Google has added the ability for webmaster to instruct Google to ignore URL parameters in Webmaster Tools. URL parameters are name/value pairs appended to end of URLs (example: http://www.example.com?sessionid=1232132). The problem with URL parameters is that each URL created by a variation of parameter may or may not change the contents of a web page, so search engines treat each version as a separate web page. When they are actually the same it can have as serious negative impact on the indexing and ranking of the pages in search engines. In general it is better not use URL parameters in these situations, but the new feature should help to better handle situation where they do exist. In help documentation for the new feature, Google states that up to 15 parameters can be set to be ignored and that they will treat the “requests as suggestions rather than directives.” Parameter handling can be found in the Settings section of the Webmaster Tools. Yahoo has provided the ability to set parameters to ignore, as well as well allowing a default value to be set for parameters, for some time.
Category: Google
August U.S. Search Share Results
Nielsen Online released its rankings of U.S. search share for August, with overall search increasing 49.7 percent year over year to 10.8 billion searches. Google had a year over year increase of 61.3 percent and received 64.6 percent of searches. Yahoo had a year over year increase of 32.3 percent and received 16.0 percent of searches. Microsoft had a year over year increase of 50 percent and received 10.7 percent of searches.
July U.S. Search Share Results
Nielsen Online yesterday its rankings of U.S. search share for July, with overall search increasing 31.4 percent year over year to 10.5 billion searches. Google had a year over year increase of 41.4 percent and received 64.8 percent of searches. Yahoo had a year over year increase of 24 percent and received 17.1 percent of searches. Microsoft had a year over year decrease of .5 percent and received 9.0 percent of searches.
Google’s U.S. Search Share Reaches New High and Microsoft Reaches 2 Year Low in June
Nielsen Online yesterday its rankings of U.S. search share for June, with overall search increasing 27.0 percent year over year to 10 billion searches. Google had a year over year increase of 42.1 percent and received 66.1 percent of searches. Google’s had it highest percentage of searches ever, surpassing March of this year when it received 64.2 percent. Yahoo had a year over year increase of 24 percent and received 16.2 percent of searches. Microsoft had a year over year decrease of 20.7 percent and received 8.8 percent of searches. Microsoft’s percentage of searches was it lowest in the last two years despite the launch of the rebranding of their search engine as Bing at the beginning of the month.
May U.S. Search Share Results
Nielsen Online has released its rankings of U.S. search share for May (PDF). Overall search increased 20.3 percent year over year to 9.4 billion searches. Google had year over year increase of 28.2 percent and received 63.2 percent of searches. Yahoo had a year over year increase of 22.3 percent and received 17.2 percent of searches. Microsoft had a year over year decrease of 14.6 percent and received 9.4 percent of searches.
Developer Preview of Google’s Chrome Released for Mac and Linux
Google has released the first version of their web browser Chrome for Mac and Linux, plans these were announced last September when Google introduced the Windows version of Chrome. The version released is “developer preview,” Google’s destination for releases that are least stable and designed for testing new features. The version released is missing many of the features currently available in the Windows version. The missing features including Flash support, modifying privacy settings, and printing. The Mac version requires an Intel CPU and Mac OS X 10.5, the Linux version currently requires Ubuntu or Debian, with support for other Linux distributions planned.
Google Shares Local Search Data With Listed Businesses
Google has announced that businesses will be able to see data on how users are interacting the listing for their location(s) in Google Maps and Google Search. The data includes how many times listing in appeared in a Google Search or Google Maps Search, how many times users interacted with the listing, what queries lead searchers to the listing, and, when users request direction to a location, the zip code of their starting location. The type of interactions that Google provides data are clicking for more info on Google Maps, driving directions, and clicking on the link to businesses’ website. The data, which can be displayed for specified date ranges, is available in Google’s Local Business Center. Data is currently available for the last month and new data will be added daily. Google already provides search data for websites through their Webmaster Tools. Businesses that are not already signed up for the Local Business Center, can claim their location or, if the are not already listed, add their location at http://www.google.com/lbc.
Google Adds Features and Introduces Ads to Google Suggest
Google has added features and tweaked its search suggestion tool Google Suggest. The tool, which was introduced last August, suggests search queries in a box below the search box as searcher begins typing in text. The tool was previously only available when making searches from the home page and has now been added to results page. On the results page, the few suggestion show relate to the current search query. For searchers that are logged into a Google account and have Web History enabled, Google may show some relevant past queries.
Google has also added and removed information that is shown in the suggestions box. To help the searcher scan the list the portion of suggested queries that searcher has not typed into the search box will be in bold text. If Google thinks that a searcher is looking to navigate directly to a website a link to that website will shown in the suggestion box. Google will also begin to show AdWords text ads in the suggestion box when they “detect that the most relevant completion for what you’re typing is an ad”. The ad will be shown at the bottom of the suggestion box in a colored box and identified as a “Sponsored Link”. Finally, Google will no longer include the result count for the suggestion listed in the suggestion box.
April U.S. Search Share Results
Nielsen Online today released its rankings of U.S. search share for April (PDF). Overall search increased 4.4 percent year over year to 8.6 billion searches. Google had year over year increase of 7.8 percent and received 64 percent of searches. Yahoo had a year over year decrease of 2.8 percent and received 16.3 percent of searches. Microsoft had a year over year increase of 7.2 percent and received 9.9 percent of searches.
Google To Allow Trademarks in AdWords Ads
Google has announced that they are changing their policy on the use of trademarks in the text of AdWords ads in the U.S. Currently Google will show advertisements for words and phrases trademarked by other entities, but does not allow ads to use those trademarks in the text of ads. Beginning on June 15 the restriction of using trademarks in ad text will be removed as long as the ads meet certain criteria in both the Search and Content Networks. Those criteria require that the ads use the trademark in a “descriptive or generic way” or if the ads use the trademark in nominative way the advertiser must resell the trademarked good or service, sell “components, replacement parts or compatible products corresponding to a trademark”, or be an informational website. The new policy is comparable with the policies of Yahoo and Microsoft advertisings programs.
The change comes as Google faces continued legal challenges over the display of ads on searches for trademark words and phrases. The New York Times reports that a class-action lawsuit has been filed in Texas that challenges the policy. Legal experts told the New York Times that this was the first class-action lawsuit against Google over the policy. Another case, filed in 2005, related to the policy was recently reinstated by federal appeals court, reversing a decision by a district court. Google has previously reached settlements with a number of Companies, including American Airlines and Geico, over the policy.