Google News has been the subject of much speculation over the past months so company software engineer Andy Golding decided to clear the air on the official Google News Blog.

In a nutshell, some of the Google News myths include:

• Having a photo in your article helps with the rankings
• Sitemaps help rankings
• Timing of publication is important
• Adsense will help in the SERPs
• There’s no way to tell why articles aren’t included

In a second nutshell (the nuttier the better, right?), the facts include:

• When posting an article, then updating it, the crawler may not pick up the changes
• Redesigning a website may affects results in Google News
• Articles that are videos or images only may not be included in the results

Google News has also rolled out an experimental feature that allows the subjects linked in an article to comment on the story. The comments have to be reviewed by Google employees to prevent mischief first, however, but this gives voice and a chance for rebuttal or to add more information for visitors.

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Yahoo Shine launched on Monday, March 31, 2008 and is aimed as a vertical market that women can relate to and use as a destination on a daily basis. Yahoo Shine is akin to an online lifestyle magazine that features fashion, beauty, healthy living, entertainment, parenting, relationships, job, money, food, home, astrology and a chance for women to say what is on their minds.

While the Yahoo mother ship is deciding her fate in regard to Microsoft, Shine is shining on with feminine appeal. Headed up by Amy Iorio, the publisher of Yahoo shine she intends to make the online property funny, entertaining and a place for women to connect and empathize. Incidentally, Iorio has a Microsoft connection as her last job she headed up the software giant’s developer network.

Shine pulls from many of the top women’s online magazines including articles and blogs from Cosmopolitan, Good Housekeeping, InStyle, Glamour, Harper’s Bazaar, Style.com, and Women’s Health. This may not be everyone’s cup of tea, but give it a try and you might find that you take a shine to Yahoo Shine. And, that’s no April Fool’s joke.

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China is saying “not so fast” in the bid for Microsoft to take over Yahoo. According to the New York Times, the Chinese will be asserting new anti-trust and anti-monopoly legislation starting August 1, 2008 that could set a Great Wall hurdle in front of the merger.

China is vying to become a superpower in regard to anti-trust laws worldwide, along side of the United States and European Union. One of the issues at stake is that Yahoo owns a 40-percent stake in Chinese ecommerce site Alibaba.com in which Yahoo paid $1 billion.

The merger could give China the right to buy back the stake from Microsoft. Also at issue is the benefits (or deficits) of the worldwide shrinkage of dominant search engines from three to just Microsoft and Google.

If this were to happen, some may see the “don’t be evil” motto up for grabs as lack of competition may not be in the best interests of a democratic Web. Neither Yahoo nor Microsoft are talking right now, which could symbolize a “quiet period of negotiation”.

No matter what, though, China will need to be at the table at some point as the country represents a huge player in the worldwide online marketplace.

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On Saturday, March 29, web surfers everywhere who used Google will have seen a black screen. Not to be confused with the “blue screen of death” that some PC users have experienced, the Google black screen is however a sign of life.

Black is the new green, one may say as the Google black screen is part of the Earth Hour initiative aimed at having people worldwide turn off their lights to help cut down on emissions and make the planet a little greener.

From 8 pm to 9 pm on March 29, 2008 people were supposed to have turned off their lights in order to save an hour of power. Now, the black screen itself is an area of confusion since there was once a rumor floating about on the Internet that a black computer screen would actually save more energy than a white one.

Not so, say search giant Google as a disclaimer on their homepage stated that having a white screen or black screen makes no difference when it comes to power consumption. The point of the black screen is to call attention to this initiative for lights that lay beyond the computer screen.

Today, however, all is back to normal. The lights are back on and the screen is once again a nice pearly white.

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This is the first post in the SEO Expert Blog and there will be plenty more to follow. Since I’ve been busy blogging at my other SEO websites for the past couple of years, I have finally decided to put up a blog here as well. Why?

Well, there is just some much information about search engines and the industry to contain in just a few places. SEO is an ever changing industry and the more people are informed the better choices they can make.

So, sit back and enjoy the ride and I’ll see you at the top of the search engine rankings!

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