I have been running some test on Google personalized search, although the all results aren’t in yet, there does seem to be some loopholes ;)

With Google Personalized Search ON: ( I added the yellow box)

We are working on %’s at the moment, what will trigger a result and what won’t… I triggered the webmasterworld result Via spam for my Google Personalized Search … But it would be easy to spam for any site .. in fact Google Personalized Search opens an new set of spam doors ;)

Google Personalized Search OFF

Ali has asked me to provide the SEO community, who have all been so worried about Ian, a press release to let everyone know what actually happened in New Orleans/Atlanta that made Ian go missing.

He changed hotel due to the air conditioning system that was keeping him awake and he wanted a good night sleep after the conference and pub con before his flight home. He booked into the Monaco Hotel a few blocks away from the Park Plaza on the Saturday. Unfortunately this hotel wasn’t much better so he didn’t get his good night sleep as planned. He arrived at the airport drained from the conference week and the lack of sleep.

To make matters worse the flight was delayed to Atlanta meaning that he would miss the connection to the UK, plus the weather was bad. The flight to Atlanta was apparently very turbulent and Ian is a bad flyer and afraid of heights at the best of times.
This culmination of circumstances made Ian have, what can only be described as, a panic attack on the plane as it landed in Atlanta. The actual details here are quite vague and Ian is unsure of the whole events.
What did happen though was that he left his personal belongings on the plane (passport, wallet, laptop, coat) so subsequently he was arrested by the local police inside/outside the airport. Subsequent to this and the fact he had no ID on him he was detained in the local jail.

It has taken the past few days for the local police to sort this out with Homeland Security and the British Consolate and having no ID on him was a big problem. But as soon as he was traced to the jail and his identity was proved, we were able to get funds to him (thanks to Keith) which enabled the passport to be sorted for Ian.

He is currently at the airport hotel awaiting a flight home and has got some of his personal belongings back.

Ali has asked me to say how much she has appreciated all of the support that has been given to her and her family this last week which has enabled her to keep strong to cope with this frightening situation of not knowing what had happened to Ian.
She would like some quiet time when Ian gets back to the UK and we should respect her wishes. Once Ian has recovered from this ordeal I am sure that he will thank the community personally for everything that you have achieved.

I would personally like to thank the whole SEM community, Keith Hazelden - the man on the ground at Atlanta, Chris R, ThomasB, NickW, Danny Sullivan and Brett Tabke. I’d also like to thank the search engine reps Tim Mayer and Matt Cutts for their help.

My part in all of this started when Ali stickied me on Tuesday to ask if I’d seen or heard from Ian as he wasn’t home yet. This started the threads appearing on the forums to try and find him. I have been in communication with Ali through all of this offering advice and support, as well as helping his business partners in the UK with client issues on the SEO side of things (honest Tim & Matt i’ve kept it clean!).

Lets hope this is the end to the saga….

DaveN

Yahoo! - 999 Unable to process request at this time — error 999

Sorry, Unable to process request at this time — error 999.
Yahoo!

Unfortunately we are unable to process your request at this time. This error is usually temporary. Please try again later.

If you continue to experience this error, it may be caused by one of the following:

* You may want to scan your system for spyware and viruses, as they may interfere with your ability to connect to Yahoo!. For detailed information on spyware and virus protection, please visit the Yahoo! Security Center.
* This problem may be due to unusual network activity coming from your Internet Service Provider. We recommend that you report this problem to them.

While this error is usually temporary, if it continues and the above solutions don’t resolve your problem, please let us know.

Return to Yahoo!

Please check the URL for proper spelling and capitalization. If you’re having trouble locating a destination on Yahoo!, try visiting the Yahoo! home page or look through a list of Yahoo!’s online services. Also, you may find what you’re looking for if you try searching below.

___________________________________________________

This is to slow the bad scapers and automated queries down…

Chad do you think you should have a white list or something :) —>>> (big hint) Google

DaveN

Ian Turner is my CO-Moderator at Webmasterworld, we both went to the New Orleans Webmasterworld conference. On friday morning (day of pubcon) he checked out of the Park Plaza to check into another hotel..

Does anyone know what hotel he checked into ?? did anyone see Ian Saturday or Sunday

UK police now trying to follow up on his movements in New Orleans so any information about his movements Friday, Saturday and Sunday urgently required.
i.e. Approximate time and place that you talked to him or saw him

#
DaveN

Ok Scraper Sites, Wrong or Right ???

Googles new guidelines state : http://www.google.com/webmasters/guidelines.html

These quality guidelines cover the most common forms of deceptive or manipulative behavior, but Google may respond negatively to other misleading practices not listed here (e.g. tricking users by registering misspellings of well-known websites). It’s not safe to assume that just because a specific deceptive technique isn’t included on this page, Google approves of it. Webmasters who spend their energies upholding the spirit of the basic principles listed above will provide a much better user experience and subsequently enjoy better ranking than those who spend their time looking for loopholes they can exploit.

But, i don’t think that Scraper sites are deceptive, they are just large collections of websites collected Via Keywords… so where is the problem..

And why did google give so many the handjob this weekend..

DaveN

One of my programmers just noticed this in the whois for google.com:

programmer@davenspamserver87:~$ whois -h whois.crsnic.net google.com

Whois Server Version 1.3

Domain names in the .com and .net domains can now be registered
with many different competing registrars. Go to http://www.internic.net
for detailed information.

GOOGLE.COM.ZZZZ.DNSW.COM
GOOGLE.COM.VN
GOOGLE.COM.SUCKS.FIND.CRACKZ.WITH.SEARCH.GULLI.COM
GOOGLE.COM.IS.NOT.HOSTED.BY.ACTIVEDOMAINDNS.NET
GOOGLE.COM.IS.APPROVED.BY.NUMEA.COM
GOOGLE.COM.HAS.LESS.FREE.PORN.IN.ITS.SEARCH.ENGINE.THAN.SECZY.COM
GOOGLE.COM.AU
GOOGLE.COM

To single out one record, look it up with “xxx”, where xxx is one of the
of the records displayed above. If the records are the same, look them up
with “=xxx” to receive a full display for each record.

>>> Last update of whois database: Sun, 12 Jun 2005 20:56:26 EDT < <<

NOTICE: The expiration date displayed in this record is the date the
registrar's sponsorship of the domain name registration in the registry is
currently set to expire. This date does not necessarily reflect the expiration
date of the domain name registrant's agreement with the sponsoring
registrar. Users may consult the sponsoring registrar's Whois database to
view the registrar's reported date of expiration for this registration.

TERMS OF USE: You are not authorized to access or query our Whois
database through the use of electronic processes that are high-volume and
automated except as reasonably necessary to register domain names or
modify existing registrations; the Data in VeriSign Global Registry
Services' ("VeriSign") Whois database is provided by VeriSign for
information purposes only, and to assist persons in obtaining information
about or related to a domain name registration record. VeriSign does not
guarantee its accuracy. By submitting a Whois query, you agree to abide
by the following terms of use: You agree that you may use this Data only
for lawful purposes and that under no circumstances will you use this Data
to: (1) allow, enable, or otherwise support the transmission of mass
unsolicited, commercial advertising or solicitations via e-mail, telephone,
or facsimile; or (2) enable high volume, automated, electronic processes
that apply to VeriSign (or its computer systems). The compilation,
repackaging, dissemination or other use of this Data is expressly
prohibited without the prior written consent of VeriSign. You agree not to
use electronic processes that are automated and high-volume to access or
query the Whois database except as reasonably necessary to register
domain names or modify existing registrations. VeriSign reserves the right
to restrict your access to the Whois database in its sole discretion to ensure
operational stability. VeriSign may restrict or terminate your access to the
Whois database for failure to abide by these terms of use. VeriSign
reserves the right to modify these terms at any time.

The Registry database contains ONLY .COM, .NET, .EDU domains and
Registrars.

Has google’s whois been poisoned? Navigating to crsnic.net in a web browser takes you to Verisign’s web page.

Interesting….

ok has I watched a site slowly delist itself from Google, It got me thinking why is Google showing the NonWWW version of my site ! and to make matters worse a dns error had made the NonWWW not Resolve ! … a slow and painful lesson, I guess..

but what made Google stop indexing the www and move to the NonWWW , anyway some things that Google will return when you just search for the WWW and the NonWWW version of your url ..

When you search for either avis.co.uk OR www.avis.co.uk you get :

Avis Rent a Car : Hire a car in the UK or at any of our 5000 …
Avis welcomes you to the home of car rental online where you can book your UK
car hire or rent a car at any of our worldwide locations.
www.avis.co.uk/

Google can show you the following information for this URL:
· Show Google’s cache of www.avis.co.uk
· Find web pages that are similar to www.avis.co.uk
· Find web pages that link to www.avis.co.uk
· Find web pages from the site www.avis.co.uk
· Find web pages that contain the term “www.avis.co.uk”

I guess that’s perfect.. :)

But what other’s we often see

Well what about kinghost.com and www.kinghost.com

hmmmm.. not so good and I’ve been seeing this quite a bit recently.

kinghost.com/

Google can show you the following information for this URL:
· Find web pages that are similar to kinghost.com
· Find web pages that link to kinghost.com
· Find web pages from the site kinghost.com
· Find web pages that contain the term “kinghost.com”

against the www version :

King Host
Home | Signup form | Terms & conditions | FAQ (Frequently asked questions) |
Members Area | How to get in touch with us. Welcome …
www8.kinghost.com/

Google can show you the following information for this URL:
· Show Google’s cache of www.kinghost.com
· Find web pages that are similar to www.kinghost.com
· Find web pages that link to www.kinghost.com
· Find web pages from the sitewww.kinghost.com
· Find web pages that contain the term “www.kinghost.com”

Hmmmm no snippet on the NONWWW, But the headers are ok.. but we did get a www8. ??

Headers for kinghost.com (69.90.63.51): HTTP/1.1 200 OK Date: Thu, 19 May 2005 10:00:56 GMT Server: Apache/1.3.29 Set-Cookie: pbct=0;path=/;domain=kinghost.com;expires=Saturday, 2-Jun-2023 16:07:28 GMT; Last-Modified: Tue, 14 Sep 2004 18:42:13 GMT ETag: “880e49-1cba-41473b85″ Accept-Ranges: bytes Content-Length: 7354 Content-Type: text/html Expires: Thu,
19 May 2005 10:00:56 GMT

Headers for www.kinghost.com (69.90.63.51): HTTP/1.1 200 OK Date: Thu, 19 May 2005 10:00:56 GMT Server: Apache/1.3.29 Set-Cookie: pbct=0;path=/;domain=kinghost.com;expires=Saturday, 2-Jun-2023 16:07:28 GMT; Last-Modified: Tue, 14 Sep 2004 18:42:13 GMT ETag: “880e49-1cba-41473b85″ Accept-Ranges: bytes Content-Length: 7354 Content-Type: text/html Expires: Thu, 19 May 2005 10:00:56 GMT

What about www.webposition.com ?? we all know they they felt the hurt …

Sorry, no information is available for the URL www.webposition.com
· If the URL is valid, try visiting that web page by clicking on the following link: www.webposition.com
· Find web pages from the site www.webposition.com
· Find web pages that contain the term www.webposition.com

But we did get the “If the URL is valid, try visiting that web page by clicking on the following link:”

And then if you have been really kicked hard you get the …

Sorry, no information is available for the URL www.xxxxxxxxx.com
· Find web pages from this site www.xxxxxxxxx.com
· Find web pages that Contain the term “www.xxxxxxxxx.com”

and if you are really lucky in a few weeks you will get “If the URL is valid, try visiting that web page by clicking on the following link:”

Please stand up .. :)

I got an email today from David Naylor an he had created a Firefox theme.. hehe

so i thought well if he can go ego searching so could I

David Naylor’s that are not DaveN !

David Naylor The Painter
David Naylor The Backgammon Board Maker
David Naylor The Attonery

even a David Naylor with Civil War Congressional Medal of Honor Recipient !

DaveN

should search engines really index and publish everything they can find ?

I going to use Yahoo for this test but Google are the same ..

awstats

ok website stats aren’t that interesting .. but

Password.mdb

there are many many more and this is just food for thought :)

DaveN

ok Private.mdb

do a search on Google.com for :

php password
mysql password
access password

do you see want i see at the top of the serps …

Password
Php: 4.3.10
According to http://djvirus.dj.ohost.de/nuke/modules.php?name=Your_Account&op=pass_lost - More sources »

what use is this ??

DaveN