SearchCap: The Day In Search, August 21, 2007

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

From Search Engine Land:

• SES San Jose Coverage Roundup – August 21, 2007
  Below is a roundup of all the coverage I was able to find throughout the day of the SES San Jose conference. This coverage is for the second day of SES, taking place on August 21, 2007. If I missed any, please add a comment below….
• YouTube Initiates Monetization Strategy With Transparent Video ‘Overlays’
  People have been speculating about how YouTube would eventually monetize video streams, as opposed to page views. The answer comes in the form of an innovative approach that involves almost transparent animated flash “overlays” that will appear on selected videos. It’s an attempt to balance the competing demands of an…
• Google News Adds News Videos
  The Google News blog announced that they are now embedding videos within Google News from several sources. Google News currently syndicates videos from CBS, Reuters, and a number of local Hearst TV stations and uses YouTube’s player to display the videos within the Google News search results. Google says they…
• Google Maps Adds Embed Map Feature
  As expected, Google Lat Long Blog has announced that you can now embed your Google Maps, easily, into your web pages. Just go to the map you like, click on “link to this page” at the top right corner of the map and select the code within the “Paste HTML…
• Eight Essentials For Crafting Killer Paid Search Ad Copy
  Here are eight observations about writing and testing pay-per-click ad copy. They’re broad generalizations, so there’ll be situations where these don’t hold, but we’ve found them generally accurate….
• Yahoo Site Explorer Adds Dynamic URL Rewriting Tool
  The Yahoo Search Blog announced a new Site Explorer feature that enables webmasters to inform Yahoo about dynamic URLs that may be create duplicate content. The new feature is named “Dynamic URL Rewriting” and it allows webmasters to view potential duplicate content issues and have Yahoo rewrite those URLs at…
• Search Illustrated: How Optimized Press Releases Impact Visibility
  Most companies are savvy enough today to put press releases on their web sites. Sadly, few bother to optimize press releases for search engines, and that’s too bad, because a well optimized press release can do more than just rank well in search results—it can can also offer additional…
• Yahoo Buys Mobile Ad Content Company, Actionality
  Yahoo! buys Actionality from Mobile Entertainment reports Yahoo has purchased Actionality, a company that specializes in creating ad-funded mobile content. Actionality has technology that embeds games with ads at the point of download. Actionality is a Munich-based company with sales offices in Berlin and Hong Kong. There has been no…
• Google Earth Adds Real Time Traffic Layer
  The Google Lat Long Blog announced that they have added a new layer in Google Earth to provide real-time traffic data. By activating the traffic layer, little green, yellow and red balls are overlaid on the highways and roads, each symbolize the level of traffic congestion in that area….
• New Rumors Surface On Microsoft Buying Yahoo After Ballmer-Rose Interview
  Ballmer discusses Yahoo acquisition rumour from PC Advisor reports on a recent interview with Microsoft’s CEO Steve Ballmer and PBS’s Charlie Rose. In that interview, Rose questions Ballmer of the Yahoo/Microsoft merger rumors from earlier this year. The new revived question is if Microsoft is still interested in a Yahoo…
• Google Bumps Up Video Store “Goof” With More
  Last week we reported Google To Shut Down Video Store On August 15th. The thing was, those who purchased videos at Google Video were taken back by the return they were getting from Google from this closure. Back then Google gave a few days for users to watch their videos…
• Yahoo Changes UK Home Page Design
  The LocallyType blog noticed that Yahoo has updated their Yahoo UK home page. The new design has more clean space around the search box. The Yahoo content and services don’t truly begin until after the search box is displayed. I am told that the Yahoo UK home page looked more…

Search News From Around The Web:

Applications & Portal Features

• Zoho Goes Offline (in a good way), Techcrunch
• Introducing Calendar Gadgets, Google Code – Updates

Business Issues

• Australian Regulator To Outline Case Against Google, SmartMoney.com
• PFF: Google-DoubleClick merger will create benefits for consumers, Google Public Policy Blog

Conferences

• SES San Jose LIVE / Day 1: Wise Men, Hookahs, & SEO Magic, Ask.com Blog
• SMX Producer Third Door Media Teams with Eventos OME to Produce Events in Europe and Latin America, Search Marketing Expo Blog
• Women in Search Luncheon – SES San Jose, Online Marketing Blog
• Example questions at SES: Universal Search, Matt Cutts
• I Secretly Shot This Video of SES San Jose, RentVine.com
• SES San Jose Coverage, Day 1, Search Engine Watch Blog
• SES Speaker Blogs Part 1: Posts from the Epicenter of Search, AIM Clear Blog

Link Building

• Won’t You Be My Neighbor?, Search Engine Watch

Paid Search & Contextual

• AdWords Reports Center meets Google Docs, Inside AdWords
• Getting Traffic from Contextual Ads – SES San Jose, SEOmoz
• AdGooroo Expands to European, Search Engine Journal
• Can Google Manually Remove a Minimum Bid Requirement in AdWords?, Search Engine Roundtable
• Get inline, Inside AdSense
• Google AdWords ROI Reporting Errors, Search Engine Roundtable

Searching

• Hakia, a meaning-based search engine, Pandia
• Trusting the Internet for health, Google Health Advertising Blog
• Microsoft launches Tafiti – Search and Silverlight experiment, LiveSide

SEM Industry

• Kevin Heisler Joins SEW as Executive Editor, Search Engine Watch Blog
• Matt Cutts Interview, Dan Skeen
• Ask.com Replaces My Broken Pen with High Class, Cartoon Barry
• Did-It Ditches Frog and Launches New Web Site, David Dalka

SEO & SEM

• Capturing the click through compelling meta descriptions, News.com
• Shari Thurow Writes a New Book, The SEO Scoop
• Personalized Anchor Text Scores, SEO By The Sea
• Which Hat Should I Wear?, Search Engine Watch
• How To Get Listed In Mahalo, LinkJuicy
• Meta Robots WordPress plugin, Joost de Valk

Social Media

• Searching Twitter, Twitter Blog

Video, Music & Image Search

• MSN China Partners With 9Sky, Pacific Epoch
• Viacom’s MTV and RealNetworks join forces: report, Reuters
• Metacafe Raises $30 Million in Series C Financing, BusinessWire

Other Items

• FCC, Verizon: Rejoice over your broadband connection, News.com
• The philosophy of Google, Jerusalem Post
• Microsoft: We’re not Google, and we’re proud of it, News.com
• Collective Search Is Next Focus, Ask.com CEO Says, InformationWeek

Hot Items From Sphinn, Our Social News Sharing Site:

• Why Does My Spam Do So Much Better on Yahoo than Google?
• Stand Out From The Crowd: Say Something New
• Dave Secretly Shot This Video of SES San Jose
• Google News Adds YouTube Videos
• You need to monitor adwords and not let Google screw you
• I Took Iran by Storm!
• Is Newsvine The Next SEO Hater?
• Yahoo Site Explorer Adds Dynamic URL Rewriting Tool
• Social Media Questions For Andy Hagans
• SEO & Blogging Success Story : Diabetes Blog Earns $40K per Year
• Do You Make These 12 AdWords Mistakes?
• New Stumbleupon Interface
• SM2 – Social Media Management & Reputation Management
• Can I Submit to Sphinn too much?
• Search Engine Strategies (SES) Needs Search Engine Strategy | 97th Floor SEO Blog