SearchCap: The Day In Search, April 28, 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:

• What Yahoo’s New Minimum Bid Means to You
  Yahoo recently announced that they are moving away from a $0.10 fixed minimum CPC to a variable minimum bid. However, there are some differences in how Yahoo calculates minimum bids tcompared to AdWords. These differences are important to note as you switch between these PPC engines so that each…
• Monday MicroHoo Silence, Google Confident About Regulators In Deal With Yahoo
  It’s Monday morning and there are no official statements from either Microsoft or Yahoo on the passage of the Microsoft-imposed three week deadline to respond to its takeover offer. (The deadline passed on Saturday.) The Wall Street Journal has a quick assessment of where things stand. Silicon Alley Insider also…
• SMX Advanced: Looking For Pitches & Register Soon!
  Double-duty with this post about our SMX Advanced search marketing conference happening June 3 & 4 in Seattle. First, some of our session coordinators are still looking for some good pitches. Second — with more than half our tickets sold, consider this early warning that if you don’t register soon,…
• WWW2008: Search Research Paper Roundup
  A variety of interesting research papers on search have come out of WWW2008, the 17th International World Wide Web Conference. Some I’ve blogged already. Below is a rundown on those and some other papers that may be of interest. For the attention-challenged, I’ve also included my now patented "Twitter"…
• US Court Orders Advertiser To Use Negative Keywords In Trademark Case
  Eric Goldman reports that a US District Judge in Florida ordered an advertiser using a trademark term to use the negative keyword option, to ensure that they would no longer bid on that term in the future. The judge ordered the defendant to stop using the word “ORION” in their…
• Google AdSense Ads May Become More Behaviorally Targeted
  Bill Slawski analyzed a newly published patent application by Google named Rendering Advertisements with Documents Having One or More Topics Using User Topic Interest Information. In short, the patent application documents methods Google can use to make Google’s contextual ads, AdSense, more behaviorally relevant to the user based on Google…
• Sitelinks On A Google Minus 60 Result: What Does It Mean?
  Last week, I covered an interesting observation at a Google Groups thread, where some individuals noticed Google Sitelinks showing up for a site in the 60th position. At the end of the thread, I noted that Googler, JohnMu, told the webmaster that he may want to join the -60 penalty…
• Google Product Search Gets More Useful
  I’ve personally never found Google Product search all that useful, but hopefully that will change now. Google Operating System reports that Google Product Search has undergone a redesign, of some sort. In the past, Google Product Search just showed you results but did not group stores offering to sell the…
• Microsoft Paper: Improving Search Results By Mining Web Surfing Activity
  A new research paper from Microsoft looks at how surfing behavior — as logged by a search toolbar — can be used to improve search results….
• Yahoo Paper: Finding The Local “Center” Of Search Queries
  A new research paper from Yahoo and Cornell University — with search legend Jon Kleinberg as one of the coauthors — provides a fascinating look at how a search query such as "red sox" or "hurricane deal" can be centered around a physical location — including one that changes…
• Google Paper: Better Image Search Though VisualRank / Image Rank
  A Google Prototype for a Precision Image Search from the New York Times covers a new research paper (PDF format) from Google that about a way of ranking images based on analyzing "visual links" between them….
• SMX Social: Just What Did Calacanis Say About SEO & More Recaps
  At our SMX Social Media Marketing conference this week, we had a great panel on the future of human powered search. Jason Calacanis of Mahalo, Jimmy Wales of Wikia Search, and Steven Marder of Eurekster all took part. Jason had some remarks on SEO that set off the usual wave…
• Stay Tuned: Will Microsoft Sweeten The Deal?
  The NY Post is reporting that despite public statements from Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer and CFO Chris Liddell that the offer on the table is final and that Microsoft might “walk away” from Yahoo, there may in fact be a new and improved offer to Jerry Yang and his fellow…

Search News From Around The Web:

Applications & Portal Features

• Google Docs Updates: CSS Editing, Saved Searches and More, Google Blogoscoped
• Introducing Speaker notes and YouTube videos, Official Google Docs Blog
• View your presentations and spreadsheets offline, too, Official Google Docs Blog
• Yahoo site suffers stock-ticker display glitch, News.com
• More Synergy Between Google’s Communication Services, Google Operating System

Business Issues

• Google Hiring Freeze? , Silicon Alley Insider
• Yahoo sees $29M in charges related to workforce reductions – Forbes.com, Forbes
• Diller, IAC/Interactivecorp board to meet over breakup, report says, MarketWatch
• Yahoo Japan Drops Most in 2 Years on Profit Miss , Bloomberg

Local, Maps & Mobile

• The Real Threat to Google, BusinessWeek

Link Building

• What To Do When You Run Out of Link Building Ideas, Bob Massa
• Are Links from StumbleUpon Valuable?, Search Engine Roundtable
• Creating a natural link profile for your site, Jennifer Slegg

Paid Search & Contextual

• Ask PPC Hero! Is Bidding On Your Competitor’s Trademark Terms Legal?, PPC Hero
• Paid Search Metrics That Every Marketer Needs to Know, Justin Davy
• How High is Your Bounce Rate?, Traffick
• Which Day Do You Make Most Your Google AdSense Income?, Search Engine Roundtable

Searching

• Yahoo Answers: 11 Million Answers per Month, Small Business SEM
• With Nile Guide, You Can Whittle Down Your Travel Options, TechCrunch
• ZoomProspector Search Engine for Businesses, altsearchengines.com

SEM Industry

• 5 Years, Google Blogoscoped
• SMX Social Media 2008 Recap, Wolf Howl
• The Secret: SEM Sued for Trademark Violations and Breach of Fiduciary Duty, SEOmoz

SEO & SEM

• Does Size Matter regarding an H1 tag?, Shimon Sandler
• Measuring SEO Success: Solve Personalized Search Misperceptions, AIM Clear Blog
• Focus on Ranking Improvement, Not Domination, Search Engine Guide
• Get Your Search Marketing Resume Indexed By A Recruiter, Search Engine Journal
• More Webmasters Report Google Sitelinks, Few Problems Arise, Search Engine Roundtable
• Top 7 CSS Tricks for Better SEO, SEO 2.0

Social Media

• Facebook Demotes News Feed Preferences, Inside Facebook
• Twitter gets another round of funding, News.com
• Twitter Twerp Scan – block Twitter spammers, Download Squad
• Early Stats Show Twitter Taking Off in Japan, Read/Write Web
• How to Analyze your Site with Del.icio.us, Search Engine Journal
• How to Twitter an Event, Marketers Studio
• Morgan Stanley’s March Internet Trends Report: Social Applications Dominating, TechCrunch
• Privacy Feature Update, Orkut Blog

Video, Music & Image Search

• Introducing TV view, Official Google Video Blog

Other Items

• Google Annoyances, Google Operating System

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

• Why Blogging Is A Lot Like Karaoke
• US Court Learns SEO, Decides META Keywords Don’t Matter
• The Future of Search Conferences: Smaller Is Better
• Student ‘Twitters’ His Way Out Of Egyptian Jail
• Sitelinks at #60 – A Warning Shot From Google
• How to Create Viral Marketing Pieces … The Dry Cleaner Eg.
• 7 Tips for the Paranoid SEO: Masking Your Intentions
• Brent Csutoras SMX Presentation Slides
• Creating a Coherent Social Strategy for Business
• 20 Take-Aways from SMX Social Media
• When Should I Start Selling My Guest Posts?
• 10 Clever Ways To Wow Your Clients
• Still Confused with Flash SEO? 10 Points to Convey Better
• 28 Tips To Make You a StumbleUpon Superstar
• 2 Linking Strategies I Bet You Never Heard Of..
• Best of the Web Names Adam Sussman Director of Business Development
• WordPress Has Been Hacked: Are You Protected?
• StumbleUpon Rocks Except for These 8 Things
• SEO, Surrealism & Salvador Dali