SearchCap: The Day In Search, April 15, 2009

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

From Search Engine Land:

• MicroHoo Lite And Other Creative Speculation About Yahoo’s Immediate Future
  

  Yahoo Q1 earnings are coming up next week. There were also some not-so-secret conversations between new CEO Carol Bartz and Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer about a search deal of some sort or a broader advertising partnership. And there’s a fairly credible rumor that more layoffs are coming at Yahoo, which are tied to a reportedly [...]

• L.A. Tech Scene Welcomes Web Dev & SEO Meetup
  

  On the journey from HTML to SERP, a Web site may face a number of potential pitfalls. Pinpointing the obstacles on the path was the focus of the first Jane and Robot meetup in Los Angeles last Tuesday night. Nathan Buggia and Vanessa Fox, the pair behind search and search-friendly web development site JaneAndRobot.com, held the [...]

• The DiggBar Compromise: Show Framebar Only To Logged In Digg Users
  

  Digg is promising a significant change to how its DiggBar framebar operates, one that should solve SEO concerns about how link credit is passed on but won’t entirely remove misgivings about the framing of content. With the new implementation scheduled for next week, only those who are logged into Digg will see the [...]

• How To Get Resources (And Buy-In) For In-House SEO Efforts
  

  With most large organizations, a number of key stakeholders must offer their buy-in for an in-house SEO effort to be successful. With various groups all tasked with a variety of other objectives, how do you get everyone focused on the common goal of optimizing your organization’s organic search efforts? Make a sandwich, of course. Think of [...]

• JumpTap Launches Advanced Mobile PPC Marketplace
  

  This morning mobile search provider and ad network JumpTap launched “tapMatch” a new PPC marketplace for mobile phones. It accommodates both display and text ads — including both search and contextual advertising — across major carriers and a range of partner sites in the US and Europe. According to the company it offers the most [...]

• Hitwise: Google Maps Has More Traffic, MapQuest More Engagement
  

  There’s already been considerable discussion of the passing of the maps traffic crown from MapQuest to Google Maps. Hitwise, comScore and Compete all show Google Maps as the traffic leader in the category. One could argue with relative confidence that the long-anticipated development is a consequence of two things: Google’s ability to refer traffic to [...]

• The Importance Of Branded Search Programs (Even in Tough Economic Times)
  

  B2B marketers, how would you address the following question from your client or boss: “Why should I invest in a branded PPC campaign when I rank well organically?” This is a very legitimate question, particularly in this economic climate where companies are looking to cut corner Consider, too, that this becomes a stickier wicket when some [...]

• Search Week: April 13, 2009
  

  Search Week is an exclusive weekly newsletter for Search Engine Land premium members that recaps stories covered on Search Engine Land over the past week. Below are top stories organized by topic that happened over the past week. Each topic (or Search Engine Land column) is also a link, where [...]

• Looking Forward To SMX London
  

  Our London edition of Search Marketing Expo is coming up on May 18 and 19, and is shaping up to be a terrific show. We’ve got some of the best search marketers from the U.K., Europe and the U.S. speaking, with tracks for people at all levels of experience. We’re kicking things off with an [...]

Search News From Around The Web:

Applications & Portal Features

• Edit, delete and respond to events using Google Calendar for mobile, googleproductideas.blogspot.com
• Friendlier Google Profile Addresses, Google Operating System
• Get a Vanity URL for your Google Profile Now, Digital Inspiration
• Google Finance Now Running Google Display Ads, Search Engine Journal
• Virgin to migrate customers onto Google Mail, news.cnet.com

Business Issues

• AOL asks court to rule Yahoo patents not violated, Reuters
• Brilliant Takes on Urgent Threats, blog.google.org
• Coming Soon, Yet Another Re-Org at Yahoo, gigaom.com
• Yahoo Could Save $1 Billion Per Year Outsourcing Search To Microsoft, www.businessinsider.com
• Yahoo May Announce Layoffs on Tuesday, New York Times
• CHART OF THE DAY: Internet Ads Growing Faster Than Any Medium In History, www.businessinsider.com
• Google Sued For Blogger’s Criticism Of Skater’s Mom, MediaPost
• Possible HotJobs Sale Raises Questions For Yahoo Newspaper Partners, paidContent.org
• Boom! Twitter More Than Doubles Unique U.S. Visitors To 9.3 Million In March, TechCrunch
• Google Prepares Earnings as Microsoft and Yahoo Lurk, www.cnbc.com
• Stop Me if You’ve Heard This One: Yahoo Management and Staff Set on Shuffle Again, kara.allthingsd.com
• Will Facebook Become the Top Internet Site?, gesterling.wordpress.com

Link Building

• Tuesday Mornings: Best Time To Send Out Link Request Emails, Search Engine Roundtable

Local, Maps & Mobile

• Praized Brings the “Statusphere” to Local Search, blog.kelseygroup.com

Other Items

• The story, as it unfolded, googlenewsblog.blogspot.com
• Live Search: Will You Code for Green This Spring?, blogs.msdn.com
• Spam emails ‘use as much power as 2.1m homes’, The Guardian
• Yodel Anecdotal – Don’t miss tonight’s “Dinner: Impossible”, ycorpblog.com

Paid Search & Contextual

• Rescheduled: Site maintenance on April 18, Inside AdSense
• Those Who Matter Most, www.ysmblog.com
• AdWords system maintenance on April 18th, Inside AdWords
• Microsoft Advertising Digital Challenge Update, www.adcentercommunity.com
• Microsoft Advertising: Insights Podcast – Choosing The Right PPC Strategy, www.adcentercommunity.com
• Paid Search Buying Cycle: More thoughts, Rimm Kaufman
• Write PPC Ads that Scream and Stand Out From the Pack, PPC Hero
• Your introduction to Google Ad Manager (Part 1 of 2), Inside AdSense

Searching

• AOL Redesigns Shopping Search. But Is It Better Than Yahoo’s?, TechCrunch
• Google Search Prepares for Switching to Ajax, Google Operating System
• Multiple Download Offers on Google Homepage, Google Blogoscoped

SEM Industry

• SMX Sydney Day 2 Recap, www.ask-kalena.com

SEO & SEM

• Google: Can rel="canonical" index my hostname and not my IP address?, www.youtube.com
• The Truth About Search Engine Marketing: An Interview with Rebecca Lieb, GrokDotCom
• Search Marketers and Web Developers Meet in Santa Monica, BruceClay.com
• The battle over search between merchants and affiliates, Search Engine Guide
• Are You Leaking Juice?, SEOmoz
• Identify Your Search Marketing Niche, Search Engine Journal
• Online Communities – An SEO Dream, blog.webmama.com
• Practical Tips for Government Web Sites (And Everyone Else!) To Improve Their Findability in Search, radar.oreilly.com
• SEO & Social Media Roadmap, Online Marketing Blog

Social Media

• 11 Useful Twitter Tools That Don’t Require Your Password, www.twitip.com
• Oh, so now Twitter is making us immoral, news.cnet.com
• What You Need to Know about Social Media and LinkJuice, The SEO Scoop

Web Analytics

• An upcoming change to Google.com search referrals; Google Analytics unaffected, Google Analytics Blog
• Using Site Search Features in Creative Ways, Google Analytics Blog
• The most important question you can ask your team before installing analytics is…, www.bgtheory.com
• Urchin Search Referral URL Update, Google Analytics Blog

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

• Most Corporate Social Media Efforts Will Fail – And What You Can Do About It
• Identify Your Search Marketing Niche
• How to Do Keyword Research for an Established Site
• HTML is to SEO as Anatomy is to Doctor – Big Requirement for SEOs