Google, holy cow!

[paulgl]

Man that was weird. I have google as my homepage, just clicked
there and the background morphed into a design! Freaked me out!
Looks like google is letting you put a personal background on it.
That is just too cool. Be a google hater, but man are they inventive
and creative. But then, I wonder why they didn't think of it before!

Paul

[mattlaclear]

Yeah Paul I just caught that too. Google just keeps stepping up their game every few weeks now. Serious heavyweight.

[Puusaari]

Wow, first they copy Bing with the search features on the left... now they copy the background image too.

[24kWing]

Yep, They are starting to look alot like Bing...........interesting!

Just My 2 cents

[dburk]

Every time I try to go to Google my browser takes me to Bing

[Ryan6]

It does look good. They still let you play this as well...
Google

[DireStraits]

Most of the backgrounds (particularly darker ones) just make the whole thing look cluttered and harder to see.

Not to mention the fact it makes things a little slow and clunky, the image and javascript, etc.

From what I can see of the suggestions about "improving" this feature on Google Product Ideas, not a single person in the first few pages likes this change and all have asked for a way to opt out, or turn it off by default or remove it altogether.

Simplicity is what makes Google popular. Their colourful logo on their homepage and SERPs is all the visual eye candy I need from them and makes their website look modern and up-to-date enough without this.

[TargetedTrafficSolutions]

The Reason You Guys Are All Seeing This is Because Google Has Fully Rolled Out There Caf Index Today, The Old Index Is Dead, And A New Chapter Of Seo Begins....

[JWVoodoo]

not sure i'm that keen on the new background thing

[CliveG]

Quite tasteful pictures though!

[paulgl]

Well, just shows that I never go to bing!
In fact, I doubt if many have their homepage set as bing.
Google lets you add a custom image and show it if you
are logged in. Since gmail is the #1 free email in the world,
I guess that's not a problem.

After looking at bing just out of curiosity, it looks strangely
like they actually copied google.com. Seems to me when bing
came out it was quite cluttered. Now it's like google. So who
copied who?

Companies know a good thing when they see it.

Paul

[Wi]

I think it's just temporary!

Google is always changing their logo and stuff like that, and they can't really do that with a full screen background like that!

[dburk]

Google kills background images on home page


Well that didn't last long. I believe it will go down in marketing history like the New Coke fiasco.

[__internet__]

The only reason why they're doing the background is for analytics. They want people to sign in and choose different backgrounds. Then they can track every search by the user and make everything more relevant. Basically, they want webmasters to lose money and rankings not to matter anymore.

[Peter Gregory]

Originally Posted by __internet__

...they want webmasters to lose money and rankings not to matter anymore.

I love to hear conspiracy theories as much as the next guy, but why exactly would they want that?

[paulgl]

Originally Posted by dburk

Google kills background images on home page


Well that didn't last long. I believe it will go down in marketing history like the New Coke fiasco.

Supposedly it got a lot of bad press. Seems to me it was the bing haters
that killed it.

But that's why google is tops. They know when to kill something and
get even more press doing so.

Paul

[John Hocking]

Google...... BING.... BAM.... BOOMMMMM!

I guess we are seeing that people don't like change especially when it is forced on you without an option to opt out.

I think you can see the growing power of social media. Gone are the days when you just had to set back and take it. Now the out cry is loud and broad.

Keep that in mind.

[HorseStall]

I wish Google would focus on search and stay out of the other stuff.

[Fraggler]

Originally Posted by paulgl

In fact, I doubt if many have their homepage set as bing.

Internet Explorer is defaulted to use the Bing Search Engine - that's quite a few people right there.

[__internet__]

Originally Posted by Peter Gregory

I love to hear conspiracy theories as much as the next guy, but why exactly would they want that?

They want SEO to not be a factor anymore. They want to have full control over the search engine and make it as relevant as possible for the user. That's why they're putting this background stuff up. They want you logged in. If people can't get high rankings, they will have to pay for adwords. Therefore, webmasters will be losing money since free traffic makes more than paid traffic.

[Fraggler]

When Google first started to get noticed I seem to remember them being highly against companies being able to buy rankings.

[bay37]

Originally Posted by paulgl

After looking at bing just out of curiosity, it looks strangely like they actually copied google.com. Seems to me when bing
came out it was quite cluttered. Now it's like google. So who
copied who?

Companies know a good thing when they see it.

First you admit that you do not keep up to date with search engine tech/news.

Then you make the most "out there" conclusion. Ever.

....fanboy much?

[kelsa]

Originally Posted by TargetedTrafficSolutions

The Reason You Guys Are All Seeing This is Because Google Has Fully Rolled Out There Caf Index Today, The Old Index Is Dead, And A New Chapter Of Seo Begins....

Hi, can you tell me what Caf means? And you say a new chapter of SEO..how so? What are the implications?

Cheers
Kassandra

[bay37]

Originally Posted by kelsa

Hi, can you tell me what Caf means? And you say a new chapter of SEO..how so? What are the implications?

Cheers
Kassandra

Google Caffeine (algorithm update among other things) and the fact that the changes have just been finalised and a lot of people have lost TONS of long-tail traffic, etc.

Most Adsense snipers have had their income cut in half (if lucky). Those who don't talk about it are either lying (read selling an eBook) or have been extremely lucky/used different site building pactices.

This applies to other site models as well - almost everyone has been effected in some way.

[kelsa]

Originally Posted by bay37

Google Caffeine (algorithm update among other things) and the fact that the changes have just been finalised and a lot of people have lost TONS of long-tail traffic, etc.

Most Adsense snipers have had their income cut in half (if lucky). Those who don't talk about it are either lying (read selling an eBook) or have been extremely lucky/used different site building pactices.

This applies to other site models as well - almost everyone has been effected in some way.

I see! Thanks for the reply! So, what is the way forward? The remedy to this if you say that lots of people have lost tons of traffic? You mention 'using different site building practices.' So, how would that help please...and what might they be ?

Best
Kassandra

[paulgl]

Originally Posted by bay37

First you admit that you do not keep up to date with search engine tech/news.

Then you make the most "out there" conclusion. Ever.

....fanboy much?

I keep up with SE news, thank you. Like google kicking the pants of off bing.
Did you know that google searchers who ditch them are going to yahoo or ask?
Bing is a non issue. I only follow google. I follow the big 800 lb gorilla.
Why should I follow bing? I had not been on bing.com since it came out.
And it was cluttered. I concentrate on google because that's who I choose
to concentrate on. Period. They rule the search world. Why would I do
anything else?

Look at bing then look at google. Bing looks like they uncluttered to copy
google. So, again, who copied who?

Bing has been falling flat on it's face. I know, it kills the google haters
but sometimes you have to face reality.

If that's an "out there comment," I'll gladly plead guilty taking my lots
with google, not bing.

Paul

[Wi]

Originally Posted by paulgl

I keep up with SE news, thank you. Like google kicking the pants of off bing.
Did you know that google searchers who ditch them are going to yahoo or ask?
Bing is a non issue. I only follow google. I follow the big 800 lb gorilla.
Why should I follow bing? I had not been on bing.com since it came out.
And it was cluttered. I concentrate on google because that's who I choose
to concentrate on. Period. They rule the search world. Why would I do
anything else?

Look at bing then look at google. Bing looks like they uncluttered to copy
google. So, again, who copied who?

Bing has been falling flat on it's face. I know, it kills the google haters
but sometimes you have to face reality.

If that's an "out there comment," I'll gladly plead guilty taking my lots
with google, not bing.

Paul

Stfu Paul - Bing is okay, and I recieve at least around 1000 visitors per day from bing all over my websites! And I have a lot - especially imagesearch is great, I'm recieving a bunch of visits through their imagesearch, and YES it does convert..

I have not done ANYTHING to lay first on bing, but somehow I manage to lay number 1 for some searchterms.

Google is the best - no doubt about it, but don't say that Bing is NOTHING - because they are! They took some percentages of the searchmarket, so don't be such a Bing-hater...

Bing is way better than yahoo as far as I can tell! I'm recieving like maybe 50 visitors from yahoo daily, and compared to Bing that's not a lot!

Paul - try being positive instead of all that bull**** - seriously!

For you it's: My way or the highway, but that's not how it works!