SearchCap: The Day In Search, May 30, 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:

Twelve Simple Ways To Write Search-Friendly HTML Code
This morning I was handing off a project to a developer and found myself ranting about the common mistakes developers make when coding HTML. These boneheaded mistakes can cause search engines to choke when it comes to indexing your websites. And its easy to avoid making these mistakes. Here’s how:…
Search in Pictures: Condoleezza Rice, Google I/O & Big Purple Buttons
In this week’s Search In Pictures, here are the latest images culled from the web, showing what people eat at the search engine companies, how they play, who they meet, where they speak, what toys they have, and more….
Outing Google Merchant Search
A reader sent us an example of the new Google Merchant Search live and in the wild. What’s Google Merchant Search? After a little poking around, it appears to be a new but unannounced program in beta where people can comparison shop services like loans. Here are the Google Merchant…
For Obama The Online Marketer It’s All About Google
Democratic presidential candidate Barak Obama’s online organizing and fundraising successes are perhaps unprecedented. He’s also the query volume king, among the candidates. But how does he do as an online marketer? We might not know his CTRs or how his campaigns “convert” but now we know where he spent his…
Google Updates Browser Favorite Icon
I reported that Google has updated their favorite icon on Google.com, from the old multi-colored boxed in “G,” to a single blue lowercase g. New Favorite Icon: Old Favorite Icon:…
How Google Tests & Tests Search Interfaces
We’re all guinea pigs in Google’s search experiment from News.com covers Google’s Marissa Mayer presentation at the Google I/O conference. In her speech, she discusses the various tests they perform to increase searcher activity and responsiveness. Here is a bullet list of what I found to be the most interesting…
Human Hardware: The Subconscious Side of Search
In the last column, we explored some studies that indicate that conscious will might not be the cause of our actions, but instead might be just one of the effects of a motivator still undefined. Conscious will could simply be a feedback mechanism that helps us keep track of…