Keep Google image search interface test

Discuss the premium home page Google's continuous image search interface test
On March 3, 2013 (GMT 0) at 12: 33 pm
Saturday afternoon I was searching for some ideas, and all of a sudden when I click on the image, this image shows the new interface:

[img716.imageshack.us...]

However, lefthandside image you will notice that they are "test is too" is by the "regular" show interface.

He has appeared on one of the images, click on the lefthandside. Repeat this and can't do that yet, but at that time I was searching through the image, and perhaps had two hours and I wondered if they were made "to try and help this guy out on the type of functionality"?

The next AdWords for some of us think it's already been mentioned.

On March 4, 2013 (GMT 0), 11: 42 am
"Let's try and help this guy out on the type of functionality"?

Until this morning and came back to the new interface, image search keywords while checking a couple of discount that idea. After entering the keyword + General description appeared.

On March 4, 2013 (GMT 0) at 12: 42 pm
I would like to see ...
"Landing page", "original image view", "image details" left and right below the large image is 8 "thumb" ... "This attempt" ...

Click on one of them.G keeps you from image search and yet more 8 thumbs up "try this" ...

btw...The Huskies ...Your screenshot will time out ...

On March 4, 2013 (GMT 0) at 2: 30 pm
btw...The Huskies ...Your screenshot will time out ...

Hmm ...France will have to make for me, the other machine works:-)

However, some of the images when searching for a particular tool, there seems to be quite fond of this feature very random.

On March 4, 2013 (GMT 0) at 2: 51 pm
The next AdWords for some of us think it's already been mentioned.

They are making money from our images and bandwidth will mean. This will worsen, even stealing.

On March 4, 2013 (GMT 0) 8: 06 am
btw...The Huskies ...Your screenshot will time out ...
Hmm ...France will have to make for me, the other machine works:-)
Screen captures 208 k. .. Images sometimes (browser cache flush) and loads very quickly, but like watching paint dry, even in the United States has been the California road.
On March 4, 2013 (GMT 0) at 9: 10 pm
Interesting ...One is on the left and click on the "big" images I've noticed just ...One can go straight to the G hotlinking on your website ...

He also shows up on the right side of the "thumbnail" images to 8 ...Watermarks are many ... "demotion" doesn't show a watermark on the image: large image can now connect directly to the site and ...On the other hand, for a while there ...Click on the larger image results in isolation, since the actual site page not open but ...

So: click the image watermark image (aside from the tire kickers, thieves and pinteresters, etc.) likely to encourage those who are looking for more ...(G to index your images accepted) If you click to the message in the image of penalising the image would not appear in G image search.

At least ...Now ...

On March 5, 2013 (GMT 0), 11: 38 am
"Demotion" doesn't show a watermark on the image.

No, I have a problem with the new site started about 18 months ago with no watermark image position from the beginning, whatever.

Indeed, lots, and Image Watermarking in the industry, especially with my widget because thousands of People's Republic of China in multiple directories on the site, to be honest, they have their own image.

On March 6, 2013 (GMT 0) 4: 55 pm
Peek the new image search results in Search Preview. Read more.

[google.com...]

On March 6, 2013 (GMT 0) 5: 06 pm
Btw, now that I think about it "test is too" day for me is gone.
.

[Edit: 5: 47 am (utc) on March 6, 2013 Robert_Charlton]
[Why edit] foster's request [/edit] fixed

On March 6, 2013 (GMT + 0) 6: 55 am
It is suitable for Google.de

[google.de...]

On March 6, 2013 (GMT 0) 7: 15 am
My "test" does not refer to the image, click the image to go to the site but can I find. A nice change.

My images are prominent copyright watermark on a map and also with "click to enlarge", which appears to be affecting anything soesnt.

On March 6, 2013 (GMT 0) 7: 16 pm
.De image preview of changes in it's only me? My ff, chrome, Safari, and I don't see it. It seems that there is a but r. f.

Probably another lawsuit, you must love Germany.

On March 7, 2013 (GMT 0) at 12: 09 pm
"These attempts" since my main CMS Gallery is an average 27.4 percent from yesterday to 24.9% less page views

What's the point of Google, I just do not "get"!

On March 8, 2013 (GMT 0) 8: 55 am
@HuskyPup, that's the point. Google made the move over the past year plus, all have been kept in a user's own page. Technical graph, this is suitable for image search update and other integrated. Make more money in their pockets.

Like it or not, each of us has their competition $ $ $ for Gallery easily (legally) can steal those pictures they click on it, and actually enjoy the possibility for regular users will not be tiny "landing page" display button again when you are looking for a specific image you want by clicking on your site are sent only to the users.

I honestly don't understand how this isn't a copyright theft. They have their own website now displays the entire image. No wonder why no longer get almost any image search.

On March 8, 2013 (GMT 0) at 1: 41 pm
I honestly don't understand how this isn't a copyright theft.

It is more than a copyright theft. It's too bandwidth theft. The car is similar to stealing gas from.

 

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Optimizing a MySQL Database for WordPress

 6:11 pm on Mar 7, 2013 (gmt 0)
lorax

It's going to depend on your system and where the bottlenecks are, how much memory you have, how much you're writing versus reading. I'm not an expert by any means. For a production system, you should get the tuning done by someone who really knows how to scale InnoDB for you.

I should probably just leave it there and tell the OP to go do some research. I will elaborate, but I will also say that take what follows below as a starting point for your research and please come back and correct any errors I make below - I'm just sort of shooting from the hip here.

In my case, I just do basic playing with values to get my local dev station so that it can run Drupal reasonably well with InnoDB tables (and I assume WP would have the same issues with InnoDB).

The basic principle is this - InnoDB defers writing to disk when it can, but constraints on the memory it's allowed to use, the requirement to be ACID compliant and so forth can force it to write to disk more often than you need.

If you are monitoring disk activity and you run a query (say load a WP page), you'll see disk activity spike to very high levels and stay there long after the page is loaded as InnoDB "catches up", that is takes care of the deferred work it needs to do. With the wrong values, InnoDB can almost max out your disk all day long with hardly any queries actually getting run.

So if you're having I/O bottlenecks, your goal is to get it to buffer to memory more and write to disk less. But if you're having memory bottlenecks...

And if you're having both problems, you need to get more memory and an SSD probably.

Anyway, looking over my config file (my.cnf except on Windows, my.ini) and trying to remember which values I've customized... (again, check my work!)

innodb_buffer_pool_size = 256M

I believe the default here is 5M, which everyone says is inadequate. I've heard it said (I don't know as this is official or speculation) that the value is so low by default so that you *have* to set it to get it to work decently.

I'm running with a fairly low 256M. The docs say you can go as high as 80% of memory, but I would say that would probably only be okay on a dedicated DB server. Like PHP memory, you don't want to go so high that you exhaust memory for other processes. I should probably bump this up to 512MB though - this is an 8GB machine.

Docs suggest 25% buffer pool size

innodb_flush_log_at_trx_commit = 1

This determines how and when the buffer is written to disk. 1 is required for ACID compliance, but if you can afford some data loss in event of a server crash, then you can set this to 0 and reduce disk usage.

Some of these are not straightforward to change. To change some log file settings you need to shut down the server, move the files to a new location, change your settings, reboot the server so it will generate new files, then once you've verified that it all works, delete the original files. You can otherwise end up with a server that won't start.

 10:55 pm on Mar 7, 2013 (gmt 0)
Here's an example for a serious InnoDB setup that can afford 4GB of memory for InnoDB
https://gist.github.com/petemcw/844412
 1:20 pm on Mar 8, 2013 (gmt 0)
Hi ergo,
I split this off so we could all explore this more. For neophytes like me, this is a very useful topic that I fear would hijack the original thread.

So, I'm looking into this more now. My situation is that I have multiple WP installs on a dedicated server with 4GB. Now I'm thinking I want to bump that memory up to at least 8GB but I don't know enough about servers to know if it would even be able to use it. SO, my next step is to speak with the host about the max I can get on the box along with prices. This will set the ceiling for me. Then I can back into the rest of the setup based on what I have to work with.

 6:54 pm on Mar 11, 2013 (gmt 0)
I don't really have a lot to add honestly.

Again, I don't want to present myself as a server ninja. I'm not.

That said, you can always make good use of more memory :-)

I would say that you need to find out where your bottlenecks are though, principally

- I/O
- CPU
- RAM

If your system is bogging, you might want to start by profiling Wordpress, but you may not have control over this. If people absolutely have to have a given feature, telling them it burns a lot of horsepower may not change anything.

Quick example - I had a site that was bogging down after some changes. One change I made was using PHP to grab the image size so I could inject proper height and width attributes into the HTML for the IMG tag. When I profiled the site it turned out that about 80% of the time was spent grabbing these dimensions on a gallery page. Simple fix and now, in the age of responsive sites, it's better to avoid coding dimensions into your image tags anyway.

But assuming that you can't do anything at the software end, you can always shift things around.

If you're CPU/DB constrained, for example, you can put a reverse proxy (Varnish, Squid, etc) on the front end and do a lot more caching.

If you're I/O constrained, you can load things into memory with Memcache so you get a lot fewer disk hits. I'm not sure how big your DB is, but with an extra 4GB, you might be able to just load your whole MySQL database in memory with the understanding that a system crash between writes to disk would cause data loss (a reasonable tradeoff for a pure content site, but not acceptable in other contexts).

And then, finally, if you're not already on an SSD, you might look into spending your money there rather than on memory. But you would first need to benchmark with a high load and find your failure point.

 3:35 pm on Mar 12, 2013 (gmt 0)
Thanks ergo. I hadn't thought of using a SSD - I inhereted the setup I have now. I actually just negotiated a new 2 year contract with the vendor. I could probably get modifications without and issue.

Digging in now. I'll share what I learn here.

First up. Developing a cron job to remove revisions of posts on a regular basis.

Second learn more about how to measure I/O on the database. Any thoughts on using performance_schema ?

 5:36 pm on Mar 12, 2013 (gmt 0)
No thoughts on performance_schema. Looks good

You can get some idea of things with your basic Unix tools
- top
- iostat

But like I said, I've just done what I need to get simple setups running okay.

 5:40 pm on Mar 12, 2013 (gmt 0) 2:22 am on Mar 15, 2013 (gmt 0) 2:48 pm on Mar 15, 2013 (gmt 0)
Thanks guys. I have looked into those resources phranque but to be frank phranque, I have a steep learning curve and it makes my head hurt. :)
shri

msg:4555616

 9:36 am on Mar 16, 2013 (gmt 0)
The best way to optimize your database (and your application stack) is to ensure that you have rock solid caching at multiple levels.

Rendered pages do not need to be rendered again, unless something has changed - content edited, comments added etc. Use something like Varnish with content sensitive purging ( available in W4TC plugin).

This is far superior to application level caching as neither PHP nor MySQL are accessed unless your page has changed.

Also consider using a plugin like W3TC to cache queries and a bunch of other stuff in a memcached like setup. This will ensure further scalability.

Using these strategies we were able to get the query load down from 1000+ queries per second down to 20-50 queries per second on a WP based site that had around 2 million visitors over a weekend.

With a low query load like that you don't have to mess with changing your DB structure / indices etc.

 3:23 pm on Mar 16, 2013 (gmt 0)
No question that some sort of caching (or the combination of several sorts of caching) should usually be your first step if your server is bogging down.

This originally came up in the context originally of complaining (as I understood it) that a single page load was maxing him out and after a single page request he was having persistent high I/O and CPU activity and this was true even with plugins disabled.

That means that something is wrong on the server end, because Wordpress with very low traffic and no plugins should be fast without any caching at all.

So yes, in most cases people should look at the obvious. Especially for a content site with few logged in users, caching will give the biggest return for most people.

 1:22 am on Mar 17, 2013 (gmt 0)
Good thread... it's worth mentioning that MyISAM relies on the OS cache but InnoDB will take care of its own cacheing, and that WP will use whichever storage engine is the default for your particular MySQL version (AFAIK).

InnoDB became the default in MySQL 5.5

If any WP tables do not have sequential inserts then they will become fragmented and will perform at less than optimal speed. [mysqlperformanceblog.com...]

 2:59 pm on Mar 18, 2013 (gmt 0)
shri! Goodness, haven't seen nor heard from you in years. Welcome back.

So caching at different levels is a good thing. Like the database, rendered pages, and what about DNS (using a CDN like cloudflare or amazon s3)? What are some of the gotchas in using caching at multiple levels. One I can think of might be that the results of tweaking anything in the delivery chain might not be apparent because one or more caches further down the delivery pipe haven't been updated or cleared.

BOL - how would one tell if they're using InnoDB or MyISAM? Is it easy using PHPMyAdmin or is this a command line type of check?

 3:28 pm on Mar 18, 2013 (gmt 0)
how would one tell if they're using InnoDB or MyISAM

For a whole database, something like
SELECT table_name,engine FROM INFORMATION_SCHEMA.TABLES WHERE TABLE_SCHEMA = 'databasename';

Or on a per table basis
SHOW CREATE TABLE tablename

Is it easy using PHPMyAdmin or is this a command line type of check

Whichever you prefer, both will show the same output. I prefer the command line as phpmyadmin will perform an extra query for pagination on the ui.

 7:18 pm on Mar 18, 2013 (gmt 0)
lorax - FYI - any site that was built on MySQl before 5.5 will still be running on MyISAM tables unless the site admin actively did something to convert to InnoDB.

As an aside, one should be careful about converting willy-nilly between MyISAM and InnoDB. As just one example, InnoDB by default has a lower max index length, being set to something like 765 bytes (as opposed to 1000+ for MyISAM).

If you have an index that's on a VARCHAR(255) field, that's all good... until you go fully international and switch to the utf8mb4 character set to support full Unicode... which means that your VARCHAR field now has 1020 bytes (255 chars * 4 bytes/char) and your site crashes.

>>PHPMyAdmin

If you want a nice GUI tool, check out SQLYog or HeidiSQL (the former being nicer in most respects, the latter having a great search feature though where it will search through all tables for text)

shri

msg:4558114

 12:34 am on Mar 25, 2013 (gmt 0)
>> a single page load was maxing him out and after a single page request he was having persistent high I/O and CPU activity and this was true even with plugins disabled.

Enable the mysql slow query log.

log-slow-queries = [path to the log file]
and
long_query_time=5

That should reveal the slow query issues.

Most blogs will not have enough content to even slow down a half way decent server on a select * from wp_post type query.

The problem with innodb is that it does require a fair bit of tweaking - far more than MyISAM and is non-trivial, specially if you're not technical enough to drill down the code or the query that is causing the slow down.

InnoDB shines in high concurrency situations when tables are being hammered with updates. In MOST situations, myISAM works perfectly and is much more suitable for anyone who classifies themselves as a webmaster, as opposed to a database admin, IMHO.

If by chance you happen to be running PHP-FPM instead of mod_php in apache, take a look at the PHP Slow Query logs too.

request_slowlog_timeout - The timeout (in seconds) for serving of single request after which a php backtrace will be dumped to slow.log file. Default: "5s". Note: '0s' means 'off'
slowlog - The log file for slow requests.

>> shri! Goodness, haven't seen nor heard from you in years. Welcome back.

Lorax, I visit atleast once a day... but rarely have anything to say. :)

 5:36 am on Mar 25, 2013 (gmt 0)
>> but rarely have anything to say

Well thanks for saying it when you do - some good stuff in your additions.

 1:05 am on Mar 26, 2013 (gmt 0)
Yes, all valuable information. I'll report back as I work through my particular situation.

OT
@shri
Well I hope to see you in person someday soon. I believe I owe you some scotch and a few cigars - hmm... I think I owe the same to webwork too... coming to Vegas this year?

 

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Microsoft Bing Betting On Deep Search Integration

Featured Home Page Discussion Microsoft Bing Betting On Deep Search Integration
 3:50 pm on Mar 14, 2013 (gmt 0)
"A massive transformation of search as a product is playing out in very profound ways," says Microsoft's Bing chief, Qi Lu. Speaking at TechForum last week, the unassuming president of Microsoft's search efforts revealed a new approach Redmond is betting on to compete against Google. "As we build our product, we're converting the Bing technology stack into an information platform," says Lu. This new platform can then be embedded into any devices and services, pushing Bing directly into Microsoft's products.Microsoft Bing Betting On Deep Search Integration [theverge.com] This integration is a core part of the way Microsoft sees Bing's future at the company. "Bing as a platform presents the universal platform," says Lu. This extension and change in user habits has Bing thinking it might be able to catch up. "The battle between us and Google is going to be over who can build understanding more quickly to serve people in a much more anticipatory way," says Microsoft's Adam Sohn.
 4:19 pm on Mar 14, 2013 (gmt 0)
Techno(MBA)babble ..from a company who were looking to sell their "bing platform" and couldn't get any interested buyers even at facebook..
 5:58 pm on Mar 14, 2013 (gmt 0)
I recken it'll be as great a success as Windows 8. What ever happened to the KISS principle?
 8:02 pm on Mar 14, 2013 (gmt 0)
Microsoft has never been an innovative company like Apple and others. They are simply a marketing machine.

Pretty much every piece of technology they have ever sold was acquired through mergers, copied from innovators like Apple (Windows) or bought outright going all the way back to MS-DOS.

It will take an innovator to beat G at search IMO. And I just don't see that ever coming from Microsoft.

 8:44 pm on Mar 14, 2013 (gmt 0)
Nice to see that people in this forum have not lost their sanity yet, and are not buying the Bing nonsense.

Search will evolve. But the fundamentals of search will remain crawling and gathering immense volumes of information, and processing / delivering that information. How can you ever deliver what you have not gathered?

Search requires the kind of investment that "NoEvil" G has committed, and MS refuses to commit. Good luck to them then . . . . .

albo

msg:4554941

 9:28 pm on Mar 14, 2013 (gmt 0)
Leosghost: Spot on. "...converting the Bing technology stack into an information platform" sounds like some of Donald Rumsfeld's "known knowns...things we know we know."
 11:40 pm on Mar 14, 2013 (gmt 0)
I see history about to repeat itself and it's getting weary.

This is how it started all with Netscape when MS decided that the browser was the interface of the OS and had to be tightly integrated directly into the OS. They sure as heck better make sure the API for their information stack is plug 'n play so that other providers and be replaced based on the consumer's needs or we're back to square one with the choice issue and the EU will start hopping up and down all over again.

I think marketing speak aside Bing is absolutely right in their long term strategy but currently I, and many others, prefer apps that tap into Google's information stack, not Bing's, and while that may change in the future it's the current reality.

Next thing you know apps will start prompting consumers to switch to the Bing stack like they used to say "THIS SITE CAN ONLY BE VIEWED WITH INTERNET EXPLORER" and other such nonsense.

What ever happened to the KISS principle?
Having in the past been more than one big cross-company API design committee you quickly learn that the KISS principle is what you do to the backsides of people at other companies to get what you want implemented at all and is why most programming APIs from places like MS look like they were designed like a bill full of pork barrel passed by congress and not engineers.

 7:21 am on Mar 15, 2013 (gmt 0)
Microsoft has never been an innovative company

This says it all. I'm not getting my hopes up that the future of anything is going to originate with MS.

 3:32 pm on Mar 16, 2013 (gmt 0)
I think . . . Bing is absolutely right in their long term strategy
Not really - when you put a dead cat in a room with two live cats, you don't get three cats in a room. Maybe Bing is not exactly dead, but it is closer to a dead cat walking rather than a kitten up and coming.

I, and many others, prefer apps that tap into Google's information stack
Much to the point.

while that may change in the future
I wouldn't hold my breath.

.

 

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SEO Benefits of Responsive Web Design

Featured Home Page Discussion This 41 message thread spans 2 pages: 41 ( [1] 2 )  > >   Responsive web design... any SEO benefits?
 7:00 am on Mar 20, 2013 (gmt 0)
We are about to complete a project of implementing RWD, responsive web design, to our websites.
We worked quite hard to bring almost the same content for every screen size. The only differences are in content presentation were with tiny pixel screens (lower than 320px) we have no choice but to remove one of the sidebars.

My question is - Does any webmaster who accomplished RWD has seen any SEO benefit? Such as -
1. Better site performance for mobile users, tablets and other visits from small desktop screens - page per visit, time on site, BR.
2. More traffic from Google (well, I doubt. At this point of time! But shouldn't they, soon? :-).
3. Conversion rate increased.
A note - Google Adsense (and many other ad networks) has yet to provide a solution that supports adaptive ads. I think this puts many webmasters on hold.

 1:23 pm on Mar 20, 2013 (gmt 0)
Good question I have been wondering this myself about RWD.
 1:31 pm on Mar 20, 2013 (gmt 0)
From a pure SEO standpoint, if you change the code, you'll see ranking changes commensurate with how well your code change matches algorithmic relevance.

I haven't seen any direct impact on rankings at all (nor did I expect any). User metrics all improved on sites I've done this with (as expected) including increased conversions from mobile users.

 1:31 pm on Mar 20, 2013 (gmt 0)
I don't have responsive ecommerce sites as yet. On my information sites though, my mobile users are probably more than half the traffic now, with millions and millions of pageviews. The first thing I noticed is that time on site and number of pages per visit for mobile went way up. I definitely think the usability improved - not just because I try to fit most screens now, but also it caused me to trim some of the excess for desktop, so that it wouldn't get in the way of mobile.

I have at least one long form on the site (for event submission) and I never thought anyone would fill it out via mobile, but darned if they don't. So I looked into how I could shorten that up some.

But I don't know that I could say it was an SEO improvement; the sites were doing pretty well to begin with.

 4:41 pm on Mar 20, 2013 (gmt 0)
I switched my sites to responsive a few months ago. It didn't have a positive impact on SEO but it wasn't negative either - more status quo.

I saw a 2-3 day slight drop in rankings in Google until it adjusted to the new layout.

I did this because my mobile traffic was increasing and after research determined that the responsive layout was the way to go (as opposed to a mobile only version of the site).

The thing I love about responsive is that my sites look normal no matter whether i look at them on my computer, my phones or my tablets (2 different screen sizes). I also have a blog that has a mobile version of the site (not responsive) and while it looks fine on the smart phone screen it looks crappy on the tablets.

I noticed my mobile traffic had been increasing the previous months. When I hit about 12-15% of total traffic I made the switch to responsive on my main domains and my mobile traffic has increased. Is that because google recognized my responsive design and decided to give me more referrals? Hard to say since my mobile traffic had been steadily increasing beforehand. But my feeling is I did get a slight preference in Google mobile searches because of it.

The other reason for switching is that I do expect having a responsive site WILL be a ranking factor (if it's not already) later this year.

FYI the sites I switched are Wordpress sites - one uses a customized version of the "responsive" theme while the other users a different named, but still responsive theme. The theme choice has not made a difference either.

 6:01 pm on Mar 20, 2013 (gmt 0)
Thanks for the responses.
Since site's overall performance must impact ranking, RWD may have an indirect positive effect on ranking (if it hasn't have any direct effect).
@netmeg
Have you taken care to serve the appropriate size of ads on every screen size or you just left the ads of the wide screen version?
Our sites also see millions of visits per month where many of them are from mobile devices.
Thanks for your tip. The very basic reason for switching to RWD is our eCommerce sites.
@canuckseo
I agree with you.
Responsive layout is the future. No doubt about that. Our sites are Wordpress sites too, but the original theme we use wasn't responsive. Now it is. It took us ~ 3 days to get the idea of responsive design and 3 days more to implement. It's a way better design approach. Very flexible.

I still can't ignore the risk of switching to a new design. It exists, but we will do it even if Google screams. That's how we always work.

 6:10 pm on Mar 20, 2013 (gmt 0)
Have you taken care to serve the appropriate size of ads on every screen size or you just left the ads of the wide screen version?

Yea we came up with a solution and got permission to test it.

 6:39 pm on Mar 20, 2013 (gmt 0)
The item from adsense concerning the use of alternative sizes of ads on responsive sites..was also posted on the official adsense blog in French..

[adsense-fr.blogspot.fr...]

Why Google have still not posted this "google approved" method of integrating adsense into "responsive sites" in English ( so as to make it clear for the non French and German speakers is strange )..I, or anyone else ( or even Google's translation engine ) can translate it..but no "translation" is as definitive as if Google were to just post it in English on their own inside adsense pages..

Either their approved method can only be used on responsive sites whose TLDs are in the languages that Google's approved method pages are in..( Fr and DE )..or the lack of this info in English from Google is a mere oversight ?..

Or they have got so used to using FUD..that they are hedging their bets in case adsense on responsive sites on mobile devices results in a flood of complaints from advertisers about inadvertent clicks..that they don't want to take the risk of sanctioning this method is the far bigger English speaking markets..

Below is what is at the foot of their French article giving this Google approved method..

Publi? par Dairine Kennedy, au nom de l'?quipe Google Mobile

I find it very hard to believe that Dairine Kennedy ( Irish ) has for a "mother tongue" , French or German..So surely this approved adsense implementation for responsive sites version was written in English first..and then translated internally by Google..

So they should repost in English..and clear up the "confusion"..unless the "test it in smaller markets first"..is the reason..

Responsive sites SEO benefits ? ..bounce rate reduced ( mobile and tablet users land, and stay to read, and as G measure such things ..and track mouse movements and IMO touch gestures )..I'm recoding my old sites ( with the exception of one which I'm leaving as a "control"..it is falling in SERPS slowly ) to "responsive" and creating my new sites in "responsive"..

Long hours and late nights..a lot of sites to do..But based on observed results ..well worth the effort..

 6:45 pm on Mar 20, 2013 (gmt 0)
I don't have ads on my site but I was looking for a way to put a responsive google map on the page. I wonder if that code works? It uses some css and div tags:

/* Responsive iFrame */

.responsive-iframe-container {
position: relative;
padding-bottom: 56.25%;
padding-top: 30px;
height: 0;
overflow: hidden;
}

.responsive-iframe-container iframe,
.vresponsive-iframe-container object,
.vresponsive-iframe-container embed {
position: absolute;
top: 0;
left: 0;
width: 100%;
height: 100%;
}

And then wrap your Google Map or Google Calendar iframe in a div like this:

<... iframe code >

 7:45 pm on Mar 20, 2013 (gmt 0)
Google AdSense told me (last week) that an English announcement was coming "very very soon" to the AdSense blog. They added the extra "very", I didn't.

My sites are mostly naturals for responsive design because most of them are event sites of one type or another, and most lend themselves to a ton of mobile visits (in some cases I get more mobile users than desktop users)

But I'm not convinced that mobile users in every instance search or use the web the same way on their phones as they do on their tablets or their desktops. I don't have any other types I'm working on now, but some of my clients' sites - if they wanted to go responsive, I'd really have to think and do some research about how mobile users might use the site first.

Responsive design is a relatively easy solution, but I don't necessarily think it's the *only* solution. You really have to delve into how people use your site.

 8:15 pm on Mar 20, 2013 (gmt 0)
Google AdSense told me (last week) that an English announcement was coming "very very soon" to the AdSense blog. They added the extra "very", I didn't.
That would make sense ( thanks for the useful news for the English readers here :) if they have "tested" our smaller markets and not had flack from advertisers..interesting to see if the name of the English announcement is "Dairene"..or if it is the translation of what she posted on Google France or Germany..

Agree with you entirely about responsive being the easy way, but possibly not being suitable for all sites..:)

There is never a, "one size fits all" solution..for anything..:)

 9:21 pm on Mar 20, 2013 (gmt 0)
I find it very hard to believe that Dairine Kennedy ( Irish ) has for a "mother tongue" , French or German.
You don't spend a lot of time in Canada do you?

Can't help but note that over the past couple of years G### has used three separate Googlebot-Mobile UAs, as against just one for, er, Googlebot-Desktop. Obviously they're doing something with that information.

:: detour here for massive train of thought involving feature detection and recent pleas for access to .js files ::

 9:51 pm on Mar 20, 2013 (gmt 0)
Does anyone in Canada speak French ;)

Qu?b?cois is not the same thing..

 5:11 am on Mar 21, 2013 (gmt 0)
Google AdSense told me (last week) that an English announcement was coming "very very soon" to the AdSense blog. They added the extra "very", I didn't.
@netmeg
I guess/hope you are talking about enabling Arbitrary Sized Ads (non standard ads) to all publishers.
The moment this feature will be released, hundreds of sites will go responsive.
 5:30 am on Mar 21, 2013 (gmt 0)
Qu?b?cois is not the same thing..
Well, it definitely isn't English :P

Aigu on both e's? Really?

 9:05 am on Mar 21, 2013 (gmt 0)
When it comes to those who have carried out responsive design, is it really a case of "light touch" - small adjustments to your site (css widths etc) rather than wholesale changes? I ask this because I do see a lot of sites that completely stripdown their site into something that I personally would consider TOO simple for small screens. Personally I find these sites frustrating because they go TOO far - navigation is cumbersome because they've gotten rid of their standard navigation into Three Big Buttons To Click On The Home Page, then Three Big Buttons To Click For My Next Option. It's like the website equivilant of those horrible phone systems ("press #1 for...") that frustrate you. Traversing backwards and forwards through these sites is a chore. Also, I can't get a grasp of the site's size (in regards to overall content) and what's available to me - it's like they're leading me way too much, rather than letting me roam around their site as you would normally like to do.

I do think the pinch/zoom gesture was a game changer that actually made browsing the web a lot QUICKER and easier. However, I know that even with that gesture, you get sites that could use a little responsive design as they becomes troublesome on small screens (rollover navigation that doesn't really translate to touchscreen, etc).

 12:39 pm on Mar 21, 2013 (gmt 0)
I guess/hope you are talking about enabling Arbitrary Sized Ads (non standard ads) to all publishers.

No, I don't think AdSense is ready to release anything. I think they're just going to give their permission to using a PHP if/then situation to serve ads based on the viewport, as long as you don't alter the code.

is it really a case of "light touch"

I'm not sure what that means exactly. It did force me to think hard about what I put where, because I want the most important stuff above the fold, and the fold changes depending on the viewport.

In my case, most users don't want to roam the site like they might on a desktop, they're looking for specific information, probably while they're out and about, and that's it (although given how the number of pages per visit is going way up, I might be wrong about that)

I still have tweaking to do as far as font sizes, and getting an image header to work okay and look right in all sizes is a serious struggle for graphically challenged people like myself, but at least the *site* part works.

 4:30 pm on Mar 21, 2013 (gmt 0)
navigation is cumbersome because they've gotten rid of their standard navigation into

This isn't mandatory for responsive design - my responsive sites switch to a very functional dropdown menu on smaller screens

is it really a case of "light touch" - small adjustments to your site

nope - mine were complete redesigns - sure they looked similar to what they did but the code did change a lot - plus I added features to one site (social media stuff) that didn't exist there before. I reorganized things and moved sidebars - everything was completely changed.

 7:00 pm on Mar 21, 2013 (gmt 0)
@canuckseo, Your code looks good, except, I would not set any width or height for your div only padding and margins to let it resize correctly and in accordance with the screen that it's being viewed on unless it is absolutely necessary, in which case I would also create css for various media screens. I have it on one of my sites, without any width or height and it works fine.

@Zivush, I have RWD now for almost a year on 3 of my sites. So here is what I have observed, at first and for about good 4 months there was no noticeable changes, but I was kind of expecting it to be like this for a while anyway. So after about 4 months, we have started to see increase in mobile traffic, nothing major, about 3-5% of overall mobile traffic and 1-3% increase of overall site traffic, no major impact on SEO or PR. NO the funny fact, traffic is still increasing, but mostly from social sources, which means that mobile visitors are mostly visiting from Facebook, Twitter, G+, LinkedIn and Pinterest rather then organic search again proving that people is spending more time on the social networks than searching on the mobile platforms. So, we are now little over 1 year with RWD and still no major changes is noticed in relation to SEO or PR, just simple increase in traffic mostly related to the amount of posts we make daily.

At the beginning of this year, I have been discussing the problem of RWD and Adsense with G in London, UK. It seemed that at that point and I am only talking about January this year there was not major movements towards creating add containers for variable screens and devices, but after discussing this with their programmers, one solution, which I am sure most of the guys already either implemented or at least know about is to recognize screen resolution using javascript and populate your adsense block with correct adsense code as JSON object using ajax POST or GET method after your page is loaded. This actually have no negative effect on the page load at all, I have checked it twice and most importantly it all works, at least for us.

 7:08 pm on Mar 21, 2013 (gmt 0)
@AlexB77 thanks for the feedback - i've only used it for google maps and yesterday a google calendar - nothing smaller than that (IE Ads)
moTi

msg:4557259

 11:19 pm on Mar 21, 2013 (gmt 0)
sorry for being slightly off topic, but here is an important note many of you might not consider.

I also have a blog that has a mobile version of the site (not responsive) and while it looks fine on the smart phone screen it looks crappy on the tablets.
the recent years have introduced one fundamental challenge in layout delivery, namely for mobile devices. so there are really only two different basic screen sizes to regard:

1. desktop computers, notebooks and tablets

2. smartphones

the confusion arises, because tablets are commonly labeled mobile devices. in fact, they are, but keep in mind, that in terms of screen capacities, even in portrait mode tablets don't differ that much from devices like small notebooks. in order to correctly cater to tablets, it is more important to keep an eye on things like touch gestures and device compatibility features and integrate them properly.

which has nothing to do with responsive design but rather with usability aspects. so, what is the fuss really about with responsive design when the only new and fundamentally different player in the game is the tiny smartphone screen? which for obvious reasons is actually rather useless to adequately regard with a responsive design approach. why do you think apps even exist? so better come up with a separate mobile version: a webapp.

and it's not hard to detect browsers for smartphones (only smartphones, not tablets) on the server side and deliver a mobile site for them. there are solid scripts in every programming language available for free.

Responsive layout is the future. No doubt about that.
not in my opinion. in my opinion you are subject to a hype that is not thought out.

 11:37 pm on Mar 21, 2013 (gmt 0)
Hey, does anyone know how wide to code for Google Glasses? Someone saw a google class hit on their stats ...
 1:11 am on Mar 22, 2013 (gmt 0)
Just got out of a meeting with Adsense rep talking about this very thing.

They are starting to let publishers (whom they have a relationship with - (ie. you have an account manager) use Javascript to test viewport width, set different ad units accordingly.

This code has been bouncing around online for a long time, but its not good enough IMO (thus the reason for our meeting).

We went responsive about 2 months ago. It is challenging to adapt an existing site, and if you manage to lift metrics on your mobile size you are doing well. We've noticed a small improvement in mobile usage. Ads? They are tricky to get right at the best of times.

 2:35 am on Mar 22, 2013 (gmt 0)
I feel sorry for anyone having to adjust a large, existing site to be responsive. Designing Responsive is like designing three websites at once.

I'm not sure of the effect it has on SERPs, just whatever you do, don't be like NASCAR and design with tablet users in mind first, then mobile, THEN desktop.

 9:20 am on Mar 22, 2013 (gmt 0)
@Panthro
Designing Responsive is like designing three websites at once.
In a way. It is quicker than creating a separate site (or app) in order to serve smartphone users.
Also, using em and % instead of Pixels gives a lot of flexibility. RWD is just a better approach to CSS design.

@moTi
There are really only two different basic screen sizes to regard:
1. desktop computers, notebooks and tablets
2. smartphones
Agree. I don't see any difference between Tablet users, Laptop users and Desktop users. They all have the same experience.
The main RWD purpose is to giving the all content of an information site to smartphone users while keep providing better user experience than what they could have without RWD.
When it comes to a webapp you compromise with the content. Smartphone users nowadays want the all thing not part of it. Therefore, I see an app as a mini-site, a different approach. Nothing to compare to a website.

@AlexB77
Thanks for you inputs about the traffic movements.
As of Adsense, I know the solution that you're talking about. Since it hasn't been officially recommended by Adsense, I am not going to use it.
As market leaders, they should introduce an arbitrary sized ads. Not a partial solution.

 9:26 am on Mar 22, 2013 (gmt 0)
They all have the same experience.
But they don't have the same range of input methods. And that becomes crucial the moment words like "hover" enter your code.
 12:56 pm on Mar 22, 2013 (gmt 0)
I feel sorry for anyone having to adjust a large, existing site to be responsive. Designing Responsive is like designing three websites at once.

I'm not sure of the effect it has on SERPs, just whatever you do, don't be like NASCAR and design with tablet users in mind first, then mobile, THEN desktop.

There's always been this kind of developer peer pressure to get your site "made for mobile" going back as far as the late 90s. I think if you keep your original page designs simple, you shouldn't have to make radical changes for a smartphone version, if make a version at all (depends how simple the layout is).

 7:16 pm on Mar 22, 2013 (gmt 0)
We're about to relaunch our site with responsive web design.

There's various types that we'll focus on, basically creating a separate css depending on user agent, and the other would be to have responsive design when you shrink your browser.

it's going to remove many elements such as content and various other things, so I'm curious how you guys handled this for SEO purposes.

Does GBOT primarily index and rank based on desktop version?

Thanks for any insight.

 7:37 pm on Mar 22, 2013 (gmt 0)
I think you're looking at the SEO value all wrong here because whether visitors can find your site or not has no bearing on whether they stay more than two seconds after discovering it's not friendly for a tablet or phone.

With tablets and phones sales skyrocketing and exceeding new desktop purchases you should damn well be designing for RWD if you expect to survive at all!

I did 2 sites with help from PageoneResults from scratch which are fantastic and did another experimental site, very technical with lots of form inputs, using Twitter Bootstrap and that worked out really well too and both methods have done extremely well as far as SEO goes.

 8:31 pm on Mar 22, 2013 (gmt 0)
incrediBILL, i understand what you're saying ,just curious on SEO rankings. We rank well now ,and just trying to make sure we can preserve that with responsive design so just looking for tips on that since many "SEO" elements are going to be stripped out in favor of "bare bones ease".

thanks

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Study: 50pct of All Email Spam Comes From Only 20 ISPs

Featured Home Page Discussion Study: 50pct of All Email Spam Comes From Only 20 ISPs
 4:33 pm on Mar 18, 2013 (gmt 0)
About 50% of all junk mail on the net emerges from just 20 internet service providers (ISPs), a study has found.

The survey of more than 42,000 ISPs tried to map the net's "bad neighbourhoods" to help pinpoint sources of malicious mail.Study: 50pct of All Email Spam Comes From Only 20 ISPs [bbc.co.uk]

Many of these networks were concentrated in India, Vietnam and Brazil. On the net's most crime-ridden network - Spectranet in Nigeria - 62% of all the addresses controlled by that ISP were seen to be sending out spam.

Networks involved in malicious activity also tended to specialise in one particular sort of malicious message or attack, he discovered. For instance, the majority of phishing attacks came from ISPs based in the US. By contrast, spammers tend to favour Asian ISPs. Indian ISP BSNL topped the list of spam sources in the study.

 9:19 pm on Mar 18, 2013 (gmt 0)

This is nothing new. I've been routinely blocking all these countries (plus Turkey, China, Russia and Taiwan) from every server I have set up for the last decade.

 9:21 pm on Mar 18, 2013 (gmt 0) 9:46 pm on Mar 18, 2013 (gmt 0)
That list probably includes the top 20 most popular free mail services. On one site we have a sign up form for a free service and the subscriber needs to validate their email. So many people have so many different email addresses... if they don't receive their confirmation mail they sign up using another email address and so on. Some don't even remember their correct addresses.

Billions of dollars worth of data wasted in spam traffic and all they have to do is stop providing free mail services. What's wrong with the mailbox that one's ISP provides with their internet service?

 8:48 am on Mar 19, 2013 (gmt 0)
What's wrong with the mailbox that one's ISP provides with their internet service?
Most people will change their ISP at least once every few years.
 9:02 am on Mar 19, 2013 (gmt 0)

What's wrong with the mailbox that one's ISP provides with their internet service?

The free services are usually pretty effective and block bulk mailings from their accounts. On the other hand my original ISP regularly had its IP addresses blacklisted because it did sweet F.A. about botnets using its cusomters' infected machines.
 10:04 am on Mar 19, 2013 (gmt 0)
Most people will change their ISP at least once every few years.

Most people change their free mail service more regularly to get away from spam.

 11:49 am on Mar 19, 2013 (gmt 0)
Almost everyone I know has had the same free email address for years, apart from one or two who switched away from Hotmail at some point.

My ISP had its mail server blacklisted for being an open relay.

 8:43 pm on Mar 19, 2013 (gmt 0)
Almost everyone I know has had the same free email address for years

Sure, so do I. But I keep that one for elite contacts. Anything used for general business and correspondence needs to be disposable and is.

 10:29 pm on Mar 19, 2013 (gmt 0)
The e-mail address you get from your ISP changes every time the ISP gets a new owner-- and no, they don't auto-forward. The old address simply disappears. If the phone company worked that way you'd have to tell everyone a new number every other year. The preceding sentence probably had a lot more meaning ten years ago when people didn't change cell providers every five minutes with accompanying change in entire number, possibly including area code. But still.

This is a major annoyance when sites insist on using your e-mail address as your account name. Let's see now, did I join this service when I was on AOL, or Cox, or something dot edu, or...

 6:20 am on Mar 22, 2013 (gmt 0)
@lucy24 - When I sign up to siteA, I create a disposable email from one of our domains that uses siteA@ - if you find spam going to that address you know where it came from. NO, it's not enough to have one or two disposable email accounts, I want to know exactly who lies and who tells the truth "We will never sell or trade your email address... honest".... we'll see.

Waste of time? Not at all: less than 60 seconds to log in to server, create new email, forward that to a "personal" email address and finish the sign up to siteA. The tricky part is replying to those using an email client that doesn't really have those credentials but it's very rare that a siteA type site is going to need replies; like this very forum, the email account is just for notifications.

Spam it, sell it or spoof it, I'll delete it. Anyone remember a time when some sites wouldn't accept signups from email addresses that weren't major ISPs? I don't feel like I missed anything by not having signed up to them, matter of fact, I'm pretty comfortable with it.

 11:50 pm on Mar 25, 2013 (gmt 0)
anyone remember a time when some sites wouldn't accept signups from email addresses?

Sure do. In fact we used to reject mail sent from web forms using Hotmail addresses. Even today, if someone is using a free mail service, we realise that they are not using their domain mail address and probably have many different disposable email addresses. So many in some cases that it takes weeks for them to find your support response.

If your clientele are companies, allowing them to use disposable email addresses for purchases and support is an absolute waste of time. How in the blazes will they ever get proper support and be advised of critical software updates?

With ISPs the old address can disappear

Not if they are using an email based on their domain. After all, if your clients have web sites and email @ their domain, why settle for anything else. What else can they expect when seeking your expert advice at the expense of your time? So they should at least use a legitimate email address.

 12:44 am on Mar 26, 2013 (gmt 0)
After all, if your clients have web sites and email @ their domain, why settle for anything else.
This only works if the person at the receiving end can get your mail. I remember when I first registered my domain name I was told-- by a fellow human, not by the host-- that I wouldn't be able to use it for e-mail because it wasn't an ISP. Remember when cyberpromo sprouted a dozen new aliases every other day? ISPs simply slammed their doors and would accept mail only from known domains, which mostly meant fellow ISPs.

Except, of course, for services like AOL that fought spam with one hand while handing out unrestricted free trial accounts with the other. Sigh. I can remember people getting banned from forums and coming back half an hour later with a new name and IP after, presumably, pawing through that week's trash and fishing out the latest Free Trial CD.

 8:09 am on Mar 26, 2013 (gmt 0)
@lucy24 - I remember when I first registered my domain name I was told When was that, back in the 90s? I remember hearing the same advice back then but in the last few years it hasn't been an issue for any of ours.
 9:03 am on Mar 26, 2013 (gmt 0)
More recent than that-- but the person I heard it from had had her own domain for a lot longer, so she may have been going by early experience. (I just looked it up. She goes back to 1999. Things were different then.)

I've never tried sending e-mail from my own domain, though. I only use it for incoming-- and not much of that.

If nothing else, it prevents the ghastly blunder of forgetting to set one of your addresses to auto-forward. See, ahem, unrelated thread elsewhere in foo.

 

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Twitter Revamps Its Ads Center

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YouTube Co-Founder Working On New Video Collaboration Site

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Yahoo Acquires Summly News App

Featured Home Page Discussion Yahoo Acquires Summly News App
 2:56 pm on Mar 25, 2013 (gmt 0)
An app created by a UK teenager has been acquired by web giant Yahoo in a deal the BBC understands to be worth "dozens of millions" of pounds.

Seventeen-year-old Nick D'Aloisio's Summly app summarises news stories from popular media companies.

Neither company would disclose the terms of the deal publicly.

The app itself will now close, but its features will be used in mobile products at Yahoo, where Mr D'Aloisio has been given a job.Yahoo Acquires Summly News App [bbc.co.uk]

Yahoo's announcement on Summly.
Today, we?re excited to share that we?re acquiring Summly, a mobile product company founded with a vision to simplify the way we get information, making it faster, easier and more concise.Yahoo! To Acquire Summly [ycorpblog.com]

 2:51 am on Mar 26, 2013 (gmt 0)
we?re excited to share that we?re acquiring Summly
...and killing it.

Nick and the Summly team are joining Yahoo! in the coming weeks. While the Summly app will close, you will see the technology come to life throughout Yahoo!?s mobile experiences soon. So stay tuned!

 9:44 am on Mar 26, 2013 (gmt 0)
Yes, they want the technology integrated into Yahoo. It's a shame the app is going as it's quite useful. Clearly, Yahoo is hoping people will feel that it's useful when it's on Yahoo.
 3:59 pm on Mar 26, 2013 (gmt 0)
I read about it: dangerous!

Sounds to me as a way to solve the scrapping content problem because the app creates a shorter version of the original text, article, news, etc. Sure some people will look into this technology or alike to create their own free unique content sites.... it sucks.

 7:15 am on Mar 28, 2013 (gmt 0)
..but is it legal, (or even just "fair"), to scrape, automate rewriting and republish ?

I'm sure if it causes problems, the bots that do the news scraping, (and possibly other Yahoo bots if they are seen to be feeding a greedy app), will be blocked.

 

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Windows 7 SP1 Will Start To Roll Out On Windows Update

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WebmasterWorld Weekly Roundup March 7

How has the tablet computer and ?phablet? changed your lifestyle and web usage? We?re having a discussion about the topic and your input will help gauge webmaster?s usage. Oh, and I hate the term ?phablet!?

I?m creating this document on a laptop PC as I find it gives me the speed and flexibility the tablet cannot. I can handle coding, multiple documents and windows, run background programs, and keep my legs warm, too.

Do join in our discussion.

Last week's WebmasterWorld Weekly is here.

Here's this week's WebmasterWorld Weekly Roundup.

In the last week, Google launched its "How Search Works." Google said, "Here you can follow the entire life of a search query, from the web, to crawling and indexing, to algorithmic ranking and serving, to fighting webspam. The site complements existing resources, including this blog, the help center, user forums, Webmaster Tools, and in-depth research papers." Find out what it's all about in the thread.

Google this week ducked a European legislative bullet after lawmakers in Germany reached a compromise to water-down the language of a law that had been described by many as a draconian "Lex Google". In the compromise, German legislators will allow Google to display "snippets" of publishers content.

What should you do when launching sites in 2013? Here's some great advice for launching a new site. Whether you are new to internet marketing or a veteran that was focused only on established sites, here are some tips about what to do and not to do when launching a new site.

WebmasterWorld's monthly look at Google's SERPs changes was published in the last week. This thread is one of the key indicators of Google updates and changes to the SERPs.

Twitter has decided to put an end to certain well-used 'older apps' as it calls them. Twitter said, "...we are discontinuing support for our older apps: TweetDeck AIR, TweetDeck for Android and TweetDeck for iPhone." It seems the apps will start to show instability soon, and eventually stop in May. If you're a power user you'll certainly be upset about some of the changes.

A charm offensive from Google surprised some, but not others. Vint Cerf, vice president and Chief Internet Evangelist for Google said, Google shouldn't force users to reveal real names. "Using real names is useful," Cerf said. "But I don't think it should be forced on people, and I don't think we do." Needless to say, some don't buy it.

This week, the E.U. fined Microsoft $731 million over the IE browser choice. "We take full responsibility for the technical error that caused this problem and have apologised for it," a spokesman for Microsoft said following the announcement.

Google continued to test image search by adding, "Try these too" to the image search. WebmasterWorld Members were discussing how it will affect traffic.

In a research paper published this week by Stanford University, it suggests each Facebook post is seen by one in three friends. The research was carried out prior to the pay-to-post programmes. Read more about it in our thread. What do you think, is that a fair assessment?

More news from Facebook this week with the announcement today of a design refresh. It is making its website look more like its Android and iOS mobile apps, and also introduces topic-specific alternatives to its news feed.

Google is planning on launching a YouTube music streaming service, according to reports.

Slightly embarrassing for Twitter is the fact that its own API keys were published in the wild. Ouch!

I read this week that Yahoo's Marissa Mayer gets a million-Dollar bonus. Not bad for a few months in the job!

Last week we covered the story of Interflora's penalty in Google. It seems that there was some action going on that resulted in Interflora's reinstatement. Was this a record in returning the site to the SERPs so swiftly? Was there some kind of pressure put on Google for a swift reinstatement? Have your say in our thread on the topic.
Matt Cutts published a video which might be timely on the penalty.

Don't forget, if you've spotted some news that we haven't covered or discussed, drop me a message, or post it yourself and let me know.
Until next time, have a productive week!

Cheers
Neil
@engine

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WebmasterWorld Weekly Roundup March 21

Over recent weeks i've been wrestling with my strong views on privacy vs openess. What's really giving me angst is the continuing trend towards software, hardware and services that want to join the dots over privacy.

I doubt the CEO of Company X is sitting in their cave waiting for my next posting to appear, reading it and drawing a conclusion on me as an individual.

It's far more automated, and my data is a commodity.

Many people seem comfortable opening their lives up on Facebook, or allowing tracking of everything they do. Most are not thinking of their privacy, but just taking the free services and using them without a second thought.

Can you think of any of the services i'll miss if I stop sharing, and, importantly, will I really miss it?

Ok, i'll end my rant and get back in my own cave.

Last week's WebmasterWorld Weekly is here.

Welcome to this week's WebmasterWorld Weekly Roundup.

Last week we heard that Google is testing a couple of new search features: For one, you may have noticed that the font of the URLs in search results is now noticeably bigger. Google is also testing a new "search within" feature which allows users to focus their search on results just from one site.

There is a report that Facebook is testing whether to allow users to click on a hashtag to pull up all posts about similar topics or events so it can quickly index conversations around trending topics and build those conversations up, giving users more reason to stay logged in and see more ads. Would the hashtags be helpful to users, or just helpful to Facebook?

This week there was a great thread where WebmasterWorld Members were discussing how best to optimize a MySQL database for WordPress.

Microsoft Advertising published a study: "Consumer Experience Is Everything." Microsoft's Natasha Hritzuk said, "In our new study, called Cross-Screen Engagement, we found that while the era of ?Content is King? isn?t over per se, there is a new ?Crown Prince? coming on the scene: consumer experience." What do you think of the study?

Are the giant arrows on AdSense ads creating bad clicks? Join our discussion on the topic.

A study of 42,201 ISPs indicated that about 50% of all junk mail, phishing attacks and other malicious messages came from just 20 networks. Read more about the survey, and let us know what you think in our thread.

Pinterest announced it's rolling out a new look, and said, "We added a few new things to the close-up view of pins to help you discover things you love that you might not have known about otherwise."

We asked the question this week, is Facebook pushing developers into paying for participation. It's been suggested it is an attempt to stifle applications that compete with Facebook-owned services or part of an effort to get developers to pay for ads on Facebook. What do you think?

Can you think of any new ways of measuring SEO performance? Join our discussion on the topic.

Microsoft has said Windows 7 SP1 will start to roll out on Windows Update and Windows 7 RTM (with no service pack) will no longer be supported as of April 9th, 2013.

Last week we reported that Google Reader was closing down. This week, it seems that Google has resurrected the RSS handling extension for Chrome browser.

Bing announced an interesting new tool: Site Move Tool. Bing said, "The new Site Move tool under the Diagnostics and Tools section in Bing Webmaster Tools can be used to tell Bing that you have moved and permanently redirected your site, or a section of your site, to a new location."

WebmasterWorld Members this week discussed the publisher's notification by Google that certain medical keywords, part of the human anatomy, are 'too sensitive' for Google's advertisers.

There was a report made this week over the Chameleon botnet, which is made up of 120,000 home PCs. Apparently, the botnet clicks on ads and is costing advertisers as much as $6m per month.

Bad merchants watch out: Google is out to get bad merchants, and it will soon launch an algorithm to demote merchants providing poor buyer experience.

WebmasterWorld Members this week are discussing their experiences after making the switch to responsive design web sites.

Facebook is rolling out a new design. It said, "We heard from you that the current timeline layout is sometimes hard to read. Starting today, all posts are on the right side of your timeline, with photos, music and other recent activity on the left."

I read of a report that Yahoo is in talks over a share in the Dailymotion video site.

Look out Twitter clones: Twitter this week was awarded a patent on twitter: "Device independent message distribution platform." At the same time, the messenging service celebrated its seventh birthday.

YouTube was on a talk-itself up mission when it announced it has 1 billion unique users each month.

Google was keen to tell us about Google Keep, a cloud-based note taking App. Find out more in our thread.

Following on from last week's announcement that Google Chrome's Sundar Pichai has taken over Android from Andy Rubin, this week, Eric Schmidt clarified that Chrome and Android will remain separate products.

Have you found some news that we haven't covered or discussed, drop me a message, or post it yourself and let me know.
Have a productive week!

Cheers
Neil
@engine

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WebmasterWorld Weekly Roundup March 14

I've always been keen on saving energy. Now that LED lighting is becoming so much more affordable i've accelerated moves to change the household lamps over from CFLs (compact fluorescent lamps) to LEDs as each CFL fails.

I like the energy-saving of CFLs over incandescent lamps, but I dislike the warm-up time of the CFL, and the problems associated with the toxic content within the lamp. I've had the glass tube of at least two CFLs break, depositing glass shards and the lamp's content in the vicinity. With great care I removed the broken components, according to recommended advice.

I have noticed a proliferation of relatively low cost LED lamps appearing on the market. They are constructed using surface mounted LED chips on what appears to be a ceramic substrate. The quality of construction appears relatively low, and the power rating comparable with CFLs, however, they offer the advantage of instant on. This is perfect for stairways, or where there may be a movement detector. With no 'warm-up', as with CFLs, it makes it much safer. There is a better range of quality LED lamps which are less affordable yet offer much better energy-saving performance and much better construction. I suspect these are going to be the lamps with true longevity, with the lower cost LED lamps failing sooner.

Whichever I end up using, I'll keep switching over time.

Last week's WebmasterWorld Weekly is here.

Here's this week's WebmasterWorld Weekly Roundup.

Google has indicated that assuming the company gains control of such top-level domains as .search, .app, .blog, and .cloud, it doesn't seems to want to restrict their use to its own products, opening up some to the public.

WebmasterWorld Supporters discuss what should be on your must have list for an ecommerce site. (Subscription required)

Privacy concerns may doom Google Glasses even before they are launched. "...bar in Seattle has formally announced its intention to prohibit the product from its establishment.

I heard this week that YouTube's co-founder was working on new video collaboration site. Chad Hurley said, "I wish [South by Southwest] was a month later because I could unveil the new product."

A study indicated that Facebook 'Likes' predict personality. I'm not surprised by those findings, however, it's assuming people are honest about their 'likes.' If they are not honest, it'll reflect the 'personality' they create.

Pinterest this week launched a new analytics service to help sites understand what content is driving interest. Find out more in our thread on the topic.

Google has settled U.S. Street View data collection case with a $7 million fine. The legal settlement was announced by US Attorney General, Eric T. Schneiderman.

Google has announced a help site for webmasters unfortunate enough to be hacked. It's worth a look now so you can know what's there should you require it. I hope you'll never need it!
Here's the intro video.

More Google news: Google this week has added new features for AdWords scripts, including negative keywords, IDs, new reports, increases limits, etc.

eBay published the results of its study into advertising on Google, and it questions its value. "Incremental revenue from paid search was far smaller than expected because existing customers would have come to eBay regardless, whether directly or through other marketing channels," said an eBay representative. It really does depend on so many factors, so ads for one site may work, and for other well-known sites it's likely to have less impact, imho.

Google Reader is to close down in July 2013! Google said, "While the product has a loyal following, over the years usage has declined. So, on July 1, 2013, we will retire Google Reader."

Twitter this week has revamped its Ads center. "Based on feedback from our advertisers, we've created a revamped experience that improves campaign reporting, provides more visibility into campaign performance, analytics and spend, and also makes it easier to manage campaigns in real time."

comScore published its U.S. search share for February 2013 and Google sites led search market with 67.5 pct. Find out how the others did, too, in our thread.

In the last week, Google launched its "How Search Works." Google said, "Here you can follow the entire life of a search query, from the web, to crawling and indexing, to algorithmic ranking and serving, to fighting webspam. The site complements existing resources, including this blog, the help center, user forums, Webmaster Tools, and in-depth research papers." Find out what it's all about in the thread.

ICANN's Trademark Clearing House was launched this week. ICANN's announcement said, "The Trademark Clearinghouse (TMCH) - launching March 26 - is the most important rights protection mechanism built into ICANN's new gTLD program. It allows brand owners to submit their trademark data into one centralized database, prior to and during the launch of new gTLDs. Simply put: The TMCH is a one-stop-solution for protecting your brand in the new gTLD era." If you have a trademark, it's worth following through on this.

Microsoft Bing said it was betting on deep search integration. "We believe typing in a search box is not going to be the model going forward," Have your say in the discussion.

Google made a management move this week which indicates more about the future for Chrome and Android OS: Google Chrome's Sundar Pichai has taken over Android from Andy Rubin.

Investors in Yandex are to sell their shares of up to $607 million, with a suggestion the business is struggling to maintain strong growth.

Google is to acquire speech recognition experts in DNNresearch Inc., for its research on deep neural networks.

Microsoft had to explain its Outlook and SkyDrive outage this week, and it seems the problem was overheating.

There was a report going round that Twitter is readying a music App for launch this month. Watch this space, methinks.

What's this, Google is experimenting with jewelry instead of passwords! Find out more about what that's about in the thread.

What news have you heard this week? If you've found some news that we haven't covered or discussed, drop me a message, or post it yourself and let me know.
Until next time, have a terrific week!

Cheers
Neil
@engine

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WebmasterWorld weekly roundup 03-28

I failed to live up to the hype to keep hearing about social media. I still believe-crazy, and judging by the contents of my mailbox. Social media solutions to promote individuals and businesses along with a message from the packaging.

It works, but I know some of the wild claims not made out.

I'm now where some company and they offer a few free social media marketing are some of the experiments. Free marketing where they were probably not otherwise know you will do it. For me, an important factor is that they are to participate in the field. These traditional social media success, such as a person or band.

It works, and what doesn't for me to understand the small test.

It is just the beginning and can't wait to see the trends and results.

Other topics is a quick reminder about Pubcon in New Orleans, the rate rise before the end of the next week, if you are planning on attending the book, don't forget.

Last week the WebmasterWorld weekly here.

Welcome to WebmasterWorld weekly roundup this week.

We will review the arrangement last week was Google AdSense site. WebmasterWorld members detailing what is really behind the increased income 50pct in discussion.

The penalty is one of the few high-profile big brands getting in quick recovery, according to Google's Matt Cutts Google Serps advantage that don't have the big brand said. WebmasterWorld members had their view on the subject. What do you think?

Last week we tried to analyze all the Google Analytics Google Universal customers are invited to hear. Have you tried it yet?

When the heated room on busy sites, accessibility in the news, we are advocates for Americans with disabilities site fails to comply with the ADA.

Yahoo acquired news aggregator application, Summly, spent a handsome sum and it will close the app.

AdWords quality score and how to learn more about the impact of negative keywords WebmasterWorld members the benefits of using a large number of negative keywords.

A small site, all of a sudden you get a higher ranking in the Google Serps it how? WebmasterWorld members discuss how high achieving is located in the Google Serps.

Sweden's language Commission following pressure for the company to a more flattering fit the definition of a list of new words on Google "ungoogleable" has dropped the term.

One of the world's larger hosting companies, 1and1, on May 1, 2013, many blogs and offline, the site potentially results in MySQL 4 database is disabled. It's your site, if it is sent to make sure that MySQL 5 is recommended.

Linux users group Microsoft Windows 8 has filed a complaint to the European Union via regulations. In its 14-page complaint, said at the start of the secure boot UEFI Hispalinux to control a computer, known as a "mechanism" means the user is included in other Windows 8 operating system installation, you must obtain a key from Microsoft.

The installation of a security company, according to the most current popular Web browser attacks, and at least one of the multiple use of the Toolkit exploits a vulnerable plugin, you use an outdated version of Java.

This week we covered the story titled, "the largest DDoS attacks slow Internet and publicly known." details have not found much difference before and haven't seen too many reports of problems. However, we spoke to cover it anyway. How do you think, if you were affected?

Google launches shopping Express news this week, the San Francisco Bay area, will be delivered on the same day on the testing limitations.

Google announced that acquiring knowledge and trend analysis for the user to react faster in real time to see that.

Google, Google News, marketing services, had this to say, "he should violate our article quality guidelines promotion strategy for this kind of employment considerations." it's a very forthright and sites from the user failing to comply could lose their positions in Google News.

Amazon "Earth's most customer-centric company planning to raise the prices of consumer products, automotive parts and other products in the United Kingdom and across Europe are using the network to sell to a third party of a wave is described as being imposed by the Internet retailer is facing a revolt from small traders.

Google search for shopping is to stop using the API. Find out more in our room.

This week, we ask, "will the desktop Windows Blue end?" our rooms have your say on the subject.

Facebook is still a Menlo Park to build a second campus in the news has expanded to work with.

The first metric multi comScore's new Media Metrix comes in both desktop and mobile platforms, statistics and measurements. A close look at the details for mobile use and expose some interesting facts about. No surprise at the top of Google and Yahoo and Microsoft third. Interesting stats and more below, Amazon, aol, Facebook site.
ComScore is a convenient table that is contained in a press release. Learn more about our room theme.

You will discuss that we haven't covered themselves or I delete messages or posting some news and let me know.
Enjoy your week!

Cheers
Neil
@engine

WebmasterWorld follow on Twitter. #Webmasterworld or @webmasterworld

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Google, Google News, marketing services

Discuss the premium home page Google says, Google News is a non-marketing services
On March 28, 2013 (gmt 0) at 5: 51 pm
Well, that was on him in Google News.

Be careful, it'll hit me.

Google News violates our quality guidelines and marketing services when we have to use this kind of promotional strategies, consider an article.

Remember, just like Google search, Google News, quality guidelines violation takes action on the site. Engaged in fraudulent or promotional tactics such as the above articles, or even the entire publication, may be removed from Google News.

Site news content affiliates, promotional, advertorial, mix, marketing materials (for your company, or anyone else), we strongly recommend other non-news content directory, or if you remove a host is blocked on my robots.txt crawl only news articles on Google News Sitemap. Otherwise, we learn the news content and promotional content mix, we are not A Google News Google News.Google, marketing services [googlenewsblog.blogspot.co.uk] can be excluded from the entire publication.

On March 28, 2013 (gmt 0) 9: 08 pm
> Site mixes news content partnerships, advertorial, or marketing materials, promotions

ER ... For example, a newspaper like?

The company from their servers to eliminate all possible Web sites seem to be intent on. I'm glad I don't rely on them anymore.

albo

msg:4559348

On March 28, 2013 at 9: 17 pm (gmt 0)
Dstiles-Google as part of their "clean-up" in the "search" feature to uninstall?
On March 29, 2013 (GMT 0) 4: 21 pm
Google some of the guidelines and they instead they are forbidden for you want to see the vague language for an example of be would lay down if it is a good thing.

Product launch news or marketing materials? Company merger news or PR? Upcoming IPO news or marketing vehicle to sell a stock? Press release news or marketing materials? The announcement of a new AdWords feature news or marketing materials?

On March 29, 2013 (GMT 0) 4: 42 pm
Google has a few instructions and they will ban you for vague language instead, wants to see an example of it would be nice if that would lay it down
Why are they so far as well;) Served the will to break the habit

My grandmother used to say. .. "They can knit the fog had money from it if they are thinking" ...

On March 29, 2013 (GMT 0) 7: 19 pm
«How to get rid of the competition for a vague policy background as one of the best. I asked Yelp.
On March 29, 2013 (GMT 0) 8: 06 am
Albo-I doubt it: they just pretended that they already have scratched it's new data. :)
 

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Google to Target "Bad Merchants"

Featured Home Page Discussion This 41 message thread spans 2 pages: 41 ( [1] 2 )  > >   Google to Target "Bad Merchants"
 5:13 pm on Mar 11, 2013 (gmt 0)
Danny reported on a discussion at SXSW regarding Google working on an algorithm to find and demote "bad merchants". They don't give any specifics of course, but the general feeling is to look for signals beyond reviews, because there are so many fake reviews.

Matt Cutts says:

We have a potential launch later this year, maybe a little bit sooner, looking at the quality of merchants and whether we can do a better job on that, because we don?t want low quality experience merchants to be ranking in the search results.

Article here.

[searchengineland.com...]

Heads up.

 7:20 pm on Mar 11, 2013 (gmt 0)
With the pay-for-play Google Shopping now rolled out, I think this may well be the most controversial update ever.
 7:29 pm on Mar 11, 2013 (gmt 0)
if (adwords=='no') {merchant='bad'}
 7:31 pm on Mar 11, 2013 (gmt 0)

if (adwords=='no') {merchant='bad'}

Yup. Was my first thought, too.

 7:51 pm on Mar 11, 2013 (gmt 0)
I'm thinking it's more if Google Trusted Store = no.
 8:16 pm on Mar 17, 2013 (gmt 0)
I've looked at the Trusted Store and everything about it stinks. There are a lot of requirements which your average 'great' store is not able to meet...ever... due to the way it works. Their definition of store is only a small portion of how people actually operate.
 10:02 pm on Mar 17, 2013 (gmt 0)
My guess is this is a tactic to get people to sign on for the "Google Trusted Store" program. As with "Google Product Search", it will be free at first, as the initial benefit is to Google. Once they have enough merchants hooked, the product will be sunset, and replaced with a paid program.
 3:24 pm on Mar 19, 2013 (gmt 0)
Once they have enough merchants hooked, the product will be sunset, and replaced with a paid program.
Good call on that.
 6:11 am on Mar 20, 2013 (gmt 0)
I'm sure my A+ BBB rating will have no bearing on the beating about to befall our site...again.
 6:27 am on Mar 20, 2013 (gmt 0)
I contacted G the other day about this as my products are mainly downloaded rather than shipped. I'm pretty sure their response was copy/paste, but basically if you can't provide shipping info on most orders you don't even qualify for the program among many other requirements. There was, however, that classic G open ended comment along the lines of they 'may' change the program in the future.

Does this strike anyone else as odd that their program doesn't support downloadable products? I mean we are talking about the web/internet.

 10:03 am on Mar 20, 2013 (gmt 0)
I think they'll gain less traction with this than g+. But honestly I don't think it matters to them, really just another tool to dilute the serps.
 11:51 am on Mar 20, 2013 (gmt 0)
Another hurdle in the way for affiliate marketers? Will all affiliate marketing sites be labelled as 'Bad Merchants' in Google's eyes - except of course Google themselves?
 12:17 pm on Mar 20, 2013 (gmt 0)
Trusted Stores is only available to US merchants at the moment so if "bad merchant" treatment is dished out elsewhere in the world before it's available to merchants elsewhere, we'll know that's not how they're identifying bad merchants.

Mind you, the requirements are quite stringent so if you qualify and maintain the standards over a long period of time it would add a lot of credibility to your business in Google's eyes. They'd be crazy not to factor that into the algo.

Some big brands struggle to provide the sort of personal service customers really want, but this is what small business is great at, so this could be a way for smaller businesses to fight back against big brands in the rankings.

I think they must have another method for identifying bad merchants, but it would make sense for them to boost rankings for sites with great Trusted Store ratings.

@ethought
After looking at the 'Eligibility' section it looks pretty clear Google don't regard affiliates or drop shippers as 'trusted' merchants. The writing has been on the wall for years and the noose is tightening.

 12:34 pm on Mar 20, 2013 (gmt 0)
Another hurdle in the way for affiliate marketers?

well, let's see, directly from the trusted store participation agreement:

Restrictions

No Affiliates, Drop-Ship Consolidators, or Multi-Level Marketers

Each Merchant participating in the Program must be the merchant and seller of record, meaning that the Merchant charges the customer?s credit card directly and ships or causes to be shipped the customer?s order. Drop-shipping is permitted, provided the Merchant is not working primarily through drop-ship consolidators or ready-made drop-shipping sites. Merchants bulk listing products fulfilled through drop-ship consolidators are prohibited. Multi-level marketing businesses are also prohibited, such as businesses that recruit members or offer rewards for recruiting others and/or selling services.

 1:05 pm on Mar 20, 2013 (gmt 0)
I've had an e-commerce website for 6 years - sold tens of thousands of items to thousands of customers. I wonder - how do I prove that to Google? Hand over customer information? Do they do a test purchase from our site?
 1:24 pm on Mar 20, 2013 (gmt 0)
If you're talking about the Google Trusted Store program, they require a feed of your orders and your shipping and your returns. And they give your customers the opportunity to give feedback on how you did.

If you're just saying in a general sense - we don't know what they'll be looking at yet. One thing that seems pretty obvious is that they'll be looking for fake reviews. What other things could they look at? Maybe how long you've been around, how "acccountable" you look - i.e. physical addresses, pictures/names of staff, whether you have a storefront. Large numbers of bad reviews? I'm not sure how that would work in conjunction with uncovering fake reviews, but *I* use it when I'm researching a new vendor, so seems like Google would to some degree. Social media presence? They can't really see much except for Google+, and none of my customers nor my clients customers are there.

Dunno. We'll just have to see.

 2:25 pm on Mar 20, 2013 (gmt 0)
they require a feed of your orders and your shipping and your returns

That's interesting. The natural question is how much data will they need....names and addresses? Seems like a privacy problem if they want to dig too deep. I of course have that information, but my privacy policy is pretty standard - I don't hand over customer details to 3rd parties. Still, if Google ever cross that seemingly inevitable rubicon and demote non-Trusted Stores in Google's SERPs, or place a message in the SERPs along the lines of "[warning: not a member of our Trusted Store Program]" under non-member listings, then you can bet store owners will want to hand over as much customer info to Google as possible just to join the program and not go bust :(

 2:33 pm on Mar 20, 2013 (gmt 0)
netmeg, as you know, in my other thread about the Merchant center recognizing my product feed as having problems. Is it possible that the warning we have just received about a large number of our products be tied into this? It might be a stretch, as I'm not sure if they issue these types of warnings all the time, it's just the first I've seen or heard of it.
 2:36 pm on Mar 20, 2013 (gmt 0)
to clarify, I wonder if a lot of merchants are going to be recieving messages like this and if they've ramped up their manual inspections of feeds in order to crack down on incorrect product identifiers in order to find those who don't comply and mark them as 'bad merchants'.
 2:47 pm on Mar 20, 2013 (gmt 0)
I doubt it. The product feeds are now tied to AdWords and they're still trying to maintain a clear distance between what happens with AdWords and what happens with organics.

(Yea, I know, lots of people don't believe that, but that's their lookout)

 6:40 pm on Mar 20, 2013 (gmt 0)
If you're talking about the Google Trusted Store program, they require a feed of your orders and your shipping and your returns.

Umm.. that would be a violation of privacy.... and considering that Google has no real problem turning over information to the government, then there's a real problem.

Why would merchants be so willing to turn over order and customer information to a third party.

It's against our privacy policy and we wont do it.

 6:52 pm on Mar 20, 2013 (gmt 0)
A roll out of this to the EU would not get past legislators here ..privacy, competition, restrictive trade practices, banking and finance regulations..etc etc ..

Plus IMO..( having read the TOS there ) anyone signing upto this elsewhere would need their heads examining..giving all that data to G ( with the distinct probability that they would use it to shaft you later ) ..in response to the thinly veiled threat of ..SERPs positions might depend on this..and non participation would result in lack of our "Google trusts this site" badge..

Reads like a protection racket.."bend over to be a "trusted" site ..or it may well go badly for you in the short term"..and in the long term they'll use it against you any way ..even if only to up the cost of your adwords..

 7:34 pm on Mar 20, 2013 (gmt 0)
Well in the first place, they don't take any customer information unless the customer opts in (and even then it's just the email address and country) Everything else is specific to the order, the products, the quoted shipping date and the merchant.

The shipping and return feeds are also anonymous as far as the customers, and don't include any address information. Just the order number, the shipping company and the date. They take this to make sure you ship when you say you ship.

 8:05 pm on Mar 20, 2013 (gmt 0)
Just the order number, the shipping company and the date. They take this to make sure you ship when you say you ship.

(my emphrasis)

Well again - interesting. I tend to use Royal Mail (I'm in the UK) because my parcels are small. There is no "record" of such deliveries unless you choose recorded delivery which is significantly more expensive when you're sending out dozens of parcels a day. A lot of e-sellers use Royal Mail in this way. I'm sure most countries have a standard mailing setup like Royal Mail that allows for low-cost shipping. I guess it's another step toward "officialdom" where we will have to spend more on shipping just to have a paper-trail just to please Google.

[edited by: ColourOfSpring at 8:06 pm (utc) on Mar 20, 2013]

 8:06 pm on Mar 20, 2013 (gmt 0)
netmeg :)

That is still more information than would be legal for them to have about your customers if they ran this in the EU..

And as regards EU customers purchasing from US sites ( even if the customer "opts in" ) ..Google would still have to apply for ( and get registration approval ) before being able to hold this kind of EU customers data..yes even just email and physical address..precisely because the customer is not purchasing directly from G..

Rules are much stricter her e about who can know what and who can do what ( thankfully ) than they are in the USA..Google would probably also have to register as a credit organisation ( and be subject to the various financial services acts etc of EU member states ) in order to be able to offer their "money back" part of the deal..

IMO G will not try to roll this out in the EU..

They would not want to have to comply with all the legislation ( consumer, competition, financial services, insurance , credit, banking services etc )..and first time any EU customer ( even one who may have signed up ) has a problem with Google as a result of any of this..the pitfalls for G will be come self evident..

I would expect that EU companies ( not being eligible to "sign up" ) will also shout if they appear lower in serps ..or if the lack of G's "badge of trust" in serps appears to affect their business..

I often wonder if Larry, Sergey and Eric ( or their lawyers ) truly understand the cultural and legal differences between the USA and the rest of the world..

It frequently appears that they do not..or if they do..that they do not take them seriously enough..not every legislator can be lobb^^^^ought off..not in the EU anyway..

MS and Apple and other US corps appear to have a similar "comprehension" problem when viewing or dealing with the world outside of the USA..

 8:17 pm on Mar 20, 2013 (gmt 0)
Well in the first place, they don't take any customer information unless the customer opts in (and even then it's just the email address and country) Everything else is specific to the order, the products, the quoted shipping date and the merchant.

netmeg, just realised....I guess that would mean having a tickbox on your checkout page along the lines of "can we pass on your email address to Google?" - I can't imagine a lot of people ticking that, and might even put people off buying (as a shopper, that would seem absolutely unnecessary from my - the shopper's - perspective).

IMO G will not try to roll this out in the EU..

I agree. One good thing about the EU is that's it's curtailed so much of Google's invasiveness in Europe.

 8:27 pm on Mar 20, 2013 (gmt 0)
More along the lines of "if you want to give us feedback about your transaction with this site, sign up here" I think.

Google has plenty of lawyers all over the world, and if it doesn't pass EU legal muster, then they won't roll it out in the EU. So far anyway, there's no promise of better SERPs whether you have it or don't, and nobody's being forced into it. But from what I've seen, they're not having too much trouble getting US vendors to sign up.

 8:37 pm on Mar 20, 2013 (gmt 0)
Google has plenty of lawyers all over the world, and if it doesn't pass EU legal muster, then they won't roll it out in the EU.
Not to drag the thread off topic ..but just to say ..privacy / street view / driveby wi-fi recording /EU ongoing investigations..G's lawyers in the EU are not doing too good a job avoiding trouble for them to date..

And that is just the brief list..it actually is much bigger..so is the list of MS and other US corps errors vis a vis EU laws and culture..

So much easier to not walk into the minefield than to try to get out of it once you are in there..

So far anyway, there's no promise of better SERPs whether you have it or don't, and nobody's being forced into it. But from what I've seen, they're not having too much trouble getting US vendors to sign up.
I suspect the message from G about "not being trusted by G" is subtle enough , not to be easily seen as "forcing"..iron fist , velvet glove...US . merchants will be reading between the lines..

 8:47 pm on Mar 20, 2013 (gmt 0)
G's lawyers in the EU are not doing to good a job avoiding trouble for them to date..
And yet, they still get paid. Nice racket.

Marshall

 9:21 pm on Mar 20, 2013 (gmt 0)
I suspect the message from G about "not being trusted by G" is subtle enough , not to be easily seen as "forcing"..iron fist , velvet glove...US . merchants will be reading between the lines..

Leosghost, like any agent with power, they don't need to be explicit. A bouncer just has to stand by a door - the implication of his role is made simply by his size and his position near the door.

Question: how often do Google reassure us little webmasters with our concerns (esp. since Panda and Penguin roll-outs)? Never. There is an overwhelming cloud hanging over every website owner that relies on Google (i.e. most websites, sadly), and Google do nothing to calm those fears. In fact, they thrive off it. Their guidelines are more a list of warnings than recommendations. GWT really IS a list of warnings and alarms to make you paranoid. Purely from a business perspective, I do not blame Google for maximising this kind of leverage.

In regards to the data that Google would require for this program, they would obviously benefit from that kind of data enormously - yes, it proves a vendor is sending out the goods, but...come on - an email address + country + order details = very very useful information for a company whose sole job is to turn that kind of valuable data into profits.

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