SearchCap: The Day In Search, March 19, 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 Mistrial’ – Is Search Getting In The Way Of Justice?
  

  Ask around and you probably won’t find many people who think the idea of “Internet everywhere” is a bad thing. Thanks to laptops and smart phones, wi-fi and 3G, we can work (or play) at airports, check email during cab rides, and compare prices online from any department store. We can Google anyone or anything [...]

• Microsoft Demo Fest Shows Off New Ideas, Reporter Not Impressed
  

  Last month, Microsoft researchers from around the world showed off some of their most unique creations at the company’s TechFest 2009 event in Redmond. This month, a smaller group of Microsoft researchers took part in the 5th “Demo Fest” event — a smaller event that’s designed for researchers from adCenter Labs to show off their [...]

• Yahoo Search Adds Additional Image Filter Options
  

  The Yahoo Search Blog announced they have added additional filter options to Yahoo Image Search. You can now filter Yahoo Images by size, color, specific dimensions and even if it is from Flickr or not. For example, a search on grass allows you to click on “More filters.” When you click on it, these [...]

• Sony & Google Team Up In Digital Book Space
  

  Sony, Google Challenge Amazo from the Wall Street Journal reports that Google is providing more than half-a-million public domain books to Sony, to offer on Sony’s digital book reader. Google Book Search has digitized millions of books and the partnership gives Sony users free access to these 500,000 public domain books in the Sony eBook store. [...]

• Google Adds More Street Views In UK & Netherlands, Canadian Directory Offers A Different ‘Street View’
  

  Google has released a bunch of new Street View images for cities in the UK and The Netherlands. Google Blogoscoped has a list of the UK cities. But you can just as easily drag “peg man” onto a UK or European map on Google and see the coverage. Recently Google added user photos to Street View. [...]

• How To Make Your Web Site Really Pay Off
  

  Most books on search marketing focus on either the technical aspects of SEO or paid search, or on how to adapt traditional marketing strategies to the web. Web Design For ROI, by Lance Loveday and Sandra Niehaus, is unique in its sharp focus on making your web site accomplish what should be its primary goal: [...]

• The Importance Of Measuring SMBs’ Online Visibility
  

  The term “online visibility” usually refers to the visibility of sites on the web. This column will discuss the online visibility of small and medium businesses (SMBs) and why it is harder to define, identify and measure SMB presence than web site visibility.Web site visibility consists of several relatively easy to measure features such as [...]

• Yahoo! Changes Its Video Strategy (Again)
  

  Back when Terry Semel ran Yahoo, the web portal embarked on a grand Hollywood-style video strategy that was abandoned after Semel stepped down. Now, with another change in CEOs, Yahoo is again reversing course and rolling out a new approach to web video. Carol Bartz is taking over from co-founder Jerry Yang, and among her first initiatives [...]

• Financial Times Launches Newssift, A Business News Search Engine
  

  Newssift, a semantic business news search engine created by The Financial Times, has launched in beta tonight. Currently indexing thousands of news sources worldwide, and with millions of articles in its database, Newssift aims to bring context and meaning that its creators say is missing from traditional keyword-based business news search engines. “We want to [...]

Search News From Around The Web:

Applications & Portal Features

• Chrome Experiments are here, Official Google Blog
• New in Labs: YouTube, Picasa, Flickr and Yelp previews, Official Gmail Blog
• Custom views give you more control of your spreadsheets, Official Google Docs Blog
• Reach your people everywhere, in real time!, Live Services
• Microsoft Announces Availability of Internet Explorer 8, Microsoft

Business Issues

• EPIC claim on Google Docs rings hollow, government.zdnet.com
• Foursquare Founder Tells Two Tales About Filched Dodgeball Code, gawker.com
• Why the next generation Internet Protocol matters, Google Public Policy Blog
• An Update on Facebook Governance, Facebook
• Ballmer Says There Are ‘Compelling Economics’ in Yahoo Deal, Bloomberg
• Google D.C. Talk tomorrow: The Future of Cloud Computing, Google Public Policy Blog
• Live from New York: Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, Peter Kafka of AllThingsD
• Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz retiring from Intel’s board, MarketWatch

Link Building

• Offer Customers a Discount in Exchange for a Link?, Search Engine Roundtable

Local, Maps & Mobile

• Blackhats to Google Maps: Take That!, Mike Blumenthal
• Introducing The Virtual Earth Silverlight Map Control, Virtual Earth, An Evangelist’s Blog
• A More Local, Social Citysearch, New York Times
• New Citysearch Coming Out of Beta, Screenwerk

Paid Search & Contextual

• Copying Items in AdWords Editor, Google Business on YouTube
• Early Beta Data From Microsoft Adsense Competitor Encouraging, TechCrunch
• New templates for coupon display ads, as used by Razorfish, Inside AdWords
• Create Executive Reports for Adsense, The SEO Scoop
• Google Confirms Keyword Tool Issue is a Bug, Search Engine Roundtable
• Is Google AdSense Your Main Source of Income? Take Our Poll, Search Engine Roundtable
• Stumpedia Launches New Advertising Model – Pay Per Chat, www.searchrank.com

Searching

• Google Provides Numbers On Just How Often DMCA Takedown Process Is Abused, TechDirt
• How Can I Search Google From Any Application?, Lifehacker
• March is for hoops, Official Google Blog
• Search Queries with 8 Words Continue to Rise, MarketingVOX
• The curious case of Kumo: more than just a “test name”?, LiveSide
• Why Search Is Broken, and How Semantic Search Fixes It, Search Engine Journal

SEO & SEM

• The Big, Bad List of Pre-SEO Questions You Need to Answer, Part V, Search Engine Guide
• Will Google add guest accounts to Webmaster Tools?, Google Webmaster Tools On YouTube
• Does The Second Link From A Page Pass Value? – SEO FAQ, seoroi.com
• Page-Level Algorithmic Penalties On The Rise From Google, SEOmoz
• The Big, Bad List of Pre-SEO Questions You Need to Answer, Part VI, Search Engine Guide

Social Media

• Online Marketing Tips Video: Social Media Metrics – Measuring Success & Failures Part 2, Search Marketing Gurus
• Make the Most Of Your Linkedin Profile, Search Engine Journal
• Twitter for Non-Twitterers, Daily Cup of Tech
• Twitterville Falls For Premium Accounts Hoax, TechCrunch

Web Analytics

• New YouTube Insight Feature: Do People Like Your Videos?, YouTube Blog

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

• How Amazon made $2.7bn with one small tweak
• What Kind Of Chatter Are You Monitoring Via Twitter?
• 6 Fool-Proof Steps to Make More Money With Your Website
• Introduction To Google AdWords Conversion Tracking