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Apr. 30, 2007 at 6:14pm Eastern by Danny Sullivan

SearchCap: The Day In Search, April 30, 2007

Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web:

From Search Engine Land:

• Yahoo To Acquire Right Media; Joins Google In Buying, Rather Than Building, Display Ad Network
  Yahoo has announced it will acquire Right Media, which operates an auction-based display ad exchange called Remix Media. The move is widely seen as Yahoo fighting back against Google's recent plans to acquire DoubleClick, which itself is seen as Google jumping more firmly into the display ad network game. Both...
• Comcast Partners With Yahoo For Online Display & Video Ads
  Yahoo and Comcast have struck a multi-year deal where Yahoo will provide the online display and video advertising for Comcast.net. In this deal, the advertising sales organization at Yahoo will will market and sell the display and video ads on Comcast.net's behalf. Comcast hopes to utilize Yahoo's "ad-serving, targeting and...
• Yahoo Launches 'Be A Better' Ad Campaign
  Yahoo is initiating an ambitious new -- and expensive -- brand advertising campaign titled "Be a Better . . ." The campaign will feature distribution across multiple ad media: TV, print, radio, online and cinema. It will focus especially on Yahoo mobile oneSearch and Yahoo Answers but also showcase other...
• Can You Spot The Paid Link?
  In Time For Google To Give Up The Fight Against Paid Links? last week, I wrote about Google's second major war against paid links that's now underway. Today, I came across two examples that illustrate why this is such a difficult war for it to fight. How do you spot...
• Wikipedia's Double Standard On Nofollow Rule
  Techcrunch discovered that Wikipedia was giving special treatment to their own properties, in terms of using standard, non-nofollowed, links to Wikia, "Wikipedia’s for-profit spin off." Back in January, Wikipedia nofollowed all external links from the site, in an effort to reduce Wikipedia spam. If you visit the Wikipedia page on...
• The Coming Link Apocalypse
  I just finished reading "The Road" by Cormac McCarthy, hence the title of today's column. If you've read it then you understand. It's a bit dramatic, but then again drama, controversy and hyperbole is LinkBaiting 101. Sadly I add. The apocalypse I speak of is related to link building,...
• How Search Engines Handle The Nofollow Attribute
  Loren Baker at Search Engine Journal has a nice write up on how the search engines handle the nofollow attribute now just over two years since it was introduced. Ask.com still does not follow the tag, so here are the takeaway for Google and Yahoo: Google won't follow the link,...
• Google Agrees To Return Chilean City It Borrowed For Argentina
  Chile asks Google to fix map gaffe from the Associated Press reports that Google has mislabeled Villa O'Higgins, a town in Chile, as being in Argentina. The above image is a screen shot I took just a few minutes ago using Google Earth, for a search on "Villa O'Higgins,"...
• Google Transit Sends Upset User Superman Cape
  Adam Darowski blogged about getting some really bad advice from Google Transit, specifically asking him to "cross an eight-lane highway on foot." So how did Google respond? Joe Hughes of Google Transit sent Adam a Superman cape and a letter apologizing for the inconvenience. Here is the letter:...
• Just Imagine: Local Search Without Maps
  Imagine a local search site without maps. Sounds outrageous, doesn’t it? Most local search sites are dominated by maps. Google, Ask, and Live even begin my experience with a big map of North America. Correct, yes, but now what? Many sites incorporate technically impressive features to make their maps...
• Reuters Buys Search Mining Tech; Former AOL Search Chief Campbell To Lead New Search Group
  Via PaidContent, news that Reuters is to acquire text analytics company Clearforest, part of creating a new strategic group around search. Leading that group is Gerry Campbell, the former long-time head of AOL's search efforts: As part of its drive into this space, it has created a new strategic group...
• Yahoo Search VP Andrew Braccia Resigns
  Yahoo loses VP of consumer search, to Accel Partners from VentureBeat reports that a major Yahoo asset has left to join a venture capital firm named Accel Partners. Andrew Braccia was Yahoo’s vice president of consumer web search. He worked under Jeff Weiner for six years and was responsible for...
• Google Responds To Click Quality Council's 8 Principles For PPC Improvement
  Shuman Ghosemajumder, Google's business product manager for Trust & Safety at Google, has responded via his blog to the Click Quality Council's Cornerstone Principles for Pay-Per-Click Quality Improvement (PDF file) that were released last week. The response is basically what you expected to see. Shuman lists out all of the...
• Utah Says Oops About About Law Regulating Trademarks & Search Ads
  Via TechDirt, High-Tech Execs Meet With Lawmakers Over Web Search Keyword Law from the Associated Press covers how Utah might not enforce its new law banning ads linked to trademark terms. The law is set to go into effect today. We covered various issues with the law earlier this month....
• Google Helps States Surface Government Information
  Google has announced an initiative with state agencies in Arizona, California, Utah and Virginia to help expose government information to web search engines. Often, government information is stored in database systems that are difficult if not impossible for search engine crawlers to access and index. Google is working with technologists...
• Google Checkout's Title Goes Missing On Google
  Something look odd in the search results above for google checkout? Yes, that's the official Google Checkout home page listed first, but it's most definitely NOT the right title for the Google Checkout page. That's got folks at Digg wondering if Google Checkout has been hijacked, sparked from Jon...
• Google To Merge Personalized Services To "iGoogle" Brand
  Today is Google Personalization Day at Google, where reporters and bloggers have been invited to learn more about Google's moves to personalize its services. Our own Greg Sterling is there and will be providing coverage out of the event later. However, some news is already flowing out now. For one,...
• Subscribe!
  What's the deal with that big giant button? I wrote recently in The Blogs & Search Blogs With The Most Readers about a new list of search blogs ranked by the number of RSS readers they have. We're at just under the 10,000 mark, which is great for a...

Search News Headlines From Elsewhere

Applications & Portal Features

• Microsoft opens up on Web strategy at Mix07, ZDnet
• New Windows Live Writer Screenshot, LiveSide
• Yahoo Mail, the story behind the mail, GigaOM
• Hints at upcoming Gmail features, MP Web Wizard
• Google Talk preparing for multi-user chat, Googling Google
• A Google File-Type Control Center, Google Blogoscoped
• How to get bought by Google (or IBM, or Oracle), InfoWorld

Business Issues

• Google's Latest Power Grab (Hint: It's Not DoubleClick), AdAge
• What’s Hot At The Search Insider Summit? Two Words: Sep Kamvar, Search Insider
• DoubleClick and Google, Part 2: The Reality, ClickZ
• The Pangs of Two Becoming One, New York Times
• The Google World is Growing: Should Advertisers Be Scared?, Search Engine Watch
• How to get bought by Google (or IBM, or Oracle), InfoWorld
• IAB Call for Audits: Transparency or Conspiracy?, ClickZ
• Baidu.com Profit Soars, Wall Street Journal
• Alibaba Plans IPO for Business Unit, Wall Street Journal
• Three Minutes with a Chief Yahoo, PC World
• Yahoo rounds up up-and-comers, San Jose Mercury News
• Yahoo-Right Media: Execs Address Questions Of Conflicts, Value, PaidContent.org
• Ballmer: No. 1 Regret: Being Late To Online Advertising, PaidContent.org
• Meet Google's culture czar, News.com
• Informed Speculation: Jason Calacanis' next venture [a search engine], Valleywag
• Thought Exercise: Google overtakes Microsoft, Valleywag

Conferences

• Web 2.0 Expo - SEO Workshop, Oilman
• Ad:tech Goes Bipolar, ClickZ
• Ad:Tech San Francisco '07 Coverage Recap, Bruce Clay Blog
• Search Insider Summit, Online Marketing Blog
• Search Engine Strategies Toronto -- Seth Godin!, Traffick
• Networking Events At SMX Advanced, Search Engine Land

Google Audio Ads

• Bumps In Google's Road To Radio, Forbes.com
• Screen Captures of Google Audio Ads - Ad Creation Marketplace, Search Engine Roundtable
• A Virtual Ad Agency for Online Radio, New York Times

Link Building

• Making Link Bait and Viral Marketing Work - Part Four, Search Engine Guide
• 5 Ways To Diversify Your Links, Performancing
• Linkbait, Reports of My Death Are Greatly Exagerated, Graywolf
• The Life Time Value of Links Based on Google Webmaster Central, Search Engine Roundtable
• Google PageRank April Update: Most Notice Drop in PR, Search Engine Roundtable
• Google Toolbar Showing Buggy PageRank Data?, Search Engine Roundtable

Local, Maps & Mobile

• Google search for 3 mobile users, Sunday Business Post Ireland
• Exploring Click and Pay to Call (CPTC) Google Phone Ads, SEO By The Sea
• Virtual Earth API V5 is released, Virtual Earth Blog
• How Google Earth Images Are Made, Slashdot

Paid Search & Contextual

• Yahoo! Publisher Network Earnings & Relevancy Forcing Publishers to Revisit Google AdSense?, Search Engine Roundtable
• Google Query Translation for Ads?, Google Blogoscoped
• First: Google Pay Per Action Text Ads In Action, Search Engine Roundtable
• Fast Search sides with newspapers in Web sales war, Reuters
• FAST: European Firm Enters Battle For US Media Markets--Says Its Search Traffic Already Larger Than YHOO, Will Pass GOOG in 2 Years, Silicon Valley Watcher
• Should Google AdSense Add an Allow Domains Feature?, Search Engine Roundtable
• Keywords: a Growing Cost for News Sites, WSJ.com
• New Ad Testing Tutorial, Yahoo Search Marketing Blog
• Short Descriptions Coming, Yahoo Search Marketing Blog
• Updates to the Microsoft adCenter Terms and Conditions for US Advertisers, adCenter Blog

Searching

• PC World - Search Engine Shoot-Out, Phil Bradley
• Google News Integrates with Google Finance, Google Operating System
• Strange Suggestions in Google Blog Search, Google Operating System
• The He/ She Ratio, Google Blogoscoped
• Search: Is one of these eight search engines the next Google? (Hint: No.), Valleywag

SEM Industry

• Why I Love the SEO Community - J. Schoemaker, Pronet Advertising
• Interview of Google's Adam Lasnik on March 26, 2007, Stone Temple

SEO & SEM

• In Search of Traffic, Wall Street Journal
• Condemned To Google Hell, Forbes
• Localization and SERP Relevancy, ClickZ
• We'll Have To Wait For The Next Lawsuit To Find Out If A Web Crawler Can Enter Into A Contract, TechDirt
• New Page Strength Tool Feature: Refresh Report, SEOmoz
• If You Can Only Do One Thing in Search, Search Engine Guide
• My Google snippet is being hijacked, Ogletree SEO

Podcasts & Videocasts

• SES: Kim Krause Berg of Cre8asite Forums on SEO and Usability, WebProNews
• SES: Barry Schwartz on Ask.com's Edison Project, WebProNews Video Blog
• Random Bits Podcast with Rand Fishkin, Search This
• Daily SearchCast, April 30, 2007: Yahoo Buying Right Media For Display Ad Hopes; Utah Rethinks Search Ads Law & More!, Daily SearchCast

Social Media

• Oh, for a Chance to Whitewash a Fence, New York Times
• Technorati Favorites & The Cheaters Who Are Cheating the System, Mashable
• Firefox Extension: Smart Digg Button, NEO Thoughts
• 7 Awesome Things Built on the Digg API, Mashable
• Incentives Matter: Why Comments on Digg Are So Bad, Dare Obasanjo
• DuggBack into the Digg Trail, GigaOM
• Twitter Down Under, Twitter Blog
• Twitter Could Really Rock - Here's How, Search Marketing Gurus
• Google Ads Now on StumbleUpon, 10e20
• Google's Dice is Useless, What I Learned in 20 Clicks, Pronet Advertising
• Dynamic Map Showing AIM Chatters in Google Earth, Google Earth Blog
• Five Don’t with Social News and Bookmarking, Online Marketing Blog

Video, Audio & Image Search

• YouTube Launches Active Share, Mashable
• Google Getting Personal on Video, Marketing Pilgrim
• Lisa Donovan - LisaNova - YouTube - Mad TV, New York Times
• Microsoft unveils expanded Silverlight video platform, Seattle Times
• Announcing MyPodcastNetwork, Splashcast

Other Vertical Search

• Google Base Patent Applications: Searching, Labeling, and Ranking User Generated Data, SEO By The Sea
• knuru - a business search engine, Phil Bradley
• Google CEO gets Clinton support for Google health initiative, Digital Markets

Other Stuff

• Traffickwag: Google, Yahoo, bosom buddies, Traffick
• New Calacanis link-baiting rules, Calcanis
• Authors@Google, Google Blog
• College kids get a fast blast of Google culture, San Jose Mercury News
• Sergey Brin: The elopement, Valleywag

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