Between Stations » search engine features

Reality Check

Julie — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 16:35:46 +0000

We need to all quit pretending that MSN/Live Search is a ‘real’ search engine, or that it is a legitimate third competitor to the Big Two.

I know that it’s Microsoft, etc., but just because they’re huge we needn’t pander to their ego.

Real search engines can follow basic web standards.

I35W Bridge Updated in Google Maps

Julie — Tue, 07 Aug 2007 22:19:04 +0000

Google Maps has already updated its directional capabilities to not use the I35-W bridge over the Mississippi River in Minneapolis.

Doubt they’ll keep up with all the surrounding road closures, given how day to day they are, but it shows a few things:

Google learned from the outcry that occurred when the pre-Katrina satellite images stayed on Google Maps/Google Earth long past the destruction of the levees.
There are clearly some mechanisms on the back end that can leave the appearance of a road in the map, but have it on a perpetual exclude.

Now, yes, you can still see a yellow interstate line where the bridge should be, and still is — albeit in the river, and not especially traversable. But if you try to set up a journey that would typically route you via that bridge, Google is automatically routing you via one of the currently preferred alternate routes. For instance, just route between Rosedale Center (10 Rosedale Center, 55113) and the Metrodome (900 S 5th Street, 55415). Google chooses a routing that has you exit from MN36 to Highway 280. If you attempt to drag the map line to take 35W, it will force you to exit at Stinson. It will NOT allow you to take the bridge.

Total distance, per Google’s preferred route: 8.4 miles.

I35W would normally be the preferred route. Note that MSN Maps still routes via the bridge, giving you a trip of 6.5 miles:

Given that some of the exits that Google will allow you to route via only re-opened Monday, this is fairly quick updating of the service. Certainly, this update is faster than the commute many Twin Cities residents will be experiencing for the next 12-36 months as the bridge saga continues!

I also note that Yahoo Maps and MapQuest, both of which are powered by Navteq/Teleatlas, also now realize that the bridge is a bad routing. Looks like MSN is late to the party… again.

Submissions: Snake Oil

Julie — Wed, 25 Jul 2007 15:47:52 +0000

One of the top questions I get from well-intentioned new site owners concerns search engine submissions.

“I got an e-mail from a company that says they will submit me to 181 search engines for $(small amount of money). Should I do it?”

Truly, these people mean well. They see a low price tag and think/hope there might be value in it.

I always end up having to crush them. Assuming a $35 submission fee, that’s between 8 and 10 delicious gourmet schmancy coffee drinks. Mmm, caffeine.

Submission to the top 3 search engines — Google, Yahoo, and MSN — is technically unnecessary, as they’re all crawler-based, but if it makes you feel good, it can be done while drinking one of the abovementioned caffeinated treats. Yum. I actually tend to recommend submitting to MSN, because they’ve been totally irregular about indexing some of the sites I’m associated with even when we submit. Ask only recently started allowing submission, rounding out the top 4 properties.

Then, let’s look at Nielsen’s list of the top 10 search referring properties in the US, June edition. Pretty much everything in the 6 remaining entrants in the top 10 have some relationship or data feed from the top 4. So, with the top 4, you’re really probably reaching into about 96.5% of households.

So, what to do with those other 7-9 coffee drinks? I typically recommend making a coffee date with your web traffic reports, once a week, for 7-9 weeks with the rest of the money you saved by not using a submissions service. Check your referring sites and URLs. See if you see any chances for inbound link building. Get all happy inside if your search referrals start going up. Be a coffee achiever.

New Webmaster Central Feature

Julie — Wed, 18 Jul 2007 21:57:54 +0000

Google’s Webmaster Central Team just announced a new communications console within Webmaster Tools.

I think for both agencies and little guys, this is outstanding news. I’ve said before that I think some bad behaviors by little webmasters tends to occur from good intentions (the road to hell, etc.). Having clear communications when these good intentions really do lead into hell will benefit the perpetrators, and hopefully improve overall content quality within SERPs.

As far as agencies are concerned, I already think Webmaster Central gives the agency a better view of what the client may be doing on their own, especially as far as ill-conceived (well undoubtedly well-intentioned) independent link-building is concerned. Having a formal communications channel when penalties or removals occur helps deal with client confusion, and to deal with the inevitable questions:

“You’re an SEO. Can’t you just call someone at Google and have them fix it?” (no)
“How can you tell I’m penalized?” (duh, check your traffic and indexing)

Ought to be fun to see how this develops…

Minneapolis Locals: SEO Event 7/11

Julie — Tue, 10 Jul 2007 14:30:22 +0000

The Minnesota Interactive Marketing Association is sponsoring a good session on the Future of Search on July 11 at the always-posh Calhoun Beach Club.

The events are always well-run, the crunchy snacks are always crunchy and snack-like, and the cash bars tend to be pretty reasonable. The socializing is as good as you’re willing to make it.

For anyone in the area, it’s a good event to attend. I plan on making it, unless the summer sunshine beckons me too strongly to ride my bike.

Flash: It’s Not Just Search

Julie — Fri, 06 Jul 2007 03:22:54 +0000

The Google Webmaster Blog has a post about uses of Flash in Web pages. Naturally, as one might expect from Google, they focus on the ability of Googlebot or other spiders to ’see’ Flash.

Nothing’s wrong with this, mind you. Flash navigation is bad and needs to not exist.

But there are plenty of good reasons to use Flash. For instance, while it may not be spiderable, I know two sites where Flash ‘product builders’ are key drivers for conversion. Timbuk2, who make really great bicycle bags (and who’ve branched off into other bags too), have a great bag configurator tool that allows you to build your custom bag, see it, share it, and buy it. (I totally recommend their laptop bag, by the way.)

Similarly, Orbea’s USA site has a lot of Flash. But, they’re a brand play first and foremost. They are bikes yearned for by fanboys (and fangirls, hi), and aren’t going to be a primary (or tertiary, or billionary) choice for a casual shopper looking for help with bike selection on the Internet. Their bike builder tool is teh swanky. And that’s not a site that’s going to need lots of ‘how to choose components,’ since, again: the audience. We know what we like, and it’s shiny, light, and high-tech. Er, did I just say we? Anyway, a few runs through a configurator, then the next stop is a local shop who can help you fit and order a nice bit of carbon fiber with Italian componentry…

er, I digress. Again.

Flash can be a good part of a user experience. Not every site needs to live and die by spiderability. Should Flash be surrounded by spiderable goodness? Sure. Should a site owner decry Flash because it’s not 100% full of SEO goodness? Not if by adding Flash they can get people to drop some change.

(PS: Santa, all I really want for Christmas is Diva with a full Campy Chorus gruppo. I promise to be good.)

Concerns with Google Earth

Julie — Tue, 05 Jun 2007 15:50:53 +0000

The latest round of privacy (and other) concerns of various types are now hitting Google Earth:

Salon discusses how the alleged plot against JFK airport was being plotted with the images on Google Earth.
CNN discusses the ick factor of finding nosepickers in action on Google Earth imagery.

The first isn’t truly a privacy concern, but it crosses over into the concepts of how reliable GPS is set up to be, and government oversight (or wish to borrow) the data streams collected by a search engine.

The second does get into privacy. CNN itself covers it. If a picture is at the wrong time, we can identify people getting medical treatment, etc. Now, sure, they’re walking into a public door. But there’s still a sense of that being a moment, and not captured in an image to be searchable for a long time. There’s a lot to be said for people’s sense of moment vs. memory — I did entire papers on such subjects as an undergrad lit major, and the reason it’s so thematic in literature is because it’s a truism of the human condition.

It’s interesting to see how more broad-market publications are starting to look at these issues. It makes me wonder when they’ll hit more of personalized search.

Out at SMX

Julie — Mon, 04 Jun 2007 22:09:41 +0000

I’m at SMX in Seattle this week, experiencing the magic of the Seattle weather and the oddities of my laptop’s battery. A few things I will expound on during my free time later:

why this conference’s food is currently winning the ‘conference prize’ for the recent past, excepting that of the MIMA Summit
Supplemental index
Duplicate content
Kneeling down to speak to Vanessa Fox
The complete weirdness of spending my weekend in a rustic northwoods cabin in Minnesota, followed by a stay in a faux-rustic Seattle hotel with ‘modern cabin’ themed furniture.

I am told that, at home, my little kitten is sad and lonely and is sleeping on my robe, as I now haven’t spent a night at home since Thursday.

Google & PPC

Julie — Wed, 23 May 2007 19:14:31 +0000

In all the hub-bub about Google Universal Search, and the impact of Web History/Personalization/iGoogle on results, there’s something I don’t know that I’ve seen, but seems like an inevitable next step:

Impact of Universal and History on the display of PPC.

One of the places where AdWords pales in comparison to the MSN AdCenter is in its behavioral targeting category. Given that it’s being said that Web History is impacting search results for users, and now we have Universal Search impacting the results pages… it’s really a no-brainer to have these elements hit the profitable part of any given search page.

While Mom-n-Pop PPC advertisers may not use much in the way of behavioral targeting features, if available, big-brands and agency PPC buyers will be all over it.

Ceding Control & Its Hazards

Julie — Fri, 20 Apr 2007 15:00:38 +0000

I think Aaron Wall of SEOBook wrote a great post this week about Google and the ‘death’ of affiliate marketing. He really focuses on AdSense publishing, but I believe it goes further than that.

He doesn’t mention Google Analytics, but I think GA also factors into Google’s reach for control. There’s some extent to which I believe that the ‘free’ implementation of GA may have a greater price than many perceive.

First, it’s free up to 5 million page views/month… unless you’re displaying AdSense. Then, it’s unlimited. By doing both AdSense and GA, you’re providing Google a lot of traffic data on your site.

…the Service is provided without charge to You for up to 5 million pageviews per month per account, and if You have an active Adwords campaign in good standing, the Service is provided without charge to You without a pageview limitation.

Google may retain and use any data they collect via one’s use of the GA service:

Google and its wholly owned subsidiaries may retain and use, subject to the terms of its Privacy Policy (located at http://www.google.com/privacy.html , or such other URL as Google may provide from time to time), information collected in Your use of the Service.

Generally speaking, they cannot disclose specific, identifiable information about your site data to others without court order or consent. However, nothing within anyone’s privacy policy I’ve ever seen or written restricts a company’s ability to take the confidential data and use it internally.

I just think this opens a huge can of worms. You run a business that you want to develop qualified leads from search engines. You are handing a complete picture of all your traffic issues to one of your traffic sources — who can then learn all about where all your traffic is coming from, not just the traffic they’re sending you (or the traffic they can identify via people using Google Toolbar and Web History…).

Obviously, with some sites, this gives Google insider information to bid on other services to absorb into empire. This could lead to a better bid… or an early bid that’s lowball, but more than a lot of people ever thought to hope for. With many others, it gives them information to create speedbumps and roadblocks to search optimization.

This is why I typically tell my clients to pay for an analytics package, and why the company I work for provides an analytics package. It just seems safer and less fraught with peril.