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Last time I was here I said that I would be back to talk about some features that Google seems to be trialing and I suggested that we probably wouldn't be very happy with them. Well I've got my cup of coffee right here so let's jump into Google and have a look at these so-called 'features'.

Feature number one
The first is something you might describe as an 'enhanced' listing. If you're lucky enough to score such a listing then I'm sure you will be happy ... as long as you know how to use it ... and if you're not lucky enough to score such a listing then there could be some pain involved.

This new feature will allow some publishers to point Google to data that appears on their web sites that they wanted included along with the Meta description in their listing. That's pretty cool if you are one of those selected by Google to use this new feature ... but what about those who aren't selected?

They battle on with a description that may be less attractive simply because they don't have the ability to identify that extra data that they would like to have included.

Feature number two
So you've got a pretty good listing in Google for your website as a whole but perhaps the important part of the page that Google is listing is a bit further down than what most people are seeing when they first arrive on your site.

Of course, in a situation like that having your important information below the fold means that many people won't stick around long enough to find it or look at it so this second new feature could be quite useful ... if you know how to use it.

With this new feature Google is including a clickable link in the page description that it is showing in the search engine results pages for some sites. So how do you get it? Well it appears that if you have some anchor links within the featured page Google may pick those anchor links up and display them in the description.

I'm not sure how far along Google is with testing this feature because we have a few client's sites with anchor links at the top and Google is not displaying those yet so perhaps there's a little bit more involved than just having anchor text. If there is more involved in getting a link displayed in the description I've yet to read about it in any of the usual places.

Feature number three
For some time now Google has been displaying a 'Did you mean:' link at the top of any results page where it thinks that you may have made a spelling mistake when you were typing in the search term. That hasn't been too distracting and it has made it still worthwhile to chase some good listings for various typos.

However Google now appears to be testing a feature that will make those typos a little less important. Now some people are seeing not only the 'Did you mean:' link at the top of the results page but they're also seeing the top two listings for that corrected search term appearing at the top of the page as well.

Once again I'm not seeing that feature for any of the terms that we're interested in so how far Google has gone with it ... and intends to go with it I'm not sure but it is something you should be watching.

Feature number four
Actually this one is something that's a positive ... just so long as you can go back and add it to what's already up there on the Net.

This feature involves video that you upload to YouTube. It seems that Google/YouTube have now added a feature to the upload area that allows you to pinpoint the location that the video was filmed in on Google Maps.

While that's not going to be such a big deal for us here in adult if you're doing mainstream then it's a feature that can really work for you and your clients. Now you can post some promotional videos for clients and add a Google Map that shows the exact location of your client.

And in case you're wondering why that's so important just let me remind you that YouTube is now considered to be the second largest search engine in the world so if you're not in YouTube then you're missing a lot of traffic.

And now my coffee is finished it's time to head off to do some work