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If you’re one of those kooky SEO’s that doesn’t believe that domain authority/trust is the single most important factor in SEO today, I really think you are either blind, stupid or both. Situations like the Tour De France really highlight the weaknesses in the Google Algo.

Google Loves Wikipedia - Even the Empty Pages »

Hey Google Going to Drop the Paid Links Hammer on Coke? I’m not sure how sending someone a mini fridge knowing full well they are going to blog about it is any different than sending someone cash for link advertising. Then again you created the two tiered internet justice world we now live in, and I’m just a squirrel trying to get a nut.

Eventually though more people are going start using the tactic, so maybe you should get somebody coding a “report refrigerator” link to your webmaster central control panel

Last night I was using Google Maps to get directions and noticed a new feature, a camera icon located next to each of the steps on Google Maps. When I clicked on the icon I saw a picture of my house!
Google Knows Where I Live »

When Google switched to a single universal icon a few weeks back they created problems, the icons on my bookmarks toolbar are now … (wait for it) … IDENTICAL. The last two on the right are Google Analytics and Google Webmaster Central, so I have no idea which is which. Compare that to the Google Calendar, Google Reader, and Google Docs icons on the left which are different.

Yes I do use Google Reader, Google Calendar, and Google Docs after having tried many other options IMHO they are the best products in their category.

Today Google released an new feature that gives away traffic stats and keywords for most websites on the internet. However what everyone failed to notice is that Google laid everyone else bare, naked and exposed but kept their own stats locked up and private.

Google’s Two Tiered Internet World Sinks to a New Low »

Really I wasn’t going to post this but since Matt Cutt’s asked people to snitch on paid links again I thought I’d bring up another case of Google’s double standard and two tiered justice.

Hey Matt Cutts Be Fair if You Are Going After Paid Links »

So according to the google blog they think they have the duplicate content problem under control, I remain less than convinced. Here’s my original post, but as of right now google is giving everyone but me credit (screen shot below) lets see what happens:

You know it would really be nifty if Google, Gmail, Google Apps, and Gmail for domains were able to merge/sync contact data with LinkedIn really easily. It would be super nifty if there was a nice automagic script that did the hard stuff for you (you know the way computers are supposed to). It would be even better if I didn’t have to export a CSV, get the error screen (although I find goggle misspelling “ocurred” funny) and then manually monkey with the CSV file … just sayin …

Hey Mihai Parparita Google reader has really gotten better at the dupes thing but today … wow this one just went crazy. I’m sure it’s something Wired is doing wrong, but I’m hoping you can be smarter than them and fix it, cause as interesting as it is to know D&D has updated and it’s great I really only need to know once (click to enlarge)

Have a Gmail account? Log in unless you’ve set your preference otherwise you’ll get the AJAX UI. Now change your user agent to Googlebot, and refresh your page, it automatically loads the HTML version instead of asking you if you want the HTML. What’s up with that? Why would GMail need a UA detection branch in it programming? Does it seem odd that it’s there and that it works that way? I could understand a JS based switch but a UA based changeover … damned peculiar dontcha’ think?

Lately there’s been quite a bit of brouhaha over a fairly popular bit of hoax marketing involving a teenager, stolen credit cards, and prostitutes. I’m no stranger to hoax marketing in fact I advocated it back in 2006 and have been debating it with Matt Cutts for at least as long. While I don’t expect either of our viewpoints will change, I have to say I find the disclosure that Google will now be taking steps against hoax marketing an amusing bit of hypocrisy. What we have is another in long list of double standards and selective application of Google justice especially when it involves internet marketers or SEO’s. Don’t believe me read on for some examples …

The Only Real Hoax is that Google Treats Everyone The Same »

I apologize for the liberal quoting of Matt Cutts comments over on sphinn, but I think it’s important to understand the ramifications of something like this:

“Where does Cutt’s and search engines stand on something like this?”
My quick take is that Google’s webmaster guidelines allow for cases such as this: “Google may respond negatively to other misleading practices not listed here (e.g. tricking users by registering misspellings of well-known websites). It’s not safe to assume that just because a specific deceptive technique isn’t included on this page, Google approves of it.”
There’s not much more deceptive or misleading than a fake story without any disclosure that the story is hoax.

When Google has the ability to decide what information get presented and valued on the web with absolute and unquestioned authority, all because we trust them and they give us free tools and 25GB of free GMAIL space, we’ve sold them the internet for pile of magic beans.

Remember friends authoritarian dictatorships start by controlling what information the people get to see, hear, and read. It doesn’t matter if they are censoring jokes, or hoaxes today, what matters is they are going in and changing the rules of the game, midstream, just because they didn’t like the way things were turning out.

Don’t think hoax news stories have value, perhaps you should learn about Orson Wells and War of the Worlds. It’s easy to dismiss things like this as trivial today because maybe you agree with Google … but what happens when you are the one being censored … think Google will offer you a refund on those magic beans …

There’s lots of hand wringing among publishers about duplicate content, and how other people who are authorized to syndicate, and scrapers who aren’t often outrank the original source, when Google gets it wrong. Here’s an example in action.

When Google Gets Duplicate Content Wrong »

So I was reading the SEW blog today and came across an article from Frank Watson about Google allowing advertisers for the word vodka. While I think this might be bit of a weak argument, I’m always up for poking Google with a stick. However I think there something else to be learned from the [vodka] SERP. (screen shot below)

As an SEO you need to look at SERP’s and look for stuff like this almost subconsciously. it needs to become second nature and automatic, and when you see it you need take that extra peek and see what’s going on behind it.

When you view satellite images in Google Maps you can see the building, however I just noticed you can also see the building outlines in standard view. For example here’s the Long Beach Westin Hotel where SMX local was held. Look at the building behind the letter A. You can see a curved building which is exactly the way the Westin hotel is shaped. (click to enlarge)

Seems the giving away free templates with embedded keyword rich links has filtered up to the fortune 500 level as Hewlett Packard released a series of free templates today Hewlett Packard Giving Away Free Templates With Embedded Links »

So hey Google care to explain why this isn’t a paid link page? Any reason you haven’t dinged the page rank of this known link seller or cut off their ability to pass page rank or anchor text? Now I’m not daft enough to believe that any of those companies gave money with the primary goal of getting a link, but at the end of the day no matter how altruistic their goals may have been, this implementation clearly doesn’t match with google recommended implementations.

The selective an uneven application of justice and rule enforcement is one of my major problems with the big G.

I’ve never seen this before a code snippet as part of a Google Universal Search Result

Um Hey Google can I ask why Google Grand Central isn’t part of the “Google Accounts” thing? I’m not saying turn it on by default, but at least make the systems talk to each other the way other google apps do. Heck even dodgeball (which could have been way cooler than twitter if you didn’t ignore it) uses a google universal login.

Why do I want to to be part of the google account? Um you know since GMail has contacts and Grand Central has contacts it might be nice and good for the users if the two shared data. I mean heck everyone and their brother can import data from gmail now, you guys have to have an easier way to keep that stuff in sync.

Now of course I won’t tell you how wickedly cool it would be if we could play grandcentral voice mail stright from gmail without having to hit the intermediate screen and how it would totally be good for the users, but just sayin’ ya know.

Of course I also think you should buy Jott and hook it in with Gmail and Grand Central. Because I use Jott all the time and when I show people how I use it to update my calender via voicemail they all have a light bulb moment and get how it would be good for the users.

Because you know when you do stuff that you say is good for the users (but really isn’t good for anyone but you) it’s nice if you do a little cosmic karma and actually do something is good for the users.

You know it’s not like I could have shared interesting ideas froma real google pwith the google team IF I had been invited to the top secret google meetup that really never happened.

searching for [federal trace commission] gave me my first search in site box

So I logged into Google Analytics this morning and I get the following message

Google Analytics Why Do You Make Me Distrust You »

So I was reading Shari Thurow’s piece on Search Engine Land “You’d Be Wise To “NoFollow” This Dubious SEO Advice” and I have to say c’mon Shari you really can’t believe that now can you …

Why There’s Nothing Wrong With Sculpting Your Pagerank »

So Jason is predicting that “Google will have 90% search market share in the US one year from now“, and while people may cringe at that thought, I don’t think it’s a completely unlikely scenario.

Who Can Stop Google From Gaining 90% Market Share »

Hey Google Maps and Google Calendar can I get a “send to Google Calendar” option … puhlease …

Of course I’m totally going to ask for a “merge with event” function next. You know it’s not like I was near Mountain View last week or anything and could have made some suggestions when I was there … not at all slightly disgruntled or annoyed about that … because despite the fact that I am royal PIA I am also power user of almost all the Google tools and it’s not like I can actually make suggestions that would be helpful … really … what … I’m totally laying the groundwork for next time …

Here’s a new google UI test I’ve never seen before an expandable Google map result

So coming back from SMX (more on that later) I see a trackback from SEL about GWB ranking for [who is a failure].

GWB also ranks for [who is a miserable]. While Scientology no longer ranks for [dangerous cult] they do rank for [cult dangerous] and [dangerous is cult]

Now of course you can’t really expect Google to fess up to hand editing, even though I’ve seen single URL’s get edited out on this very blog, when they poke a hole in an illusion google wants to maintain.

Don’t you be worrying about why I was searching for Scrooge McDuck now …

Oh apostrophe you give and then you take away (and suggest)

I’m sure this has to do with the way things are published, like the times are different, but it’s still annoying to have to mark things read I’ve read already, only to see them appear later on

sigh ….

Yesterday I came across a post from Dazzlin Donna entitled Matt Cutts, Why Am I Still Being Punished, there are several points in that post worth noting and discussing in more detail.

Prisoners of War in the Battle for Paid Links »

If you’ve ever been to search engine conference and attended a site review session chances are you’ve heard panelists mention duplicate content penalties and filters. For “normal” people these problems are real, however with Google a double standard exists for trusted authority websites.

Google The Double Standard of Being an Authority Website »

in this mornings post I chastised Google for giving straight links to partners, However now I’ve found a whole bunch more

Here’s a Google adwords customer Happy Hounds getting an editorially approved link from Google, lets not forget twiddy.com or cordarounds.com not to worry while they may keep other robots out but they let googlebot in in robots.txt (that was close they almost complied with their own guidelines on that one)

here’s a bunch more from Google Checkout.

and here’s some from Google analytics you have to click the merchants name but the link for “learn more on their site” looks clean to me.

Don’t worry askthebuilder on Google adsense we didn’t forget that you are giving out editorially approved links too

Matt Cutts commented that some of the links in the first post were Ok because they were editorially given. However it seems google is pretty loose with links being editorially given with their partners

Maybe linkbrokers just need to start rebranding themselves as “editorial link partners” for 2008

One of the more entertaining aspects of the entire paid links debate is Google is pretty quick to dole out the punishment, even though in many cases they haven’t taken the time to get their own house in order.

Google Gives Free PR8 Links to Paid Partners, and Doesn’t Follow Their Own Guidelines »

So if the word “the” is a stop word an generally speaking just ignored, why does the search for [the golden compass] have a Google news result in the #2 slot and [golden compass] does not.

C’mon Google WTF how can you possibly say that Wikipedia deserves to above Delicious for the search term [delicious] screen shot because the ridiculous ness of this SERP is mind boggling inept

I was just reading the 10e20 top 50 of 2007 and picked this up check out the SERP for [I am Legend] screen shot for posterity …

The top 3 results are Google owned properties, for those of you still naive enough to believe that you aren’t competing with Google for content creation, I hope this serves as a wakeup call. IMDB ok nothing wrong there, but should be a little lower IMHO. Wikipedia (twice) because it’s a Google law that Wikipedia (and soon Knols) has to be in every SERP. Followed by the official movie website, which IMHO should be #1.

You may think Google is your friend today, but I think this really demonstrates that they are your competition. Sure they may not be competing with you right now in your market, but as they continue to expand into more and more verticals, there is no doubt they fully intend to squash you like a bug … unless of course you buy your way to the top with adwords …

Don’t think Google’s war on paid links has an effect on how you do business, then let’s take a look at Michael Arrington and TechCrunch, here’s a look at a November “thank the sponsors” post:

Now here’s a look at this weekspost

Notice all those pink outlines around the links indicating the nofollow tag, that’s because Michael Arrington of TechCrunch, who normally isn’t afraid of anyone, is scared of Google. Plain and simple Techcrunch caved in allowing Google to dictate how they do business.

That’s right boys and girls when the people who we used to trust and respect as thought leaders are afraid to stand up to our Google overlords what chance do you or anyone else have … how long is it before the Google in Cory Doctorow’s radar online story changes from fiction to reality and we all live in a world controlled by Google …

Google tells us over and over not to repeat text, it’s funny how the algo still seems to like it, screen shot for posterity [youtub]

hat tip to the tipster who wants to remain annon

While some people realized affiliate marketing has has slowly been changing for some time now many others missed the memo, or are on are sailing a ship of blissful ignorance up a famous river in Africa. For those few people I hope the announcement of Google Knols last week serves as a wakeup call.

Is This the 11th Hour for Thin Affiliate Sites »

Last week with the announcement of Google Knols, much of the conversation centered around how this was going to affect sites like Wikipedia. However what the announcement also revealed was Google’s philosophy about how they interact with the world.

What Google Knols Can Teach You About Google’s Philosophy »

So during the Matt Cutts in Hotseat presentation at Pubcon Brett gave me the mic to ask a question (heh dangerous I know). While I did get my question out and Matt did kinda answered I think it’s a topic that could use a little enlightenment, especially considering there has been some back room chatter about it recently.

Hey Matt Cutts How About a Domain Redirection and Consolidation Post »

The following post is a response to Matt Cutts blog and the Official Google Blog, please stop being a bunch a cry babies …

Google Needs to Stop Being a Crybaby About Paid Links »

Here are two suggestions for Google’s GMail.

If there are multiple emails do you have to keep adding the signature at the bottom every time? Can’t you do some pattern matching and only put it there once. Or how about adding a signature shortcut key? Or hey since I can have multiple email addresses how about multiple signatures?

Gmail also has hands down one of the best spam filters. If you sign up for Google Apps it’s $50 a user, which is about the price of spam filter software from Norton and McAfee, Since Gmail spam filter is better and you get extra stuff, I’d use that as a selling point. They say it takes 3-5 seconds for a person to process an email and decide if it’s spam or not. Think of the time you’d save and the productivity increase you’d get if you had to evaluate half as much spam every day?

Hey Matt I can’t be the first person who ever wanted a link on Google maps straight to a Google calendar, how come you don’t offer that? I look up the location, add my starting address (which Google never seems to remember despite me telling it multiple times it’s my default address) you have be “smart” enough to know I have the Google calendar service on my account why not offer me a quick link to add it to my Google Calendar, prefill the address, and all I have to enter is the time.

oh and I’d love to be able to sync my gmail/google calendar with my windows mobile phone the way I can with an exchange server, but that’s just crazy talk I know, since AT&T won’t let me download/install the gmail app on my phone as it is.

I know Google’s been trying to get more involved in the social game, but here are a few suggestions on how they can make the integration a little more seamless, and I’m totally name dropping Mihai Parparita so he catches this one ego surfing.

Making Google Reader More Social »

Anne Wojcicki wife of Sergey Brin who is in charge of 23andMe.com (sorry no link love for you) is set to bring the company live this week. Here are the details via techcrunch:

23andMe will offer a genetic screening service for $999. The short story is that 23andMe will administer a test (presumably a swab or saliva test) that will take your DNA and screen it. In return you will be told your genetic history including whether you are likely to suffer from a range of diseases or similar life altering events, including heart disease.

So who cares right … well be for you sail off into oblivion know that Google invested 3.9 million dollars in the company in May. Does it creep you out that Google, who IMHO knows WAAAAAAYYYY more than anyone should about anyone else is connected to a company who tests your DNA? Remember kids you’re stuck with you’re DNA for life it’s not like an email, IP, or cookies you can jettison whenever you like.

Don’t tell there aren’t a few completely out of their mind eggheads at the plex who would love to connect your DNA with your Google account, for any number of purposes … at Google we really know who’s a 23 year old single female and who isn’t … did you know that 27% of the people clicking on your adsense are verified as men between 30-35 … personalized search for men over 50 can you say more Viagra ads …

There may be some nut jobs who want to live in a world where this is the reality:

A top intelligence official says it is time people in the United States changed their definition of privacy.
Privacy no longer can mean anonymity, says Donald Kerr, the principal deputy director of national intelligence. Instead, it should mean that government and businesses properly safeguards people’s private communications and financial information.

but I’m not one of them, I’m with Ben Franklin who said:

Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.

I’m not sure if it’s some synergy between google reader and feedburner but damn google reader is picking up new posts in like 10 minutes, that totally rocks! I still get the dupe thing occasionally, but latency was one of my primary concerns when I switched, and now it’s a total non issue.