Author: andrewsho

[View the story “Lobster Searches Google For Pizza. Gets Confused.” on Storify] Lobster Searches Google For Pizza. Gets Confused. Storified by Andrew Shotland · Tue, Aug 28 2012 13:19:38 Google’s monopolistic behavior in Web search seems to have no bounds. Check out hover experience for local. http://pic.twitter.com/r0K2OMvIRakesh Agrawal The preceding was not meant to be a defense of $YELP, which is one Google algorithm change from oblivion.Rakesh Agrawal @rakeshlobster – what’s a real shame is how the user is completely…

Google Plus links have been showing up here and there in Google Knowledge Graph results, but I think the big G just pushed into overdrive. This morning I noticed Google Plus profiles showing up where Google Knowledge graph data has been displayed on SERPs that target brand queries, along with some new formats. Some of these have been around for a while, but I can’t remember which ones are old and which are new so I am listing everything I…

John Gruber is one of my favorite writers. His blog, Daring Fireball, just turned 10. That deserves a link with some juicy anchor text. If you are looking for magic 8 ball answers, Gruber indeed has balls and knows his way around a dingus.  Give it a read.

From The Wall Street Journal back in June: Google Inc. has repeatedly tried, and largely failed, to crack the market for local business advertising. As early as next month, the Internet company will try anew, as it trains its largest-ever assault on the roughly $20 billion market. Google plans to have its newest small-business service—which at one point it was calling Business Builder—up and running as early as July, said a person familiar with the matter. Well, that Olympics coverage…

Jade Wang of Google just announced that your old Google+ Business Page can now be merged with your new Google+ Local page which used to be your Google Places Page. As usual Mike Blumenthal has got the goods to help you make sense of the whole thing. Here’s Jade’s post:  For those of you that have created local Google+ pages (with social features) — good news! Today, you can become the verified business owner for that local Google+ page. In…

Our image files are all screwed up. Please stand by… UPDATE: Fixed. Kind of.

  Hard to believe it’s been over five years since I started this gig. While on occasion I have tried to share interesting stuff on the blog, this weekend, while depositing the above check, it occurred to me that I had never used this public space to share my appreciation for the people who have made the crazy ride over the past few years possible – my clients. I picked up my first client – LATimes.com – in fall of…

Matt Cutts’ most recent G+ post: and his latest Tweet: Thing is, the whole “Hobbit-Meets-Google-Maps” thing would probably have a better chance of exposing new users to Google Plus v. the links thing.

Just got this: I applaud Google for notifying site owners that they have some spammy-looking links. I don’t applaud them for not telling site owners which links in particular look spammy. If you have been link-building, then you probably know where to look, but if like me, you haven’t, then you have to spend time figuring out where the crap is and trying to squash it. And in my case, my blog posts get copied by all sorts of assholes…

For those in the know, Dittmer’s Gourmet Meats & Wurst Haus was the best place in Silicon Valley to get a smoked pork chop, a pickled pigs foot or a tub of duck fat. Unfortunately, last year a faulty smoker caused a fire and Dittmers had to shut down while it moved locations and rebuilt. During the agonizingly long hiatus, Dittmer’s has run a pretty awesome Facebook page to keep fans updated on when the new Los Altos location will…