I suspected something funky earlier this week. I set up an account for my client, FramesDirect.com, and uploaded a rather large feed, something like 25,000 products (hey, it’s a huge site with LOTS of eyewear products). According to Live Products, which is much like Google Base and even will accept a Google Base feed, it can take up to 36 hours for the feed to be live. This was on Monday and late Friday night the upload still showed “processing” as the status. Thirty-six hours, huh?

No word yet on what is happening.

Hope I didn’t break it.

Update: OK, Live Product Upload appeared to go back up around noon Pacific Time. However, the feeds I uploaded on March 10 are still showing “processing” today, March 15.

Again, so much for the “36 hours” mentioned on the site. You’d think if there were problems with the feeds, which have to be refreshed every 30 days, Microsoft would at least alert me to them.

Sheesh. I know it’s free, but most aggravating.

Update #2: Whoops! Checked at 5:15 p.m. Pacific time Saturday and it’s giving that Runtime Error again.

Update #3: Looks like it’s back up, but it’s been seven days since I uploaded my client’s feed and it STILL says “processing” in the Product Upload control panel. I filled out the feedback form requesting an explanation at Day 6, but no word back yet.

Up to 36 hours my ….

Update #4: Turns out Microsoft did respond. I found it in my spam folder, but the remedy is a pain and might turn into a major project. Google Base feeds are supposed to work with Live Product Upload, but now I’m being told to cut the feed into smaller chunks and see if that works. The feed is something like 25,000 products. This is pretty lame, Microsoft.

Update #5: I split the feed into two and uploaded both over a day ago. I’m looking at the Live Product Upload control panel now and it shows these and the two earlier March 10th full uploads as still processing (I’d delete them, but there doesn’t seem to be a way to do so). This is getting old…

Update #6: …really old. Splitting the feed into two equal parts had no effect. Still says “Processing” as do the two feeds I uploaded on March 10. If we have to split this baby into a dozen pieces to upload it every month, we might pass. I sent an e-mail back to Live Product Upload support. I’ll let you know what they say.

Update #7: It took two weeks, but after a few e-mails to support, the tech folks at Microsoft got the feeds up and live. Now that they’re up, I need to make some changes and upload again. Problem is, I’m getting that Runtime Error in ‘/’ Application error again! Sheesh!

Live Product Upload Down is a post from: SEO in The Desert | More about Palm Springs SEO

SMX BASH

Bruce Clay & Danny Sullivan (with attractive young woman – sorry, I didn’t get her name!) at SMX Bash to kick off the conference.

A shot of some of the folks enjoying the SMX Bash to kick off SMX West 2008 in Santa Clara.

Danny said that there was a lot of discussion over the bag to offer at SMX West, but they came up with a winner. Unlike the totes I got at every other conference I have been to, this one is a backpack with several compartments, totally cool and something I will use long after I leave Santa Clara. Congrats to the folks at SMX West!

Day 1

Danny Sullivan gives his take on Search 3.0, blended search, and 4.0, personalized search, in his keynote. Sorry it’s a bit blurry. Taken in the dark with my iPhone.

A pre-session photo of Search Engine Land’s Venessa Fox and Yahoo!’s Sean Suchter.

Danny Sullivan quizzed teams from the big four search engines and a team of search marketing all-stars on search history at SMX West 2008 Search Bowl.

The victorious Google team took the SMX West 2008 Search Bowl trophy, defeating teams from Yahoo, Ask, Microsoft and the SEM All-Stars.

Day 2

Chris Sherman handling the introductions for the keynote speech by Louis Monier on Day 2 of SMX West 2008 in Santa Clara.

Louis Monier, formerly with Alta Vista, eBay and Google, gave the keynote address on the past and future of search at Day 2 of SMX West 2008 in Santa Clara. Monier is currently Vice President of Products with Cuill.

Vanessa Fox, Aaron Wall, Andy Beal and Michael Gray on the panel of SEO and Blogging.

Rand Fishkin (standing), Vanessa Fox, Neil Patel, Barbara Boser and Michael Gray on the SEO and Social Media Marketing panel.

Jill Whalen (right) of High Rankings with friends at the networking event.

The SEO and User Generated Content panel. From left to right – Vanessa Fox, Rebecca Kelley, Andrew Goodman and Roger Montti.

The Google Groove party featured lots of food, drinks, entertainment booths and dancing.

Day 3

The final day of SMX West 2008 in Santa Clara featured a group keynote panel discussing Generation Next: Search in the Coming Decade. Gord Hotchkiss of Enquiro (far right) and Chris Sherman of Search Engine Land (second from right) moderated. Panelists (from left) included Brad Goldberg of Microsoft, Peter Norvig of Google and Larry Heck of Yahoo!

Detlev Johnson of SearchReturn moderated the Industrial Strength SEO panel at SMX West 2008.

Panelists for the Industrial Strength SEO session included (left to right) Martin Laetsch of SEM Director, Inc., David Roth of Yahoo! and Marshall D. Simmonds of the New York Times.

The In House SEO Issues panel (from left) included Bill Macaitis of Fox Interactive Media, Paul Bruemmer of Red Door Interactive, William Scully of Siemens, Derek Wheeler of Microsoft and Bob Tripathi of Discover Financial Services.

Jessica Bowman, formerly with Yahoo! and now an SEO consultant, moderated the In House Issues panel.

Danny Sullivan moderated the Linking Q and A panel. Included in the panel were search marketers and representatives from the top search engines – Google, Microsoft, Yahoo! and Ask.com.

From left to right: Nathan Buggia of Microsoft, Todd Malicoat of Stuntdubl, Rae Hoffman of Sugarrae Internet Consulting and Danny Sullivan.

From left to right: Danny Sullivan, Matt Cutts from Google, Priyank Garg of Yahoo! Search and Peter Linsley of Ask.com.

SMX West 2008 Wrap in Pictures is a post from: SEO in The Desert | More about Palm Springs SEO

Well, as usual, Google kicked butt and took home the trophy.

SMX West 2008 continues at the Santa Clara Convention Center with a keynote address on Wednesday morning from Louis Monier, Vice President of Products at Cuill, a new search engine attempting to set new standards in the filed of search. Monier is formerly with Google, eBay and Alta Vista.

SMX West runs through Thursday.

SMX West 2008 Search Bowl Winners – Google! is a post from: SEO in The Desert | More about Palm Springs SEO