September
28, 2005
In This Issue:
1. Designer? Try TypeTester
2. In the News - Size Wars, Goodbye Jeeves
3. More News Headlines
4. This Week's Q&A - Just dropped by Google,
why?
5. Wrapping It Up
_________________
Designer? Try TypeTester
I know I've used this space before to lament how
poorly text looks on PCs as compared to Macs.
I'd call myself spoiled by the Mac's elegant rendering
of text, but it's not being spoiled when text
looks like it's SUPPOSED TO look! It's more a
case of PCs doing it poorly than the Mac doing
it well.
So, for me, this tool doesn't have a ton of value.
But if you're a PC user -- and specifically, a
designer who uses a PC -- this tool is a must.
It's called TypeTester and it lets you easily
compare several screen types at once.
TypeTester
http://typetester.maratz.com/
When you first visit, you'll see that everything
is pre-set for you -- sample text, typefaces to
compare, sizes, etc. But you can change any /
all of these as you wish. Put your own sample
text in there, change the fonts to 2-3 you want
to compare, set your size, alignment, leading/tracking,
etc. -- and watch the text below change as you
go. Be sure to scroll down to see your sample
text in bold, italics, and so forth. If you're
a designer, especially one using a PC, I think
you'll love this.
_________________
In The News
No More Size Wars
Google announced this week that A) it has the
largest index of pages/files of any search engine,
and B) it's not going to share its count of indexed
pages anymore. It's kinda like the kid who says
he's the best baseball player on the block and
then grabs his bat and glove and goes home. But
if this means that Google and Yahoo will stop
the silly arguing over who has the biggest search
engine, then that's good news. Quality, relevant
results have very little to do with the size of
pages being indexed.
Goodbye, Jeeves
Meanwhile, late last week AskJeeves owner Barry
Diller announced that the search engine would
soon bid adieu to Jeeves, its butler, and rebrand
as either Ask.com or just Ask.
_________________
More News Headlines
Here are a few news headlines worth your time
to read. These are just some of the headlines
we've posted to OWTweb.com in recent days.
End
Of Size Wars? Google Says Most Comprehensive But
Drops Home Page Count
September 27, 2005 - Search Engine Watch
Google is dropping from its home page the famous
count of pages in its index while simultaneously
claiming it has the most comprehensive collection
of web documents available to searchers.
A
new image boosts orders by 60 percent
September 26, 2005 - ClickZ.com
A very clean test -- and some very positive e-mail
campaign results.
Classifieds
still king, but paid search looms locally
September 22, 2005 - ClickZ.com
Local ad spending, driven by classifieds and paid
local search, is experiencing a growth spurt,
two reports find.
More headlines: http://www.owtweb.com/news/
_________________
This Week's Q&A
Hi Matt,
We need some help. Just within the last few days
our Google rankings have gone way down. We used
to be on the first page for most of our main keywords,
but now we're either missing completely or have
dropped several pages. Is there anything we can
do to get back where we were?
Bill
Hi Bill,
There are always a variety of things that can
impact your position in Google, and it's possible
this is just a temporary issue. As long as you've
been playing nicely -- i.e., no spam, you're doing
things the right way, etc. -- my guess is that
this is just temporary, and I'd suggest you try
to wait it out until your site comes back. I know
it's easier said than done, so be prepared to
spend some money on advertising if you need to.
That said, there does appear to be something going
on with Google at the moment. Webmasters are reporting
seeing pretty substantial changes in Google's
SERPs over the past week or so. No one knows for
sure, but there's a growing belief that Google
is targeting pages with duplicate/similar content.
That's always a risky proposition, because when
two pages have similar content, figuring out which
one is the original and which one is the copy
can be a crap shoot. If you want to see this filter
in action, you can add this bit of code -- &filter=0
-- to the end of the URL of any Google search.
For example, here's a search for [steel rigging]
followed by a 2nd link with the code added:
http://www.google.com/search?q=steel%20rigging
http://www.google.com/search?q=steel%20rigging&filter=0
Notice in the 2nd set of SERPs that Davis Instruments
has the top four listings -- that's without the
duplicate content filter in place. So in this
case it's obvious the filter is working -- it
stops one site from dominating the SERPs. Unfortunately,
sometimes these filters also hit sites that don't
deserve to be hit. I hope that's not the case
for you.
(Have a question? Email questions@owtweb.com)
_________________
Wrapping it Up
Net Gains will be on break next week. I'll be
away from the office during prime newsletter-writing
time, so I'll be back in two weeks with the next
issue.
Thanks for reading,
Matt McGee
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