SearchCap: The Day In Search, August 18, 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:

• California Wildfires: August 2009 Edition
  

  Yes, parts of California are burning again — and the map makers are at work. Via Google’s Lat Long blog, there’s a new comprehensive map of the Lockheed Fire in the Santa Cruz Mountains. More on that below, along with other resources to monitor as fires inevitably appear elsewhere in the Golden State.

  Lockheed Fire Map [...]

• The Social Media Promotion Checklist For Internet Marketers
  

  Having outstanding content is crucial in a good social media campaign, but many times the overall framework around the campaign can make or break your initiatives. Not only do you want to make sure that your campaign is overwhelmingly successful, but that you can track all of the metrics of this success. Content related items

  Thoroughly check [...]

• How To Handle An SEO Setback
  

  One of the hardest things to deal with in SEO is when a setback occurs. I will outline how to deal with these today, with a focus on those that don’t result from a search engine penalty. Even when you do all the right things, you can still run into situations where it doesn’t work [...]

• A Case Study: Using Contests To Build Links
  

  It’s common knowledge that certain markets are harder to build links for than others. For the most, part highly competitive industries are tough because they’ve been worked to death, but less competitive markets can also be difficult because of the demographic behind them. Such was the case for a client we took on awhile back [...]

• Two webcasts this week: Local Listings and Dynamic Keyword Insertion Ads
  

  Search Marketing Now will host two webcasts this week. On Wednesday, August 19 at 1 PM EDT, tune in for “Local Business Listings: Straight Talk From the Data Providers.” We’ve invited representatives from the three primary database providers to tell us how they gather, update and maintain data for local business listings. Gregg [...]

• Google AdSense To Change Default Font Styles
  

  The Google AdSense blog announced they will be changing the default AdSense font type based on years and years of testing. The testing has shown that different font types and styles work better in different ad formats, and based on those tests, Google is changing the default type to try to optimize the ads [...]

• Google Tops In Search Satisfaction According To Pre-Bing Survey
  

  On an annual basis the University of Michigan puts out the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) E-Business report, sponsored and administered by Foresee Results. Among the things the index examines is consumer satisfaction with search engines. The survey asks a representative sample of consumers to rate their experiences with portals and search engines according to several [...]

Search News From Around The Web:

Applications & Portal Features

• Sharing with Google Groups, Official Google Blog
• Welcome home, Bing Search Blog

Business Issues

• Yahoo’s David Dickman, VP of West Coast Sales, to Leave Company, AllThingsD
• Google bruises Gallic pride as national library does deal with search giant, Times Online

Local, Maps & Mobile

• Monitoring California Wildfires with Google Maps, Google LatLong
• Bringing Street View to an attraction near you, Google LatLong
• Introducing the Street View Partner Program, Content Central Blog
• The wait is over: new Street View imagery, Google LatLong

Link Building

• Link Building for Small eCommerce Sites, SEOmoz

Paid Search & Contextual

• Baidu Touts Benefits of New Ad System, Wall Street Journal
• Don’t Gamble with Your PPC Campaigns! Save It For The Casinos, Search Marketing Gurus
• Google AdWords Display Ads Have 20X Mouse Over Rate Compared to CTR, Search Engine Roundtable
• Is PPC Necessary? Why? If PPC Is Necessary, When Is It So?, seoroi.com

SEM Industry

• Google Korea Homepage With Black Ribbon, Google Blogoscoped
• New Google AdWords Professionals Not Able To Get Seal Logo, Search Engine Roundtable

SEO & SEM

• 5 tips for rebranding in the SEO era, www.imediaconnection.com
• Do You Use PPC for Your SEO to Get a Higher ROI on Your SEM?, SEO.com
• Getting the IIS SEO Toolkit up and running, Bing Webmaster Blog
• Blog Benefits: Traffic, Links, and Indexed Pages, Small Business SEM
• Excellent Site Review Panel by Matt Cutts & Other Googlers, Search Engine Roundtable
• Get Answers From the Google Anti-Malware Team, Search Engine Roundtable
• Google News Now Recrawling & Reindexing Stories For Updates, Search Engine Roundtable
• Putting SEO Frosting on a Website Dung Pile, Search Engine Guide
• What Does Your Site Need? Ask Your Clients!, footinmouthdisease.net

Social Media

• Twitter going after buy-more-followers services?, CNET News

Video, Music & Image Search

• Filter Images by Aspect Ratio in Google Images, Google Operating System
• Using YouTube for corporate communications, YouTube Biz Blog

Web Analytics

• Back to Basics: Troubleshooting goals, Google Analytics Blog