SearchStatus is a toolbar extension for users of both Firefox and Mozilla, designed for the highly specialised needs of search engine marketers. The toolbar provides extensive search-related information about a site, all conveniently displayed in one discreet and compact toolbar.
For every site you visit using Firefox or Mozilla, SearchStatus lets you view its Google PageRank, Google Category, Alexa popularity ranking, Alexa incoming links, Alexa related links and backward links from Google, Yahoo! and MSN - all in one place. This combined search-related information means you can view not only the link importance of a site (according to Google), but also its traffic importance (according to Alexa), so providing a balanced view of site efficacy.
The SearchStatus Mozilla/Mozilla Firefox extension appears unobtrusively at the bottom of the browser on the status bar. If you choose to view backward links for a particular page, they open in new tabs in the same browser window. Disable the automatic Google and Alexa queries and they fold away from view.
The Webmaster Central is another attempt at improving the communication between the search engine and webmasters looking for ways of improving its standing in search engine results.
The blog says that:
Unfortunately — though we’ve had the pleasure of chatting with many of you in a variety of forums, around the blogosphere, and at many conferences across the world — we simply haven’t been able to interact with every one of you. So we’re excited to announce our new Google Webmaster Central, which enables us to have productive conversations with many more of you, all the time.
Some may question the motivation behind such a move. Does Google try to move the Google related discussion over to its own turf, gaining a better control of it that way?
It is interesting to note that only one day later the Yahoo! Search Blog commented upon its latest search index update, announcing that:
We are trying to connect with you more directly and enrich our interaction even further through Site Explorer. Please authenticate your site in Site Explorer and join the conversation on the Site Explorer forum.
So there you go, not only Google, but Yahoo! as well invites webmasters to discuss the occult art of search engine optimization at their own domains.
Obviously, if Google and Yahoo! employees stop taking part in other search engine forum discussions, like on Webmaster World and Search Engine Watch forums, there would be reason to worry.
Still, we believe these are exactly what the search engines say they are: forums and sites that might bring in additional information of relevance to webmasters.
Here is a short summary of what the two webmaster centrals have to offer:
1. A link to the Yahoo! Search Blog (We guess they have reckoned there is no need for a separate blog for webmasters).
2. Search Help (Like Google, Yahoo! has gathered all relevant help pages in one spot).
3. Search Content Guidelines — in essence a discussion of what Yahoo! considers “good stuff” and what it considers spam.
4. A form for reporting spam. This is how you can bring down your competitor. Report any spammy techniques they may use and see their rankings drop into oblivion. But remember: They can do the same to you!
5. Support Feedback form. This is the form you use when your competitor has arrested you for spam and you have to beg Yahoo! for forgiveness. You may also use it to complain about Yahoo’s spiders, get help in removing pages from their index, copyright issues and more.
6. There is also a separate suggestion form where you can make suggestions for improvement and more.
7. The Yahoo! Site Explorer lets you analyse the standing of your own site (or that of your rivals). This is a popular tool among search engine marketers as it gives a much more accurate picture of your number of back-links than Google. Google’s search engine is totally unreliable in this respect. If you sign in and add a small text file to your site’s server, you may also use this service to find out if Yahoo! is able to find your site. You may also give it the URL of your RSS feed, helping Yahoo’s spiders to index your new pages.
8. And finally, there is a submit page, which gives you information on how to submit your site for free, the pay per click text ad programme and Yahoo’s Search Submit Express (where you can pay Yahoo! to do something they should do for free anyway, namely index your pages).
It should be noted that these are not all new features. However, these search engines are now trying to give the various help pages and webmaster tools a more coherent interface, making it easier for readers to find the relevant information.
MSN and Ask
Moreover, even though MSN and Ask have no similar “webmaster centrals”, they do provide much of the same information.
Earlier this year I made a free online portal for people to check news and browse their favourite search engine without having to leave pages. Its had great press and has alot of visitors each day. Feel free to add homper to your homepage.
www.wholinks2me.com is a very simple online tool that shows your incoming links from Google, Msn and Yahoo!. It also give tells you your total links, Google Page Rank and Alexa rank.
Like Google’s backlink update, Yahoo also updated its search technology today with a Yahoo Search Index Update. The announcement was made on the Yahoo Search Blog, which also includes an invitation to join in the Yahoo Site Explorer Forum.
As usual, you’ll see some changes in ranking along with what is in the index. We’ve heard webmasters like you love the communication, such as weather reports from us. We are trying to connect with you more directly and enrich our interaction even further through Site Explorer.
In what almost marks the one year anniversary of Yahoo adding blog search to its Yahoo News search results, Yahoo has mysteriously taken its blog search area out of the news game.
Besides the deletion of blog search results from Yahoo News (not to be confused with blogs indexed in the Yahoo News index, which is different than the Yahoo Blog Search index), Yahoo has also changed the title and description of their news search page, more or less confirming their new direction and lending possibility to the launch of a new and different Yahoo Blog Search offering. Amit Agarwal explains:
The older version from Yahoo Cache - this page shows Yahoo News and Blog Search in the title of the Yahoo! news search homepage.
The latest version from Google Cache - this page shows Yahoo News search homepage with no references to Blog Search as noted by Joe Beaulaurier.
So, what does Yahoo have up its blog search sleeve? Chances are that given the early success of MyYahoo Feeds and other Yahoo blog oriented offerings which hit the market earlier than most of their competition, Yahoo has not done very much since to launch an all emcompassing blog reader (such as Google Reader) & search offering, which should be integrated into the overall Yahoo experience (in a similar way that Ask.com has with Bloglines).
There's a very good article out by StepForth's, CEO Ross Dunn on Yahoo! Site Explorer. The article covers not just the important features of it but also discusses the importance of such tools in the search engine's own health as well and the ability of this tool to help the average webmaster in the heavy task of competitor analysis.
He covers the features and uses of these features well thus puting his article on my recommended reading list. You can find the article on the ISEDB website at http://www.isedb.com/db/articles/1508/.
Another interesting (though less informative from a pure-SEo standpoint) can also be found on the ISEDB website by Jim Hedger. His article chronicles his experiences at SES San Jose. I had the pleasure of chatting with Jim periodically throughout the show and his recap is fairly accurate if not revealing regarding the going-on in San Jose. Discussing openly the business and recreation of the conferences Jim gives a glimpse into what geek do when they're surrounded only by other geeks.
The article also reveals the benefits of attending such conferences for SEO's and novices alike though might be a bit discouraging for those who would attend to find a sober SEO to speak with. Note: In truth the consumption of beverages was restricted to "after hours" parties and from what I saw, the vast majority limited their consumptions to amounts condusive to showing up without Tylenol the next day.
For an interesting glimpse into the world of the Strategies Conferences you can read Jim's article on the ISEDB website at http://www.isedb.com/db/articles/1506/. It's not going to help you with SEO so it can't really make my recommended reading list but it will help you understand SEO's a little bit better.
A big story I heard MUCH about at the SES Conference in San Jose was the apparent chaos that was reigning in the Yahoo! search results. Even during my session there on ranking across all three major engines questions came in regarding how to react to the issues site that had ranked well for years were having. My advice at the time, if the tactics you're using are ethical and your pages are well optimized with good links coming in and the sites you're seeing rankings are not (which , judging from what I'd seen - a good shared of them weren't) then don't chase it, wait it out.
When an algorithm goes astray and you can see that bad sites are ranking - that's the time to suck it up and stick to your guns. Chasing a bad algorithm will only hurt you on other engines and hurt you on the engine you're chasing when the issues are addressed. Well, it's been a while but it appears that Yahoo! is in the process of correcting the issues with their latest update. While still not fully implemented it appears that they are making efforts to correct against the poor results that were sitting on the first page and the good sites that fell are starting to gain ground.
The philosophy not to chase bad algorithms first came to my attention (and to my arsenal of SEO tactics) back during the notorious Florida Update by Google). Sites that chased it ended up losing miserably when the algorithm was corrected. While that update had devastating effect on ethical site owners in that sp@m rules and it occurred in November and wasn't corrected until January (Merry Christmas to the ethical out there) those who chased it never seemed to get the high rankings they wanted for Christmas and lost out in the post-season correction. Sort of a double edged sword on that one.
And so it will be interesting to watch the rest of the corrections as they come in (we'll be covering it here of course). And to those who, like me, stuck to your guns and waited it out - you should see the solid rankings regained shortly. For now you should have decent rankings for the first time in a few weeks. At least that should show you where you're headed.
And when in doubt, check the results up here in the Great White North (http://ca.search.yahoo.com/). Up here we never did see the same backlash that was felt south of the 49th parallel.
Yahoo! Search's market share has become the runner-up in China. According to the Research Report of Searching Engine Market in China, issued by the CCW Research, it has surpassed Google and now follows after Baidu.
The Report also shows that the number of users of the address bar search is expanding. It is estimated that it will reach up to 476 million Yuan, an increase of 21.4 per cent.
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SearchStatus is a toolbar extension for users of both Firefox and Mozilla, designed for the highly specialised needs of search engine marketers. The toolbar provides extensive search-related information about a site, all conveniently displayed in one discreet and compact toolbar.
Google and Yahoo! add webmaster support portals, with help files, blogs, discussion forums and tools.
Note: In truth the consumption of beverages was restricted to "after hours" parties and from what I saw, the vast majority limited their consumptions to amounts condusive to showing up without Tylenol the next day.
A big story I heard MUCH about at the 
