SearchCap: The Day In Search, April 24, 2007

Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web:

From Search Engine Land:

• Ad Agencies Partnering with Search Marketing Firms (or Not)
  At the recent Search Engine Strategies Conference in New York, agency executives spoke candidly about their experiences working with search engine marketing (SEM) firms. What’s working? What’s not? And most importantly, how can agencies and search marketers work together to better serve clients? Here’s a re-cap of "Outsourcing Anonymous: Why…
• Search Marketing Agency Pricing Models
  Pricing structures and rates aren’t secret in established service industries. Real estate agents get 3% to 6% of the house’s price; recruiters get 1/3 of total first year comp; trial lawyers take 33% of the settlement; list brokers charge 20%. While specifics vary, each industry has conventional pricing arrangements….
• Bigger Levers For Your Social Media Campaign
  We all know that getting on the homepage of social media sites such as Digg, Del.icio.us and Netscape can drive tons of links and traffic, which is why we try and leverage these social sites on a regular basis. But are you leveraging them fully? Below, some tips not…
• Less Than 5% Click Fraud Makes You "Virtually Free"
  When the search engines and auditing firms don’t even agree on an overall industry rate of click fraud, I was bemused by a release I got today telling me that ABCSearch is now "validated as virtually free of click fraud" according to Click Defense. Virtually free to me means practically…
• PhoneSpots Launches Mobile ‘Ad Exchange,’ Announces AT&T Deal
  Directory assistance vendor PocketThis has rebranded as PhoneSpots and relaunched a new mobile ad "exchange." The company has been around since 1999 and pioneered the "send to mobile" feature now in widespread use on local search sites. PocketThis originally offered enhanced results (additional content and links) from directory assistance queries…
• BooRah And 4Info Partner For SMS Restaurant Search
  Restaurant reviews aggregator BooRah, which describes itself as "the ultimate personalized review guide," has partnered with 4Info for SMS distribution of BooRah’s content on the 4Info text messaging platform. Here’s the announcement. Accordingly, users will be able to access BooRah’s content using 4Info’s service….
• Yahoo China Ordered To Remove Links To Unlicensed Music
  China court orders Yahoo China to curb music links from Reuters reports Beijing’s No. 2 Intermediate Court has ordered Yahoo China to remove "links to free Web sites offering music-downloads." In addition, Yahoo China has to pay 200,000 yuan ($27,200 US) "facilitating distribution" of this music. Yahoo China said they…
• Yahoo Partners With Gracenote To Provide Lyrics For 400,000 Songs
  Yahoo strikes deal to catalog lyrics online from San Jose Mercury News reports on Yahoo’s announcement that they have partnered with Gracenote to provide the lyrics of over 400,000 songs. The general manager of Yahoo Music, Ian Rogers, explained that this partnership "fills a huge, gaping hole out there." Since…
• New US Border Check Tool: Google
  Via Boing Boing, LSD as Therapy? Write about It, Get Barred from US from The Tyee covers how Canadian psychotherapist Andrew Feldmar was denied entry into the United States after being pulled aside during a border crossing for a random check. One of those fancy explosive sniffing machines then get…
• Free Webcast This Thursday: Revving Up For Mobile Search Marketing
  I moderated the two mobile search panels at SES New York a couple of weeks ago, and was fascinated by how quickly the mobile search space is moving from a potential to a real opportunity for savvy search marketers. Mobile search is still in its infancy, but it’s clearly on…

Search News Headlines From Elsewhere

Applications & Portal Features

• Unofficial patch for running Google services in Opera, Download Squad

Business Issues

• Google and DoubleClick: Risky business?, DMNews.com
• NetRatings And Comscore Respond To IAB Critique Of Research Methods, PaidContent.org
• comScore Responds to IAB Open Letter, comScore
• RUMORMONGER: Jeff Weiner to take top Yahoo job?, Valleywag
• Yahoo Japan Q4 net profit at record high on advertising business, Forbes.com
• Google to establish R&D centre in Hungary, portfolio
• Yahoo’s European Search Director Joins TH_NK, PR Leap
• New IAC Unit Forms New Venture Unit; Safka Moves From Match.com To Head, PaidContent.org
• PayPerPost Acquires Blog Alerting Service Zookoda, PaidContent.org
• Google Checkout Struggling to Compete with PayPal, Compete Blog

Local, Maps & Mobile

• Google Spreadsheets (and Yahoo! Pipes) do geocoding. Mostly., Ogle Earth
• LocalElements.com: New Local/Coupon Player, Small Business SEM
• Google Transit Expands to Japan, Google Operating System
• New 3-D layers from AIA on Google Earth, Official Google Blog
• Google Hiring for Hardware Product Intro, Unstrung

Paid Search & Contextual

• The Short Tail of Advertising, Micro Persuasion
• Clicks Are Great But Calls Are Better, Forbes.com
• Recent Drop In Google AdWords Referrals?, Search Engine Roundtable
• Microsoft adCenter Upgrade: New features to improve campaign management, adCenter Blog
• Yahoo! Panana on it’s way to UK!, SEOptimise

SEM Industry

• Which blogs have the most feed subscribers, Self Made Minds
• Search Marketing Blogs by RSS Subscribers, Online Marketing Blog
• Cultivating a Blog Community | Part 2 | Building Your RSS Subscriptions, Search Marketing Standard
• Warren Buffet’s Advice to SEOs (Or, Why Your Business Model Is Working Against You), Tropical SEO
• Do Traditional Agencies Still Snub Search?, ClickZ
• iProspect Opens Office in Spain, Search Engine Watch Blog
• Meet my other cat, Ozzie, Matt Cutts
• Danny’s First Search Marketing Expo Coming!, Search Engine Roundtable
• Come out to SMX Advanced in Seattle and party with Webmaster Central, Google Webmaster Central

SEO & SEM

• Engine Ready - Google Analytics Alternative, Pronet Advertising
• Google Bombing Lessons, Alchemy Of Search
• How Should Google Handle Google Bombs?, Search Engine Roundtable
• Links Links Links!, Online Marketing Blog
• Flooding Your Link Profile, Marketing Pilgrim
• Should Paid Links Influence Organic Rankings?, Search Engine Watch
• Google, Paid Links, and the FTC Staff Letter On WOM, SEO By The Sea
• How I Escaped Google’s Supplemental Hell, SEOmoz
• SEO Clueless Web Developers: Evil or Cash Cow?, Online Marketing Blog
• Mission Possible: Managing Millions of Keywords, Search Engine Watch
• The Best Keywords Ever, Search Engine Guide

Shopping Search

• NearbyNow, shopping mall search engine, confirms $5M investment, VentureBeat

Social Media

• Top 17 Niche Social Media Sites (That Actually Send Traffic), Tropical SEO
• Citizendium One Month Later, Read/Write Web
• PhotoBucket Back on MySpace (I Want To Know The Backstory), TechCrunch
• Forrester Releases Research on the Linkerati, SEOmoz
• Linkedin SEO Guide, Increseo

Video, Audio & Image Search

• Web-censoring weather report: Thailand still blocking YouTube, Boing Boing
• Viacom Admits Error — Takes Steps to Protect Fair Use on YouTube, EFF

Other Vertical Search

• Legal Search/Info Site Avvo Raises $10 Million Second Round Funding, PaidContent.org
• New download: Libraries and Google Book Search, Google Librarian Central
• Telegraph Cluelessly Attacks Google News Indexing, WebProNews

Other Stuff

• Google releases patches that enhance the manageability and reliability of MySQL, Official Google Blog
• Wii’s and We at Web 2.0, Ask.com Blog
• Sex lube co’s data breach exposes 250K+ personal records, Boing Boing
• MARISSA MAYER: The icing queen, Valleywag
• DAVOS: Sergey Brin at the geek olympics, Valleywag
• Podcast: "Virtually Free" Click Fraud; Finding Lyrics Via Yahoo; Google At Passport Control & More!, Daily SearchCast