SearchCap: The Day In Search, May 18, 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:

• Yahoo Streamlining Mobile Experiences Discontinues “Smartphone App”
  

  Until a couple of months ago, Yahoo had a range of mobile products and experiences in the market: Go, oneSearch, oneConnect and mobile web. With the launch of Yahoo Mobile earlier this year the company has been seeking to bring more consistency to the mobile user experience. Earlier today TechCrunch reported that Yahoo had “abandoned” [...]

• Microsoft Kumo Features Being Tested In The Wild?
  

  Ars Technica reports Microsoft’s new possible search brand, Kumo, is testing features in the public space. The features of Kumo are being seen in Live.com by some users. This can mean that Live Search might remain the brand of Microsoft’s search engine. It can also mean that Microsoft is looking for a [...]

• Did Google Let The Search Cat Out Of The Bag?
  

  Shortly after announcing last week’s “Search Options,” Google offered a peek behind the scenes of its decision-making process and how the company arrived at the current version of Search Options. But they did reveal a little too much in the process? Google Operating System did a close examination into one of the screenshots Google shared showing [...]

• Pay-For-Call: Moving Clicks To Live Sales Leads
  

  Many local businesses have long relied on incoming phone calls to drive their commerce. This is particularly true for needs-based businesses, such as plumbers or exterminators that require an initial conversation with a potential customer to determine whether a solution can be provided and an appointment should be made. This need is met over the [...]

• Microsoft Completes adCenter Upgrade
  

  Microsoft has announced an upgrade to adCenter that the company says will give advertisers “more control over targeting, bidding, and distribution of your advertising campaigns.” Microsoft wrote several blog posts to explain all the changes [...]

• Hitwise: Natural Search Referrals On The Rise
  

  As a followup to last week’s report that fewer searchers are clicking on paid ads, Hitwise has released a follow-up report showing that organic search referrals are on the rise. “For the majority of categories measured at Hitwise, search is the top source of traffic referrals and the share has increased year-over-year,” writes Heather Dougherty. According [...]

• Important Questions You Should Ask About Where Search Is Headed
  

  As goes search, so goes paid search, at least in the sense that nobody would click on paid links near search results unless compelled by search engine results in the first place. So, changes in how people interact with search engines can affect where and how they search next year and in the future. As [...]

• Google And Other Tech Firms Brace For More Anti-Trust Scrutiny
  

  As the Wall Street Journal reports, and as we’ve written about before, the Obama Administration is getting ready to be much tougher than its predecessor in the anti-trust realm. The terrible irony is that a large number of tech executives and workers at Silicon Valley companies supported the Obama candidacy and now it may impact [...]

• Only Two Weeks Until SMX Advanced – Register Today!
  

  Just two weeks until the thought leaders of search engine marketing will pack Seattle’s Bell Harbor International Conference Center for the most anticipated conference of the year: Search Marketing Expo – SMX Advanced. Will you be one of them? Capacity at SMX Advanced is extremely limited. Less than 75 tickets are available. Register today! [...]

• AdQuants: Top Local Search Advertisers Are Traffic Resellers
  

  Analytics firm AdQuants has compiled some very interesting data on the local search market. It’s based on the company’s crawling of the major search engines in “250 US metros with approximately 300 local keywords spanning the spectrum of local service providers and retailers.” AdQuants found that national paid search market share trends were magnified at [...]

• Bit.ly Adds At-A-Glance Click Counts
  

  Last week, I talked with Bit.ly about future product improvements in their URL shortener service that I’d like to see. I’m still working on a full write-up, but one’s already emerged: at-a-glance click counts. I’ve shortened well over 200 URLs through Bit.ly, and it’s been a real pain to log into my account and then have [...]

Search News From Around The Web:

Business Issues

• Federated Media Will Search for New Leader Says Founder and CEO Battelle (Plus a Web Squared and Double-D Video!), AllThingsD by Kara Swisher
• Google Outage Shows the Cloud May Not Be Enterprise-Ready, www.eweek.com
• Update: Kakul Srivastava is Out As Flickr Chief, Douglas Alexander Now in Charge of Flickr, thomashawk.com

Link Building

• Go Link Yourself!, Search Engine Guide

Local, Maps & Mobile

• Wrong with Search: Content Duplication, gesterling.wordpress.com
• Follow Google Geo on Twitter, googlegeodevelopers.blogspot.com
• Google Street View Tricycles, Google Blogoscoped
• How a Search Engine Might Determine Whether a Search Involves a Geographical Intent, SEO By The Sea
• Now I’ve Seen Everything in Local Search, Small Business SEM

Other Items

• Eric Schmidt’s Keynote Address At Carnegie Mellon (Video), TechCrunch

Paid Search & Contextual

• Does Google Own Your Trademark?, SEO Book
• A Hitwise Report Does Not a Financial Report Make, www.traffick.com
• Longer Queries Driving Down Ad Impressions? How About Bankrupt Advertisers?, TechCrunch
• Banner Ads: Beyond the Click, www.emarketer.com
• Google Retail Blog: Dude, What Recession?, googleretail.blogspot.com
• The ROI of PPC Beats Most Advertising Opportunities, Search Engine Journal

Searching

• Let visitors recommend your content, googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com
• Google Squared Live… Kinda, Google Blogoscoped
• Wolfram|Alpha and Screen Scraping, negatendo.net
• Ask puts results in frames again, Pandia
• Designs Google Tested for Their Search Options Feature, Google Blogoscoped
• Do Wolfram|Alpha Users Ever Go To Sleep?, Wolfram|Alpha Blog
• Feedback!, Wolfram|Alpha Blog
• Quintura’s Search Cloud vs. Google’s Wonder Wheel, blog.quintura.com
• Wolfram Alpha Computational Engine, Business Insider

SEM Industry

• Chris Sherman on Algorithms, Humans & SMX, AIM Clear Blog
• Coming Soon: DIYSEO.com (Sign up now!), www.patrickgavin.com
• Google AdSense Advisor Heads to Barbados for Vacation, Search Engine Roundtable
• Ruud Hein: How I Stay Ahead of The SEO Pack, seoroi.com
• Search Engine Journal Merges with Search & Social, LLC, Search Engine Journal
• SEO Consultants: Do You Have SEO Liability Strategy?, Search Engine Roundtable

SEO & SEM

• Weekend Roundup for the Week of 5/10/09, SEOmoz
• Why did I become an editor for DMOZ?, blog.dmoz.org
• Caution! rel=”nofollow” Discussion, www.seo.com
• Headsmacking Tip #13: Don’t Accidentally Block Link Juice with Robots.txt, SEOmoz
• 4 Actionable Tips to Optimize Links in an Email Message, Search Engine Journal
• Google Updates Backlink Data in New Webmaster Tools, Search Engine Roundtable
• Say What? Keyword Density, Frequency, Prominence, & Proximity?, www.seo.com
• SEO Site Audit, a Guerrilla Webmaster’s Guide, AIM Clear Blog

Social Media

• 47 People Who Work At Twitter (And What They Do) | Twittercism, twittercism.com
• Social Networks Eclipse E-Mail, New York Times
• This Is Getting Ridiculous: Cat Amasses Half A Million Twitter Followers In 3 Months, TechCrunch
• Social Publishing Site Scribd Adds E-Commerce; 80 Percent Revenues To Publishers, paidContent.org
• Twitter’s Real-Time Uselessness Proven by (Mistaken) Gay Marriage Hysteria, gawker.com
• Why Twitter’s Engineers Hate the @replies feature, www.25hoursaday.com
• Did The UK Press Con A 104-Year-Old Woman Into Joining Twitter For Digg Bait?, TechCrunch
• Get Ready For Real Time Digg, Whatever That Means, TechCrunch
• Real Time Confusion: Twitter, Friendfeed and Facebook, www.centernetworks.com
• Announcing the Wolfram|Alpha Community!, Wolfram|Alpha Blog
• Does social media activity really help SEO?, econsultancy.com
• Israeli intelligence issues Facebook warning, San Francisco Chronicle
• There Is Definitely Something Devious Going on Over at Reddit!, Search Engine Journal
• Twitter Proves Its Worth as a Killer App for Local Businesses, Ad Age
• WolframAlpha Community – Your Source for Social News and Networking, community.wolframalpha.com

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

• There Is Definitely Something Devious Going on Over at Reddit!
• What Darren Rowse Says About Social Media Marketing
• Chris Sherman on Algorithms, Humans & SMX
• Search Engine Journal Merges with Search & Social, LLC
• How will Google's new features impact SEO?
• Ruud Questions Mike Grehan
• Setting Up an SEO Shop Overnight!
• Link Building Planning: Worth the Effort
• Taking Day Off – I Had a Girl
• SMB Marketing Is About Telling Your Story!
• Gender Differences In Social Media Participation
• Making 50 characters work for YOU
• The 4 Steps of Social Media Marketing
• Are Affiliate Links Unethical Without Disclosure?