Matt Cutts recently held a YouTube video about the advancements that Google made in 2008 in terms of making the integrity of search results more effective as well as software advancements the company as made. Google has made great strides toward continuing to release new software, integrate the process of handling web spam, and eliminate or penalize websites that are utilizing blackhat SEO methods to promote a website. A copy of the entire video by Matt Cuts is below but here is a summary of the 2008 accomplishments that were touched on:
- Google Chrome was released as a new age web browser which has been tested and proved to be much quicker than other website browsers such as Microsoft internet explorer and Mozilla firefox.
- Google released a Linux style operating system called Android which is a Mobile OS but is a start for Google into the market.
- The introduction of Google suggest and SearchWiki. SearchWiki allows you to make search results more customized and your choices appear at the top of the results. Google has made no mention that this will impact overall search engine results.
- Google Trends allows you to do a side by side keyword comparison to see the market of keywords against each other or by a specific time period. You can also compare on a website to website basis.
- Google Ad Planner is a great new tool that allows you to demographically target your advertisements for a certain region, age group, sex, and more.
- In 2008, Google’s technology now allows them to be able to extract PDF document details (text) for use for indexing in the search engine.
- Google has improved their keyword spam recognition process which further contributes to penalizing people on the web who are using blackhat seo techniques to try and boost their search engine rankings unethically.
- Custom 404 page with Google search integration – this tool, by adding 14 lines of javascript, will suggest the most appropriate potential match for your website.
- Webmaster Central has introduced a feature which will contact you if it appears that your website is hackable.
What is the greatest part about all of these tools? They are all entirely free and while Google is making plenty of money, they seem to have an appreciation for open source free information and software. You can view the entire video highlighting 2008 in review for Google below.