Google is shutting down Open ID 2.0 and migrating Open ID 2.0 to the Google Plus Sign-In. Open ID 2.0 and Google Plus Sign-In is a way that allows website owners to let their users log into their website using their Google account credentials. [Read more…]
Google’s CAPTCHA reCAPTCHA is Flawed, Won’t Stop Spam Bots
Google recently released a new tool for website owners called CAPTCHA reCAPTCHA. Google claims that if a site owner uses their CAPTCHA reCAPTCHA tool, it will be able to distinguish between a human and a bot: [Read more…]
Freebase is Shutting Down in March 2015
According to a Google Plus post today, Freebase is shutting down, and will no longer be available after March 2015. The current Freebase data will be ported over into WikiData. [Read more…]
Google Removed Carousel from Google Search Results
Google has removed the Google Carousel from the search results. A search for keyword phrases such as Dallas Hotels, Chicago Hotels, and New York Hotels, popular searches that previously showed the Google Carousel, now shows a different type of search result, which is similar to the traditional map pack. This has been phased out, and there is no Google Carousel anymore for any of the local searches. Google removed carousel. For good. Does this mean that the Google Carousel failed?
So, instead of showing photos of the hotels at the top of the search results that, when clicked, caused a branded search to occur and another set of search results to appear, more “traditional” type of search results are now showing. The search results for cityname + hotels shows specific hotels, but the PPC ads are prominent along with the organic, natural search results. [Read more…]
Google News Shutting Down: It’s Not Profitable
Google has decided to shut down its operations in Spain, and will no longer include any Spanish publishers in Google News. Google’s reasoning behind this is the new Spanish law that requires every Spanish publication to charge services like Google News for showing even the smallest snippet from their publications, whether they want to or not. [Read more…]
Google SERPs Say Instagram Post Made in 1970
While searching Google today for a random search query, I noticed that the first search result was kind of odd. The Instragram post was a travel photo and it had nothing to do with the query that I just searched for. But that’s actually what didn’t surprise me. I’m not surprised by Google showing off-topic results for certain search queries. What shocked me was that apparently Google says that the post was made on Jan 17, 1970.
Yep, you got that right. Take a look at the screen capture:
