Stan Schroeder says, “The European Parliament voted on Thursday in favor of a resolution that would see search engines being “unbundled” from their other commercial services. The resolution, which was approved by 384 votes to 174 (with 56 abstentions), focuses on the online search market and its “particular importance in ensuring competitive conditions within the digital single market.” In other words, unbundling would safeguard against Google and other search engines favoring their own services in search results. The parliament called on the European Commission to “consider... [...]

Marcus Tober says, “Everybody talks about the need to provide quality content on your site if you want to rank well in searches. But how do search engines identify quality content? Successive Google algorithm updates (culminating in the recent Panda 4.1) aim to refine results so that they match the intent of the search query and deliver the most comprehensive, accessible and well-written answer. Put simply, Google (and other search engines) are always looking for genuine quality content, and are increasingly smart at finding (and dismissing) pages that try to game the system. For example, Google’s... [...]

Chipper Nicodemus says, “Google Webmaster Tools is a powerful resource for website owners, webmasters and SEOs alike. Once you’ve set up Google Webmaster Tools, you might be wondering what to do next. If you need basic tips, check out our Beginner’s Guide to Google Webmaster Tools. If you’ve dug around Google Webmaster Tools and are longing for more in-depth tips and advice, you’ve come to the right place! Let’s dive into five of the advanced Google Webmaster Tools features you should be using to improve your site’s SEO: 1. Adjust Your Sitelinks When someone does a specific and... [...]

Nicole Nguyen says, “Nothing is truly permanent—especially on the Internet—so Google is working towards allowing users access to e-mails anytime, even long after the company’s online services are gone. Google offers a one-click export system to download a copy of your data from Gmail and Google Calendar. Previously, users had to turn to not-always-effective third party backup or extraction services. Now, Gmailers can download their entire archive of mail or select labels as an MBOX file. MBOX is a common format for storing email messages, with all of the user’s email threads... [...]

Chow says, “Measuring the relative importance and popularity of a website has always been a rather tricky affair and several different metrics have emerged over the years to quantify this kind of quality. The thing is that the nature of the Internet has continued to change and evolve, arguably reducing the relevance of these metrics. Seriously, aside from a handful of networks and the random inquiries of some media buyers, when was the last time that you had someone bring up an Alexa ranking in any sort of real meaningful conversation? And sure, some people will argue that Alexa is still relevant... [...]

Allison Howen says, “Google is testing out a new program called Contributor, which essentially enables users to pay a $1 – $3 fee to avoid viewing ads on certain websites. On the Contributor website Google notes that today’s Internet is mostly funded by advertising. That said, the Contributor program enables users to directly support the people who create the sites that they visit each day. To participate, users simply choose a monthly contribution (from $1 – $3). Then, when users visit participating websites like The Onion, WikiHow and Imgur, they will see a thank you message... [...]

Karissa Bell says, “Yahoo will soon be the default search engine on Firefox browsers. Mozilla CEO Chris Beard announced the new five-year partnership in a post on the company’s blog Wednesday. “Our new search strategy doubles down on our commitment to make Firefox a browser for everyone,” Beard wrote. “We believe it will empower more people, in more places with more choice and opportunity to innovate and ultimately put even more people in control over their lives online.” Firefox will make the switch to the new “enhanced Yahoo search” for U.S users... [...]

Barry Schwartz says, “Google has made a large mobile announcement today, showing new efforts to encourage webmasters to ensure their web sites are mobile-friendly. Google has officially gone live with the mobile friendly label today, they launched a brand-newmobile testing tool and told us they are experimenting with new mobile-friendly ranking factors in their search ranking algorithm. Mobile-Friendly Label As we explained on our sister-site, over the next few weeks, mobile searchers will soon be able to see a new label in the search results snippets for pages that are mobile-friendly”. Google... [...]

Glenn Gabe says, “Penguin 3.0 was one of the most anticipated algorithm updates in recent years when it rolled out on October 17, 2014. Penguin hadn’t run for over a year at that point, and there were many webmasters sitting in Penguin limbo waiting for recovery. They had cleaned up their link profiles, disavowed what they could, and were simply waiting for the next update or refresh. Unfortunately, Google was wrestling with the algo internally and over twelve months passed without an update. So when Pierre Far finally announced Penguin 3.0 a few days later on October 21, a few things... [...]

Christopher Ratcliff says, “A fresh approach to email or an unnecessary overhaul of something that doesn’t need fixing? Of course it’s attitudes such as the latter which means we’ve been stuck with the same boring old umbrella design since the 18th century. Gmail Inbox is a new email app that wants to hit the reset button in terms of what we expect from an email account. It’s a year zero if you will, or to use Gmail’s expression, ‘a fresh start’. Inbox is still in beta testing at the moment and you can only access it if you have an invitation. You can request one here. In the meantime... [...]