SearchCap: The Day In Search, November 25, 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:

• SEMPO To Ring NASDAQ’s Bell
  SEMPO, the Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization, has been invited to ring the opening bell at NASDAQ headquarters in Times Square on December 1st. There doesn’t seem to be a news release about it yet, but SEMPO’s Dave Williams shared all the details on SEMPO’s Facebook group:
• Three Ways to Kick Up Your Local Marketing In Time for Black Friday & Cyber Mondays!
  The economic Grinch is threatening to steal Christmas this year, but there are some things local businesses can do to avoid getting coal in their stockings this holiday season. Here are three tips for punching up your online local marketing presence, just in time for Black Friday and the Cyber Mondays to follow.
• SearchBiz: MSN Staff Shuffles; GOOG Gains; eMarketer On 2009 Ad Spending
  AllThingsD and paidContent.org are both reporting on staffing changes at MSN. AllThingsD calls it a case of “musical chairs,” and that seems pretty accurate based on a memo sent out by Greg Nelson of the Global Media Group. Nelson himself is now under Satya Nadella, Senior VP of Search, and Erik Jorgensen, Corporate VP of MSN. Yusuf Mehdi and Brian McAndrews are now Senior VPs of Online Audience Business and Advertisers & Publishers, respectively. Those are just a couple of the changes at MSN; it’s a holiday week, so there will be no quiz on all the changes in the morning.
• Cyberchondria: When Web Search Makes You Sick(er)
  Those muscle twitches you get probably aren’t a sign that you have ALS (Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, aka “Lou Gehrig’s Disease”). But if you’re using search engines to diagnose what ails you, there’s a chance you’ll come to that conclusion. In a new paper, Microsoft investigates cyberchondria: “… the unfounded escalation of concerns about common symptomatology, based on the review of search results and literature on the Web.”
• Why Social Media May Not Be Right For You
  I was recently asked whether, if I had to make the choice, would I choose to work in just SEO or social media. Without any hesitation I answered SEO. In the current climate it’s obviously more accountable and seems a more obvious choice to me for brands looking to make reduced marketing budgets go further. (Although the Financial Times makes a very good argument that brands should actually invest in marketing during a recession rather than reduce spend). Luckily I don’t have to make a choice but I think it highlights something that we in the digital marketing industry are often guilty of – assuming that what works for us will work for everyone. We’ve all seen it – the examples of how small businesses should be using Twitter or how brands should be spending hours scouring social networks to pick up on any sort of negative comment. Whilst I actually often agree with these sorts of sentiments I think that in the extreme they can be dangerous as they suggest that what works for one brand will work for all of them.
• MapQuest: “We’ve Come Out Of Hibernation”
  I recently had the opportunity to interview two senior level executives from Mapquest to find out what the longtime provider of online mapping services is up to. Despite perceptions, MapQuest is actually a more popular mapping destination than Google or Yahoo’s map sites, and the company continues to innovate and push out new features and services, with a renewed level of energy in recent months. What follows is my Q&A with Mark Law, Vice President of Product Development and Christian Dwyer, Senior Vice President & General Manager, MapQuest, Inc. Can you share the highlights of your future road map?
• Nielsen: UK Mobile Web Growing “8x Faster” Than PC Internet
  Nielsen released some UK mobile usage data yesterday that are very interesting on a number of fronts. The highest-level findings reflect that in the UK the mobile internet is growing much faster than the PC internet (8x) and that the average age of mobile users is younger than online. There are now more than 7 million mobile internet users in the UK according to Nielsen. That compares with more than 40 million in the US.
• Now Is The Winter of Linking’s Discontent
  Everywhere you look right now, there’s another headline pointing to another story that in either a direct or subtle way affects link building.
• YouTube Defaults Videos In HD Format: But Forgets Embed Feature
  YouTube announced that all videos on their web site will now be in the wider format HD format, 16:9 ratio. The YouTube player is now 960 pixels wide, as opposed to the standard format of 4:3 ratio. 4:3 aspect ratio videos will continue to play in the wider format, but YouTube has added black borders to the right and left of the video, to fill that space. YouTube has a help document describing how to upload better quality videos. It includes using MPEG4 (Divx, Xvid) format with MP3 audio and a video resolution of 480×360 or higher with a frame rate of 24fps or higher. Below is an embedded version of me covering the news on video. Note, the default embed code still uses the old 4:3 aspect ratio. Why not give the new format or at least an option for it in the “customize” section?
• Q&A With Google On SearchWiki (Don’t Expect An Opt-Out Soon)
  Four days after it launched, Google SearchWiki continues to attract much attention from critics and fans alike. Meanwhile, there remain questions on how it all works, under the hood. Below, a follow-up to my Google SearchWiki 101: An Illustrated Guide article from last week, answering some of the remaining questions. Oh, and for those looking for a SearchWiki opt-out, the short answer is don’t expect one anytime soon.
• SearchBiz: Facebook-Twitter Talks Fail; Yahoo Loses On Kelkoo; Google To ‘Take Over TV’ & More
  Here’s our lead story in 140 characters: Facebook buying Twitter=fail. Allthingsd.com says $500m stock offer too low. Twitter unsure about selling. Talks over, but FB may try again. The longer version for those not active in microblogging: Facebook recently came up short in a serious bid to buy Twitter. Kara Swisher at allthingsd.com says Facebook initiated talks in mid-October and offered $500 million worth of Facebook stock. Twitter questioned the value of that stock, and instead wanted a cash deal. Swisher also says the Twitter folks aren’t even sure they want to sell the company at this point.

Search News From Around The Web:

Applications & Portal Features

• Gmail security and recent phishing activity, Google Online Security Blog
• Google Sites Blog: Migrate your JotSpot wiki to Google Sites, googlesitesblog.blogspot.com
• Google Sync For BlackBerry Failing Big Time For Some, Search Engine Roundtable
• Official Gmail Blog: Syncing your Google Calendar, Official Gmail Blog

Business Issues

• Google May Power Search, Ads For Russia’s Odnoklassniki Social Net, paidContent.org
• Google Public Policy Blog: Eric Schmidt speaks about solutions for energy security, Google Public Policy Blog

Link Building

• 25 Niche Article Directories, Link Building Best Practices
• A Farewell to Selling Links, We Build Pages
• SMX London – Blow Your Mind Link Building Techniques, Marketing Pilgrim

Local, Maps & Mobile

• Got Questions? Try the new Google Mobile Help Forum, Official Google Mobile Blog
• Happier travels through Street View with Pegman, Google LatLong
• Introducing Praized Answers, a social broadcasting service to ask local questions, The Praized Media Product Blog
• The Most Irritating Google Maps for Mobile Oversight, Search Engine Roundtable

Paid Search & Contextual

• How Does a Weak Campaign Affect the Rest of Your AdWords Account? , PPC Hero
• Google AdSense Applications Getting Stricter?, Search Engine Roundtable
• Kyte gets Google AdSense, fresh new mobile sites, News.com
• Microsoft adExcellence: Fall Upgrade Trainings, adCenter Blog for Advertisers
• U.S. Retail Search Campaigns Spending Surges, MediaPost

Searching

• Fly over the river and through the woods with Farecast, Live Search
• Web Search for a Planet: The Google Cluster Architecture, Google Research Publication
• SearchTogether – a new form of Social Search, AltSearchEngines

SEM Industry

• PubCon 2008 Conference from Search Marketing Gurus, Search Marketing Gurus
• SEO Watchdog Takes the Guesswork Out of Finding a Good SEO Provider , MarketWatch
• SMX London – Empowering Search Marketers – Cool tools from Microsoft, Marketing Pilgrim

SEO & SEM

• Creating Content to Answer Natural Questions, We Build Pages
• 25 Design Best Practices for Your Small Business Web Site, Search Engine Watch
• 9 Google Bookmarklets for SEOs, Search Engine Journal
• Emulate Humans, Not Robots, Online Marketer .com
• How to Make Decisions That’ll Rock Your SEO Campaign, Part I, Search Engine Guide
• Keyword Research for Search Engine Optimization, Search Engine Watch
• Minor Reports of Google Search November Update, Search Engine Roundtable
• Oh My God! Search is Changing Forever! SEO is Doomed! Run for the Hills!, SEOmoz

Social Media

• Announcing LinkedIn’s New Search Platform, The LinkedIn Blog
• Facebook: No Chat For You, TechCrunch
• Making Twitter Smarter, A VC
• Why Big Companies Are So Scared of Social Media, Ad Age

Video, Music & Image Search

• Music Service iLike In Search Of A Buyer: Report, paidContent.org

Recent Hot Items From Sphinn, Our Social News Sharing Site:

• Protect Digg, StumbleUpon & Propeller from uSocial.net’s Spammers
• Q&A With Google On SearchWiki (Don’t Expect An Opt-Out Soon)
• How Unexpected and Shocking Imagery is Used In Viral Advertising
• Using VLOOKUP to match keyword volume and rankings data
• Google’s User Data Empire
• Confirmed: Bounce Rate is A Search Engine Ranking Factor
• The 5 Biggest Mistakes in PPC Testing