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So it's Thanksgiving over there in the United States and we certainly do wish all you guys who celebrate that important day the very best. Here in Australia and in many other parts of the world November 25 is just another day and we save our big family gatherings for Christmas.

Today instead of getting into anything really heavy I thought we might just take a quick look at some of the changes that Google has introduced over the last six to eight weeks. There's no doubt that they have been busy and at least one of the changes that Google has introduced may have slipped under your radar so let's look at them and see what affect they may have on our websites.

Google Instant
Perhaps the biggest change that Google introduced over the last few weeks was Google Instant. Google Instant gives searchers the chance to see some results appearing as they type and I have to say that I haven't actually found anyone who likes it and I'm not sure that it has had any real impact on traffic flows.

Most people I talk to are so focused on typing something into the search box that they don't even notice what's happening outside of the box.

Of course you would not have noticed anything caused by Google Instant here in adult unless you have a site that Google doesn't realize contains adult content. Anyone doing a Google search for obviously adult related terms doesn't see any results until the full term is entered.

So if all you're doing is adult-related sites then Google Instant isn't something you have to think about. However, if you are dabbling over in mainstream then you should be watching your stats to see if any changes have happened.

Google Preview
This is another change that Google introduced that doesn't appear to have made it across to adult-related search terms ... at least I'm not seeing it if it has ... so it may not affect you unless you're playing in mainstream too.

Google Preview allows searchers to see a small screen grab of each website that appears in the search results and it could be a real problem for some sites. As more people use Google Preview it's quite likely that some top ranking sites will see a drop in traffic because people may be more inclined to click on sites that look the most attractive.

That means that your site could be an absolute killer when it comes to keywords but hardly gets a click because it's among the butt-ugliest looking sites on the planet.

Google Preview will not be your friend if you're using any form of Flash for the header or on your index page either. Unfortunately for those who are using Flash Google Preview can't handle it and so all you see is ugly grey blocks anywhere that Flash appears on your site.

Local Places
Google has now integrated a lot of local search results into the general search results if they can identify where you're located. Obviously if you're only doing general porn marketing this won't have any bearing on your listings but if you're doing anything adult-related with a local flavor then you may be seeing some listing problems here.

Keywords and domain names
A week or so ago Matt Cutts announced that Google was going to be taking a serious look at how keywords in domain names can influence rankings. It seems that Google thinks that the time has come to take away the importance that keywords in domain names have had on ranking.

I have seen one search engine optimisation specialist suggest that he is already seeing changes that would indicate that Google has already begun to reduce the importance of keywords in domain names but it's not something I'm yet to see. I've been looking around at a few terms and I'm still seeing listings that have important keywords in the domain name.

You should have a look for yourself and you should also visit some of the sites that Google lists for adult search terms. View source on those sites and then compare the meta-description tag with what Google shows in the search results. There may be an important lesson for you to learn.

And that's about it for me today. Unfortunately, because today is not a special day for me today, there's no turkey going to appear on my desk for lunch and there won't be any post-lunch siesta either. What there will be is a meeting with someone who wants to sell me something and then a whole bunch more work for clients.

Sometimes I think that celebrating Thanksgiving in Australia would be a great idea.