SearchCap: The Day In Search, April 24, 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:

• New Google CIO: Morgan Stanley’s Benjamin Fried
  News.com reports that Benjamin Fried, a Morgan Stanley managing director, has been pegged to fill the chief information officer spot that opened up when Douglas Merrill left earlier this month. Google’s confirmed the move….
• MicroHoo: Let The Proxy Fight Begin!
  The Seattle PI is suggesting that the fight for control of Yahoo’s board, which Microsoft had previously threatened, may begin in earnest this weekend. Conversations with institutional shareholders have already been taking place. The three week deadline set by Steve Ballmer for Yahoo to come to the table will expire…
• Yahoo! Launches SearchMonkey Developer Tool in Limited Preview
  Today, Yahoo! is providing a "limited preview" of a tool that enables developers to create SearchMonkey applications. Yahoo! CTO Ari Balogh will be unveiling the tool at Web 2.0 Expo in San Francisco today, and more details are available in the Yahoo! Search Blog. Yahoo! first announced SearchMonkey in February…
• US Justice Department Scrutinizing GooHoo Paid Search Test
  According to Reuters the US Justice Department is taking a look at the paid search partnership test between Google and Yahoo. According to the article, there are antitrust concerns raised by the test and its implications and the Justice Department has "initiated an investigation" of it….
• Yahoo Search Circle Allows Users To Easily Expand & Narrow Results On Map
  Yahoo just announced that it has added a nifty tool to Local (called "search circle") that allows uses to alter the geographic scope of results by expanding or narrowing a circle on the map. The circle can also be dragged to a particular area easily, allowing for more efficient neighborhood…
• Video: Details On Setting Your Site’s Geographic Target In Google Webmaster Tools
  Google launched the set geographic target feature in October of last year. Since then, many webmasters began experimenting with it and I have personally not seen too many complaints about it, which is always a good thing. Google’s webmaster central team said they have been receiving some questions on the…
• Diagnosing The SEO Health Of Your Website
  Is your website sick? In many ways, SEO consultants are like doctors, only instead of analyzing your personal health symptoms, we analyze the overall health of your website. It’s true we’re not working with life or death situations the same way doctors do, but having a website that is…
• Google Finally Hands Over Alleged Pedophiles Profiles On Orkut To Brazilian Authorities
  Google hands over data on suspected pedophiles to Brazil via the AFP reports Google has finally handed over profiles of suspected pedophiles to Brazilian authorities. As expected, Google did hand over 3,261 files with information about alleged pedophilia activities in Google’s Orkut communities. A member of the senate commission, Demostenes…
• Google Image Ads: Display Ads For Mobile
  Yesterday Google announced mobile image ads. The ads are displayed on the mobile sites of publishers that are participating in AdSense for mobile (or that opt-in to the new program). Mobile image ads are created in users’ AdWords accounts and require more or less the same type of setup as…
• A Closer Look At EveryZing
  For those of you in need of a turn-key, hosted solution to gain natural search engine visibility for your video and audio content, the company EveryZing says they’re the ticket. EveryZing’s solution consists of a suite of products: ezSEARCH, ezSEO, and RAMP. The products are designed to provide users…
• Tools For Engaging In Social Media
  We all know Social Media Marketing can be pretty time consuming. There are numerous social media communities, each requiring you to sign up, make a profile, and participate, in order to have any success with them. So it is only natural that you would like to have some helpful…
• Link Development Tool Shortcuts for Firefox
  A few weeks back I did a post on my blog about creating Firefox quick search bookmarks. I was surprised at how well received it was, though I think people were most pleased with the fact that I had created a download of a very small selection of the…

Search News From Around The Web:

Applications & Portal Features

• Google App Engine + Google Data APIs: A Match Made on the Web, Google App Engine Blog
• Google: No plans for desktop operating system, News.com
• Spamming via Google Calendar, News.com
• Google Finance Redesign, Google Blogoscoped
• MySpace Apps Moves Out Of Beta, TechCrunch
• Google Finance China, new Finance homepage, Official Google Blog
• Yahoo rewiring itself from the inside out, Webware

Business Issues

• Google’s Ginormous Free Food Budget: $7,530 Per Googler, $72 Million A Year*, Silicon Alley Insider
• Facebook Now Running 10,000 Web Servers, Data Center Knowledge
• Salesforce Stock Price Up 10% To All Time High: Google Acquisition Rumors Played A Part, TechCrunch
• Baidu Profit Jumps as Chinese Internet Use Surges , Bloomberg
• CNET and Yahoo Broadly Expand Editorial and Ad Relationship, AllThingsD

Link Building

• Did Matt Cutts just say link buying is ok ?, David Naylor
• No Follow vs. Do Follow – Should You Care?, Link Building Best Practices
• Announcing "Do Follow" Tuesdays, Link Building Best Practices

Local, Maps & Mobile

• Seeing the World More Clearly, New York Times
• T-Mobile Android Phone Release Seen Bringing ‘Avalanche’, CNN Money
• Google Maps Ad on Chicago Bus, Googlified
• How to Get 3D Buildings in Google Earth 4.3 Flight Simulator, Google Earth Blog

Paid Search & Contextual

• Ad Review Center available to all publishers, Inside AdSense
• Advertiser Feedback on Yahoo Displaying Google AdWords Ads, Search Engine Roundtable
• Banned in Google Adsense? Appeal vs. New Account, Search Engine Roundtable
• You Cannot Transfer Google Advertising Professional Exam Scores, Search Engine Roundtable
• Yahoo "Refunds" Dissapointed Search Advertiser $9 Billion. Now, That’s Customer Service!, TechCrunch

Searching

• Dogpile.com Updates Search Algorithm, Design and Content, Search Engine Watch Blog
• If Popularity is the Only Tool in Web Search, Every Result Looks Like a Nail!, Hakia Blog
• Top 3 sites for researching search engines, Pandia
• xRank™ Celebrity — check out who’s hot and who’s not!, Live Search Blog

SEM Industry

• Dana Todd and The WebMama Working Together, WebMama
• Ninjas in Amsterdam, Jamaica, & Scotland, Jim Boykin
• Court Says Keyword Metatags Don’t Matter–Standard Process v. Banks, Eric Goldman

SEO & SEM

• How to Optimize for Google – Part 3 of 3, Stepforth
• Google Sitelinks in Position 60?, Search Engine Roundtable
• Microsoft adCenter Customers Get Premium Organic Listing Support in Live Search?, Search Engine Roundtable
• To Slash or Not to Slash. That’s A Server Header Question., Search Engine Journal
• Webmasters Report Proxy Hijacking No Longer an Issue at Google, Search Engine Roundtable
• Creating Successful Landing Pages, Serengeti Communications

Social Media

• Twitter Turmoil Not Finished: Engineering VP Lee Mighdoll Out, Silicon Alley Insider

Other Items

• What makes a design "Googley"?, Official Google Blog
• Google Germany’s Girl’s Day Logo and More, Google Blogoscoped
• Google Says "No Photos" Of Web 2.0 Booth. Photos Are Taken Anyway., TechCrunch

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• Link Development Tool Shortcuts for Firefox
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• We are all Just Social Media Toddlers
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• The Benefits of Social Media Aggregators and Lifestreaming: A Look at Friendfeed
• My Plea to SE Conferences: Turn Calacanis Away
• Why Calacanis Should Not Be Allowed to Speak at Conferences