SearchCap: The Day In Search, August 12, 2009

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

From Search Engine Land:

• Ask.com Mocks Yahoo With Employee Poaching Sign
  

  I was walking through the expo hall, which I rarely do, and I spotted at the Ask.com booth this sign.

  You read that? “My company just gave up on search. Where do I work now” and then the URL at the bottom. That is Ask.com being funny and then trying to pick [...]

• Two Tools To Compare Google With Google Caffeine
  

  Since Monday’s launch of the Google Caffeine sandbox, there have been numerous articles and posts offering ideas on what’s different between “regular Google” and the new results in Caffeine. But good luck finding any consensus at this point. Since few seem to agree yet on what’s changing and how dramatic the changes might be, why [...]

• Google Rolls Out Social Gadgets Quickly
  

  Last week we first wrote about social gadgets rolling out in Australia. Marissa Mayer, whom I spoke with at the time, said the timing of a broader rollout was uncertain. Well it’s here today: Your friends are able to see what you share or do in your social gadgets either by having the same gadgets on [...]

• 8 Core Elements For Attribution Modeling Beyond The Last Click
  

  Search marketers often benefit from the “last ad clicked” model because search is far down the purchase funnel. But limiting your analysis to just that is like operating with blinders on: it doesn’t exactly give you the full picture of what’s happening. Instead, B2B marketers should perform attribution modeling across their marketing channels. Today it is [...]

• WSJ: Yahoo Getting Unfair Shake In Wake Of Search Deal
  

  An opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal this morning makes the case that investors have overly punished Yahoo for its “no-cash-upfront” search deal with Microsoft. The piece cites continued growth in Yahoo uniques and page views and the myriad Yahoo properties that are at the top of their respective categories: Despite all the turmoil at the [...]

• ‘Augmented Reality’ Is Also A Form Of Search
  

  We’re really just at the beginning of the era of “mobile search.” Even what we think of as “search” will be dramatically altered by innovations in mobile. In this first phase the transfer of what might be called the “query box” (and related links) into mobile is complete. In time, however, we many even come [...]

• Google’s Working On New File System
  

  We often don’t think about the core file system and servers that power Google’s properties, from Search and Gmail to YouTube and Wave, but Google does. The Register reports that after ten years with the original Google File System, GFS for short, Google is working on a version two to replace it. The [...]

• Google’s Doodle For The Perseids Meteor Shower
  

  If you visit Google.com today, you may notice a special logo, or Google Doodle. The logo is to help drive awareness to the special Perseids meteor shower that is taking place today. In fact, the shower has been active for a few days now, but it is most visible today from areas around [...]

• Bing’s Paid Click Share Still Rising: Report
  

  Bing’s share of paid search clicks is up 44% since its launch at the start of June. That’s according to a blog post from SEM provider Efficient Frontier.

  As the company reported last month in its quarterly report, Bing continues to show strength in the Travel and Finance categories, with gains of 11% and 22%, respectively.

• SES San Jose Day One Live Blog Coverage
  

  Today is day one of three of the SES San Jose show. The sessions are now complete for the day and I believe I have complied a lot of the live blogging sessions. If I missed any, feel free to comment below. Here is some of the coverage for day one:

  Always be [...]

Search News From Around The Web:

Applications & Portal Features

• Poor Google Knol Has Gone From A Wikipedia Killer To A Craigslist Wannabe, TechCrunch
• Microsoft Cashback To Add Gift Cards & Non-Profit Support?, Search Engine Roundtable
• Time to Say Bye-Bye to Google Knol?, Marketing Pilgrim
• Your introduction to Google Ad Manager (Part 2 of 2), Google Ad Manager Blog

Business Issues

• The Best Place to Work: Google and their Office in Zurich, Bored Panda

Local, Maps & Mobile

• Google’s Local Business Dashboard is Borderline Useless, Small Business SEM
• Publish Your Photosynth to Facebook, Bing Maps Blog

Link Building

• 45 Link Baiting Resources: Ideas, Techniques, Case Studies & Drawbacks, SEOptimise

Paid Search & Contextual

• 5 Tips to Managing Compliance Teams in Your PPC Accounts, PPC Hero

Searching

• Google’s Caffeine: A jolt to search rankings?, News.com

SEM Industry

• Don’t Blame the Snake Oil Salesman!, Search Engine People
• Mormon SEOs Dislike "Caffeine" Name For Google Update, Search Engine Roundtable

SEO & SEM

• Video: Breaking News, Matt Cutts Explains Caffeine Update, WebProNews
• Case Study: How Much Do Rankings Matter?, SEOmoz
• How To Get Into Google News Alerts? Make Top Ten, Search Engine Roundtable
• PPC: The Game Favors Discounters, Rimm Kaufman
• Query Suggestion Strategies that Search Engines May Use, SEO By The Sea

Social Media

• Facebook Launches One-Way Mailbox API. Woo hoo., TechCrunch
• Facebook Proposes To Ban Sponsored Status Updates, TechCrunch
• Facebook Begins Testing Facebook Lite, A Faster Simpler Version Of The Service, TechCrunch
• LinkedIn Reaches 45 Million Users, TechCrunch
• Twitter Co-Founder Biz Stone to be Interviewed on PBS Thursday Night, ResourceShelf