Advertisement
  1. SEJ
  2.  ⋅ 
  3. SEO

Search Geek Weekly News Update; Google Social Search & More

It’s been another week in the trenches and while it may have been a little slow out there, we did have some big news with Google Social Search. Question remains, will it really be a game changer or just another vertical? And what the SEO community lacked in activity, we did come across more IR geekiness, which makes this old horse a happy camper. We’ve also got a few interesting patents and more…

I hope this edition finds you well… Enjoy!

 

Lead Story

When the news broke last week of Google’s Social Search going live, I thought, ‘this has got to be the big story of the week’. At the end of the day I’d say, maybe/maybe not. What we do know is that Google is once more looking to ‘get social’ and there is certainly interest. The part that isn’t as clear, much like Search/Side Wiki before it, is the level of adoption.

As a fella that has been following Google’s personalization/social trail the last few years, it was an interesting development. The burning question is always, “what effect will it have on SEO?”. There were those that said personalization would mean a massive change in what we do, that too, was a bit of an ambitious assertion.

Unless there are wholesale changes to its current implementation, I can’t see this being a game changer. Yes, it will likely present a new vertical with new opportunities, but beyond that it would seem this development will be limited in its effect on us.

Here’s a ton of coverage for you;

My own review!

Google;

Usual Suspects;

Now let’s get on with the rest of this week’s search goodiness shall we?

Quick Nav LinksBuzz BinGeek CentralSocial SearchLocal SEOVideosToolsSOSG AlertsPatents

Buzz Bin

Is social media an SEO requirement? – was Virginia’s answer to (friend of trail) James Duthie’s assertion. For the record, since their both friends, I shall fence sit and say it’s not a requirement, but it sure helps. M’kay?
Should You Hire An SEO Who Cold Calls You? – from Miriam, via Search Engine Guide, looks at why people might not necessarily want to hire SEOs that cold call. I’m kinda 50/50 as I am sure not just the dregs are using this sales approach. Still, it’s a interesting discussion.
When to turn down Business – was somewhat related to the above, on the flip side. At what point to you walk away? (please don’t be desperate my search geeks!)
Higher Counts of Malware Taking Over Google Search Results? – as reported from Barry via Search Engine Roundtable. An interesting theory of SERP flux being seen might actually be caused from higher levels of malware hijacks out in the wild.
Defining search engine optimization – Lee (Odden) was trying to make sense of one timeless question. And it’s a valiant effort, that’s for sure. It does highlight the many ways and means to search optimization.
Google; an update on rich snippets – Seriously, if you aren’t already considering making better use of RDFa/Microformats, then it’s time you did. This post from Google outlines some recent additions to the ‘rich snippets’ platform
As if sloppy social media users ain’t bad enough … search engines support traffic theft – Sebastian X is back and this time he’s taking it to URL shorteners. He’s taken up the fight to make sure you’re not abused and that engines take notice. Damn, I really gotta finish up my own logs custom shorty… would help some. Nice stuff as always from Seb!!
Google Removes Green Party Web Site From Index Due To Hack – teaches us that you’d better be keeping one eye on the security/stability aspects (I have seen this happen more than a few times). It’s also a good example how Google works WITH sites in these situations.
Would you use a Link Building Tool owned by a Link Builder? – was the question posed by John Andrews; and the comments are as interesting as the post. Me? I’m not entirely comfortable and am generally anal about client data…
Is Microsoft Bing Finally Figuring Out 301 Redirects? – reports on the boards, according to Barry (via SER) are that Bing is starting to deal with 301’s better.
Google Custom Search Turns 3, Rolls Out 3 New Features – sure, the GCSE program doesn’t get much attention from search geeks, but I love building/playing with them. Over at SEJ they reported on some new features rolled out for the 3rd birthday!
Any SEO Psychics in the House? – this is an innovative post that takes a recent ‘Crystal Ball’ panel discussion and turns each of the questions into a survey. You can choose your answer from the panellists (or not) and see what others voted on (poll set up). Why not drop in and put your 2c on the future of search? (great idea there gang).
Quick Nav LinksTalk of the TownGeek CentralSocial SearchLocal SEOVideosToolsSOSG AlertsPatents

Search Geek Central

Search Stuff

How a Search Engine Might Distinguish Between Queries from Bots and from Humans, SEO By The Sea

Google CEO on personalized news – Geeking with Greg

How a Search Engine might Adjust Rankings based upon Patterns in Query and Click Logs – SEO by the Sea

Cognition Parses Its Way to a Better Understanding of Language – Cog BLog

Tuning in to Google Music Search – The Noisy Chanel

Tomorrow’s Data – IR Gupf

 

Social Search

Ping – How High Will Real-Time Search Fly? – New York Times

Twitter Lists as an Influence Measure? – Noisy Chanel

 

Local SEO

YellowPages.ca Relaunches Site – Greg Sterling

Local Search: A Solved Consumer Problem – Search Engine Journal

Israel on Google Maps, Now in Hebrew – Search Engine Roundtable

Merchant Circle: How are they profiting from your business name this week? – Mike Blumenthal

Google Maps to Fix One Web Box Result Bug – Search Engine Roundtable

Quick Nav LinksTalk of the TownGeek CentralSocial SearchLocal SEOVideosToolsSOSG AlertsPatents

Videos

11 years of Google in 2 minutes – Search Cowboys

Google Music Search – Google

Taggalaxy and Flickr – Teacher Tube

Google Social Search – Jim Stewart

Google PageRank, Bing Search Update & Yahoo’s GeoCities Gone – Barry’s weekly round up.

A review of Wolfram Apha in under 2 minutes – found via Alt Search Engines

 

Weapons

Reverse IP Checking Tools – Search Engine Journal

Keyword research tool exposed – SEO.com

Analytics intelligent insights – Avinash

New Feature Spotlight: Engagement Goals, Goal Sets and 20 Goals Per Profile – Google Analytics Blog

Firefox Friday: Research On-Page Keywords with KGen – SEJ

All That Bounces Is Not Bad – Web Analysis

 

SOSG Alerts

Everystockphoto – a license-specific photo search engine.

Similar Image Search Engine GazoPa Opens to Public Beta Testing – Search Engine Watch

MedWorm – a medical RSS feed provider as well as a search engine built on data collected from RSS feeds.

Cyclops – a new image search engine that seems reasonably interesting.. good for bloggers.

 

Quick Nav LinksTalk of the TownGeek CentralSocial SearchLocal SEOVideosToolsSOSG AlertsPatents

Search Patents


/end SOSG session

Quick Nav LinksTalk of the TownGeek CentralSocial SearchLocal SEOVideosToolsSOSG AlertsPatents

 

David Harry aka the Gypsy

‘7 Days of Search and Social’ is a joint effort from Search Engine Journal and the SEO Training Dojo to bring you the latest in SEO and Social Search news. Each week (on Tuesdays) we’ll be posting the highlights of the most recent (SEO Geeks) newsletter here on Search Engine Journal.

Be sure to grab the SEJ feed for the latest or sign up to the SEO Dojo newsletter to get it straight to your inbox.

 

Category SEO
ADVERTISEMENT
David Harry Lead SEO Consultant at Verve Developments

David Harry is the lead SEO at Verve Developments and specializes in SEO audits and forensic analysis. He’s been in ...

Search Geek Weekly News Update; Google Social Search & More

Subscribe To Our Newsletter.

Conquer your day with daily search marketing news.