Industry News

When it comes to ranking issues in Google, there are two main reasons why your rankings can drop. The first is you made a technical mistake on your own site...

Conor Friedersdorf talks about the differences between recommendations provided by people and algorithms in Would You Rather Get Tips from an Expert or an Algorithm?

The Amazon.com algorithm is very good at using what you’ve just bought to recommend things that you’ll want to buy, [David Weinberger, a senior researcher at the Berkman Center for Internet and Society] observed, but it can be hard to tell why. Perhaps you’ll be attracted to the content of the recommendation — or perhaps...

I may have missed a small Google update, unconfirmed update, that happened on June 27th/28th and there may have been an update this weekend on July 5th...

We know that Google penalties may follow you when you 301 or create a new site when your old site was burned to the ground. We also know that Google tried to prevent this from a negative SEO standpoint. Google also recommends you start fresh in some severe cases...

Google's head of search spam, Matt Cutts, announced on his blog that he is taking "a leave" through October of this year. In short, he is going completely off the grid and not dealing with anything Google related, i.e. his work...

“The road to hell is paved with good intentions,” the saying goes. There are plenty of good intentions with the EU’s Right To Be Forgotten mandate, as well as Google’s attempt to meet new obligations under it. Things are still going to hell regardless.

Thanks to the new right, the EU has helped enable convicted pedophiles to ask that their actions be forgotten. It has ensured that businesses convicted of fraudulent activities can seek to have these hidden from the public. And it led this...

Some truth from Joshua Porter in There is no later for your customers (my emphasis added):

There is no later for your customers. The only thing that matters is what they’re using right now. They don’t give a shit about your roadmap, your brilliant feature pipeline, or your vision of a better future. They’re trying to get work done right now and they only know what you’ve already delivered. So build a discipline around your launches, knowing that your ‘temporary, let’s get this out...

Google’s Matt Cutts – who holds the title of “distinguished engineer” — is taking a break from his duties as Google’s chief web spam fighter. Cutts has announced on his personal blog that he’s taking leave through October.

It will be the longest break Cutts has ever taken from Google since he started with the company back in 2000 and since he began overseeing the web spam team in 2004. It’s also one that he writes is overdue. From his post: When I joined Google, my wife and I agreed that I...

I wanted to let folks know that I’m about to take a few months of leave. When I joined Google, my wife and I agreed that I would work for 4-5 years, and then she’d get to see more of me. I talked about this as recently as last month and as early as 2006. And now, almost fifteen years later I’d like to be there for my wife more. I know she’d like me to be around more too, and not just physically present while my mind is still on work.

So we’re going to take some time off for a few months. My...