keywords related to your site all over your place"
One more set of conclusions....Google: Current Algo Update-Dance -> High Rankings Search Engine Optimization Forum
Google: Current Algo Update-Dance -> High Rankings Search Engine Optimization Forum: "Saying this future of SEOs are still bright as Dan said if you get the clue you win if not you loose. We have to do a lot of research on the current algo and one thing that is special about this algo is if we rank we have the chance of ranking for all the keywords in our theme, Google has clearly said in their guidelines,
QUOTE
Think about the words users would type to find your pages, and make sure that your site actually includes those words within it.
This is just a way to broad band matching instead of matching a query to a keyword phrase, I have clearly explained how to win this game in my previous posts here is a small briefing.
Sprinking the words related to your site all over your site,
breaking down anchor text to match different keywords,( examples personalized)
proper internal internal link structure to support the theme of your site link to pages in your site with appropriate keyword in it avoid phrases here too,
Linking you site to some high quality sites in your category,
getting links from authority pages, directories, relevant sites,
adding your domain name or company name to the anchor text,
giving enough food(contents- I am talking about contents around 400+ words per page) to the robots to make our site more relevant to the matching query,
avoid any type of stress on your phrases like the way we used to add it once in header, once in title, once in bold, once in italic avoid anything like this.
Just add it promptly somewhere on your page may be on your header or your body or title somewhere other than that just distribute the keywords related to your site all over your place"
QUOTE
Think about the words users would type to find your pages, and make sure that your site actually includes those words within it.
This is just a way to broad band matching instead of matching a query to a keyword phrase, I have clearly explained how to win this game in my previous posts here is a small briefing.
Sprinking the words related to your site all over your site,
breaking down anchor text to match different keywords,( examples personalized)
proper internal internal link structure to support the theme of your site link to pages in your site with appropriate keyword in it avoid phrases here too,
Linking you site to some high quality sites in your category,
getting links from authority pages, directories, relevant sites,
adding your domain name or company name to the anchor text,
giving enough food(contents- I am talking about contents around 400+ words per page) to the robots to make our site more relevant to the matching query,
avoid any type of stress on your phrases like the way we used to add it once in header, once in title, once in bold, once in italic avoid anything like this.
Just add it promptly somewhere on your page may be on your header or your body or title somewhere other than that just distribute the keywords related to your site all over your place"
Source Claims SCO Will Sue Google (LinuxWorld)
Source Claims SCO Will Sue Google (LinuxWorld): "It's said to have a Linux server farm of some 10,000 of servers, worth, oh, $7 million to SCO as long as SCO's current cut-rate license fees maintain. "
Google Adwords: Pricing & Billing
Work out max CPC
Google Adwords: Pricing & Billing: "The pre-filled amount highlighted in blue is our recommended maximum CPC. Matching this amount ensures maximum ad exposure and clicks for all of your keywords. Once you have decided on a maximum CPC, click Calculate Estimates"
Google Adwords: Pricing & Billing: "The pre-filled amount highlighted in blue is our recommended maximum CPC. Matching this amount ensures maximum ad exposure and clicks for all of your keywords. Once you have decided on a maximum CPC, click Calculate Estimates"
google & Wall St
The Register: "So in one way, Google is already set up for the ruthless labor policies that Wall Street likes. Its decision to pursue an aggressive patent policy is another corporate trait that should stand it in good stead with the markets. (And its notorious secrecy - well known to regular Register readers - is another characteristic that should help keep it out of trouble more often than not. That said, Google's reluctance to write anything down can cause self-inflicted wounds - the PR disaster that has arisen from the company refusing to produce a public written policy for Google News has been entirely self-inflicted.)
The Fortune article does credit Schmidt with creating the products from which Google now draws its profits: $350 million on an annualized turnover of $900 million, the magazine reckons. Before Schmidt came along the company bumbled along without a clear idea money-spinner. Schmidt transformed Google into an advertising broker...
there's no space to discuss the fate of Google's marque search engine, which since the explosion of revenue from Adwords and Adsense this year has taken a beating: Google is fighting a losing battle to preserve the integrity of its search results. (You can however, now watch baseball in London again). Whether it wins the war, or even wants to, is another question. "
The Fortune article does credit Schmidt with creating the products from which Google now draws its profits: $350 million on an annualized turnover of $900 million, the magazine reckons. Before Schmidt came along the company bumbled along without a clear idea money-spinner. Schmidt transformed Google into an advertising broker...
there's no space to discuss the fate of Google's marque search engine, which since the explosion of revenue from Adwords and Adsense this year has taken a beating: Google is fighting a losing battle to preserve the integrity of its search results. (You can however, now watch baseball in London again). Whether it wins the war, or even wants to, is another question. "
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