SearchCap: The Day In Search, April 20, 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 Adds Search By Similarity To Image Search
  

  Google has introduced a new experimental refinement tool that lets you click a “similar images” link beneath image search results and see a new screen of images with similar color, shape and other visual elements. The new tool has been released in Google Labs and isn’t yet available in standard image search results. The similar images [...]

• Do Links From Expired Domains Count With Google?
  

  From time-to-time, issues about how domain names can impact Google rankings come up. Is it true that if you buy a name, all the “link equity” that name has gained is lost? Below, a look at this and some related questions. Several years ago, Google sparked some concerns when it said that buying an [...]

• Tailor Your Ad Copy To Buy Cycle Stages
  

  A couple of my paid search columnists have offered some great tips on generating ad copy. I’m going to build on this and talk about gearing ad copy to the consumer buy cycle. By targeting specific stages, advertisers can increase relevancy by delivering appropriate messages at the right time in the buy cycle. In this [...]

• 9 Reasons To Attend SMX Advanced – 2 Reasons To Register Now!
  

  SMX Advanced is unique. It’s programmed for search marketing vets. It happens only once a year. It’s intimate. And it’s coming up fast! That enough convince you? Register now! Not convinced? Here are 9 reasons you must attend…

  9) SMX Advanced is all advanced tactics, tips and discussion for experienced search marketers. No slowing down to review [...]

• Digg Now Buries Microsoft Ads
  

  ClickZ reports Digg has dropped Microsoft as the exclusive ad provider for the site. Microsoft ads started appearing on Digg in October 2007 after Digg and Microsoft made the deal in July. Prior, Digg used Google AdSense ads to monetize the site. Then Digg dropped Google for Microsoft ads and now, it [...]

• YouTube To Become More Kid Friendly?
  

  Ars Technica reports Google has informed the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) that they have been working on a new filtering system for videos, comments and communication on YouTube. It is believed that Google is working on these changes in order to make YouTube more kid or family friendly, by complying more with the FCC [...]

• Growing Opposition To Google Book Search Settlement
  

  The settlement that ended the litigation against Google’s book scanning/search project must still be approved by the courts, although tentative approval has already been given. Among other aspects of the settlement, Google is to pay $125 million to fund a “Book Rights Registry” that will help resolve claims by authors and publishers and cover legal [...]

• Online Reputation Management: Who’s Talkin’ About Your Local Business?
  

  Imagine this: You’re at a new neighborhood boutique restaurant with your better half for Friday date night and are looking forward to epicurean brilliance and great service. Over the next hour, your server who never seems to be available, allows your wine glasses to go dry, gets your order wrong and doesn’t even offer dessert. [...]

• Ask Welcomes Back Jeeves, At Least In The UK, That Is
  

  It has been well over three years since Ask.com has retired Jeeves. Ever since then, many searchers and internet users have asked for his return. Today, Jeeves has come out of retirement, at least in the UK, where he returns as the brand behind the search engine. Visiting uk.ask.com or any of the [...]

Search News From Around The Web:

Applications & Portal Features

• Google Page Creator Migration Info, Google Operating System

Business Issues

• Olympic Athlete’s Mom Sues Google Over Blog Post, Workbench
• Why Google Is The New Pirate Bay, Forbes
• What’s missing from the Google/newspapers discussion, Strange Attractor
• Analyst: More Layoffs Coming To Microsoft, paidContent.org
• Former Yahoo Music Exec Dave Goldberg to Head SurveyMonkey, AllThingsD by Kara Swisher
• Google Loosens Reins on Vet Kordestani, ClickZ
• Is Google avoiding UK taxes?, Econsultancy
• Man sues Microsoft, Google for $30,000,000, TG Daily
• Yahoo! Under Pressure, Forbes

Local, Maps & Mobile

• Google Autofills Photos & Videos in Local Business Profiles, Small Business SEM
• Toggling 3D Weather in the Virtual Earth AJAX Control, Virtual Earth, An Evangelist’s Blog
• Merchant Circle Hijacking Local Business Listings, The Musings of Nicholas Reese
• ReachLocal Bows Local Ad Xchange, Screenwerk
• What is Merchant Circle up to now?, Mike Blumenthal

Link Building

• The Power Of Passed Links, www.avc.com
• Are Summer Interns Made for Link Building?, Search Engine Roundtable

Paid Search & Contextual

• Demystifying Google Quality Score & the Click Thru Rate Factor, Search Engine Journal
• What Do You Want to Hear?, Yahoo! Search Marketing Blog
• Which mobile ads are right for me?, Official Google Mobile Blog
• A Minimalistic Paid Search Tip, SEMpdx Blog
• Does Google Find The Word "Gay" Offensive?, Search Engine Roundtable
• Five Essential Tricks, Tools and Tips for the Multimarket Account Manager, PPC Hero
• Google’s DoubleClick Unveils Network Builder, MediaPost

Searching

• Hunch data, Caterina.net
• Identify: Google People With Two Keystrokes, Read/Write Web
• 50 Google and Yahoo Search Shortcuts Cheat Sheet, Search Engine Journal
• Ask research shows: recession, Search Cowboys
• Google Search Is Still Not Perfect, Inside Google
• Top Searches on Hulu.com, Hitwise
• World Digital Library Set to Officially Launch Tomorrow, Get a Head Start Today, ResourceShelf

SEO & SEM

• Start optimising your one-line sitelinks, BlogStorm
• Adobe SEO Mini Critique, beu blog
• Counting the ways that rev="canonical" hurts the Web, mnotâÄôs Web log
• April Sandbox Update!, Patrick Gavin
• Google Sitemaps Last Download Date, Should We Care?, Search Engine Roundtable
• How to rank well in google products search & a big list of places to get reviews, SEOmoz
• New Local SEO Tool – Address Extractor, SEOish
• rel=nofollow has been added to HTML5 spec http://tinyurl.com/cmok3s, Twitter / Kasia Bauer

Social Media

• Why You Need a Social Media Champion, Search Marketing Gurus
• Another Contender Emerges: Posterous Takes On TwitPic With New API, TechCrunch
• Twitter Experiments with New Status Notification, Faster Response, Read/Write Web
• Eyeing diners, restaurants take to Twitter, Reuters
• The newspaper industry just gave away another free meal, er Twitter: do they have any left?, Scobleizer
• Tweeting Becomes a Summer Job Option, New York Times
• Twitter overhyped, or another example of macromyopia?, Don Dodge

Web Analytics

• Back to Basics: Pressing the right buttons, Google Analytics Blog
• Display Search Engine Rankings (SEO) in Google Analytics, WebShare Blog

Other Items

• Meet the Yahoo! yodeler, Yodel Anecdotal

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

• Blog Comment Spam – People Pay for This?
• 50+ Google and Yahoo Search Shortcuts Cheat Sheet
• A Chat With Yahoo!’s New CEO and the Real Insights From Google’s Earnings Call
• How to use adCenter to improve CTR of Organic Results
• Streko: “Check Usernames With Automatic Sign Up”
• Five Tips for Avoiding Deceptive SEO Companies
• Blog Commenting for SEO
• Demystifying Google Quality Score & the Click Thru Rate Factor
• Choosing an Effective SEO Company – Tips & Tweaks
• Google Adds Ranking Data to Referrer String