SearchCap: The Day In Search, April 11, 2008

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 Now Fills Out Forms & Crawls Results
  One of the biggest search challenges has long been that the major search engines like Google cannot crawl material that can only be retrieved through the use of forms. Now Google is filling out those form to obtain the information previously hidden, the company has announced….
• Yahoo Adds Much More Imagery To Maps
  Yahoo has largely opted out of the mapping arms race between Microsoft and Google that has seen both invest millions in their mapping platforms. While it was the early pioneer of dynamic mapping and use of maps as a local search tool, the company decided to focus on more “practical”…
• Yahoo’s Minimum Bid Change Happening Next Week
  As expected Yahoo told me that you can expect some of your minimum bids to change as soon as early next week. So if you are running ad campaigns on Yahoo Search Marketing, and your quality is not up to Yahoo’s level, then your minimum bid may spike up. Yahoo…
• Microsoft Proposes Comprehensive Framework To Protect Consumer Privacy
  Microsoft has added its input to that of a host of other stakeholders in the growing debate over consumer privacy, online ad targeting and potential US (and local) government regulation. (Here’s a related WSJ story on search engine effort to block a proposed anti-tracking law in the New York state…
• Search In Pictures: Yahoo’s Yoshi Fight, Google Mapping Chicago, Yahoo’s Purple Ball
  In this week’s Search In Pictures, here are the latest images culled from the web, showing what people eat at the search engine companies, how they play, who they meet, where they speak, what toys they have, and more….
• Speculating About The Visual Future Of Search Results
  Danny has written extensively about the past and potential future of search. And this past year we saw the introduction of “blended” or “universal” search. Among other developments, search results became much more “multi-media” and visual. In particular video became part of organic and, most recently, paid search results. Accordingly,…
• How Flash Can Be Search Engine Friendly
  For a long time there has been a tug of war between developers and designers who love to use Flash and SEOs who know how bad Flash can be from a search engine crawler perspective. The designer wants the beauty of an all Flash site. The SEO wants to bring…
• New Microsoft Live Maps Rolls Out With Boatload Of Upgrades
  A new version of Microsoft’s Live Search Maps has rolled out (after yesterday’s major traffic and routing upgrade). There’s an enormous range of feature and functionality upgrades, which are explained in some detail on the Virtual Earth blog. There’s also a discussion at CNET. At a crude level, what it…
• Microsoft Still Favored To Win Yahoo, Madison Avenue Contemplates The Consolidated Online Ad Future And Congress Gets Involved
  Just in case you hadn’t gotten enough news and speculation about the various, potential deals surrounding MicroHoo, AOL and News Corp. there are a flurry of articles (as one might expect) today about all this. The most interesting is probably the one in the Wall Street Journal that interviews ad…
• The Trouble With All-In-Zero Video Players
  Although YouTube hit pop-culture status just a couple years ago, online video has been a staple of corporate and content websites for quite a bit longer. In that time, web designers have tried many approaches to viewing experience, trying to combine compelling content with a user-friendly interface. After many…
• In The Trenches, April 11, 2008
  In The Trenches is a weekly spotlight of tips, tricks, and news about the tools search engine marketing professionals use to give them a leg up on the competition. Today: News from the search engines, today’s in-depth look, “Two Tools That You May Not Have Added To The Toolbox…

Search News From Around The Web:

Applications & Portal Features

• Sharing gadgets just got better, Official Google Blog
• Google Launching ToDo List Product?, TechCrunch
• We’re up and running!, Google App Engine Blog

Business Issues

• Don’t Be Evil: Did you sign Google’s noncompete? Good, you’re fired, Valleywag
• MySpaceTV Lands Global TV Distribution Deal, New York Times
• Online Advertising: Google sued for aborting anti-abortion ad, Valleywag
• Yahoo! and MLB.com Enter Video Distribution and Advertising Sales Partnership, Yahoo!Finance
• Analyst: Yahoo-AOL merger is a viable option, News.com
• AOL CEO addresses troops, but not Yahoo, News.com

Local, Maps & Mobile

• Newspapers Got 27 Percent Online Local Ad Rev in ‘07, ClickZ

Link Building

• Is it wiser, and faster to buy an old site with lots of back links?, Bob Massa
• Think Outside the Link, SEMpdx Blog
• Where Do You Find Link Partners?, Search Engine Roundtable

Microhoo

• A visual guide to the Yahoo mating dance, News.com

Paid Search & Contextual

• Google Ads Now Live on Yahoo Search, Search Engine Roundtable
• Google AdWords adds Conversion Tracking Naming, SEOptimise
• Redirect Google AdWords URLs or Update Destination URLs?, Search Engine Roundtable
• The PPC Audit, endlessplain.com

Searching

• First-of-its-kind Search Engine to Deliver more Relevant Search Results to the Black Community launches April 10, Yahoo! Finance
• ‘Suicide’ Internet search turns up ‘how to’ advice: study, AFP
• Search Engine for Virtual Worlds – Metaverse Ink, altsearchengines.com

SEM Industry

• Elite Retreat 2008 and Final Thoughts, SEO Book
• SEO Mos Def Busted by WA State Atty General: $450,000 Penalty Looms, Search Engine Watch Blog
• Standards? We Don’t Need No Stinkin’ Standards!, Search Engine Watch
• Trellian Acquires Addme.com, Search Engine Watch Blog

SEO & SEM

• Website Overview for Search – Vigilan.com, Scott Hendison
• Build a Strong PPC Foundation with Better Keyword Research, PPC Hero
• Danny & Rand Discover Flightcentre Possible Blackhat Cloaking : SMX Sydney Day 2, www.bhatt.id.au
• How to Protect Your Business From Nefarious Subdomain Hijacking, SEO Book
• Is This Strange Google Site Command Behavior?, Search Engine Roundtable
• Part 3 – The Genesis for a Successful Online Marketing Campaign, Stepforth
• SEM Tools of the Experts, Search Engine Watch
• The Dangers of Cloaking Revealed at SMX Sydney, SEOmoz
• Think Universal, Act Local, Search Engine Watch
• Top five SEO misunderstandings, SEOptimise
• Using Automated Tools to Make Your Natural SEO More Efficient Without Sacrificing the Human Touch, Site Visibility

Social Media

• Five Reasons Twitter is an Essential Social Media Tool, Search Engine Guide
• Tracking Your Twitter Growth With Twitterholic, TwitDir, Tweeterboard , daggle.com
• Anti-Social Networking?, Search Marketing Sage

Video, Music & Image Search

• Create YouTube Playlists Dynamically, Google Operating System
• Flickr Users Cry Mutiny Over New Video Feature, Wired

Other Items

• Google Does TV Ad Push: Offers More AdWords Advertisers TV Ads, Search Engine Roundtable
• Yahoo Does Exclamation Point Yodeling Again, Search Engine Roundtable

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