Matt Cutts Explains New Notifications about Inbound Links!

The past few weeks have seen a lot of discussion about link notifications or link advisories sent by Google. The head of Google’s Web Spam team, Matt Cutts, has explained the new link notifications being sent to webmasters.

Original Link Messages 

Matt wrote that Google sends notifications, if it spots unnatural links pointing to a site (link spamming for a long period). The action in this case required to be taken by webmasters is- “If your site is notified for these unnatural links, we recommend removing as many of the spammy or low-quality links as you possibly can and then submitting a reconsideration request for your site.”

New Link Messages 

These are sent for certain spammy or artificial links. In this case not the entire site, but only those links are discredited by Google. Matt wrote, “The new messages make it clear that we are taking "targeted action on the unnatural links instead of your site as a whole." The new messages also lack the yellow exclamation mark that other messages have, which tries to convey that we're addressing a situation that is not as severe as the previous "we are losing trust in your entire site" messages.”

Pay Attention to these new link messages

Matt wrote that these messages are a clear communication from Google about their ‘distrust’ in some links pointing to the site. These are the ‘artificial links’ that Google distrusts- “widgetbait, paid links, blog spam, guestbook spam, excessive article directory submissions, excessive link exchanges, other types of linkspam, etc.”

There is no need to panic

Matt also said, that these messages are for a heads up and not downright panic. He wrote, “I don't want site owners to panic. We do use this message some of the time for innocent sites where people are pointing hacked anchor text to their site to try to make them rank for queries like [buy viagra].”

Action Plan after getting new link messages

Matt wrote that at the moment new link messages have been sent to some 20,000 domains – which is only a tenth of the usual number of domains contacted monthly. Since Google plans to send these messages retroactively to sites, everyday 10 sites are likely to get the message. Matt wrote, “We recently launched the ability to download backlinks to your site sorted by date. If you get this new link message, you may want to check your most recent links to spot anything unusual going on. If you discover that someone in your company has been doing widgetbait, paid links, or serious linkspam, it's worth cleaning that up and submitting a reconsideration request. We're also looking at some ways to provide more concrete examples to make these messages more actionable and to help narrow down where to look when you get one.”

Read Matt’s full post of examples of widget, paid links here.

Google Webmaster Tools Now Allows Downloads of Newest Links!

Google Webmaster Tools now makes it possible to download the newest links to your site, as discovered by Google. This new feature was brought to light by Barry Schwartz of SE Roundtable. Additionally Google will also timestamp the most recent links, so webmasters can know exactly when the links were discovered by the search engine. To get to this new link download option, head to -

Google Webmaster Tools ⇒ Links to Your Site ⇒ View the reportDownload latest links.

The downloaded data will have a date column specifying the date the link was discovered.

Google has been shaking things quite often in Webmaster Tools as it recently added preview links too.

Marissa Mayer is the New Yahoo! CEO!

Marissa Mayer is the new president and CEO of Yahoo. Yahoo gave out a press release announcing her appointment as the next ‘Chief Yahoo!”. Marissa Mayer had been a part of Google’s core team for the past 13 years and she resigned from her post at Google over the telephone. She has gone on to become the fifth CEO Yahoo! has seen in the past 5 years.

Marissa has gained distinction in designing and execution of technology products. And this is why Yahoo! considers her ideal for the post. As Fred Amoroso, Chairman of the Board of Directors ay Yahoo! said- “The Board of Directors unanimously agreed that Marissa’s unparalleled track record in technology, design, and product execution makes her the right leader for Yahoo! at this time of enormous opportunity.”

Mayer announced her new role on Google+ with a link to the official Yahoo! announcement:

She shared the news on Twitter too as well as the news that she is expecting a baby boy soon (in the fall- will Yahoo! have to arrange for an interim person in charge while she is away?):

Marissa has worked at several key positions during her time at Google and has headed top products like Google Local, Maps, and Images. Mayer said on her new position, “I am honored and delighted to lead Yahoo!, one of the internet’s premier destinations for more than 700 million users. I look forward to working with the Company’s dedicated employees to bring innovative products, content, and personalized experiences to users and advertisers all around the world.”

Marissa is known for her success in creating user-centered product designs and that is why she seems the right person to take Yahoo! products to the top. Marissa has a huge challenge before her as she has to get back Yahoo! on track, something that the past 4 CEOs have been unsuccessfully trying to do over the years. Here is a list of Yahoo CEOs:

• Tim Koogle (1995- 2001)
• Terry Semel (2001-2007)
• Jerry Yang (2007-2009)
• Carol Bartz (2009-2011)
• Scott Thompson (Jan 2012-April 2012)

Carol Bartz was fired over the phone, and Scott Thompson had to step down because of the issues investors found in his resume. Mayer is also joining Yahoo's Board of Directors and the internet fraternity has as a whole shown faith in her ability to steer Yahoo! out of troubled waters.

iGoogle to retire in November, 2012!

Google has decided to discontinue iGoogle from 1 November, 2012. The search engine giant earlier announced about closing down of its several services as part of its spring cleaning in summer program.

 

iGoogle, that allow users to add features like news, weather, mail and many other was once Google's fastest growing product. The official reason provided over the announcement is that, "with modern apps that run on platforms like Chrome and Android, the need for iGoogle has eroded over time".

 However, it has also been announced by Google that it will shut Google Mini later this month. The search engine giant has already shut Google Talk Chatback recommending people to use Meebo instead. Google videos stopped storing videos in 2009. It will allow to move the already present Google videos of users to YouTube till 20 August, 2012. Google will soon discontinue Symbian Search application.

Blekko Updates SEO Data with Fresher Index!

The Slashtag Search Engine-Blekko has upgraded their SEO data. This means that the crawler and indexer will now provide latest and fresher results to SEOs search for SEO data. The search engine has announced that after this update, their data will be more comprehensive too.

The search engine said that moving ahead with their motto of wanting “to enable people to see the Internet the way a search engine sees it, especially what the rest of the internet is saying about an url”, has led to them upgrading their crawler- Scoutjet.

As Blekko said, “Scoutjet updates the top ranked starting pages on the Internet around every hour, while other high quality pages are checked at least every week. The continuous updates to blekko’s SEO data include page content, meta data, duplicate text, and inbound link counts. Staying up-to-date is as much about forgetting the old as finding the new. So, we eliminate inbound links that are no longer live and duplicate content that is no longer available.”

Blekko has gained popularity among the search professionals for its effectiveness as a backlinks research tool which it offers as a part of its set of free SEO tools.