SearchCap: The Day In Search, August 10, 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:

• Google Pitches Benefits, Ease Of Using Google Maps
  

  Google’s outreach last week was all about Street View. This week it appears to be Google Maps’ turn in the spotlight, thanks to a new page that touts the benefits of using Google Maps on your web site, and shows the various ways to do it. The mini-site offers step-by-step instructions with two options — “Quick” [...]

• Done Deal: Facebook Buys FriendFeed
  

  Previously rejected by Twitter, Facebook has bought FriendFeed, instead. The official release is on Facebook, and FriendFeed’s Bret Taylor has posted about it on the FriendFeed blog. Though Facebook has long been competing with MySpace for social networking supremacy, it’s been eclipsed in some ways by the immediacy of Twitter and, to a lesser degree, FriendFeed. [...]

• 5 Tips For Getting Good Paid Search Clients
  

  There’s no shortage of criteria for choosing a good agency. Reports, ratings, opinions, and referrals are traded freely and openly as you might expect in any technical business where appropriate vendor selection is paramount. A lot of the information is published, so anyone can refer to it. By contrast, when talk turns to what makes for [...]

• Google’s Search Suggestions Change On Second Search
  

  I am not sure if this is new, but when you look at the first search suggestions given to you by Google and then look at the second set of search suggestions, Google will change them, assuming you were not happy with the first set of results. Google Operating System just pointed this out [...]

• Google Adds “Prices From The Page” Search Option
  

  Google Operating System noticed that Google added an additional search option feature, named “prices from the page.” When you select this option, Google will try to pull out prices from the web page results, for the query you entered. Here is an example, please note that I cropped the screen shot to highlight [...]

• After Buying Performics From Google, Publicis Buys Razorfish From Microsoft
  

  Yesterday Microsoft and French advertising holding company Publicis Groupe announced that the latter was buying agency Razorfish. Razorfish came to Microsoft as part of the $6 billion aQuantive deal, the largest acquisition in Redmond’s history. As part of the deal Publicis will give Microsoft 6.5 million shares, amounting to a roughly 3 percent stake in the [...]

• Can Bing Change The Culture Of Online Search?
  

  I was in Seattle for the SMX Advanced conference last month, which coincided with the Bing release announcement by Microsoft. The Microsoft booth got a good amount of attention from the attendees, most of whom were eager to see just what this Bing thing could do. A large flat screen monitor was mounted on the booth [...]

Search News From Around The Web:

Applications & Portal Features

• FT.com plans pay-per-article system, The Guardian
• What Do You Expect from Google Chrome OS?, Google Operating System
• What Works: The Web Way vs. The Wave Way, Anil Dash
• tr.im R.I.P., tr.im
• Bloglines On Life Support. This Story Needs An Ending, TechCrunch
• Get Ready Penny-Pinchers, the New Yahoo! Deals is Here!, Yahoo Press Releases
• New tools for Google Services for Websites, Official Google Blog

Business Issues

• Google ups director compensation awards, News.com
• Google’s Last Dodgeball Employee Leaving To Join Foursquare (GOOG), Business Insider
• Google to pay cash to some board members, Reuters
• Razorfish Bidding Saga Over: Publicis Buys It For $530 Million; 5-Year Bing Ad Deal Included, paidContent.org
• Source: Apple And Google Agreed Not To Poach Workers, TechCrunch
• An Elephant Leaves the Room at Yahoo, New York Times

Link Building

• Backlink Research Shows How To Compete Elite (Part 2), seoroi.com
• How to Build Links Offline, Serengeti Communications
• Is There Such a Thing as a “Virtual” Backlink?, Search Engine Journal
• Organic Link Building, Web Optimist

Local, Maps & Mobile

• Local Business Center: Same listing in multiple languages is OK, Mike Blumenthal
• MapQuest Integrates Census Data into Maps, Screenwerk

Paid Search & Contextual

• Google AdSense "Hide These Ads" Feature?, Search Engine Roundtable
• Google AdSense Bug Prevents Changing Channel Names, Search Engine Roundtable
• Increased Bid Transparency with Google’s Bid Simulator, PPC Hero

Searching

• UFC Information Instantly, Bing
• A Brief Note to Google on Newspaper Digitization, ResourceShelf
• How to Turn Off Personalized Search in Google Chrome, Michael Gray
• Wolfram|Alpha Now Fully Mobile (iPhone) Friendly, ResourceShelf
• Many, Many Google Users Get "We’re Sorry" Page, Search Engine Roundtable

SEM Industry

• Video Recap of Weekly Search Buzz :: August 7, 2009, Search Engine Roundtable
• Free Conference Call to get the most from SEOmoz SEO Tools, SEOmoz
• TopRank Puts Together The Pieces Of Search Engine Strategies 2009, Online Marketing Blog

SEO & SEM

• Get detailed site analysis to solve problems (SEM 101), Bing
• Learn SEO for Adobe PDF Docs, Search Engine Journal
• Optimizing your Website for Microsoft’s Bing Search Engine, HyperArts
• Yahoo|Bing and SEO, Bruceclay.com.au
• #Blogchat 8-09 Recap; How to Maximize Your Blog’s SEO Efforts With @LeeOdden, moblogsmoproblems.blogspot.com
• 4 Essential SEO Infographics, SEOmoz
• 4 Search Engines That Use Different Approaches to Achieve Relevancy, Search Engine Journal
• Are the search engines spying on SEOs?, www.huomah.com
• Best FireFox Addons to Analyze Page Load Time, Search Engine Journal
• Bing – Crawl delay and the Bing crawler, MSNBot, www.bing.com
• Bing Classifies Cloaking Detection as "Single Word Query" Issue, Search Engine Roundtable
• Google Blocking Word "Google" In WebmasterWorld’s Sitelinks?, Search Engine Roundtable
• Keywords and Content and Search Suggestions from Time-Related Queries, SEO By The Sea
• Optimize your crawling, Official Google Webmaster Central Blog
• SEO Tools You Can Use Today, outspokenmedia.com

Social Media

• Digg Is On A Roll, TechCrunch
• FriendFeed Users Outraged by Facebook Acquisition, Mashable
• Public Relations Pros Must Know Social Media, www.socialmediaexplorer.com

Video, Music & Image Search

• YouTube Gets Smarter on the Small Screen, YouTube Blog