What's New With Google+ In Short

It was hard to miss the news that Google announced yesterday around Google+.

If you did and you really don't have time to sift through everything, Google's Aygul Zagidullina captured notes in very short bullet point format that makes it quick and easy to consume.

So for those that missed it, here are her notes:

Latest Google+ stats:

• 20 launches in the last 4 months
• 540M active users across Google
• 300M active users in the Google+ stream
• 1.5B photos uploaded every week to Google+
• 20x increase in Google+ video uploads

Google+ Hangouts:

• Location sharing (text Hangouts)
• Animated GIFs (text Hangouts)
• SMS support (text Hangouts)
• Plan > promote > manage (video Hangouts)
• Auto awesome (video Hangouts)

Google+ Photos:

• Google+ Gallery "Moments that matter"
• Full-size backup on iOS
• 1000 more words in computer vision photo search
• Search images in your library or across your circles
• Auto enhance: low or high and on album-by-album basis
• New Snapseed filter: HDR Scape
• New Nik Collection feature: Analog Efex Pro
• Two new awesome effects: action, eraser
• Auto awesome movies (auto and manual flows)

Google May Charge Fees For Google+ Custom URLs

One of the other big announcements was that Google is offering vanity URLs within Google+ for virtually everyone. But if you read the terms of service, Google says for now these URLs are free, but Google may charge for them in the future.

The requirements are minimal to get these custom URLs:

• Has a profile photo, and
• Has at least 10 followers, and
• Has an account that's at least 30 days old

Google Skeleton

Search Engine Land Wins Best Search Blog At US Search Awards

It has been a while since there have been a reputable place offering "Awards" in the search community. Now, we have the US Search Awards backed by PubCon, Majestic SEO, SEMPO, and some other companies.

There is a long list of winners in several categories, but I am proud to be part of the Search Engine Land team that won for best search blog.

Here is a picture from Shane Borelli of Elisabeth Osmeloski and Greg Finn, representing Search Engine Land by accepting the award the other night:

• Grand Prix: Catalyst Canada on behalf of HSBC CMB USA - Out of Home Search - Airports
• Best Blog: Search Engine Land
• Best Use of Search, Retail: Mannix Marketing - Rover Parts SEO
• Best Use of Search, Finance: Havas Media - Aggressively Tackling the Competitive Financial Landscape
• Best Use of Search, Travel/Leisure: Havas Media - Driving Growth in the Competitive Travel Market
• Best Use of Search, Third Sector: Google Grants University: Matt Cardoni of Performics with the Marketing Academy of University of Iowa MBA program help 9 non-profits with free traffic and consulting
• Best Local Campaign: Kenshoo - SIM Partners Velocity and Kenshoo Local Improve SEM ROI for Sonus Hearing Care Professionals
• Best Low Budget Campaign: Advice Interactive Group - TryMunity - A Social Network for Traumatic Brain Injury Survivors
• Best Use of PR in a Search Campaign: SEO-PR - SEO-PR / Get City Dealz / Business Wire Multimedia Press Releases
• Best Use of Social Media in a Search Campaign: Nebo - P.L.A.Y. Rescue Pledge
• Best Integrated Campaign: Overit - KnowTheOdds
• Best PPC Campaign: Catalyst Canada on behalf of HSBC CMB USA - Out of Home Search - Airports
• Best SEO Campaign: Geary LSF - MegaPath SEO Campaign
• Innovation: Catalyst Canada on behalf of HSBC CMB USA - Out of Home Search - Airports
• Best PPC Management Software: Kenshoo Search
• Best SEO Software: Linkdex - Enterprise SEO Software for 2014 and beyond
• Best In House Team: Rasmussen College
• Best Agency: Elite SEM
• Young Search Professional of the Year: Fil Lourenco - Catalyst
• US Search Personality of the Year: Marty Weintraub - aimClear

Here is a classic picture of Marty Weintraub with his new Google Glass accepting his award from Dixon Jones, photo by Nicky Wake:

Google's 100 Search Results Per Page Breaks

Google has confirmed the reports of a bug where configuring your search preferences to non-instant results, set to show 100 search results on a page, stopped working.

Disavow File May Not Be Accepted

If you use a disavow file to remove links, Google may not process them if they don't see you making a serious manual attempt at removing those links.


         The disavow tool should be used primarily if you have done everything you can to remove an inorganic link and still cannot get the link removed. If you are primarily disavowing links and not trying to remove them, your reconsideration request may not be successful 

Other reasons why the disavow tool may not work for you include:

• Double check your disavow file and make sure the link you mentioned is properly disavowed. You can download your latest Disavow file by going to the Disavow tool, clicking "Disavow Links", and clicking "Download".
• Documentation is really good and can help when reviewing your site for reconsideration. Make sure that when you send in documentation that it's accessible, though. It looks like https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B_RnM_AdwlOzRm55V3JKNVNoMDQ/edit?usp=drive_web hasn't been shared properly.

  

Google Bolding Related Words In Search Snippets - Not Titles

I searched for "gone" but Google highlighted the word "dropped" in the snippet. Not in the title, Google did not bold the word "Drops" in the title tag. They did bold the word "dropped" in the snippet.