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Oct 31

Google Now Uses RSS/Atom Feeds to Discover New Websites

Google Now Uses RSS/Atom Feeds to Discover New Websites

The Google Webmaster Central Blog has just posted a short note to announce that Google is now using RSS/Atom feeds to discover new webpages. In other words Google is now indexing and crawling not only contents found on websites and blogs but contents that are syndicated from them through RSS/Atom feeds.Whereas before, Google relies mainly on the links provided on website and blog contents, now your site can be found by Google through RSS/Atom feeds that are published on online RSS Feed reader, such as Google Reader.

What does this mean? Well, although you can already submit your sites/blogs through mapsite system, this feature will make your site/blogs discoverable even if you don’t submit a website sitemap to Google.

If you want your RSS /Atom feeds to discovered by Google make sure you allow crawling of robots.txt.

Check out the SEO Tools guide at Search Engine Journal.

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Oct 31

Firefox Friday: Research On-Page Keywords with KGen

Firefox Friday: Research On-Page Keywords with KGen

"KGen" (Keyword Generator) is a FireFox extension that allows you to see what keywords are strong on the current web page. Overall, it’s a good way to perform quick on-page keyword analysis that will help you:

To get an idea which words your competitor focuses on;
To get more keyword and post ideas.

After installing the tool and restarting your browser, go to any page and open it: View>Sidebar>KGen. A sidebar should open that will offer you to scan the current page. The tools works pretty fast and in a second you’ll see the table containing the following:

Words used on the page (not phrases);
How many times each one was repeated;
The "weight" of each one: this value is given to the keyword by KGen depending on the place where it was in the document;
The "position" of each one: the exact position of the word relevant to other words in a document.

Keyword Generator

You can select multiple rows by holding <Shift> or <Ctrl> key and then can copy the selected keywords to the clipboard.

There are other helpful tabs also:

Stats (total words, total characters, vocabulary richness, etc);
Tag cloud (a "graphical" representation of the importance of the different keywords of the page in the document);
Options (a few settings and options to customize the tool).

My conclusion: the addon would be much more helpful and powerful if it were able to capture and analyze two- and three-word combinations used on the page.

The tool was reviewed under SEJ policy.

Check out the SEO Tools guide at Search Engine Journal.

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Oct 31

Quickly Check Your Page in Other Browsers (FireFox)

Quickly Check Your Page in Other Browsers (FireFox)

Do you use FireFox but want to make sure your site looks good to the users of other browsers? Well, this is a good move, here are a few basic tools to make this task easier:

Browser Shots

Browsershots tool makes screenshots of your web page in different browsers.

When you submit your web address, it will be added to the job queue. A number of distributed computers will open your website in their browser. Then they will make screenshots and upload them to the central server here.

The process if really quick and easy:

Provide the page URL;
Check the browsers you want to see your page in;
Select the desired screen size, color depth, Javascript and Flash settings;
Wait for the tool to generate the screenshots.

Browsershots

Install FireFox plugins

There are a number of FireFox addons that allow to view the current page or a link in an alternative browser:

Opera view addon

Install One Combined Addon

Browser view plus is an experimental addon that lets the user load Firefox links, bookmarks, or pages in Internet Explorer, Google Chrome or Chrome Application Window, Safari, Opera, or any other external browser. It also allows to change context menu text, language, or selected browsers, at any time, without restarting Firefox.

Browser view plus addon

An alternative addon that unites a number of browsers: Open With (Chrome, Internet Explorer, Opera and Safari).

Check out the SEO Tools guide at Search Engine Journal.

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Oct 31

Reminder: Google sessions @ ad:tech NY next week

If you’re planning on attending ad:tech or Content Revenue Strategies (CRS) at the Javits Center in New York City next week, we hope you’ll come and meet the Google ads team while you’re there. Over November 4 and 5, we’ll offer a series of sessions designed to give you practical tips for improving your search and display campaigns.

The Google Ads Factory Tour, 11/4-11/5/09

The Factory Tour will span 10 hours of live workshops designed to give you an overview of Google’s latest measurement and optimization tools. Here’s the full two-day agenda:

Wednesday, November 4 - Optimizing Search & Display

11:00am-12:00pm AdWords Optimization Tools: Smarter Search Management

12:00pm-1:00pm Conversion Optimizer: The Next Generation of AdWords Bidding

2:00-2:30pm Google Content Network: Matching Solutions to Advertisers

2:30-3:30pm Google Content Network: Creating Effective Campaigns

3:30-4:30pm Google Content Network: Optimizing for Results

4:30-5:00pm Automating Content Network Campaigns Through the AdWords API

Thursday, November 5 - Measurement, Ads Quality, Mobile & Local

11:00am-12:00pm Google Campaign Insights: What to Measure and When

12:00-1:00pm Google Campaign Insights: A Behind the Scenes Look at the Technology

2:00-3:00pm Google Analytics & Website Optimizer: Making the Most of Your Traffic

3:00-4:00pm Google Search Ads Quality: What It Is and How to Improve It

4:00-5:00pm Local and Mobile Ads: How to Use Location to Drive Results

You can stop by for a single session, or stay for the whole event. The Factory Tour is open to all exhibit hall and conference passholders. For more information, check the ad:tech events page.

Content Revenue Strategies, 11/5/09

Formerly known as ADSPACE, CRS is the only expo dedicated to AdSense and contextual advertising. Sessions will focus on maximizing performance on Google’s Content Network as well as emerging blog, video and social media networks.

We’ll also have AdWords and AdSense optimizers available to answer any questions you have about improving your contextually-targeted campaigns. Stop by the Optimization Lounge to get customized tips and share any feedback you have for the Google ads team.

If you haven’t yet signed up for ad:tech or CRS, registration is still open. You can enter the promotional code 20EXNY9 to receive 20% off an ad:tech full conference pass. If you’re only attending CRS, enter the code CRSGoogle to receive $100 off the price of your CRS conference pass.

Hope to see you next week.

Posted by Austin Rachlin, Inside AdWords crew

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Oct 31

Using RSS/Atom feeds to discover new URLs

Webmaster Level: Intermediate

Google uses numerous sources to find new webpages, from links we find on the web to submitted URLs. We aim to discover new pages quickly so that users can find new content in Google search results soon after they go live. We recently launched a feature that uses RSS and Atom feeds for the discovery of new webpages.

RSS/Atom feeds have been very popular in recent years as a mechanism for content publication. They allow readers to check for new content from publishers. Using feeds for discovery allows us to get these new pages into our index more quickly than traditional crawling methods. We may use many potential sources to access updates from feeds including Reader, notification services, or direct crawls of feeds. Going forward, we might also explore mechanisms such as PubSubHubbub to identify updated items.

In order for us to use your RSS/Atom feeds for discovery, it’s important that crawling these files is not disallowed by your robots.txt. To find out if Googlebot can crawl your feeds and find your pages as fast as possible, test your feed URLs with the robots.txt tester in Google Webmaster Tools.

Written by Raymond Lo, Guhan Viswanathan, and Dave Weissman, Crawl and Indexing Team

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Oct 31

Ghoulish greetings

Happy Halloween from the AdSense, DoubleClick, and Ad Manager teams!

Posted by Arlene Lee - Inside AdSense Team

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Oct 30

Friday Domain News Bytes

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Quick news updates before the weekend.

It’s the Friday before Halloween and there’s a lot of domain news to report. I’ll be taking off early today to go to my daughter’s Halloween school carnival (she’s dressing up as a Flamingo), so here’s a condensed version of all the news that’s fit to print.

IDN TLDs are coming! ICANN’s board has approved the fast track IDN country code domain name process. Here’s what you need to know:

1. These are the first top level domain names to allow non-Latin characters at the top level (many allow second level non-Latin characters already).

2. This only applies to a limited number of new country code domain names. Probably 20-30.

3. Some countries may give existing ccTLD holders rights to the new IDN ccTLD, but not all.

4. This will not affect existing gTLD domain names, such as .com.

ComWired has released a new user interface. ComWired, which lets you send internet traffic to different destinations based on the visitor’s geo location, has released an improved user interface. Check it out.

When will Moniker synchronize its whois data reminders? Really, it’s annoying getting a whois accuracy reminder every couple days. Why can’t it send out one a year like the other registrars?

It’s Extended Auction time. Check out both the extended Rick Latona auction and Moniker auction (over at Snapnames).

Review and rate domain name parking companies at Parking Judge.

Oct 30

Photon Group Submits Formal Takeover Offer for Dark Blue Sea

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Group submits plan to takeover Fabulous‘ parent company.

Photon Group has submitted its formal share purchase statement (pdf) for its planned purchase of outstanding Dark Blue Sea shares. Dark Blue Sea is the parent company of domain name registrar and parking company Fabulous.

Photon owns almost 30% of the outstanding shares in the company. In a letter to shareholders, Photon Group Executive Chairman Tim Hughes says the offer represents a premium to the average share price prior to the company’s buyout announcement. It also represents 16 times Dark Blue Sea’s FY2009 earnings before interest, taxes, and impairment.

Photon gives a number of reasons for shareholders to sell out, including:

Under current management there has been a significant deterioration in the business and future profitability is uncertain. In the last two years, there has been significant declines in the profitability and share price of DBS. In FY2009, reported net profit after tax fell by 74%. This followed a 24% decline in reported net profit
after tax in FY2008…

Notwithstanding this poor performance, the DBS Board has not provided DBS Shareholders with any clear direction or strategy for the recovery of the business. Further, DBS management has an unproven track record at executing any alternative business plans required for the recovery of the business.

The offer will close sometime in December, provided that Photon is able to purchase enough shares to own 50.1% of the company and there are no major occurrences.

If Photon acquires a controlling stake in the company, it plans to insert two Photon employees onto the board of the company. It will then conduct a review of the business “for the purpose of identifying ways in which DBS can enhance its business and the underlying value of its domains.”

DBS management is asking shareholders to take no further action until it has a chance to review the offer details.

Review and rate domain name parking companies at Parking Judge.

Oct 30

Google Encroaches on Lead Gen Companies

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Google gets into the lead gen business through Adwords.

Google has launched a new Google Adwords offering that directly competes with mortgage lead generation companies such as Lending Tree.

The new offering, dubbed Comparison Ads, allows Google visitors to compare offers from various mortgage providers. They can then fill out a quote lead form or call the mortgage company directly using a specially encoded phone number. Google charges the mortgage companies each time someone submits the lead form or calls.

Comparison Ads

This puts traditional lead gen companies such as Lending Tree and Quinstreet in a tough spot. They depend on Google for both organic and paid traffic. Now Google is competing with them.

So far it’s just a test and only for the mortgage industry. But I expect Google to quickly expand this to other verticals.

On the positive side, it’s possible that Google would integrate this type of ad into a domain parking page, which could result in higher payouts.

Review and rate domain name parking companies at Parking Judge.