SEO takes another hit....Thoughts?

[subster]

This is only a big G cloaking device...

There's no way Google are not going to disclose keywords, because that's how their whole Adwords and Adsense platforms are built around. That Pay per click keyword system...

Or they could be switching to a more demographic based system a la facebook, but it seems to farfetched...

Anyway, only time will tell.

Don't think so. The more demographic based system is already here:

http://www.google.com/adplanner

 

[Pyrros]

This update will be interesting to watch and see how people adapt to the changes.

The reason that analytic's will no longer pickup the keywords when ssl search is used, is that the browsers does not pass the referer header field when using https.

 

[LakeForest]

I don't see the advantage for google to hide the searches of those that are logged in. I would expect it to be an opt-out system. In fact, I doubt there will be a major change from what we have now except that it sounds Google is doing what they should have done in the first place.

My more technically inclined friends always told me to sign out of Gmail when searching on Google because all the information gets tied to you so much more closely if you're logged in to your account, but if they make the search info of logged in users anonymous now, that's a perfectly logical and happily welcomed move.

This might even make SEO easier as people like me will feel comfortable being logged in while searching if my search is treated with the same respect to privacy as any other!

Google loves SEO, it's what develops their main product. I don't see this being a big burden at all; they have so much more to lose than gain from this and it would be the first case in recent memory where an information company actually gives MORE privacy.....and that doesn't seem likely.

 

[assassinmarketing]

hmmm... I got a funny feeling the G gang is getting ready to offer upsell packages to webmasters

 

[volund]

I don't see the advantage for google to hide the searches of those that are logged in. I would expect it to be an opt-out system. In fact, I doubt there will be a major change from what we have now except that it sounds Google is doing what they should have done in the first place.

My more technically inclined friends always told me to sign out of Gmail when searching on Google because all the information gets tied to you so much more closely if you're logged in to your account, but if they make the search info of logged in users anonymous now, that's a perfectly logical and happily welcomed move.

This might even make SEO easier as people like me will feel comfortable being logged in while searching if my search is treated with the same respect to privacy as any other!

Google loves SEO, it's what develops their main product. I don't see this being a big burden at all; they have so much more to lose than gain from this and it would be the first case in recent memory where an information company actually gives MORE privacy.....and that doesn't seem likely.

The advantage for Google is none of the referral info is past on so the only way to get that info is through Google. Kiss all those third party competitors goodbye.........

How is this going to make things any easier?? Basically Google is telling everyone add Google code to your site or we will give you as little information as possible. I know I personally very rarely put any Google code on my sites, I have a few with adsense but generally I monetize them a different way. Google is in the business of collecting information and they never throw any of it away. Now they are trying to force people to give them more.

I really do not see how this is an advantage to anyone but Google.

 

[LakeForest]

The advantage for Google is none of the referral info is past on so the only way to get that info is through Google. Kiss all those third party competitors goodbye.........

How is this going to make things any easier?? Basically Google is telling everyone add Google code to your site or we will give you as little information as possible. I know I personally very rarely put any Google code on my sites, I have a few with adsense but generally I monetize them a different way. Google is in the business of collecting information and they never throw any of it away. Now they are trying to force people to give them more.

I really do not see how this is an advantage to anyone but Google.

Very fair point, and I do agree that this will make it harder if you don't like applying Google's code to your site. I didn't putting much thought on how it would affect someone trying to stay generally away from Google, but that is completely valid.

The benefit of what Google is doing really comes, I think, from making it more comfortable for logged in users to share their information freely. Like I said: conventional wisdom from my friends taught me to not be logged in while making searches on Google because your data was stored forever with your account information (location, emails, etc). Now, it seems this data is being treated with the same weight as information collected from sources not logged in. Either they found a way to collect more information from users who aren't logged in, or they may possibly be removing personal information from search data metrics that are available to the public. By making all the searches from logged in users show the referer as google.com, I see it as incentive to use their service to get the real information. I doubt Google will see benefit in hiding sources of traffic from webmasters, it doesn't make sense unless there's some benefit to those who use Google's services

I'm very interested in hearing your interpretation, because you're looking at this from such a different angle than I am that I feel nervous being comfortable with these changes, so there is probably something big I'm missing.

This, and Panda, in addition with YSE getting removed is certainly going to make things confusing and interesting.