SearchCap: The Day In Search, April 26, 2012

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

From Search Engine Land:

• Penguin Update Recovery Tips & Advice

  Struggling to know what to do in the wake of Google’s Penguin Update? Judging from all the comments and forum discussions we’ve seen, plenty are. We’ve got a little initial advice from Google on the topic, mixed with our own. What Was Penguin? The Penguin Update launched on April 24. It was a change to […]
• The Penguin Update: Google’s Webspam Algorithm Gets Official Name

  Move over Panda, there’s a new Google update in town: Penguin. That’s the official name Google has given to the webspam algorithm that it released on Tuesday. What’s An Update? For those unfamiliar with Google updates, I’d recommend reading my Why Google Panda Is More A Ranking Factor Than Algorithm Update post from last year. It explains […]

• The Complete Guide To Bidding On Competitor Brand Names & Trademarked Terms

  It’s been long known in the industry that brand term keywords garner a much higher click-through-rate. As a result, marketers often start by bidding on their own brand terms.

• Google Tweaks Keyword Tool And Traffic Estimator

  Quality Score display and the addition of labels aren’t the only AdWords changes this week. Google has also updated the Keyword Tool and Traffic Estimator, eliminating the standalone Traffic Estimator that could be used without logging into an AdWords account. With the Keyword Tool changes, advertisers will be able to see keyword ideas grouped by […]

• Could DuckDuckGo Be The Biggest Long-Term Threat To Google?

  Robin Wauters at The Next Web recently wrote about an interesting trend taking place at upstart search engine DuckDuckGo. DDG (DuckDuckGo) is self-described as: We are a search engine with: Way more instant answers. Way less spam and clutter. Lots and lots of goodies. Real privacy. Wauters reports that DuckDuckGo’s daily search traffic has grown by […]

• Did Penguin Make Google’s Search Results Better Or Worse?

  Google’s latest search algorithm change designed to fight spam and improve its search results went live yesterday. Plenty of people are seeing its impact already. Better or worse? It’s easy to find some examples of things being bad; it’s hard to say overall if there’s been a net improvement or not. Judging Relevancy Is Tricky […]

• Wolphram Alpha Gets Into Local Search — Very Badly

  It’s unlikely to impact Google or Yelp in any way but Wolphram Alpha is getting into local search. According to a blog post today users can now search online or on its mobile apps for nearby businesses in a range of categories (chains only right now): Wolfram|Alpha now knows the locations of some 2.4 million […]

Recent Headlines From MarTech, Our Sister Site Dedicated To Internet Marketing:

• Twitter Releases New Push Notification Enabled iPhone & Android Apps
• Study: Digital Content Marketing Spend Reached Nearly $16.6B In 2011
• Last Call: Please Take Marketing Land’s Reader Survey, Chance to Win Ticket to SMX Advanced
• Google “Read Data” Offer Rare Look Inside World Of Android, Mobile Ad Revenues
• Does Your Agency Need A “Mobile Lead”?
• Judge Declares Illinois’ ‘Amazon Tax’ Unconstitutional

Search News From Around The Web:

Business Issues

• Google trial docs show plans for growth past search, Reuters
• Bing UK Launches New Consumer Campaign: “Bing is for Doing”, Microsoft Advertising Blog
• Google rebuffs FCC over ‘Wi-Spy’ flap, POLITICO.com
• Google X founder takes Charlie Rose’s picture from Project Glass headset, The Verge
• Yandex Q1 Earnings: Revenues Up 51% To $200.3M, Net Income Up 53% To $43M | TechCrunch, TechCrunch

Local, Maps & Mobile

• AdMob Optimisation Essentials, Google Ads Developer Blog
• Consumers Use Local Searches to Find Restaurant, Automotive Information, eMarketer

Link Building

• An Open Letter From a Frustrated Outsourced Link Building Author, SEOmoz
• Buying Spamming Links to Penalize Sites by @jimboykin, internetmarketingninjas.com
• 7 Ways Links Cause Search Rank Changes, Search Engine Watch
• Remove the Link Building Quota Handcuffs, Rimm Kaufman

Searching

• Breaking down the language barrier—six years in, Official Google Blog
• Tax related searches on mobile jumped by over 200% this year, Google Mobile Ads Blog

SEO & SEM

• Heads Up: Downtime Scheduled for Microsoft Advertising adCenter on Saturday, April 28th, adCenter Blog
• SEO Analytics, Middle Earth-Style, portent.com
• Are You Gambling OR Investing Your SEO Dollars?, SEER Interactive
• Ask the experts: How will rel=author affect SEO?, econsultancy.com
• Leveraging Content for SEO – a recent example, webanalyticsworld.net
• Revolutionary study: We prove that tweets do affect rankings, Branded3
• SEO Experts Discuss Rich Snippet Manipulation, CPC Strategy