Search Engine Optimization NEWS

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We know that many people like Reader because it makes it so easy to share interesting stuff with a wide group of friends. That’s why, over the past year, we’ve added a number of features to help you share the content you find most interesting: comments, following, people search, liking, and “send to.”

However, even with all these great features, sharing has been mostly limited to the subset of your friends who use Google Reader. While many people use Reader, we know that even more use Gmail. That’s why today, we’re thrilled to announce that with the launch of Google Buzz, the awesome items you share in Reader can also be shared with all your friends who use Gmail with Google Buzz.

A shared item in Reader (background) and Buzz (foreground)

Getting started with Google Buzz is easy. Just head over to Gmail and you’ll be able to link up your Google Reader account with just a few clicks. Then, anything you share in Reader will automatically be posted to Buzz. Comments are even shared between both products, so you can view and participate in the conversation wherever you’d prefer.

And don’t worry, you don’t have another list of friends or followers to manage. The people you follow in Reader are the same people you follow in Buzz – those you’ve already chosen to follow in Reader, plus the people you email and chat with the most in Gmail.

Check out the video below, explaining everything you can do with Google Buzz!

Head to our Google help center for more details about the Buzz integration in Reader, or leave us feedback in our forum, on Twitter or even using Buzz itself.

P.S. Keep in mind that Google Buzz is rolling out gradually, it might be a few days before you get it for your account.

Webmasters continue to see breadcrumbs on Google’s result pages. What are breadcrumbs, for which websites does Google display them and how can you get Google to display breadcrumbs for your own website?

What are breadcrumbs?

Breadcrumbs is the name for the hierarchical site navigation links that are often used on web pages. Here’s an example: “You are here: Home > Category > Sub category > Page“.

Since a few weeks Google displays breadcrumbs for some websites on the search result pages:

Why is it good if Google shows breadcrumbs for your website?

If Google displays breadcrumbs for your website then you basically have more links on Google’s result page. Each page in the breadcrumbs line has its own link.

If your web page is listed with breadcrumbs in the results then it is more likely that the searcher will come to the right page on your website and that you will get a sale.

How can you get Google to display breadcrumbs for your website?

If you want Google to display breadcrumbs for your website, you have to use bread crump navigation on your web pages. That means that you must have a set of delimited links on your website that reflects your website hierarchy.

Google’s Matt Cutts recently published a video in which he tries to shed some light on the topic. It seems that Google is still testing breadcrumbs on the result pages and that the display of breadcrumbs in the search results will change (just like Google’s Sitelinks changed).

Regarding the question which delimiter is best for breadcrumb navigation, Matt remains very vague. For example, links could be delimited with >, hyphens or the » symbol. So far, all examples on Google pages use > as the delimiter so it’s probably best to go with that symbol.

Depending on the size of your website, it is a good idea to use breadcrumbs. They make it easier for users to navigate your website and they help users to remember where they are on your website.

Of course, breadcrumbs alone won’t get you in Google’s search results. You must also make sure that Google finds the right keywords on your website and that your website has enough inbound links.