WebProNews

Tag: SMX West

  • Google Is Working On The ‘Next Generation’ Of Panda

    Google’s Matt Cutts spoke at the Search Marketing Expo on Thursday, and reportedly said that the search team is working on the “next generation” of the controversial Panda update, which will be softer and more friendly to small sites and businesses.

    Do you expect Google to really be more friendly to small sites? Let us know in the comments.

    Barry Schwartz at SMX sister site Search Engine Land, who was in attendance at the session, has the report. Here’s an excerpt:

    Cutts explained that this new Panda update should have a direct impact on helping small businesses do better.

    One Googler on his team is specifically working on ways to help small web sites and businesses do better in the Google search results. This next generation update to Panda is one specific algorithmic change that should have a positive impact on the smaller businesses.

    Video of the session is not up yet on the SMX YouTube channel as of the time of this writing.

    Related tweets out of the conference:

    Apparently Cutts also said that Panda updates are monthly, and Penguin updates are up to six months between roll-outs:

    And you should be able to recover in two to three months:

    And here’s the apparent reason they don’t announce them anymore:

    It’s unclear when this “next generation” Panda will start taking effect. Schwartz thinks it will be at least two or three months, but he admits that is only speculation. Chances are we won’t know about it, since Google isn’t announcing them anymore and they happen so frequently.

    Too bad the “world got bored” with those monthly lists of algorithm changes Google used to put out. Otherwise, maybe we would get a clue.

    Last month, the Panda update turned three years old. Nice to know it’s getting softer in its old age. Still, it’s not stopping businesses from building Google-proof models. Even Demand Media, which recently suffered again from Google’s algorithm, has found a new way to monetize its army of writers.

    Do you think the Panda update can help your site going forward? Share your thoughts in the comments.

    Image via YouTube

  • Google: Expect Announcement Related To ‘Not Provided’

    Google’s Amit Singhal had a discussion with Danny Sullivan on stage at SMX West on Tuesday evening. Danny has now shared a section of that (above) in which the controversial “not provided” subject comes up. Singhal says there may soon be an announcement related to some changes with that – specifically with how Google is currently handling this for organic vs. paid search.

    In case you have no idea what I’m talking about, Google implemented secure search a few years ago, and by doing so, it no longer provided publishers with the keywords searchers were using to find pages for those using it. It has, however, continued to show this data to advertisers.

    This fact has been brought up repeatedly (often by Sullivan), but Google hasn’t had a lot to say for itself, which is why these new comments from Singhal are pretty interesting. He said (via Sullivan):

    Over a period of time, we [Google’s search and ad sides] have been looking at this issue…. we’re also hearing from our users that they would want their searches to be secure … it’s really important to the users. We really like the way things have gone on the organic side of search.

    I have nothing to announce right now, but in the coming weeks and months as [we] find the right solution, expect something to come out.

    Just what “comes out” remains to be seen, but it seems unlikely that publishers will be getting those keywords back. More likely is that advertisers will lose the data.

    Image via YouTube

  • Google Says Knowledge Graph Is The ‘Swiss Army Knife’ To Your Site’s Corkscrew

    With the Knowledge Graph, Google is trying to be the “Swiss Army Knife” to publishers’ corkscrews. That is according to Google SVP and software engineer Amit Singhal, who spoke at SMX West earlier this week.

    Do you think this is a good analogy? Has your traffic suffered from Google putting its own content on search results pages? Let us know in the comments.

    Since Google launched the Knowledge Graph, and more so as it has continued building it to encompass more types of queries, publishers have wondered what it means for the future of getting traffic from Google. After all, if Google is giving users what they’re looking for right on the search results page, why would they need to click over to your site?

    In addition to the Knowledge Graph, in some cases, Google is even going so far as to put sponsored results for its own products above sites that people are specifically searching for. We’re talking branded searches in which Google forces its own product above the actual brand being searched for.

    Google’s Matt Cutts recently announced a new tool for users to report scrapers who are outranking original source content. In response, Dan Barker tweeted this back at him, illustrating an example of how Google gives an answer to a question making it so the user doesn’t need to click over to another site (in this case, WIkipedia).

    That got nearly 35,000 retweets and 4,000 favorites, which is quite a lot for an SEO-related tweet. Clearly this resonated with people.

    Search Engine Land, sister site to SMX, has a liveblog of Singhal’s keynote (which was an on-stage interview with Danny Sullivan). Sullivan brought up the tweet, and asked him about the Knowledge Graph and its effect on publishers.

    The liveblogged account of Singhal’s words (some of which was paraphrased) says:

    If you look at a search engine, the best analogy is that it’s an amazing Swiss Army Knife. It’s great, but sometimes you need to open a wine bottle. Some genius added that to the knife. That’s awesome. That’s how we think of the Knowledge Graph. Sometimes you only need an answer.

    The world has gone mobile. In a mobile world, there are times when you cannot read 20 pages, but you need something — an extra tool on your Swiss Army Knife. When you build a better tool, you use it more.

    Note: According to Barry Schwartz, Singhal specifically referred to publishers as “corkscrews” and “screwdrivers”.

    “Personally, I kept finding it funny Amit using the ‘screw’ drive[r] and cork ‘screw’ association to publishers,” Schwartz blogged. “Yea, publishers do feel ‘screwed’ and him using those words didn’t help. But his analogy, while it stinks, is true.”

    Back to Search Engine Land’s liveblogged account. On getting the balance right in terms of using others’ content…

    It’s a great question and we think about it all the time. We built Google to fulfill user’s needs. Somewhere along the way, people started debating if web traffic is more than users. But keep in mind that we need to keep our user’s trust. We’re part of an open web system. If we lose our user’s trust, the open web would lose its strongest ally (sorry readers, I’m paraphrasing here). If people stop trusting us, then a sinking tide sinks us all.

    …

    We deeply care about this. I’ve been in this field for 20 years. The relationship between publishers, Google and users is all one of mutual benefit. We work hard at getting that balance right. You guys (the audience) have been great contributors to the web. The world is changing, and SEO is all about change. Users dictate how the world changes. We are changing so that our users get a lovely product, and publishers get access to our users. (paraphrase again)

    I don’t know if any of this is going to make publishers feel better about the direction Google is heading in, but it’s pretty consistent with the things Google has said in the past.

    Another problem with the Knowledge Graph, which wasn’t discussed in the keynote, apparently, is that it often shows erroneous information. Sometimes for businesses.

    The Knowledge Graph is definitely useful to searchers looking for quick answers, but how much users can really rely on it for accuracy is debatable.

    What do you think? Let us know in the comments.

    Image via Wikimedia Commons

  • Google: Why Are You Asking Us If Your Ears Make You Look Fat?

    Google Fellow Amit Singhal spoke at SMX London this morning. Daniel Waisberg at SMX sister site Search Engine Land liveblogged the whole discussion. Towards the end, Singhal answered a humorous question from Danny Sullivan, who asked about funny searches Singhal had come across.

    The liveblog says: “Amit says that once he read a query along the lines ‘do my ear[s] make me look fat?’ Amit laughs: ‘why are you asking Google that? Go figure it alone!’”

    Judging by Google’s own search results for the query “do my ears make me look fat,” I’m guessing it’s because of the meme portrayed in the top three results, which all come from Cheezburger.com:

    Do my ears make me look fat?

    Do my ears make me look fat?

    Do my ears make me look fat?

    But maybe some people really do want to know if their ears make them look fat. I guess Google won’t be getting into physical criticism of its users anytime soon, although, you can probably judge for yourself how your ears make you look if you fire up a Google+ Hangout. Perhaps there are some universal search opportunities for Google there.

    A couple of us here at the office tried to ask Siri the same question several times, and just couldn’t get her to understand the question. She can’t seem to distinguish “my ears” from “my years”.