I had someone write me in a panic the other day. They had just switched their Web site between servers, only to watch their search traffic plummet from Google. In the week after they switched, they went from about 150 unique visitors from Google to just 20. What was the problem?

I went through a quick checklist with the site’s owner, checking to see if he may have been penalized by Google or if there was a problem with his site. Did he start selling links on his site, or was his site hacked? No, so a penalty was unlikely. Did he delete or change the links to his content? No, so errors weren’t the cause. So the only explanation left was the mythical Google sandbox effect.

Web developers are in disagreement as to whether the sandbox actually exists, and it has never been confirmed or denied by Google. I’m a firm believer in the sandbox effect’s existence, at least for certain sites. What is it and how can you escape it? Read on.

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Google’s answer to Wikipedia - a site they’re dubbing Knol, for unit of knowledge - launched yesterday. The key difference between the two sites is the lack of anonymity on Knol. On Wikipedia, anyone is able to change or edit an encyclopedia page. On Knol, the names, credentials and even pictures of [...]

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