SearchCap: The Day In Search, November 9, 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, Book Search Partners Ask For Four More Days

  Today is the deadline for Google and its partners in the Google Book Search settlement to submit a new version of the settlement that satisfies the recent concerns laid out by the US Justice Department and others. But instead, as the New York Times reports, they’ve asked federal judge Denny Chin for an extension until this […]
• Google To Murdoch: Go Ahead & Block Us

  The long-running debate over Google and its impact on newspapers and journalism took another turn today when News Corp founder Rupert Murdoch said his company may makes its sites invisible to Google, and Google fired back by saying, in essence, bring it on. It began with this interview on Australia’s Sky News (which Murdoch owns), reported […]

• Berlin Wall’s 20th Anniversary Can’t Beat Sesame Street For Google Logo

  It’s the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. Where’s the special Google logo for that, some have wondered. There is one, but only at Google Germany. Elsewhere, it’s apparently more important to keep celebrating the 40th anniversary of Sesame Street. The Google Germany logo is shown above. At Google’s main Google.com site (which […]

• Google Acquires AdMob, Mobile Display Ad Company

  Google has acquired AdMob (www.admob.com), a popular mobile display ad company, for $750 million. Google has already built their own platform for AdSense on Mobile devices, but this acquisition gives Google access to AdMob’s more than 15,000 mobile Web sites and applications. There are more details about this acquisition at google.com/press/admob. Here is the email AdMob sent their […]

• Marissa Mayer, Glamour Girl – Named 2009 Woman of the Year

  In addition to her skills as the well known VP of search and user experience at Google, a wardrobe including Oscar de la Renta and Armani helped land this girl from a (very) small town in Wisconsin on Glamour Magazine’s 2009 Women of the Year list. Marissa Mayer is profiled as a “visionary” in the magazine’s […]

• Hulk Hogan Visits Google Kirkland

  Justin Uberti, Google’s tech lead who I believe leads the Google Talk team, posted on his blog that Hulk Hogan visited Google’s Kirkland office. Hogan made his visit on Tuesday, November 3rd, as a signing event for his new book, My Life Outside the Ring. Here is a picture from Justin:

• How To Bid Profitably On Nonconverting Keywords

  Google has a bidding methodology called Budget Optimizer that attempts to maximize the traffic you receive for the keywords in a campaign. This is useful for early buying cycle keywords. However, every keyword should be reaching some goal regardless of where it falls into the buying cycle. It was difficult to track the effectiveness of […]

• Local Newspapers Need To Embrace SEO To Survive

  It’s no secret that newspapers have been struggling with the disruptive innovations introduced by Google, and this has resulted in some level of resistance and a circling-of-the-wagons mentality by the industry. But, what if they were to go in the opposite direction, with full engagement? Search engine optimization could really help newspapers, and here’s one tactic for how to do it.

• Calculating The True SEO Costs Of Major Site Changes

  Your site will pay a penalty in search rankings when you make modifications to content, structure or domain name. Here’s how to estimate what kind of hit you can expect to take, and how to minimize the damage.

• Five Ways To Amp Up Holiday Shopping Season Results

  Despite indications that the U.S. economy is starting to turn around, low consumer confidence will undoubtedly have an impact on retail sales this holiday season, making every consumer’s online search, browsing and buying experience more critical than ever. The challenge for online retailers is not only to get shoppers to your site, but keep them […]

• Business Owners: Are You Sabotaging Your Own Local Listings?

  As SEO rapidly becomes a core task for local business owners, there’s a new temptation to build advertising messages or tracking mechanisms into business listings on the web. Typically, this might mean adding a slogan or campaign tagline to a business name or changing an office address to appear local to more customers. Unfortunately, this […]

Search News From Around The Web:

Applications & Portal Features

• Trolling, Spam, and Answers, Yahoo Answers Blog
• Google Talk to Add Video Conferencing, Google Operating System
• Google Docs Labs?, Google Operating System
• Google making Waves across all its Apps?, Engadget
• Happy Birthday to Firefox, Browser Turns Five Years Old Today, ResourceShelf
• KS2009: How Google uses Linux, lwn.net
• Spell Checking with the New Yahoo! Mail, www.ymailblog.com

Business Issues

• Chinese government attacks Yahoo over porn, www.tgdaily.com
• Google says won’t give Clearwire more financing, Reuters
• Google, Microsoft, Yahoo others sued over mapping software, www.tgdaily.com
• Microsoft Bing Gives WiFi Users Free Search, MediaPost

Link Building

• The Disproportionate Value of Deep Links, Stone Temple

Local, Maps & Mobile

• Google’s New Map Data is REALLY Old, Matt McGee
• NYC subway maps in your pocket with Google Maps for mobile, Official Google Mobile Blog
• How About an iPhone/iTouch Front-End App for Google Wave? It’s Here!, ResourceShelf
• Link by Link – Refining the Twitter Explosion With GPS, New York Times
• London Escort Service Using Seductive Images in Google Maps Business Listings, Search Engine Roundtable

Other Items

• Sesame Street Count(s) Day 6 Trumps Berlin Wall Logo, Search Engine Roundtable
• Yodel Studio Finalists–Vote For Your Favorites Now!, ycorpblog.com

Paid Search & Contextual

• PPC Has Always Been the Wrong Term, Traffick
• How To Breathe Life Into A Lacklustre PPC Campaign, Natural Search Blog
• AdSense policy clarification on using AdSense for feeds and AdSense for content, AdSense for Feeds
• Google AdWords Team’s Photo Help Session, Search Engine Roundtable
• Microsoft adCenter Advertiser Suffer from Quality Score Issues Also, Search Engine Roundtable

Searching

• A new system preserves the right to privacy in Internet searches, www.alphagalileo.org

SEM Industry

• 10 Tips For a Pubcon Vegas Newbie, Search Engine Journal
• 20th Anniversary of The Fall of the Berlin Wall in Germany, 2009, Google Logos Collection
• I’m an SEO Faker, SEO Chicks
• Poll: Where Do SEOs Cash In Best?, Search Engine Roundtable

SEO & SEM

• Robots speaking many languages, Bing Webmaster Blog
• 25 Link Building Tactics to Improve Blog Search Engine Rankings, Online Marketing Blog
• Charting ‘Unique Keyphrases’ Using Advanced Segments, SEOmoz
• Fake Google Matt Cutts Ban List Referrers?, Search Engine Roundtable
• Generic vs Local TLDs: Some data, some thoughts, and some pretty graphs, Distilled blog
• How Inaccurate Google’s SITE: Operator Is and How to Fix It, Search Engine Journal
• How should I link to a site that I have a personal relationship with?, YouTube Blog
• iSpionage: Keyword Research and Competitive Analysis Tool, Search Engine Journal
• Search Marketing Is Easier Than You Think, Search Engine Guide
• URL Canonicalization Fix for GoDaddy Windows IIS Hosting Plans, SEM Geek
• Why you should USE the NoArchive Meta tag, David Naylor

Social Media

• Google Wave vs Twitter at conferences, FreshNetworks Blog
• 10 Ways a Start-Up Can Use Social Media to Market Itself, blog.hubspot.com
• GM, Kellogg, Nestle Beat to the Tweet as Squatters Take Over Twitter Names, Ad Age
• Hire Social Media Consultant, cornwallseo.com
• Refining the Twitter Explosion With GPS, New York Times
• Tackling Twitter Trends with “What The Trend?”, ResourceShelf
• Twitter Start-Up CoTweet Launches Paid Service, Wall Street Journal

Web Analytics

• New Free Google Analytics API Dashboard Application, Google Analytics Blog