SearchCap: The Day In Search, May 12, 2008

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May. 12, 2008 at 4:00pm Eastern by Barry Schwartz

SearchCap: The Day In Search, May 12, 2008

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 Displaying Geo Criteria Of Search Ads
The BrandVerity Blog noticed that Yahoo started displaying the business's location under the search ads. For example, a search on lawyers in Yahoo returns several ads that display New York under them. Why New York? Because I am based in New York. If you are located in California, you might...
Twitter Beats (Wow, By 3 Minutes) The USGS With China Earthquake News
Hey, I like Twitter, but this entire thing Robert Scoble started about how Twitter had news of the Chinese earthquake before the US Geological Survey seemed absurd. Did it really? As it turns out, probably so -- by about three minutes. Reading some of the accounts, you'd get the impression...
Small, Local Businesses Taking Economic Downturn in Stride
The economic downturn is a reality, but the specific ways that it affects businesses run the gamut based on the size and type of business. During these times, small, local businesses often feel the pinch more quickly and sharply, causing some to take evasive maneuvers to keep afloat. Based on...
Google Introduces "FriendConnect" Social Widgets For Site Owners
Contrary to some earlier reports, Google's new FriendConnect, launching today, is not focused on data portability or a direct answer to MySpace "Data Availability" or the new Facebook Connect. While there's a data portability dimension, it's focused on the flip side of the equation: site owners who want to make...
Yahoo Search Ambassador Program Closing
The Search Engine Roundtable reports that it seems to be no longer possible to sign up for the Ambassador Program. Although there is no specific confirmation from Yahoo on that on the Ambassador program page, when one tries to sign up via an affiliate site, we get a notice that...
Cast Your Vote For Doodle 4 Google Contestants
You can now cast your vote for the Doodle 4 Google competition at google.com/doodle4google/vote.html. Again, the winning doodle will be showcased on the Google home page on May 22, 2008 and the winner also gets a $10,000 college scholarship and a $25,000 technology grant for his/her school. To vote, go...
Yahoo Labels Google As Malware? No, Yahoo URL Mix Up
Google Is A Malware Site (Says Yahoo) from TechCrunch reports a funny bug at Yahoo, that accidently made it look like Google's home page had Malware on it, based on the Yahoo SearchScan feature that was recently launched. A search for Astalavista at Yahoo returned, what appeared to be a...
Powerset Launches "Understanding Engine" For Wikipedia Content
After nearly two years in the making -- and plenty of hype -- Powerset has finally rolled out a "natural language" search engine. It's not a Google killer. It's barely a business model right now. But at least it's something the world can finally play with, and under the hood,...
SnapStream Brings The "Power Of Search" To Television Programming
Imagine TiVo on steroids combined with a search engine like Google. It exists today but for the enterprise market. That product is called SnapStream TV and it allows thousands of hours of programming to be recorded – up to 10 shows simultaneously – and then, using closed caption transcripts, brings...