Headlines in Search

If you had 60 minutes with a Google engineer…

What would you ask him? SER reports on an interesting thread over at WMW where a member is claiming he was given a one hour meeting with a Google engineer to discuss anything regarding organic search. Before the meeting occurred, forum members gave their suggestions on what to ask (mostly questions regarding Google’s supplemental index), and when the meeting concluded the member came back to report what he learned.

“He had tips for getting reindexed: Fix everything and start using google sitemaps. Sites that used a lot of spam or are from known spammers will not be reindexed.

About the sandbox… its related to links, older domains have benefit from having more links. The main goal should be getting links with good link description from relevant sites. (so what else is new…)”

That’s what he took away from his one hour meeting? Sadly, the engineer also claimed not to know who GoogleGuy was. Oh well, we’ll just have to corner Matt at the next conference again.

Google Won’t Make Brazil Deadline

Despite Google promising to fully cooperate, the AP now reports that Google will NOT be meeting the deadline to hand over information on specific Orkut users to Brazilian authorities. Google Brazil had until today to hand over information need to identify certain individuals accused of using social networking site Orkut for child pornography.

You have to wonder what situations like these are doing to Google’s image abroad. I know in the United States we all look at Google through rose-colored glasses, but what does everyone else see? I’d love to know how the typical Chinese user views Google. Or how about in Belgium? Brazil? Elsewhere? Are all these public court debacles affecting their image or is Google love a world-wide notion? Can anyone offer some insight? Do other countries see Google as a bully who steals content and profits from child pornography?

Local Search on the Rise

Just in time for SES Local, the new comScore numbers (via SEW) show that local search is on the rise, with more than 60 percent of Internet users conducting a local search in July – a 43 percent increase since July 2005. Interestingly, Google and Yahoo! are almost tied for the total number of local searches conducted, with 29.8 percent and 29.2 percent respectively.

The results were very telling:

47% visited a local merchant after searching
41% made contact offline
37% made contact online

Those stats hold the key for why local search is so powerful — people who search locally are on a mission. They’re looking for something specific that they need now. If they find you, they will make contact.

Marissa Mayer: Meeting Maven

BusinessWeek is running an article entitled How to Run a Meeting Like Google where Marissa Mayer gives readers her tips for how to keep a meeting on schedule. Does anyone else find this slightly offensive? Would BW run an article like this about Larry or Sergey? It’s like Cosmo for techies.

Fun Find

Former Financial Times reporter Tom Foremski recounts the journey he took when he quit his job to become a journalist blogger.

“I had no idea that something as simple as blogging could be so interesting and lead me to so many insights and discoveries.”

You and me both, Tom.

Lisa Barone is a writer, content marketer & VP of strategy at Overit Media. She's also a very active Twitterer, much to the dismay of the rest of the world.

See Lisa's author page for links to connect on social media.

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