KNOWN ISSUE: Google not displaying full snippet format (Google issue)

1. 91

   ktrappposted 11 years ago

   A few weeks ago there was an issue with the wrong Google Authorship photos appearing in SERPs (i.e. Marcy's avatar showed up in the snippet for melbel's Hub). It seems to me, that ever since that issue was resolved, no Google Authorship photos show up any longer for any Hubbers. My authorship is gone completely for my Hubs in Google SERPs (when it was always there before), but it does show up for a blog I have.
   
   I did a search for 'Google Authorship HubPages' and Greekgeek's Hub is first in results with no authorship shown. Her Squidoo article shows up fifth in the results with her authorship shown. And let me tell you, my eye goes right to that photo and I'm sure has a big impact on click-through.
   
   I know Google doesn't guarantee that authorship will show in the snippet, but I've done multiple searches for Hubs written by Hubbers that I know have authorship set up, and their authorship no longer shows up for any of their Hubs in SERPs, although it may for their blogs or other writing platforms.
   
   I am wondering two things:
   (1) Is this truly a problem for all Hubbers with Google authorship set up?
   (2) What can be done to resolve this?

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   1. 87

      cardeleanposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      I really don't know anything about google authorship but I will say that as of last night, I can no longer see my picture in my google + account and now my computer won't allow me to access my google + account or analytics.  Not sure if that relates to anything that you are referring to, but it is frustrating.  I've tried with different search engines and still nothing.

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      1. 91

         ktrappposted 11 years agoin reply to this

         I'm able to see your picture in your Google+ profile.
         
         But what I was talking about is the little picture that shows up in Google results if you have set authorship up. Your picture might show, as well as the number of people in your circles, etc.
         
         This image below is small, but it's an example of my authorship pic showing up in Google results for another website I have:
         
         
         
         It used to always show up for many of my Hubs that showed up in Google results. Not only does my authorship photo NOT show any more for any of my Hubs displayed in results, but I don't see it for any HubPages authors that I know have authorship set up.
         
         I really think that photo can help with click-through, so I really hope it gets resolved.

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   2. 92

      Jamie Brockposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      I am not sure what authorship is but I can see why you would be frustrated since NONE of the hubbers are showing up. Something is obviously not right with that, for sure.

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   3. 71

      Matthew Meyerposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      We continue to send the information to Google, but they have chosen not to display it in some cases.
      
      If you encounter this issue, you can check a Hub and see how we are sending the info to Google.
      
      Here is the URL to test:
      http://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/richsnippets
      
      And here is the specific results from one of your Hubs.
      Note, the your profile image and username are displayed.
      http://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/ … &html=
      
      Unfortunately, this is an issue on Google's end.

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      1. 91

         ktrappposted 11 years agoin reply to this

         Thanks for your reply, Matthew. I already had used the rich snippets tool and everything always checks out fine so I pretty much figured this issue was on Google's end.

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      2. 97

         Glenn Stokposted 11 years agoin reply to this

         Mathew,
         
         The Rich Snippets Test Tool is used only to verify that the snippets code in the HTML is correct. It does not indicate that Google is implementing it.  I do believe they shut it off for HubPages until they figure out how a few Hubbers got mixed up.
         
         As you know, I am one of the few who had implemented my authorship on HP before the new HP profile made it easier. I had it working ever since. But now mine is shut off too. My authorship is only working on the other sites where I have it implemented.

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2. 0

   redwhiskeypeteposted 11 years ago

   Good luck with google. I had my account canceleed years ago and have been trying to find out why ever since. There have been many cases like mine. Google refuses to answer questions and dosn't even have a telephone number. Google is a monoploy and that is what monoplies do. They actually don't need good customer service because to them your just a small peon.

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3. 75

   jacharlessposted 11 years ago

   Authorship for Google requires an existing g+ account.
   To that is added one or more domains which you contribute to [i.e. HubPages, Wizzley, etc].
   From here, it is a matter of Google and the Microdata structure on HP.
   The spider with attempt to authenticate you as the author of said hubs, and index them, should they meet submission guidelines for indexing. Your photo from g+ will be displayed along with x-information.
   
   Be sure your g+ is active on HP [ ex: https:// plus.googledotcom/[your g+ id here]?rel=author ]
   
   Nothing you can really do accept wait and see.

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   1. 78

      Greekgeekposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      As ktrapp says, we used to have our authorship visible for our hubs, but quite recently Google has removed them all.
      
      I had some hubs showing up with authorship as recently as last month.
      
      My Squidoo articles, set up in exactly the same way, are showing my authorship, except when they get hit by Google's authorship fail and show Seth Godin instead. (And yes, my authorship is set up and validated and has worked for a year; that article explains the problem, which has been creeping across the web for a few months now.)

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   2. 91

      ktrappposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      I probably should have been more clear in my original post. I do have a G+ account and I do have authorship set up with HubPages. It always worked in the past for both my HubPages account and my website when either were displayed in Google search results. It also always worked when my own website showed in Google search results. Now authorship no longer shows up for any of my Hubs but still does for my website.
      
      When my authorship quit showing just for Hubs, I checked other Hubbers who I know had authorship set up and showing previously (Greekgeek, Glenn Stok, melbel...) and theirs no longer was displayed in Google results either.
      
      Just prior to all these authorships not showing, melbel started a forum thread because another Hubber's authorship photo and name were showing up in her Google snippets (Marcy G's pic and name was displayed in snippets for melbel's Hubs). Paul Edmondson responded in that thread and said the issue had been sent to Google.
      
      It was not long after that time that I noticed all authorship for any Hubber I checked (who I know it worked for in the past) was no longer being displayed. I don't know if the two events are linked, but with my little bit of experimenting this issue seems to be bigger than just me.
      
      Do you have it set up? Is it working for you?

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      1. 87

         cardeleanposted 11 years agoin reply to this

         I finally fixed the problem on my computer and I can now see my pic in my G+ page.  I thought that I had set up a Google authorship but now I can't remember and I'm not sure how to check it.  I definitely don't see my pic next to any of my hubs when I search them.

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         1. 91

            ktrappposted 11 years agoin reply to this

            When you enter your Google profile link in your HP profile that is used to set up your authorship. I see in the source code of your HP profile page that it is set up, I guess it just isn't visible in Google search results like many of us.

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            1. 87

               cardeleanposted 11 years agoin reply to this

               I thought I had done that.  Thanks for checking.  Too bad we are in this situation!

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               1. 91

                  ktrappposted 11 years agoin reply to this

                  Yup you did. I guess the situation is out of our hands since the lack of authorship visibility for Hubs appearing in Google results seems very widespread.
                  
                  The last time I saw any authorship being visible for HubPages was about four weeks ago when melbel started this thread:
                  http://hubpages.com/forum/topic/106050
                  
                  HP's Matthew Meyer sent the info about the display problem to Google. The mixing up of Hubbers seemed to get resolved, but not long after at all, all authorship info. seemed to be gone.
                  
                  P.S. I mistakenly said earlier in this forum that Paul E. responded to that forum, but it was Matthew M.

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4. 60

   LindaSmith1posted 11 years ago

   I do have G+ account. None of my photos appear for anything whether from HP or other sites I publish at. The only time it shows if the article was posted on Google +

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   1. 75

      jacharlessposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      Not surprisingly, this sounds typically Google.
      And not to spoil the party, but g+ as well as Google Authorship are not meeting user expectations, nor necessity. I give it six months until they pull the plug on this pilot program.

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      1. 85

         rebekahELLEposted 11 years agoin reply to this

         I have never clicked on a SERP because it had a google authorship avatar next to it.  In fact, sometimes it makes me not want to click.  Maybe that's just me, but I don't see that they carry that much significance as to the quality of the search result.

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5. 73

   brakel2posted 11 years ago

   I noticed it this morning when checking some internet info. Later I checked it out further, and some photos are still there. I saw a few from this site, but mine have disappeared. I guess they are on the way to eliminating it. So sad!

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   1. 75

      jacharlessposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      Not sad, really, expected -and possibly better for all of us.
      A major issue arising [finally] to the surface is Writer authenticity, and protection of their content. Google is one name to blame for packing in the poundage without author approval, nor interests at it core. Many others too, like WordPress, Tumblr -even Pinterest- are feeding off the efforts of quality content creators.  For those who know, recently Miss Smith launched, what might very well be, the first authoritative trade organization dedicated to UGC. A program designed to protect the rights and interests of digital authors versus open source or search engines dictating who gets in or not.
      I for one am behind this, as I put the finishing touches on a brand new UGC site. The consultation with industry professionals, philologists, digital overlords, optimization specialists and marketing militia have truly opened my eyes to the many avenues authors are getting "pooched" and so many ways to stop it, without hurting revenue generation and recognition.
      If Goo, Bing, FB, TW, etc cannot put the author first, then they should take a back seat to those who do and let their shareholders deal with it.
      
      In my humble opinion...
      James

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6. 0

   Sophia Angeliqueposted 11 years ago

   I think I'm still up... My details are right there...
   
   

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   1. 91

      ktrappposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      I can't open that link, but if I do a Google search for your Hub on green eyes, I see your Hub in Google results, but I do not see your authorship picture, etc in the snippet.
      
      I checked using Firefox v. 17, IE 9, and Safari on my iPad.

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      1. 0

         Sophia Angeliqueposted 11 years agoin reply to this

         Try Tessa Schlesinger. Maybe I got that picture because there's a cookie on my computer. It doesn't come up under Sophia Angelique. It comes up under my real name.

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         1. 91

            ktrappposted 11 years agoin reply to this

            I can see your picture on the Google+ page under your real name, but that's just half the equation. What I am talking about is your picture not showing up in Google search results for any Hubs you've authored.
            
            If I do a search for your Hub about green eyes, the Hub shows up in Google results, but your picture is not shown in the results snippet. Google doesn't guarantee that it always will, but I can't seem to find any instances of it working any longer for any Hub page authors who have set up Google authorship. A few weeks ago it did work.
            
            It seems that this is a Google issue, so hopefully we can get some sort of answer as to what is going on.

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            1. 0

               Sophia Angeliqueposted 11 years agoin reply to this

               Okay.

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         2. 97

            Glenn Stokposted 11 years agoin reply to this

            I just checked. Your image is in the SERPs for you blogspot articles. Google never disabled authorship for blogspot. The way it looks to me, they only needed to disable it on sites that had gotten confused, mixing up authors. That's my opinion based on what I see as I check things out. My other sites are fine. As are yours Tessa.  I only lost it on HP, as did you.

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   2. 91

      ktrappposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      Strange - now I can see the image you inserted in this forum, when yesterday it was just a link that I couldn't open...odd.
      
      Anyway, it looks like authorship is showing for your blogspot blog. My authorship shows up for another website I have too. But I don't see your authorship next to any of your Hubs in results. That is consistent with what we all seem to be experiencing, authorship showing up for other sites, but not HP. But it appears this is a Google issue.

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7. 73

   brakel2posted 11 years ago

   I had mine setup, and it isn't working. Do you think they took away all the authorships for this site when Matthew Meyer reported the mixup?

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   1. 91

      ktrappposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      The timing seems like there is a bit of a connection, but who knows. In melbel's thread about the mixup, she commented that it was fixed (meaning Marcy's pic was no longer showing with melbel's Hub), but melbel also stated that her own picture still wasn't showing.
      
      After that time I noticed mine was completely gone too and I know for a fact that it was there before melbel's forum because I checked many of my Hubs in SERPs to see if any had mixed up photos in response to her forum posting. Mine were all perfectly OK at that time.
      
      Paul E. did comment on that forum that he sent the display issue to the guy at Google that works on these things. But it seems to me that by fixing up the mixup, all authorship in snippets disappeared for Hubs. Of course, I don't have the means to say this is a 100% across the board problem, but I have yet to find an example of where authorship for a Hubber still is visible.

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   2. 97

      Glenn Stokposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      Sure looks that way.  And Google seems to have disabled it for The New York Times too, since they had the same problem as HP did.  I don't see any images for contributing authors anymore there either.
      
      My image also has stopped appearing in my SERPs for my hubs. But my authorship is still fully working with my image in Google SERPs for my own website and for articles I wrote on the Yahoo Contributor Network.
      
      I just lost it for HubPages, same as everyone else here.

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      1. 91

         ktrappposted 11 years agoin reply to this

         Yes, I read that The New York Times attributed Truman Capote as an author for an article. Apparently someone at one time created a Google+ account with the name Truman Capote. From my reading I gather that Google sometimes tries to attribute authorship based on "clues" other than actual linking of authorship. In the case of the NYT article the words Truman Capote appeared near the end, I think in relationship to the name of a school or something, if I am recalling correctly. I think Google needs to go back to the drawing board on this one.

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8. 40

   adrianlawrenceposted 11 years ago

   I noticed the same on other content publishing sites (sorry to not be 100% exclusive to HP!) it happened to 3 other sites I use, and seems to co-incide with a google update.  If a site drops down in Google's quality scoring system it no longer merits the Google + image association.

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   1. 73

      brakel2posted 11 years agoin reply to this

      Thanks for the info adrianlawrence. I wish we could find out more about the update. I give up - between following a football game and reading the forum, I need to concentrate on something more relaxing for awhile.

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9. 60

   LindaSmith1posted 11 years ago

   Here is a link I found but it simply sounds like one of Google's games. 
   http://searchengineland.com/the-definit … kup-123218
   
   Even my photos with blogs are gone.

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10. 86

    IzzyMposted 11 years ago

    Personally I think the Google authorship kerfuffle a waste of effort.
    
    I put it on all my sites/blogs/hubs after my main HP account had been slapped.
    
    Made no difference whatsoever.
    
    I have just one HP account doing well, it has never been linked to my Google profile.
    
    Since the recent changes, none of my HP accounts are linked to the Google+ thing either.
    
    It does not stop plagiarists ranking above your original work, which I thought it was meant to do.
    
    Waste of time and effort.

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