SearchCap: The Day In Search, August 18, 2010

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

From Search Engine Land:

• Search Engine Market Share Steady In July: Hitwise

  There’s little change in the latest search engine market share numbers from Experian Hitwise. The company announced its stats for July 2010 today, and there’s almost no change at all for Google, Yahoo, and Bing. Ask.com did get a 6% jump from June, Hitwise says.

• The Benefits, Limitations, And Risks Of Shared Platforms

  There are a number of shared platforms for B2B marketers that promise increased traffic and search visibility for their members. Before you subscribe to a shared platform, be sure you understand whether it will really help you and how to best use it to drive increased visibility in the search results. This article looks at […]

• SEO Metrics: Proving Value With Research, Data And Tact

  When it comes to SEO, it is a quantitative marketing medium that is all about metrics and results. That means if you can’t provide data/research that proves value, as well as analytics and reporting to back your results, you’re basically asking for a whole lot of drama. Putting together the research behind a business case […]

• The Problems With Google’s House Ads

  Many publishers run “house ads” to self-promote their own offerings. Google does too. However, Google differs from most publishers because it auctions ad space on its network. Thus, when Google runs house ads, it simultaneously conducts the auction that it is bidding in—an impermissible conflict of interest. This post explains when […]

• Google Buzz Suggesting Accounts To Follow

  The Google Buzz team announced they will be offering suggestions for new people to follow the next time you login to Google Buzz.
  Google said the “suggestions are based on your frequent email/chat contacts, your public connections on other networks, and their activity on Google Buzz.” Google will only show you suggestions of public Google […]

• Conversion Zen: Transforming Errors Into Opportunities

  Who’s responsible for your site’s error messages? Who decides what they say, when they appear, and how they look? It’s a key question—because if you haven’t paid attention to how your site treats visitors when things go wrong, their experience is much more likely to be negative—and talked about.
  This article is second in a […]

• Important Restrictions To Include In Your Affiliate Agreement

  When working with affiliates, compliance begins with a well crafted and thought out agreement. Here are examples of restrictions that belong in an effective compliance strategy without putting a choke hold on your affiliates. This is not legal advice, and is intended as business advisement.
  Direct linking a.k.a. URL hijacking. If you […]

• SES SFO Live Blogging Recap: Day One

  Below is the live blog coverage of the sessions given today at the Search Engine Strategies San Francisco conference. If you are aware of other live blog coverage, feel free to link to them in the comments.

  Content Marketing Optimization — SES San Francisco, BruceClay.com
  Deep Dive Into Analytics: When Bounce Rate No Longer Floats Your […]

Search News From Around The Web:

Applications & Portal Features

• iPad, Therefore I Am, ymailblog.com
• New in Labs: Find docs and sites quickly with Apps Search, Official Gmail Blog

Business Issues

• Google TV plan is causing jitters in Hollywood, Los Angeles Times

Local, Maps & Mobile

• Yahoo! ‘Delivers’ Mail Optimized for iPad, Y! Mobile Blog
• Wearable Computing: Check-In Here on Foursquare (via Nike ), MobileBehavior

Link Building

• What If You Link To A Site Banned In Google?, Search Engine Roundtable

Paid Search & Contextual

• Improving PPC Text Ads, PPC Hero
• AdWords Downtime: August 21, 10am-2pm PDT, AdWords API Blog

SEO & SEM

• Can a site’s downtime affect its ranking?, YouTube
• Top 5 SEO Apps for Your iPhone, searchinfluence.com
• Advanced Keyword List Management, Rimm Kaufman
• Do Keyword Rich Domain Names Have a Search Ranking Edge?, Search Engine Roundtable
• How a Search Engine Might Interpret Ambiguous Queries through Entity Tags, SEO By The Sea
• How to Review Keyword Ideas Presented by the Opportunities Tab in AdWords, Search Engine Watch
• Top 10 Google AdWords Secrets To Achieving Success – Palm Springs SEO by The Web Optimist, Web Optimist
• Why ‘Spam’ is Everywhere & Why That Means Nothing!, SEO Book

Social Media

• Facebook Status Gets Auto-Suggest, Read/Write Web
• Social Media Insecurity: What to do When Online Activity Affects Your Offline Relationships, Techipedia
• Twitter Testimonials: How Brands Collect and Leverage Social Media Feedback, blueglass.com

Video, Music & Image Search

• Widget Realm CEO talks about Yahoo Connected TV Development, Yahoo! Connected TV

Web Analytics

• Launched: New Google Analytics Management API!, Google Analytics Blog
• Picasa Web Stats in Google Analytics, Google Operating System

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

• The Seven-Step Process for Writing Enticing Product Descriptions – If you've ever wondered how you can write unique, enticing and SEO'd descriptions for the same old products everyone else sells, you'll want to read this article by copywriting expert Karon Thackston.
• 5 Persistent Myths About Link Building Debunked – Larry Kim rips apart some common myths about link-building that stubbornly won't go away.
• Three ways bloggers just gotta have fun – It's time to put the fun back into blogging.  Put on your smiles and follow these tips to being a more fun-loving blogger.
• Conversion Optimization is the new Black – That’s really what our mission is or should be in the search industry.  To make clients more money.  Whether they monetize leads after someone fills out a lead generation form, they monetize leads after someone signs up to attend an event, or they sell products directly on their site,  the more people they get taking those actions, the more money they’ll make.
• AJAX & SEO: A Strategic Approach To Rankings – Dealing with the limitations of AJAX and Flash can be an SEOs worst nightmare. There are so many issues that come into play & usually you can deal with many AJAX SEO issues by developing Progressively Enhanced code.
• Why The Google AdWords Keyword Tool Shouldn’t Be Used For SEO – A Case Study – one reason why not to trust Google :)