SearchCap: The Day In Search, August 24, 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:

• Yahoo’s New Search Clothes — But Will It Help? (Probably Not)
  

  Less than a month after seeming to pull out of the search game by announcing a search outsourcing deal with Microsoft, Yahoo seems to be doing a push to prove it still has search chops. The latest are new user interface changes to search results that are now being tested. Proof that Yahoo [...]

• Google Testing Navigational Search Elements
  

  I have noticed two blogs picking up on what appears to be some sort of navigational data being added to the Google search results snippet. The Red Cardinal blog posted screen shots, as did Rob Hammond at his blog. Google has confirmed this is indeed an experiment they are running, [...]

• A Golden Opportunity For Brands To Join The Local Search Party
  

  The ‘Cash for Clunkers’ program hoopla and Congress’ push to infuse it with more ‘cash’ was a fantastic opportunity for big auto manufacturers advertising like mad on TV to reach local buyers online with local dealership offers. Not surprisingly, after a few quick geo-searches on Google Maps and Yahoo Local among others, the search results [...]

• Cuil Jumps On The Real-Time Search Bandwagon
  

  Make some space on the real-time search bandwagon for Cuil, which has just added real-time listings to its search results page.

  As Mashable points out, Cuil seems to be following OneRiot’s lead in that its real-time results are more about the links people are sharing online rather than the actual tweets and conversations. The interface is nice [...]

• Live Blogging Yahoo’s Product Call
  

  I will be living blogging Yahoo’s product call, so please check back here for frequent updates. 2:00pm: Title of the introductory slide is “Connecting You To What Matters Most”. 2:04pm: Still waiting to begin, not sure what the delay is. 2:06pm: The conference room manager said she is still trying to find the presenter, if you know where [...]

• Search Ranking Factors Shows How Little SEO Has Changed
  

  72 search engine optimizers from around the world have contributed to SEOmoz’s latest Search Engine Ranking Factors report, a study that offers valuable insight into how SEO works in 2009 … but also shows how little it’s changed in recent years. (Disclaimer: I’m one of the 72 contributors.) You can read the survey here, and [...]

• “Skank” Blogger To Sue Google For $15M For Revealing Identity To Liskula Cohen
  

  We have been following the case of where model Liskula Cohen sued Google to reveal the identity of a blogger who used Google’s Blogger to call her a “Skank.” Google was ordered by a US Court to reveal the identity of the blogger, so Liskula Cohen can sue her. I, like many, were shocked [...]

• Google’s One line Sitelinks Now Support HTML Anchors
  

  The Google Operating System blog noticed that some of the One line Sitelinks are now supporting links within the same page, that anchor the searcher down to a portion of the page. For example, a search for [charles darwin] in Google returns a Wikipedia result at the top. The result has the classic one line [...]

• Google’s Bid Simulator Tool: So Transparent, It’s Deflationary?
  

  Over the years, we’ve counseled advertisers to be wary of certain inflationary tendencies that are built into the very terminology and interface design of paid search. Experienced bidders know better but new advertisers can get tripped up. Inflationary tendencies in paid search auctions include:

  New accounts being opted into content targeting at the same bid as [...]

• When Big Brands Meet Social Media – Part 2
  

  How will big brands will successfully latch onto social media and use it intelligently as marketing channel going forward? Read on for how we’re doing it at Yahoo.

• Microhoo Changes Local Search Landscape For Small Biz
  

  Finally, after a lengthy gestation period, Microhoo is official! In late July, Microsoft and Yahoo inked a 10-year deal that combines the companies’ forces in an internet search alliance to make a concentrated run at Google, recognized by many as the key player in local search. The deal, which seems to mark the end for Yahoo [...]

• Dear Fox News: SEO Is Not Search Engine Scamming (Unless You’re Scamming Yourself)
  

  In the same month that Rupert Murdoch has said he’ll charge for all his news sites because “quality journalism is not cheap,” I find it ironic to read the rubbish about search engine optimization that Murdoch-owned Fox News “reported” this week. SEO equals scamming, we’re told. If I have to pay for this type of article [...]

• Wolfram Alpha Updates Its Progress; Also Has Deal With Bing?
  

  A little more than three months after its launch, Wolfram Alpha is getting smarter, bigger (in a couple ways), and busier. That’s the word from Stephen Wolfram in a blog post about the site’s progress so far. Not mentioned in his post is an unconfirmed report from TechCrunch that Wolfram Alpha also has a licensing [...]

Search News From Around The Web:

Applications & Portal Features

• Google Brings SVG Support To IE, Slashdot
• In Its Finance Site, Yahoo Leaves Google in the Dust, New York Times
• Video chat from iGoogle, Google Talkabout
• Alibaba Overhauls China Yahoo, Wall Street Journal

Business Issues

• Google’s Response To The FCC, TechCrunch
• Search Engine Rivals: Bing vs. Google, TIME
• Yahoo wins U.S. court ruling over webcasting fees, Reuters
• Europe Divided on Google Book Deal, New York Times
• Another Google Sales Guy Gone: Doubleclick Veteran Rutledge Lands at PubMatic, AllThingsD
• Facebook Plans to Boost Staff 50% This Year, Zuckerberg Says, Bloomberg
• Google’s Growing Pains, Wall Street Journal

Local, Maps & Mobile

• Comparing On-Line Map Providers, googlemapsmania.blogspot.com

Paid Search & Contextual

• No Phishing Here, Yahoo! Search Marketing Blog
• Yahoo Search Marketing & Publisher Network Undergo Maintenance?, Search Engine Roundtable

Searching

• For Twitter, Sharing Data With Google Would Be Suicide, TechCrunch
• Indeed Now Gets The Most Pageviews For Job Searches In The U.S., TechCrunch
• Google Bolding Acronyms In Search Results, Search Engine Roundtable
• Interesting Reads in Google News, Google Operating System

SEM Industry

• SEO Agency Fantasy Football – Win a 1966 Geoff Hurst Signed Print, Search Engine War

SEO & SEM

• Many Web Designers Are Still Offering Fake SEO Packages, SEO Book
• PPC & Excel: The Perfect Marriage, nowsourcing.com
• StumbleUpon Doesn’t Honor Permanent Redirects, Philosophical Games
• Should Webmasters Pick Their Own Quicklinks in Search Results?, SEO By The Sea
• Geographic & Demographic Impact on PPC: Part 1, Rimm Kaufman
• Google Webmaster Tools Now Reporting SSL Certificate Errors, Search Engine Roundtable
• Have You Optimized Your Crawl Equity?, Search Engine Journal
• Holiday SEO: Using Amazon Bestsellers for Keyword Research, Get Elastic
• Possible Google Update – August 2009, Search Engine Roundtable
• URL Structure And SEO, Search Marketing Standard
• Using Rare Words to Estimate Search Engine Index Sizes, SEO By The Sea
• WordCamp 2007 talk: Whitehat SEO tips for bloggers, Matt Cutts
• Yahoo Search August 2009 Update, Search Engine Roundtable

Social Media

• Facebook Declares War On Spam Developers, All Facebook
• 15 Plus Twitter Tools and Apps for Neighbourhood (Your City), TechMynd
• 4 Ways to Manage Social Media, Search Marketing Sage

Video, Music & Image Search

• YouTube Mobile App Expands to Five New Languages, Official Google Mobile Blog
• Clicking on a YouTube Video, Google Operating System

Web Analytics

• Five Google Analytics FAILs, The ROI Revolution Blog

Other Items

• Google’s ‘Top Chef’ entrant pulls a Woz, CNET News