Natural Search Blog

Matt Cutts reveals underscores now treated as word separators in Google

After the recent WordCamp conference, Stephan Spencer reports here and here that Matt Cutts stated that Google now treats underscores as white-space characters or word separators when interpreting URLs. Read on for more details and my take on it…

(more…)

Possible Related Posts

Posted by of Silvery on 07/26/2007

Permalink | | Print Print | Trackback | Comments Off on Matt Cutts reveals underscores now treated as word separators in Google | Comments RSS

Filed under: Google, Search Engine Optimization, SEO , , ,

Google Quality Scores for Natural Search Optimization

Google made big waves in the paid search marketing industry when they began introducing a Quality Score which impacted cost and rankings of AdWords advertisements. Similar quality scoring methods are likely in use as ranking criteria for Google’s natural search results as well, and Google’s Webmaster Tools may hint at some of the criteria. Here are some details of that quality scoring criteria and some ways for you to improve rankings with it.

Google provides a very rough “formula” for their AdWords Quality Score:

Google AdWords Quality Score Formula

(more…)

Possible Related Posts

Posted by of Silvery on 07/02/2007

Permalink | | Print Print | Trackback | Comments Off on Google Quality Scores for Natural Search Optimization | Comments RSS

Filed under: Best Practices, Google, Search Engine Optimization, SEO , , , , ,

Top 10 Reasons Vanessa Left Google

Well, the search marketing industry was mildly rocked this week by the news that the much-beloved Vanessa Fox will be leaving Google where she was something of a maven, spokesperson, and technical evangelista for some years. The news has left me rather verklempt! I can’t help but suppose that we’ll now all get to see her less or not at all in her new role working for the real estate website, Zillow.

I’ll be missing her Sandman t-shirts and Buffy references at the conferences, and I fear the subject matter will end up being a lot drier overall for her lack.

Though I don’t know that she’d need any SEO help, I must say that I happen to know a thing or two about local search optimization, if she would like to call me in for advice at Zillow! 😉

In appreciation for Vanessa, with warmest regards, here’s a little list I composed of the Top Ten Reasons Vanessa Left Google:

(more…)

Possible Related Posts

Posted by of Silvery on 06/15/2007

Permalink | | Print Print | Trackback | Comments Off on Top 10 Reasons Vanessa Left Google | Comments RSS

Filed under: Google, News , ,

When Google Changes Page Titles

As most webmasters are aware, the text put within a page’s <TITLE> tags appears in two places – at the top of the browser window when a user is viewing a page, and it appears as the link anchor text on Google’s and other search engine results pages. But there are some rare occasions when Google will display different link text on their result pages than what is used in the <TITLE> text. So, why is this happening, and could it be happening to you?

I was recently researching some problems that a client was exeriencing due to bad advice given to him by a prior SEO agency (they’d encouraged him to buy links and participate in link exchanges, I found, among other sins). While looking into the site’s problems which included various over-optimizations and bad usability design, I discovered that when I used a particular keyword to search in Google, his site’s homepage came up with a completely different title in the search results. Most of his other desired keywords brought up his HTML <TITLE> text like normal, but this one did not…

(more…)

Possible Related Posts

Posted by of Silvery on 06/12/2007

Permalink | | Print Print | Trackback | Comments Off on When Google Changes Page Titles | Comments RSS

Filed under: Content Optimization, Google, HTML Optimization, Search Engine Optimization, SEO , , , , , , , ,

Google Map API to Now Include Ads

InfoWorld reports that at a conference yesterday, Google Maps engineer Andrew Eland announced that Google has integrated its AdSense program with Google Maps so that those using their Maps API and developer tools would be able to derive money off the clickthroughs to the map ads when displayed on their site pages.

Closeup - Ads in Google Maps
Detail – Google Map Ads

(more…)

Possible Related Posts

Posted by of Silvery on 06/01/2007

Permalink | | Print Print | Trackback | Comments Off on Google Map API to Now Include Ads | Comments RSS

Filed under: Advertising, Google, Local Search, Maps , , , , ,

Google Purchase of DoubleClick Under FTC Investigation

The NY Times reports that the U.S. Federal Trade Commission has started a preliminary antitrust investigation into Google’s planned $3.1 billion purchase of the online advertising company DoubleClick, an industry executive briefed on the agency’s plans said yesterday.

Some consumer groups have raised questions about privacy issues involved in having companies which handle more and more of the end-to-end process in users’ clickstreams through the internet, since holding more of the links in the process chain inevitably means being able to ascertain individual’s actions, interests, motives and desires in their day-to-day lives. Read on for more info.

(more…)

Possible Related Posts

Posted by of stephan on 05/29/2007

Permalink | | Print Print | Trackback | Comments Off on Google Purchase of DoubleClick Under FTC Investigation | Comments RSS

Filed under: News, Search Engine Optimization, SEO , , , , ,

New Results Filtering Parameter for Google Image Search

The Google Operating System blog reported this past weekend that Google Image Search introduced a new parameter that can allow you to pull up only images of people’s faces or only images from news sites/stories.

(more…)

Possible Related Posts

Posted by of Silvery on 05/29/2007

Permalink | | Print Print | Trackback | Comments Off on New Results Filtering Parameter for Google Image Search | Comments RSS

Filed under: Google ,

Experiment with Google Voice Local Search

Google recently released their new Voice Local Search in beta, also known as “GOOG-411”, and I thought I’d kick the tires a bit. They also mentioned it on their new Google Lat Long Blog.

Google 411

I used to work for a major telco (Verizon), and we had a number of researchers working on various voice recognition systems. I’ve also tinkered a bit with applications using text-to-speech voice synthesis software such as the AT&T Labs Text-to-Speech software, so I’m familiar with some of the issues that are commonly associated with these types of systems.

I was curious about whether Google’s clever engineers had perhaps improved upon some of the issues involved with having software recognize spoken words, and I also wondered how the quality was of their voice-synthesis.

(more…)

Possible Related Posts

Posted by of Silvery on 05/23/2007

Permalink | | Print Print | Trackback | Comments Off on Experiment with Google Voice Local Search | Comments RSS

Filed under: Google, Local Search , , , ,

New Research Could Improve Google Image Search

New research recently published out of University of California – San Diego could allow Google’s Image Search to easily begin using elements from “true image search” — that is, the ability for software to detect and identify elements appearing within the image itself rather than just relying upon external text metadata to associate keywords with the images. Read on for more details.

(more…)

Possible Related Posts

Posted by of Silvery on 04/05/2007

Permalink | | Print Print | Trackback | Comments Off on New Research Could Improve Google Image Search | Comments RSS

Filed under: Google, Image Optimization, Research and Development, Searching , , , ,

Coming Soon to NYC: The Googleheim Museum

[Source: SEO-AP] Due to budget cuts of the NEA and gross mismanagement by the Guggenheim Foundation board of directors, one of America’s top museums has been in danger of closing down in bankruptcy and selling off priceless artworks in order to repay debtors. However, Google [NYSE: GOOG] company has apparently made a unique sponsorship offer to the Solomon R. Guggenheim, and the deal is apparently set to initiate on June 1.

Secret image of Googleheim - Google internal documents
Source: Google internal documents outed earlier today on Natural Search Blog.

Information related to the deal was discovered by this reporter while browsing through 3D images of buildings created with Google Sketchup (while researching an article on Sketchup’s University Contest). Apparently, Google personnel had generated a new façade of the building in the application in order to use the images in a proposal to bail out the museum. Due to a temporary glitch, links to the confidential building diagrams showing a new exterior could be found for a short while in the application’s online data warehouse. These images showed a new logo reading “Googleheimâ€?, apparently a cross between the well-known Google brand name and the Guggenheim name.

The proposed exterior showed the newly Google-ized logo broadly splashed across the museum, replacing the much smaller signature letters of the current museum name. Other information regarding the deal was leaked by a few unnamed sources within the company, and the deal was subsequently confirmed to by Google spokesperson, Erin Fors.

(more…)

Possible Related Posts

Posted by of Silvery on 04/01/2007

Permalink | | Print Print | Trackback | Comments Off on Coming Soon to NYC: The Googleheim Museum | Comments RSS

Filed under: brand names, Google , , , , , ,

RSS Feeds
Categories
Archives
Other