Wow, thanks for all the feedback! I’m clearly going to have to point several Googlers to the comments to say “Look, here’s a good idea” or “This was really annoying to someone.” I’m going to be doing lighter posts this week for a few reasons:
1. I’d love for people to keep adding (constructive) feedback and product suggestions.
2. Work is going to be a little crazy; there’s always a lot to do at the beginning of the year.
3. On Tuesday afternoon, I’m heading to San Diego for some training until the end of the week.
It’s my first time visiting San Diego; anything in particular I should check out? I won’t have much free time, but at least I’ll know about fun things to do in case I make it back there again anytime soon.
I’ll try and make this a helpful comment 🙂
1)
– Have the Google toolbar warn you when you’re on a page Google knows installs scumware
– An automated “Is my site banned?” query and response. Think of all the work it’ll cut down!
– Have banned AdSense sites display free charity ads rather than no ads.
– Get the autoresponder and rss ticker live on Gmail/Google Mail in the UK 🙂
2)
I share your pain… actually, no, I like being busy and something tells me that you do to!
3)
You’ll have to let us know what San Diego is like. If I start travelling to the US then I’d like to know which Google building to camp beside first! 🙂
Gaslamp quarter is great and has lots of nice bars and restaurants. Try Lou & Mickeys for dinner:
http://maps.google.com/maps?sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=48.555061,64.335937&hl=en&q=lou+mickeys,+san+diego&btnG=Search&latlng=32715278,-117156389,1791333201915229697
Have a great time!
Hello Matt,
1. San Diego Maritime Museum
2. Spreckels Organ Pavilion in Balboa Park (http://www.sosorgan.com/) – if you like that kind of thing.
Have fun!
Thanks, ThomasB!
Go to Hooters. I think their is one off of 11th street. 🙂 Not that I’ve ever been there…I’m just saying. 😉
Also, head down to the marina. They have some awesome shops and great food!
Hi Matt,
They have many great Museum’s and they are walking distance to the SD zoo.
Have a great trip!! Thanks for providing a great bolg to gather information and learn.
Aloha,
Big Daddy!
Hey Matt,
I highly recommend checking out the cliffs at Blacks Beach in La Jolla (http://www.sandiego.gov/lifeguards/beaches/blacks.shtml). Balboa Park and the Wild Animal Park are a must, but require about half a day each. Sounds like you might not have much time for that.
As far as nightlife, the Gaslamp is the place to be. Stingaree is the new hot spot club (http://entertainment.signonsandiego.com/profile/283639) and I recommend Georges on Fifth (http://www.georgesonfifth.com/) for great steak and lobster.
Enjoy your trip, maybe I’ll see you around!
Matt,
I visited San Diego several years ago on a trip from the UK, the bars I went to were that good that I cannot remember exactly where they are!
I seem to remember there were lots of very nice young ladies though….
What’s up Matt? Here in San Diego we got everything you need, so first catch a ride to Ocean Beach to enjoy the last bastion of real hippyness on the west coast..lol. Plus the Sunset is great along the biggest concrete pier in California. You will probably want to check out Balboa Park. Even if you don’t go to the Zoo its still a nice walk around all the museums and the incredible architecture. If your interested in seeing all the beautiful women of San Diego, I recommend hanging around either Pacific Beach or more a more refined crowd (barely..lol), just stay downtown. It’s about 65 and sunny today so you should be able to enjoy the best thing about San Diego, the weather, while your here. Have a good time man. Let me know if you need anything since I live here (catfish@businessol.com).
Hello Matt,
Have fun in San Diego! Hope to see more posts when you come back about your life and Google SEO 😀
Hi Matt,
Last week I asked if it was ok if we republished what you had to say here about canonicalization and reinclusion requests but did not hear back from you.
Would greatly appreciate you giving the thumbs up, and let me know if you want us to quote you as the source, or perhaps not directly?
Thanks, Dave
Hi Matt,
At the risk of plugging one of my own sites, here is a list of 40 things to do in the San Diego area.
http://www.allgetaways.com/region.asp?AreaID=100088
Enjoy!
-Doug
Eat at an authentic taqueria–try the Roberto’s chain or the Alberto’s chain. There are numerous *berto’s clones, but those are originals.
Unlike NorCal burritos, where they put rice and beans in and charge $3 more for the privilege, it’s just meat, guac, and salsa. Try the staple carne asada burrito. Simple and delicious (probably because everything is cooked in lard :))
Semi-off-topic question, Matt:
When are you coming (if ever) to Toronto?
Check out Sea World. If you’re into cycling at all and you like to push yourself you might try your mettle on Mt. Helix in La Mesa. The view at the top is good on a clear day.
Drive coronado bridge at least once. People used to commit suicide by jumping off that beast. Hitting water at that height is like hitting cement. Yikes.
I remember mission beach being pretty nice.
Give us a free OS and office application.
Make sure you stop by Coronado.
Old Town used to be really neat for a glimpse of local history and good restaurants but I haven’t been there in awhile. http://gocalifornia.about.com/cs/sandiego/a/oldtown.htm
Matt you’ve noted before that Google can’t really give you as good an answer as a human to “What should I do in San Diego?”. How long before Google can match natural human answers?
I have dreams of San Diego. Two years ago, my boss made me cancel my vacation to San Diego because he thought we’d be busy those 2-3 weeks. Turns out, I picked my nose the entire 2-3 weeks and quit. Still haven’t gone. Maybe this summer. Send me a picture to fill in my dreams.
Hello Matt and a warm welcome to San Diego!
If you would like a great restaurant with fantastic views I would highly recommend
Il Farnaio Italian Restaurant
1333 First Street
Coronado, CA 92118
Phone: 619.437.4911
This San Diego Restaurant has some of the best views in the San Diego area with stunning view of downtown San Diego and Bay! I have no affiliation with this Restaurant only a loyal client!
Should you see Veronica Corningstone, do please send her my regards
Me for one I’m glad that I can’t go to San Diego…
…living up here in Canada, why would I want to give up the ice and snow for warmer, beautiful weather, not to mentions shorts.
Actually I’m extremely jealous and hope to make it down someday myself…anybody ever try icefishing? Don’t let anybody ever tell you it beats fishing from a boat.
Hi Matt,
Though I have never been to San Diego, We have researched the city online and wrote a text about it with information on what to do in San Diego.
I hope you find something fun to check out in San Diego, and let me know if it is worth to visit the next time I go to the US. 🙂
Peter
Places to eat while you are here… Fred’s (baja style Mexican – there’s 3 of them… downtown, PB and Old Town), Shogun (sushi), Marrakesh (Moroccan).
Oh yeah… Strip Club (downtown) is cool too if you like to cook your own meat.
Send me a picture to fill in my dreams.
If your dreams include pictures of Matt in San Diego, you really do need a vacation.
Matt,
Here are some ideas since I’m from here in SD.
There is a Fry’s electronics off the 15 just north of the 8.
Food: Since nobody’s covered La Jolla…In La Jolla I recommend Alfonsos or Jose’s (both on Prospect) for Mexican food. There is also Karl Strauss brewery. Or Italian, I like Piatti best (between La Jolla Village area and UCSD).
Also, anywhere in SD, cheap Mexican food in/out joints… they usually are some variation on Robertos, Albiertos, Albertos, Roybertos..etc. Or Old Town has places or nearby such as El Indio.
Downtown (Gaslamp District)has a ton of places too of course, you can’t go wrong there most nights of the week. I particularly like Rei Do Gordo, a Brazilian steak place and Cafe Sevilla for Spanish tapas and the lower level disco there is good on the weekend (very Latina/Spanish/ethnic crowd).
Beaches: Torrey Pines and Del Mar are my favorites in terms of just chilling out. btw You an also walk on a nature trail above Torrey Pines, there is a little nature preserve… or PB (Pacific Beach) although it’s a younger crowd.
btw, the poster above mentioned the Strip Club–there aren’t any dancers, it’s a do-it-yourself grill…he probably should have mentioned that part of it!
You gotta go to the zoo. I thought “zoo? I’m not a kid” until I went. Very cool.
Matt :
I would recommend my two favorite places to eat.
Breakfast – The Omelette Factory (Santee/Mission Gorge) http://www.omelettefactory.com – best Omelettes hands down of anywhere I have ever ate.
Dinner (Cuban) – Andres (Mission Bay/Moreno Blvd) – 1235 Morena Blvd (http://cuban-food-usa.com/sandiego_andres.html)
Matt,
In addition to the zoo check out the Wild Animal Park, if you only have time for one or the other I would recommend the wild animal park. If you reserve in advance you can go “on safari” and see the wild ones up close. Feed the girafes early in the day (while they’re still hungry) and bring a camera.
If you golf or enjoy scenery Torrey Pines Golf Course is spectacular for either/or. To get on the course at the last minute make a reservation for an on course lesson. The view is awe inspiring.
Hi Matt,
My beach vacation rental is available in Mission Beach, San Diego. You and anyone you may be travelling with are welcome to use it, at no cost of course. Much better than a hotel, and just steps to the beach. High speed internet included. Take a look http://www.sandiegosunsetvacationrentals.com/listingview.php?listingID=1 and let me know if you are interested. It is going to sit empty anyway. No strings attached.
I echo on the Zoo.
Also, there’s a naval history “museum” consisting of a half-dozen or so refurbished ships from various time periods. There are a couple sailing ships (with interesting info on combatting piracy) as well as a Russian submarine(!), and quite a few others. I had a great time there, and would like to go back.
We did find a good Thai restaurant, small one, not near downtown. Don’t remember the name …
Hi Matt
I was in San Diego 12 years ago for a conference.
We did a great day trip south of the border to Tijuana (http://gocalifornia.about.com/cs/sandiego/a/tijuana.htm). Also, on the way back up to LA we came inland and stopped off in the desert, which I’d recommend if it was the right time of year. Maybe some of the locals can tell you more.
Matt,
its nice you appreciate the feedback.it would be nice to get some feedback of the feedback.
My particular bug is expired domains and expired blogs used to spam commercial serps.
It seems google is lacking the will power to tackle both.Blogger ignores complaints about obvious TOS violations and google seems to lack the tools to deal with expireds, yet , in theory in doesn’t seem that hard to do, especially for a Icann Registrar such as Google.
I see people that each have hundreds of expired domains and expired blogger domains making a mockery of google’s serps in genuine webmasters’ eyes
A little disappointed nobody mentioned EZ-J’s sandwiches in PB (Pacific Beach…but, just say PB ‘casue nobody knows what Pacific Beach is…only PB). The “Biter’s Deluxe” is pretty much a must try if you are an EZ-J’s noob. As Shawn said Fred’s is a good spot for Mexican food that is fresh and unlike any of the ‘bertos (Albertos, Alibertos, Roybertos, Philibertos, Hilbertos, et al)…but, you have to hit up at least one ‘bertos when you are there…a Carne Asada burrito or a bean and cheese burrito would be my personal recommendations. There is tons of great sushi in SD, just depends on what neck of the woods you are in. Baja Grill in La Jolla is another great spot for lunchtime Mex or Su Casa for great Mexican dinner in La Jolla (super OG too). Old Town is great for Mexican at any of the big 3/4 restaurants there. Be sure to order a large Margarita at any…I think they share glasses. Hopefully, you like Mexican food and strippers. Lots of both in SD. Have fun.
Welcome to San Diego, Matt. January is my favorite month here. 70+ degree weather, surf and few tourists.
Ditto Shawn’s tip on Freds, but you have to try a Rubio’s fish taco at least once. Alfonso’s in La Jolla has great carne asada. Great ocean views in La Jolla, although you are a little late for the big surf that hit the La Jolla Cove a few weeks back.
Zoo (pandas) and Sea World will be close to empty, so a great time to visit. Maritime Museum is very cool, as is the USS Midway.
Gas Lamp has great food, pretty much anything you want. 15th St in Del Mar is one of the most beautiful beaches around, and if you give me an hour or two notice, we’ll get a wet suit and board for you and a surf lesson.
Hotel Del in Coronado is worth a visit if you are into history. Built in the late 1800’s it was the first building of its kind west of the Mississippi to have electricity. Thomas Edison oversaw that part of the construction. Peohe’s on Coronado has good seafood and a beautiful view over the bay of the city. If you are into something real special for dinner, try Bertrand’s at Mr. A’s. Fab views and one of the best meals in town.
Rent a motorbike and drive up towards La Jolla, visit the Coronado, Sea World is good but San Diego Zoo is amazing – take the guided bus tour. Take up golf and play Torrey Pines just for the views. Remember chill out it’s Southern California.
I’m a first-timer here so I hope this has not been discussed in depth previously but how about a kids (elementary) version of Google? I know there are others out there (Yahooligans,etc.) but I’d love to see Google come up with something as well as blogs searching/ book searching for kids. I am a librarian and teach tech/information literacy in a k-8 school and am presently planning an “advanced Googling” class for my 6-8 graders to let them in on Google scholar, file searching, etc. Any advice?
Hi Matt
Well if you want to make the web and spamming it history…take the top 50 sites sift out obvious spam and then use the list to make top 10 do it again for the next search.
In other words no site will ever hold # 1 day in day out or for that matter one minute to the next.
Of course to do this you need to enforce all spam policies equally across all websites..the excuse of spammed out metas, links stuffing (easy.com keyword easy google yahoo links stuffed bottom of page) should not be acceptable.
But thats just crazy thinking ;->
San Diego is so much fun – you will love it! Must go to Coronado Island and see the Coronado Hotel and down to the Gaslamp District. And you gotta do the zoo! If your time is limited they have a great double decker bus tour that gives you the zoo highlights – sit on the top deck!
It’s really nice down here… I wish I could recommend a good place to go for vacation but I’m a new student to UCSD and haven’t really had much time to view the area…
However, if you want to stop and visit us I’m sure no one would mind. UCSD is located in La Jolla up in the northern area of the city, just shoot straight up the 5 and you’ll hit it fairly fast given good traffic.
We also have the San Diego Supercomputer Center if you’re looking for something geeky while you’re here.
Just a thought.
Just FYI, for a local example of the canonicalization problem: try a search for “google reader”. You’ll see http://www.google.com/reader and http://www.google.com/reader/ listed one after another.
I’m a big zoo fan. Last time I was in San Diego with my family:
San Diego Zoo
Sea World (got soaked because we ignored the “splash zone” warning
La Jolla
Coronado
Gaslamp District
In that order, but again I was with two small girls. San Diego is a great city – if you can’t find something to do, then it’s your own fault.
Umbrella’s are optional.
I just want to mention that I have nothing to add to this thread and have never been to San Diego.. 😉
Safe travels Matt.
😀
Hey Matt,
Just noticed that your Page Rank bar is reading 0. Lol have you been a naughty boy or something! seem to be across a number of the DC’s http://www.seochat.com/?go=1&option=com_seotools&tool=9&url=www.mattcutts.com%2Fblog%2F&submit=Check . Either its a glitch or another PR update. If it is an update all the Pagerank sellers will be sitting around their computers wide eyed praying for that magical increase in PR which will net them some more money.
1- Google’s image results have the main site URL below each image (other than the image URL). The main URL ought to be hyperlinked. At the moment it is not. Sometimes I look at an image and want to directly go to the site. Currently, I have to copy paste the URL to a new browser window.
2- In Google Video, I want to bookmark interesting videos for future reference. Like I come across something at work but I want to check it out later at home. I’m sure the bookmarking would fit in nicely with gmail account and is consistent with Google’s mission.
3- Maybe you should stop displaying the number of milliseconds it took to pull a query out. I really could care less. Seriously.
Sorry, a couple more.
4- When Google toolbar is installed, I select a word, right click and click on the option for the meaning of the word. Currently you can translate the word. Why not also show it’s meaning?
5- Develop sophisticated command line querying for Google desktop search. I’m not a programmer. Just tech-savvy. My PC is a giant living/breathing database. I want to ‘mine’ it. Can you help?
Hey Matt,
Check out this: http://entertainment.signonsandiego.com/
It has reviews for restaurants, bars, nightlife, and all that kind of stuff. There’s also information on recreation, arts, movies, and music.
There are a lot of good restaurants around depending on what type of food you like.
Check out downtown, old town, balboa park, and pb.
A good place to eat breakfast is at the Broken Yolk Cafe in PB (http://www.sdro.com/brokenyolk/) They have tons of omelet choices as well as a bunch of other things.
Have a good time in sunny San Diego.
THANKYOU, THANKYOU MATT
can you hear me?
THANKYOU – read and digested (nearly) all your postings and advice and took it onboard and Hellelujah – on Monday morning I was back at no 1 again – it possible is just normal flux and ‘my turn’ – but I have a sneaky feeling it was because I deleted, what GG might have percieved as, hidden text. :0
No I’m not a spammer or black hat – more like a dunce’s hat – it was just sloppy webmastering – tried to incorporate ‘title’ tags into my nav bar – when I couldn’t get it to work properly simply left all that extra text in my code – DOH!!
So as long as GG isn’t playing ‘fast and loose’ with me I am mighty grateful to you and the time you take to instruct all of us in the correct way to webmasterdom.
Just hope that it will be possible at some time to automatically check a page if it’s possibly been penalized – would have saved me a lot of time, heartache and oodles and oodles of cash.
Matt,
I was wondering if Google is planning to release something like http://siteexplorer.search.yahoo.com/?
Thanks,
Jonathan
I had to laugh at the person who posted “visit Ocean Beach in San Diego for the last bastion of west coast hippiness”. ROFL
I’d argue that San Diego is so yuppified it has no idea of what a hippy is. For that you need to head to Northern CA where folks frolic naked at the hot springs or work for free room at board at one of the pot farms. And when they’re done they catch rides up to Portland for fairie festivals.
heh
Matt,
Here’s some photo ideas of things to do in San Diego from a few of my trips.
Personally, aside from the obvious like the beaches and the zoo, just rent a car and drive up the coast from San Diego to La Jolla. Keep going up to the gliderport as well.
Hi Matt,
We did Seaworld and the Zoo in July (and Legoland just up the road). Seaworld’s a must. Definitely an international attraction.
I found The Zoo much the same as Sydney’s or Auckland’s (I’m from a land down under). If you have children under 10 or you’re really into building 2 ft models of buildings go to Legoland. A friend of mine recommended the wild-life park as being as good or better than the zoo. We didn’t get the chance to go.
Matt, I’ve been reading the comments, and of course your writings. I must admit I came here for any info I can scrounge up to improve ranking etc, or in my case indexing (!!). Anyway, looks like the Big Daddy has me indexed pretty well, whereas I still struggle in the standard results. You know where I am coming from, along with millions of others. Now onto my point…
I’ve been struggling like everyone else to figure out how to get Google to take notice of me, wish it were as easy as the other engines, etc, getting pointers and changing when I can.
A theme that I see here is that everybody wants some sort of feedback tool from Google to tell them/us why our site is or is not doing well in the index. To me that is counterproductive, and would slam the actual “natural” results within about a week of its rollout.
Granted all of us honest to God good guys could use said tool to improve our site…. but so would the Viagra and Made for AdSense guys as well. With such instant feedback, the scum sites would more than likely quickly take over the sites that have real content.
It reminds me of an example in my own profession, engineering. Years ago, before my time even, part of the design process was drafting by actual pencil to paper people. The engineer would come up with a concept, red-line it, hand it to a drafter, wait a few days, continue to work on other aspects of the problem, get his/her drawing back, and make an iteration. Actual iterations before a final design were done, were few and of course far between.
Now we have almost instant gratification. Most engineers design on their computer, hit print, and go off to the plotter to view the results. What we have now is the engineer is spending more of his time adjusting the drawing than doing the actual design, because the cost (time) of an iteration is reduced.
A correlation can be made to web design today. As a Webmaster, we make a change, wait for a bot to take a look, wait for the index to be updated, view the results. During all of this waiting however we fill our time with actual site design, adding valuable content, searching for new references etc.
If this vital step, the time lag between change and reaction, is removed the designer of the site will become a pure designer for the SE and not for the site.
Do I wish I could no instantly if a change I made on a page would increase its ranking, yes I suppose, but if everyone else in the world had that information, those changes would in the end be impossible to do as we would all have PR of 10, and getting a good search result would depend more on the skill of the searcher than the quality of the web site.
In other words, we do need crap out there on the Internet, it makes the good stuff stand out. And the steep learning curve from bringing the site from crap to good stuff, improves the overall product, that is, INFORMATION.
I find San Diego’s classic spots boring and routine. Gaslamp and Old Town and the like. Much better is the inside angle of hip, as SD’s trendz shift often and the places that are “in” can be really great. Find yourself a local twenty-something to guide you if you are looking for evening stuff. e.g. Cafe Japengo next to the Hyatt Regency in La Jolla, and the night club inside on Thursday evenings is WILD.
Every time I visit SD I make time to chill on the cliffs of the Torrey Pines Glideport. Wide open space, no frills views of Black’s Beach and the Pacific. Steady 10mph wind off the ocean provides the power for radio controlled gliders flown by non-pretentious genuine *people*. Paragliding as well if you like thrills. I can sit there for hours and watch as the sun goes down.
Harry’s La Jolla is an old down home kitchenette/diner in La Jolla the travel guides don’t mention but every local knows as the best place to chow down eggs and pancakes right on the edge of town. Been there forever, again real people and real food.
In the past you couldn’t beat the fresh seafood at Point Loma Seafood; well worth standing in one of the ten or so parallel lines of customers to shout your order over the counter. Last year it had changed, however, so I can’t say I recommend it now, but I would swing by mid-day for a dozen on the half shell or some seviche.
Enjoy!
Matt, we just moved to San Diego from Philadelphia last week. If you want to meet the happiest people in this whole city, you should have a Ketel One martini on our patio. The aura of our glee really dwarfs the zoo, etc.
I know you’re busy, but it was fun just to invite you!
Have fun,
Ron
Are 301 re-directs really as big of a deal as some people make them out to be? I’ve noticed that you don’t have a 301, or any other type of re-direct in place Matt. Any insight you could give to this would be helpful.
How to we submit feedback spam to froogle?
This page:
http://froogle.google.com/froogle_cluster?q=montreal+steak+seasoning&pid=4838477716341024922&oid=9425264393346807287&btnG=Search+Froogle&lmode=&addr=&scoring=p&hl=en
Look at #1 (if that link is bad because of session vars use ‘montreal steak seasoning’ no quotes)
” Acadian Steak Seasoning” isn’t “Montreal Steak Seasoning”
What to do to resolve this? Spam stealing valid links …
Has anyone told you these submits end up in the ether? We end up in the white screen of death.
Anyone know how to use htacess file for 301 redirects? In my root directory i create this file but i dont know if it work.