SearchCap: The Day In Search, April 22, 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 News Goes Offline : 503 Server Error
  

  Seems like Google is having difficulty keeping the Google News servers up. If you try Google News right now (at the time I am writing this), you will notice that it is returning a 503 server error. Here is a screen capture:

  People on Twitter are Tweeting about it right now as well. [...]

• Google Analytics Opens API
  

  Google Analytics announced the public availability of the new Google Analytics API. The API gives developers, webmasters, and SEMs the ability to pull data from Google Analytics to use as they wish. Clearly this can be useful for SEMs who want to integrate analytics data with their SEM systems, plus developers or webmasters [...]

• Earth Day Logos From Google, Yahoo & Others
  

  Happy Earth Day everyone! Like last year we wanted to post a collection of the logos created by the search engines for today. Here they are:

  For the animated versions of Yahoo and AOL’s logo, see my post at the Search Engine Roundtable and for past years, see 2008, 2007, 2006, 2005 and [...]

• Google Video Updates Search Results Design
  

  Google Video has updated the search results design and interface recently. The new design shows search results along the left hand column and the selected video on the right hand side. The video on the right hand side expands and contracts based on the size of your browser window. It also displays [...]

• More Speculation On Yahoo-Microsoft Ads Deal
  

  Yesterday on the Yahoo Q1 earnings call, CEO Carol Bartz sent a mixed message of sorts. She said at the outset that Yahoo was going to focus on key areas of the business and was open to “outsourcing” some functions if that made sense. Like me, many people listening must have immediately thought “search.” But [...]

• A Guide To Qualifying Link Prospects For Relevance, Value & Potentiality
  

  The core problem of link building – assuming you’ve maximized your site’s linkability – is not prospecting for sites that may potentially link to yours. The problem lies in rapidly identifying – within 1,000+++ lists the link prospects whose links will provide the fastest and largest impact on your search marketing goals… We wrote this article – and created a free, downloadable worksheet – to enable motivated link builders to quickly identify the most relevant, valuable and likely-to-link prospects from thousands of potential link targets.

• B2B Social Media Dashboard: A Powerful Tool To Uncover Key Customer Insights
  

  For many B2B marketers, social media is still a bridge too far. Because it’s a broad concept—there are so many different ways to use social media—its amorphous nature can impede implementation. But a good way to get beyond this obstacle and jumpstart your social media efforts is to start small and aim to get some [...]

• Yahoo Q1 Revenues Down, Bartz Says “Search Critical To Yahoo’s Business”
  

  As expected, Yahoo earnings were down, about 13 percent YoY. According to the earnings press release: Yahoo! Inc. today reported revenues of $1,580 million for the quarter ended March 31, 2009, a decrease of 13 percent from the first quarter of 2008. Excluding the impact of currency rate fluctuations, revenues for the first quarter of 2009 [...]

Search News From Around The Web:

Applications & Portal Features

• Fewer Limitations for Google Docs PDFs, Google Operating System
• First Google Android Netbooks spotted, Computerworld Blogs
• Stopping Annoying Calls with Google Voice, Barry Schwartz

Business Issues

• News Corp. Exploring MySpace CEO Options, TechCrunch
• "Israel is disproportionately important to Google", Globes
• Former Google Executive Gonzalo Alonso to Invest in Leading Latin American Agency Resultics, Business Wire
• Newspapers: Pay Models Coming, Screenwerk

Local, Maps & Mobile

• Google Maps: Upsurge in reports of Map Hijackings, Mike Blumenthal
• CitySquares Allows SMBs to Opt Out of Reviews, Screenwerk
• Use Google Earth on Earth Day, Google Earth Blog

Link Building

• Is Backlink Age an Important SEO Factor?, Search Engine Journal

Paid Search & Contextual

• AdSense Orientation Webinar, Inside AdSense
• Google Content Network performance whitepaper, AdWords Agency Blog
• Lowes vs. Home Depot | Which One Needs More PPC Improvement?, SEM Geek
• AdSense annnounces new category filters for publishers, JenSense
• AdWords Budget Optimizer is a Great Way to Spend Money… And That’s It, PPC Hero
• Conservatives to buy Google keyword ads in ‘live rebuttal’ of the budget, The Guardian
• Google Begins Pushing New AdWords Interface on Advertisers, Search Engine Roundtable
• Microsoft AdCenter PUBLISHER (PubCenter) Goes OPEN Beta, Randy Brown
• Rumor: Microsoft To Open adCenter Content Ads As Public Beta, Search Engine Roundtable

Searching

• Checking a New Type of Google Result URL, Google Blogoscoped
• When did Google start displaying "Did you mean" results?, YouTube

SEM Industry

• Happy Earth Day from Google Earth, Google LatLong
• Live Search — making it easier to go green, Live Search

SEO & SEM

• Advanced White Hat SEO Exists Damn It! – Dynamic SEO, Blue Hat SEO
• Buying Expired Domains: What’s the Best Strategy?, SEOmoz
• Does the ordering of heading tags matter?, YouTube
• Microsoft To Fix Fake Referrer Data From Live Search, Search Engine Roundtable
• Q&A: A Little Something You Need to Know About Duplicate Content and CSS, Search Engine Guide
• SEO Basics : Build an Authority Site from Scratch, Search Engine Journal
• The Internet Marketer’s Tool Belt, outspokenmedia.com
• Why Big Brand Media Sites Are The Real Cesspool of the Internet, Michael Gray

Social Media

• FeaturedUsers Launches Twitter Ad Network ( Freebies for You), Read/Write Web
• I Should Have Heeded My Own Advice About Twitter, Stay N’ Alive
• Lawyers Enter Twitter Tempest, New York Times
• Researchers use brain interface to post to Twitter (w/Video), Physorg.com

Video, Music & Image Search

• Filter YouTube Comments, Google Operating System
• Face recognition comes to Flickr, News.com

Web Analytics

• Segmentation Options in Google Analytics, Analytics Talk

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

• Professional Twitter Stalking by Sebastian
• E-Commerce SEO – why you should optimise for internal site search
• 8 Gurus That “Get” Twitter Answer Questions
• Think-Tanks & Team Building In The PPC & Full Service Interactive Agency
• Optimizing Your Google Base Data Feeds
• Google is no Facebook killer
• Adobe SEO Critique
• SEO Guide for Irish Business