SearchCap: The Day In Search, April 26, 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:

• What Is PageRank? A Guide For Searchers & Webmasters
  Several times in the past few months, I’ve written about new Google features where PageRank was involved. Unfortunately, Google itself has very poor information about PageRank that I could use for those wanting to learn more about it. To solve that, here’s a guide to PageRank, designed for searchers and…
• Google Revisits Historical Data Ranking Factors
  One of the biggest stirs of 2005 in the search marketing field was caused by the release of a patent application from Google titled Information retrieval based on historical data. It introduced time as a dimension of ranking pages, with changes in content and linking and advertising and topics as…
• Portfolio.com Releases Executive Profiles Of Search Execs
  Gary Price reports that Portfolio.com released a database of top executives profiles, and part of that list includes many of the top executives from our beloved search engines. Here are quick links to some of those profiles of interest:…
• Yahoo News Moves Images & Video News Results To Top
  Greg Jarboe reports Yahoo has added images and videos to the top of some of the Yahoo News search results. For example a search on apple options returns both image news results and video news results at the top of the news search page….
• Settings For Google Personalized Homepage Disappear For Many
  Philipp Lenssen reports that dozens if not hundreds of Google Personalized Home Page users have lost their personalized settings. As of now, I currently see my customized and tailored Google home page but literally hundreds of people are commenting at Google Blogoscoped, Digg.com and Google Groups about this exact issue….
• Oklahoma, Where The Google Comes Sweepin’ Down The Plain
  From California, Google has spread out across the great land of the United States. New York! Washington! Arizona! And now which of the fifty nifty United States is Google heading to next? Oklahoma! Below, some news of Google’s plans for the Sooner State and well as a recap of what…
• Meet Your New Employee: Writer, Marketer, Evangelist
  We’re getting to the time of year when many small businesses are thinking about hiring summer help. Kids and young adults will be finishing school and looking for work, and there’ll be plenty of openings behind cash registers and at empty desks with a telephone. Most of these are…
• SuperPages Changes Algorithm To Factor Clicks Into Ad Rankings
  SuperPages, like Yahoo! before it, has decided to factor in click-through rates in determining the order of sponsored ads. Bid price now becomes one of several considerations in arraying search results (geography and category obviously remain critical). VP Robyn Rose told me that the majority of the consumer traffic coming…
• iCrossing Finds High Demand For Search And Local Content Among Mobile Users
  Search marketing firm iCrossing just released the results of a mobile Web usage survey with 1,001 US residents over the age of 16. The study found that about 30 percent of mobile users access the Internet, but among that population 75 percent used search. Assuming the survey methodology is sound…
• Industry Group Proposes Eight Principles To Ensure Click Quality
  The Click Quality Council, a group of online advertisers, advertising agencies and click quality monitoring firms formed to propose and help establish standards for search advertising quality, has proposed eight principles for ensuring industry-wide click quality. The principles are the result of a six month effort by independent members of…
• Stop Presses! Google Bested In Search Shoot-Out!
  PC World has released the results of its most recent search engine shoot-out, and surprise, surprise, found that "Google is indeed the best search engine." However… This wasn’t just a casual test, and Google wasn’t the best across the board with all types of queries and content. The author tested…

Search News Headlines From Elsewhere

Applications & Portal Features

• Review: Google software for Mac is OK, Seattle Pi
• Google Calendar Has A Quota?, InsideGoogle
• Gmail’s "Create Event", Google Blogoscoped
• An Update On Getting Google To Work With Opera, InsideGoogle
• Picasa version 2.7 released, Googling Google

Business Issues

• Analysts: Microsoft’s after Google’s ad business, News.com
• The Privacy Engine: Ask.com or MSN Live’s Big Comeback Opportunity, Tropical SEO
• AOL launches India portal, refreshes U.S. site, Reuters
• Baidu Wins Lawsuit Against Henbang, Pacific Epoch

• Google Opens Latin American Headquarters in Argentina, New America Media

• WPP - 24/7 Real Media Rumors: A Deal Makes Sense, SeekingAlpha
• Google Domain Name Housekeeping with Endoxon, ResourceShelf

Conferences

• SEOClass Shameless Self Promotion, Wolf Howl
• Orlando Elite Retreat Golden Ticket Contest, Elite Retreat
• Pubcon Las Vegas or SES Chicago?, Joe Morin
• Pubcon Las Vegas and SES Chicago, Online Marketing Blog
• SMX Seattle – Addressing Clicks, Cliques & Clicktastrophes, SEOmoz

Local, Maps & Mobile

• Google Local Business Center Updates Google Maps Business Listings; Kinda, Search Engine Roundtable
• Going, a networking site for urban events, SiliconBeat
• EarthNC Releases Browser-based Google Earth Content, Google Earth Blog
• New Google Maps: Russia, Turkey, Taiwan, Thailand, Croatia, Slovenia, Lithuania, Estonia, Google Earth Blog
• TrueLocal Explains Strange SERPs, Small Business SEM
• Local.com to Offer Premium Search Listings for Annual Fee, ClickZ

Paid Search & Contextual

• Marchex Signs Contextual Advertising Agreements with Four Premium Vertical Publishers Including Computer Shopper, Business Wire
• Academic Debate over Trademark Use in Commerce, Eric Goldman
• Since Yahoo! Launched Panama Volume & Traffic Is Down?, Search Engine Roundtable
• Google and the Rebirth of Banner Ads, BusinessWeek
• Google AdWords Vouchers Cannot Be Resold, Search Engine Roundtable
• DoubleClick Takes Ad Exchange on the Road, Search Engine Watch
• Very Personalized Google Ads Spotted: Is this New?, Search Engine Roundtable
• Encouraging clicks, Inside Google AdSense
• Google AdSense : Running Other Publisher AdSense Code on Banned Site is OK, Search Engine Journal
• SES: Andrew Goodman of Page Zero Media on Quality Scores, WebProNews

Searching

• MSN Link Search Still Not Working, Intrapromote
• Three Ask.com Tidbits & Other Web Search News, ResourceShelf
• Queryless Recommendations at Google, Stumbleupon, and eBay, SEO By The Sea
• Google Testing SERPs Once Again, I Am Not A Doctor
• Screen Captures of the New Google News Results in Action, Search Engine Roundtable
• Are Google’s Search Results Algorithmic or Editorial?, SEO Book
• 10 Windows Live features you don’t yet use and should, LiveSide
• Hook Humility: Matt Cutts Got Me This Time, John Andrews
• Search Index Grammars, John Battelle
• Search is a Love Problem, Windows Live Blog

SEM Industry

• The Gentrification of the Search Industry, Search Engine Watch
• SES: Vanessa Fox On Blogging and Google’s Webmaster Central, WebProNews
• Women on the Media Career Path, ClickZ
• Learning how to climb the Web, Star Tribune
• My Feedburner feedcounter chiclet, Matt Cutts
• Women of Internet Marketing Wednesday Part 17, Search Marketing Gurus
• Identifying & Calling out Web Spam on Search Engine Blogs, SEOmoz

SEO & SEM

• How to Write Good for Search Engine Marketing, Search Engine Journal
• Can Google Find and Spank your Paid Links?, Jim Boykin
• Astroglide Blames Google for Letting Customer Names Slip Out, Google Watch
• Indexar o seu site, Google Webmaster Central Blog
• Optimizing AJAX for Rankings, Stepforth Blog
• New Illustrated Guide to Search Friendliness and – Shock, Shock! Ads on SEOmoz, SEOmoz
• Reasons Not to Use Keywords in Your URL’s, Wolf Howl
• Brands, SEO Threatened by Wildly Engaged Consumers, ClickZ

Shopping Search

• Become Sports New Look, Comparison Engines

Social Media

• Wikipedia woos the offline world, News.com
• Technorati Thinking Widget-Driven Blog Ads?, ClickZ
• Hop On The Technorati Fave Train, SEO Disco Blog
• Meshly Mashes Twitter and Digg, Pronet Advertising
• Your 69 Minutes of Fame on Digg, Pronet Advertising
• What Social Media Did for USA Today, Pronet Advertising
• Prevention is the Best Medicine: Don’t Let Viral Campaigns Get Sick and Die, Search Engine Watch
• The Metrics of Influence: BuzzLogic Tracks The MediaSphere, Silicon Valley Watcher
• River of News(breaker), ClickZ News Blog
• Bumpzee Adds New Features, Shoemoney

Video, Audio & Image Search

• Ad:Tech — YouTube to be Thoughtful About Ads this Summer, ClickZ
• Google and the rest of the usual suspects continue to dominate video, Compete Blog
• Cable Giant Comcast Tries to Channel Web TV, WSJ.com

Other Stuff

• Share Your Good Ideas!, Yahoo! Search Blog
• Our Neighbors, the Golden State Warriors, Ask.com Blog
• Yahoo Pig and Google Sawzall, Geeking With Greg
• Podcast: Google To Occupy Oklahoma; Mobile Searching; Top Things To Try On Windows Love & More!, Daily SearchCast