SearchCap: The Day In Search, November 12, 2010

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’s Robert Louis Stevenson Treasure Island Logo

  Saturday, November 13th is Robert Louis Stevenson’s 160th birthday. Robert Louis Stevenson is a famous writer including some works Treasure Island, A Child’s Garden of Verses, Kidnapped, Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. For his special birthday, Google has a special Treasure Island logo. Here is a picture of the logo: The logo […]
• How Google Could Have Bought Baidu And Other Fascinating Details About China’s Largest Search Engine

  BusinessWeek has published a terrific and lengthy article on Chinese search engine Baidu, how it “won” China and its global aspirations. The following is the CliffsNotes version. Baidu holds a 73 percent market share in China, the world’s largest internet market. The company is worth $38 billion and is 57 percent larger than Yahoo. Its […]

• Google Protects Its Trademark Against Aussie Alcohol Search Engine

  Guess which one of these company names is Google approved? An alcohol price comparison search engine based in Australia has been forced to change its name after a six-month trademark battle with Google. Originally called “Groggle,” the web site is now known as Drinkle. According to the Sydney Morning Herald, Groggle owner Cameron Collie received […]

• More Yahoo Layoffs Coming Soon

  There are many rumors that Yahoo is going to be doing a mass layoff soon. TechCrunch believes there will be a 20% layoff across the board, although Yahoo denied it. Kara Swisher said it is more like 10% and only impacting the product group at Yahoo. The product group has about 6,500 people, so a […]

• Google Can Index “Almost Any Text” In A Flash (SWF) File

  The Google Webmaster Central Blog posted an update on their Flash indexing capabilities. Google said, as of today, they are able to index and understand “almost any text a user can see as they interact with a SWF file on your site.” Typically, Flash has been one of those big No-Nos in the SEO space. […]

• Microsoft: 53 Percent Of Mobile Searches Have Local Intent

  Get out your slides, this is a great statistic: 53 percent of mobile searches on Bing have a local intent. This was casually told to me yesterday by Microsoft’s Stefan Weitz during a briefing call about a dozen other things. I stopped him and made him repeat and confirm the number. He did. It’s from […]

• How Searchers Find The Perfect Family Restaurant

  Last month I took a look at consumer search behavior for restaurants. This was a high-level analysis, and I mentioned in closing that I would contrast those findings to a model that has consumers searching for a particular type of restaurant—in this case family restaurants. Since this is essentially part two of the analysis, you […]

• PubCon Las Vegas 2010 Big Recap

  The PubCon Las Vegas 2010 show is now over and here is a recap of all the live blogging that I found while at the conference. Day One: David Pogue Keynote – PubCon 2010, SEO.com Day 1: Ecommerce and Shopping Cart Optimization Recap – PubCon 2010, SEO.com Day 1: Online Reputation Management Session – PubCon […]

• No Invasion, But Google Maps Involved In Spanish, Moroccan Island Dispute

  Google is correcting how it displays a small island in the Strait of Gibraltar after erring twice and putting Google Maps in the midst of a years-old dispute between Spain and Morocco. At question is a tiny island that’s only about one-third of a mile in each direction. Spain calls it Perejil and Morocco calls […]

• Google Adds Emergency Help To Search Results In 13 Countries

  Expanding on something it’s been doing in the U.S. since last year, Google is now showing emergency information at the top of the search results in 13 countries. This means that searchers who type in queries that are the equivalent of English phrases like “poison control” and “emergency” will see special information above the search […]

Search News From Around The Web:

Applications & Portal Features

• (Not so) Crazy Microsoft Rumors: Facebook’s new e-mail to feature Office Web Apps integration, ZDNet
• Code Site In Five New Languages, Google Analytics Blog
• Google Apps highlights – 11/12/2010, Official Google Blog
• Google launches official Chrome extensions for Calendar, Docs, YouTube, thenextweb.com
• Tweeting link titles and an update on the ‘Save’ redesign, blog.delicious.com
• Y! News: An inside look at rebuilding the largest news site on the web, developer.yahoo.com

Business Issues

• Google Offers Staff Engineer $3.5 Million To Turn Down Facebook Offer, TechCrunch
• Google’s Inevitable Ruin Begins, PC Magazine
• Group Claims Contradiction In Google Official’s Testimony, Tech Daily Dose
• Forget AOL-Yahoo…It’s News Corp-Yahoo That The Insiders Are Talking About, www.businessinsider.com
• Google Files Sizzling Answer to Oracle’s Amended Complaint and its Opposition to Motion to Dismiss – updated, GrokLaw
• Obama Administration Seeks Internet Privacy Protections, New Policy Office, Wall Street Journal
• The Long, Sad Story of Ask.com, Ad Age
• Twitter’s Bid to Partner With Newsrooms, Expand in Washington, The Daily Beast
• Yahoo to expand its blog network Monday, CNN.com

Link Building

• Comprehensive Link Building Tips for Personal Blogs, SEOmoz

Local, Maps & Mobile

• Two Weeks Later: Changes in Google Local Traffic, Small Business SEM

Paid Search & Contextual

• AdWords system maintenance on November 13, Inside AdWords
• Quality Score Reporting Issue Might Not Be Fixed, ppcblog.com

Searching

• How many words should be in your search query?, SearchReSearch
• New Medical Calculators in Wolfram|Alpha, Wolfram|Alpha Blog

SEO & SEM

• Changing Site Structures with Care, BruceClay
• Google leaves sites in dark over October demotions, The Register
• Should Search be Renamed?, BruceClay.com
• A Warning Shot or an Accident? Does it Matter?, SEO Book
• Example of site speed increasing crawled pages by Google, Search Engine War
• Google Search URL: untrusted_dlcp, Search Engine Roundtable
• Has traffic to your site dropped? You’re not alone., The Alexa Blog
• Search Engines and Brand Entities – Whiteboard Friday, SEOmoz
• Suggestion: Instant Previews In Google Webmaster Tools, Search Engine Roundtable
• The Definitive Guide to SEO for Images: 6 Steps to Image-Ranking Success, ZDNet
• Try a Little SEO Romance, Search Engine Guide
• Why Google Instant is a Scam, and What You Can Do, Search Engine People

Social Media

• Facebook Plans North Carolina Data Center, Data Center Knowledge
• How To Mass Export All Of Your Facebook Friends’ Private Email Addresses, TechCrunch
• Make the Most of Twitter Lists with Formulists, Search Engine Journal

Video, Music & Image Search

• 5 Heavenly Acts of Righteousness for Video SEO, www.getelastic.com
• 7 Deadly Sins of Video SEO, www.getelastic.com
• Where does Google TV go from here?, news.cnet.com

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

• #1 Mistake Marketers Make with Tracking Social Media – Really great piece from Annie Cushing, who says "… the lack of tracking from social media has become pandemic for companies — even enterprise companies that are investing tens of thousands of dollars into social media." Several specific, actionable ideas in here.
• The Definitive Guide to SEO for Images: 6 Steps to Image-Ranking Success – Here's a good overview of image optimization from Stephen Chapman at ZDNet. Some very hands-on tips for those who haven't spent a lot of time in this area of SEO.
• How to design for Google Instant Preview – A nice tutorial by Ivan Raszl on how to design your site so it shows up nicely with Google's new Instant Preview. Amazing that he came up with this so quickly!
• PubCon Las Vegas 2010 Big Recap – Search Engine Land's link roundup to all of the excellent live blogging and articles about this year's PubCon in Las Vegas.