Google | Sofie Estolloso Hofmann Designs International

Google, Yahoo! and Bing updated SERPs regarding GeoCities pages

Thursday, October 29, 2009 @ 5:28 pm by Sofie Hofmann

Google, Yahoo! and Bing search engines updated its search engine results pages (SERPs) regarding GeoCities homepages.

Yesterday, when I was surfing the top three search engines, my GeoCities homepages about Pandan, Antique such as geocities.com/gopandan, geocities.com/pandanantique, and geocities.com/pandan_antique still appeared at the SERPs.

Today, I again checked Google, Yahoo! and Bing search engines, and all them updated its search engines results pages. But Bing search engine is probably not done yet cleaning its SERP regarding GeoCities pages. There are still remaining GeoCities homepages in its SERP as of this writing such as geocities.com/pandanantique and my personal homepage geocities.com/sofiehofmann.

But I am sure that in just a few days or a few hours or maybe in just a few minutes, Bing will notice its SERP, and the GeoCities pages will be removed right away from the search engine results page (SERP) of Bing.

That is of course an assumption. We will see if Bing is fast enough to notice its own SERP. 🙂

Got Indexed by Google and De-indexed by Google?

Tuesday, July 7, 2009 @ 8:03 am by Sofie Hofmann

I wrote about getting indexed by Google and Bing search engines last week. I wrote how Google indexed a blog entry at Pandan.ph within 12 hours after publishing it at 8:05pm on July 01, 2009 which appeared at the first page of the Google search results.

I checked Google on Sunday using the keywords “pandan drag race” and other keywords that I mentioned but the blog entry at Pandan.ph entitled 2nd Invitational Calixto Zaldivar III Motorcycle Drag Race Cup 2008 in Pandan, Antique was nowhere to be found.

The same thing happened at the other blog entry that I published on June 30, 2009 at Pandan.ph. It was also no longer listed at the Google search results.

I also checked Google Blog search. It was good to know that both the blog entries at Pandan.ph were still at the first page of the Google Blog search results which means the blog entries are relevant and valuable.

Another thing happened, this time regarding the domain name itself Pandan.ph. Every time I searched Google before using the keyword “pandan”, Pandan.ph would always appear at the first or second page of the Google search results.

But when I searched Google on Sunday, Pandan.ph was also nowhere to be found even at the succeeding pages just like what happened to the two blog entries. I am very sure that I did not violate the guidelines.

What does Google trying to show here? It just goes to show that Google crawls and indexes the site or blog any time it wants but also would de-index it any time without any explanation.

It shows that the blog entries were relevant when they appeared on the first pages of the Google search results but there is no guarantee that it would stay that way if Google changes its position that the blog entries have no value for both Google and readers. It makes me wonder then how exactly Google measures the relevance of a blog entry or an article.

Get Indexed by Google and Bing Search Engines

Thursday, July 2, 2009 @ 11:30 pm by Sofie Hofmann

You have a blog or site and you would like to promote it, but it has not been indexed by the search engines yet. What would you do then? Well, the simplest way to get your blog or site get promoted is to submit it to several search engines like Google and Bing, formerly MSN Live Search. The question now is how are you going to get Google and Bing index your blog or site.

I wrote about this topic, on how to get indexed by Google and Bing search engines at ProBlogit.com but I will discuss other sites too. Basically the method is the same for the blog to get indexed by both Google and Bing. I discussed at ProBlogit.com how ProBlogit.com got indexed by Google and how SofieHofmann.com got indexed by Bing.

How to get indexed by Google? Submit your site to Google. Join Google Webmaster Tools and add your blog or site. Write content often and link the blog entry from another blog internally and externally.

How to get indexed by Bing? Submit your site to Bing. Join Bing Webmaster Center and add your blog or site. Write content often and link the blog entry from another blog internally and externally.

Another site that got indexed by Bing is this site Sehdi.com which was considered by Bing not valid when I added the site at Bing Webmaster Center. I have the impression that because Sehdi.com is being hosted in Switzerland, it was considered invalid at the time when I added it on June 24, 2009. Other sites are being hosted in the United States, so there was no problem adding it to Bing Webmaster Center.

Despite not being able to add the site at the Bing Webmaster Center, Sehdi.com was still indexed by Bing. It was already crawled and indexed before but this time more pages appeared at the search results just like SofieHofmann.com. All I did was, I just submitted the site to Bing. I wrote content for Sehdi.com but not so often. Despite the irregularity, Bing and Google have indexed the site and blog regularly.

Another site especially its two recent blog entries that I wrote the other day and yesterday that got indexed by Google fast was Pandan.ph. Considering that I did not even link the two blog entries from any other blog. The two blog entries appeared on the sidebar though of SofieHofmann.com and that was it. Other than that, I did not do anything.

When I checked Google today with keywords “pandan police”, the blog entry Pandan police arrested former policemen suspected of robbery in Buruanga, Aklan appeared first on the first page of the Google search results. I also used other keywords such as “pandan cops”, “aklan robbery”, “buruanga robbery” and the blog entry appeared on the first page of the search results.

Then I checked Google with keywords “pandan drag race” and the blog entry 2nd Invitational Calixto Zaldivar III Motorcycle Drag Race Cup 2008 in Pandan, Antique appeared also first on the first page of the Google search results. I also used keywords such as “calixto zaldivar”, “pandan invitational”, “pandan motorcycle race” and the blog entry appeared on the first page of the search results.

Pandan.ph was already added a long time ago at the Google Webmaster Tools. It just goes to show that even if you do not submit your blog entry to Google again as long as Google already made a habit of crawling and indexing your blog, then your blog will appear in Google any time and in this case the latest blog entry was indexed by Google within 12 hours.

I just did not check it right away yesterday after I wrote the latest blog entry at Pandan.ph, so I really have no idea when did really Google index that particular latest blog entry. I just learned about it after 12 hours when I checked Google today.

Counterize II WordPress Statistics Plugin

Monday, June 30, 2008 @ 11:30 pm by Sofie Hofmann

I have been using Counterize II WordPress Plugin for quite sometime now. Counterize II is actually a very good and a very useful WordPress Statistics Plugin. It is always handy as I see the statistics at the WordPress admin panel as it saves the statistics data in my database. This is actually my problem now, as it is not using external libs, and I don’t want to delete the data, they are occupying too much space of my database.

My dilemma now is whether I should stop using this WordPress Plugin or just delete the data before so as not to occupy too much space of my database. I am not very particular about statistics but once in a while it just makes me smile looking at the data. Although I am not a Statistics freak, I am also using WordPress.com Stats and Google Analytics. I like both WordPress.com Stats and Google Analytics but Counterize II has features which I like too which I did not find at Google Analytics nor WordPress.com Stats. Maybe I have not fully explored WordPress.com Stats and Google Analytics yet as I do not often check my statistics anyway.

While writing this, I thought, ok, I will give it a try one more time. I will check WordPress.com Stats and Google Analytics thoroughly first. If I think it is time to let go of the Counterize II WordPress Statistics Plugin, then I will just let it go.

And oh, I am hoping that one of these days, that people who developed WordPress.com Stats would try to get hold of the Counterize II Plugin developer and maybe come up of an idea of combining the other features of Counterize II with WordPress.com Stats.

Wouldn’t it be great? 🙂

WordPress as CMS for Pandan.ph

Saturday, October 21, 2006 @ 9:11 pm by Sofie Hofmann

I decided to use WordPress as CMS (Content Management System) for my sites. I already started using it as a CMS at Weggis.net. Weggis theme is based on the original design of Weggis.net when it was not using WordPress, PHP and XHTML yet. I also made several code updates at the other pages using PHP.

I also revised Weggis.net search capability. Weggis.net search is not only searching posts or entries in categories (normally the updates) but other pages as well.

Since several search engines have already indexed Weggis.net, especially google, I also placed google search at Weggis.net as another option to search the site. I also implemented this in my other sites.

Then, I revised Pandan.ph once again. This time though, WordPress is not only being used for the News and Gallery Pages. I used WordPress, specifically WordPress 2.0.4 version, as CMS for the whole site.

I just revised the codes so the web design is still the same. This WordPress theme is based on the original design of Pandan.ph when it was also not using WordPress, PHP and XHTML yet.

I also installed a new guestbook using WordPress Paged Comments Plugin. I removed the comments capability for the gallery, news and other pages. Instead of commenting at the news page and its subpages, people can only now leave their messages at the guestbook.

I removed the CGI script used for my contact page and used WordPress comment capability instead with Akismet Plugin so that comment spams could be caught and de-spammed. Comments that were de-spammed will be submitted to Akismet as mistakes so it can learn and get better.

To use Akismet, I needed Akismet WordPress.com API Key, so I opened an account with WordPress.com but then opted not to get a username only but registered a blog too, sofiehofmann.wordpress.com. I could not use my own theme though. I have an idea what to write there but still thinking of other possibilities.

Anyway, if you look at Pandan.ph, as if, there are no changes at Pandan.ph, but on my part, with regards to coding, it was such a lot of work. I could have written something about it everyday but opted not to do it. I was just too busy.

Other updates: Publications and Media pages of Green Cross Switzerland have been updated.

Yahoo! Video, Google Video, YouTube, Grouper

Friday, August 11, 2006 @ 2:26 pm by Sofie Hofmann

Have you been vlogging? Did you think I made a mistake in spelling that out? Nah! Vlogging stands for video blogging! Vlogging is quite common now a days. You have a lot choices if you want to vlog, for example, Yahoo! Video, Google Video, YouTube and Grouper.

On May 31, 2006, according to Yahoo! search blog, Yahoo! rolled out the new Yahoo! Video, an upgrade from its video search service that introduces more ways to find and share video programming. Now, it includes the ability to upload your videos directly to Yahoo! at Yahoo! Video. Read more at Yahoo! Video team blog.

On October 31, 2005, according to Google, its Google Video was growing so fast that they thought a blog is the best way to showcase some of the great videos that catch their attention. Read more at Google VideoBlog or at the Google Video Discussion Board.

Founded in February 2005, YouTube is probably the most popular one, but Grouper is also becoming known as it is the one which was first introduced at Friendster if you want to upload as well as watch a video in your Friendster account. Lately, Friendster added YouTube too if you want to view a video from Friendster. YouTube originally started as a personal video sharing service, and has grown into an entertainment destination with people watching more than 70 million videos on the site daily. Check out YouTube Blog to keep up to date on all the latest YouTube developments.

Grouper started in 2004 as a Microsoft Windows based application that allowed users to share their personal media within private groups but with the release of the 2.0 version of the Grouper client in December 2005, the focus was refined to sharing video over the web. Read more about Grouper at Wikipedia and Grouper Networks Blog.

I tried uploading a video at Grouper but I deleted it. I used Yahoo! Video and Google Video if I want to feature my own videos in my blogs. I feature videos from YouTube once in a while. I use all of them just to see the difference between these video sharing services.

Of course, each has the features play, stop and volume. What are the other features if the video is being featured from your website? See these pages, Swimming Competition 2006 Announcement (Google Video) and Storm in Weggis (Yahoo! Video) at Weggis.net and Travel to the Philippines (YouTube) at SofieHofmann.com. See and try to compare them.

Let us say, you featured the videos from your blog or website, the size of Yahoo! Video and YouTube is the same, the width is 425 and the height is 350 while Google Video has 400 in width and 326 in height. They will accept videos of any length and size but they will be resized. Naturally if the width of the main column of your blog is less than 425, you might want to consider using Google Video instead of Yahoo! Video or YouTube. You have to consider that if you have a side menu instead of a top menu in your blog, then using YouTube and Yahoo! Video may destroy the look of your blog. You have the option though of just linking the video from your blog instead of featuring it.

If you want to view the video in its original size from your blog, you can do it with Yahoo! Video unlike Google and YouTube, there’s none, only from the main site of Google and YouTube. Google can be viewed in its original size, double size, fit to window, full screen, only if you manipulate it from the main site of Google Video. Whatever you specified from the main Google Video site, that’s the size that will appear on your blog.

If you want to go the main site of each one, Yahoo! Video has a link after you view the video unlike YouTube, once you click the whole screen, you will be automatically redirected to the main site of YouTube. Google Video has a link at the bottom right, but you need to click the logo first and once you see “Go to Google Video”, then you can go to the main site if you click it.

If you want to share the video to your friends directly from the site where the video was featured, YouTube has a share feature through email, and Yahoo! Video can be shared through IM and email. Google Video can be shared from the main Google Video site just like YouTube and Yahoo! Video.

With regards to the time, if the viewer wants to know how long is the video, you will not see it at Yahoo! Video unlike Google Video and YouTube. The viewer will only know how long is the Yahoo! Video after the viewer finished watching the video. But of course, if you are the one who featured the site, you already have an idea how long is the video because it is specified at the main sites of Yahoo! Video, Google Video, YouTube and Grouper, wherever you took the video that you would like to be featured in your site.

How big should the file be? With Google Video, you can upload videos as many as you like even more than 100MB. There are different ways though in uploading videos less than 100MB and more than 100MB. Read “How do I upload videos?” with Google Video. You can upload videos as many as you want with Yahoo! Video but each file needs to be less than 100MB. YouTube has a limit of 100MB and 10 minutes in length per video but there is no length limit for Director accounts.

In what format should the video be? Google Video accept many popular formats, such as AVI, ASF, QuickTime, Windows Media and MPEG formats. Files with file extensions like .avi, .asf, .mov, .wmv, .mpg, .mpeg, .mp4, .ra, .ram, and .mod are all acceptable but currently do not accept Flash files. Read Google Video’s technical requirements and quality guidelines for more information. Yahoo! Video supports the following file types like Windows Media, ASF, QuickTime, MPEG-1 and MPEG-2. YouTube accepts video files in the .avi, .mov, and .mpg file formats. I uploaded a .wmv at YouTube and it was accepted too.

What if you want to keep your video a private one? Yes, you have the option to keep it private or make it available to the public, check it out once you uploaded the video.

Ok, it’s getting long, enough for today. Anyway, these are just some of the features that I would like to mention. If you think that what I didn’t write here are good to mention too, you can write them here. You’re all welcome to do that. Read their FAQs or Help section too. Well, until then and have fun vlogging! Have fun viewing the videos!