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I’ve just notice today that google has been hit by a duplicate content penalty and dropped in rankings…

I’m lazy and wanted to log into google webmaster tool so I search on google for “sitemaps” (It used to be sitemaps before)…

Anyway for the last few years google has been #1 for the search term “sitemaps” BUT not today…

Here is a screen shot showing google has indexed google.com and www.google.com

We can expect more ranking drop for google’s page over the next few weeks until google works out which is the “real” url..

Here is the query.. http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=sitemap

Noticed this morning that for one site I work on the google sitelinks have updated..  

In this update google has picked a really odd page and also has applied text to the new a link to the page and not the link’s alt tag itself.. And yes its a image only link..

One other thing about this link is the fact its all in lowercase..  I’ve not noticed sitelinks that are lower case before.. I’ll keep a eye on this one! …

I’ve just been playing with good old google suggest to apply the same sort of suggestion box to a site I work on…

Anyway i’ve typed a random letter “d” and up came the suggestion “Dictionary”… Clicked it and got taken to the Dictionary serps…

Fine.. Serps look good with a ad for ig at the top.. Nice idea having ig listed!!!!

BUT…

Half the ads have imho ZERO relevance! …

Screen shot :

So a credit company… and a software for estate agencies….

hmmmmmm..

On the 15th November 2007 google change the format of the adsense ads..

Loads of reports hit blogs and forum with people worried about the fact that clicks will go down!

What changed?

Well basically you can now only click on the title of the ad OR the url if its displayed… I think its great… Perfect.. I was not worry as I’m a adwords user and feel it good for us!

Here more info from google about it:

http://adsense.blogspot.com/2007/11/accidental-clicks-fade-into-background.html

OK so you know about the changes now..

Well what’s the effect?

In regards to my adsense I have seen a increase in CTR of 0.5% which i’m very happy with..

I’m sure the advertisers are happy too…  This is only the first week of the new format but its great imho!

So here it is.. Google new hand made logo live on google.co.uk

 Pretty cool

 The information on the doodle page hasn’t been updated but i’m sure it will be soon

Well done to the winning doodle called “This or This?” by Claire Rammelkamp, Doodle 4 Google winner

http://www.google.co.uk/doodle4google/

Its that time again and I alway enjoy looking at the kids logo’s for google..

Last year I got the winners logo on a t-shirt when I went to see google and its very cool.. I also saw the actual drawing in the london HQ…

This is the 4th doodle for google..

So who will win this year ??

Here the link if you have missed it! (link is also on google.co.uk homepage) 

http://www.google.com/doodle4google/ukvote.html

So.. Whats it all about then..

Well “social” networking the big buzz word of the last few year has finally reached google…

Google of course have sort of tried the social site with not much success and problems with drugs etc…  If you don’t know what i’m on about have a search for “Orkut drugs south america”

Anyway .. Google has gone the route of intergrating other networks… Yep not just google but partners..

 The ultimate goal is for any social website to be able to implement the APIs and host 3rd party social applications. There are many websites implementing OpenSocial, including Engage.com, Friendster, hi5, Hyves, imeem, LinkedIn, MySpace, Ning, Oracle, orkut, Plaxo, Salesforce.com, Six Apart, Tianji, Viadeo, and XING.

Haven’t played with the api yet but once a few sample come out i’ll have a go.. 

A nice little link on google.co.uk is pointing to a cool carbon footprint calculator..

http://www.google.co.uk/carbonfootprint/index.html

Use the calculator to measure your carbon footprint and find out what practical steps you can take to make it smaller. On a personalised page, you can track your progress, update your carbon-reducing actions and see a Google Map featuring the footprints and actions of everyone taking part. To share ideas, ask advice or find people in your local area to collaborate with, join the UK Carbon Footprint discussion group.

Its not on the US version lol…

Here is the home page link:

The link take you to a info page as below.. :

At the bottom of this page is a “get started” button which redirects to Igoogle with a carbon theme and loads of info about carbon.. Very cool here a screen shot:

The left hand blue pannel has a questionnaire with 6 steps regarding your home etc…

Here is the first step:

Very cool

After filling out the forms you get ask if you wish to be added to a map… The map adds uk’ers who has completed the question including a colour to their area..

See the map here:

http://www.google.co.uk/carbonfootprint/map.html

Many many big and small sites have lost massive amount of green juice (PR) today and it would seem that a common factor is that each site sells / looks like it sells links…

One that hasn’t been effected is w3schools (but imho its been blocked from passing “any / much” PR to its advertisers a long time ago).. One interesting thing with w3schools is that its not linking to its advertisers from the homepage… hmmm..

So don’t linky from your hp and your fine ? Is the radar only working on hp links then…

Some massive sites have been hit like phpbb, statcount, forbes, sert and many more…

We shall wait and see…

So i’ve been away and what happens.. Yep a PR update..

This one is a funny one hehehe..

I’ve only been catching up for half a day but so far i’ve only really seen drops in pr of sites I visit…

wmw has this thread http://www.webmasterworld.com/google/3468808.htm about the drops..

Danny’s post here http://searchengineland.com/071007-173841.php about if you sell links then you might drop 1 point in pr like many sites have..

Sert has drop one to a pr6 with barry’s person blog www.cartoonbarry.com also on a 6 hehehe now that’s crazy lol…

More here: http://www.seroundtable.com/archives/014973.html

With loads of stuff on dp lol..