SearchCap: The Day In Search, August 27, 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:

• Debunking The Italian Newspapers’ Antitrust Allegations Against Google
  

  May it please the Italian court. Google does not ban newspapers that opt-out of Google News from being in Google at all, as a new complaint from Italian publishers alleges. It’s not actually a court that’s going to ponder this allegation. It’s Italy’s AGCM, which appears to be akin the the US [...]

• BT/Yahoo Portal Now Powered By … Not Yahoo, Not Bing, Google!
  

  Those with BT broadband in the UK have noticed that the Yahoo/BT portal at bt.yahoo.com has a new search technology provider. You would guess that if Yahoo would replace their own search technology, it would be in exchange for Bing, in light of the recent news about the Bing & Yahoo deal. [...]

• Google Answers Your Health Questions With Health OneBox
  

  Google launched Google Health back in February 2008. Today, Google is integrating Google Health content into the search results via the classic OneBox section of the page. You should be able to see the Google Health OneBox for medical related searches, such as for [asthma] or [diabetes]. Here is a screen capture of the [...]

• Fire At Google’s London Office
  

  A fire has broken out at Google’s UK headquarters in Victoria, south west London. The fire appears to have been started on the rooftop, possibly due to the barbecue that is used there. Right now, it appears the fire is under control and that no one was hurt. The 6 floor building has been [...]

• Google Mobile Search Adds Universal Flavor To Arabic & Hebrew Searchers
  

  The Google Mobile blog announced that Arabic and Hebrew mobile searchers are now able to see universal results directly on their mobile devices. Although not related, this comes soon after Google Translated recently added 9 new languages. I know a bit of Hebrew, so I tried to test out the search results on Google Israel [...]

• Google AdWords Continues To Test New Product Ad Formats
  

  A reader emailed us a screen capture of Google testing a new form of display product results in the AdWords listings. This is the third significant test of how the product data is shown in the search ads. We have the way most people see Google AdWords product plusbox and some more recent [...]

• Google’s Mortgage Quotes Mystery
  

  The NY Times blogs about an interesting lawsuit between online mortgage lead generator LendingTree and one of its partners Mortech, Inc., which is allegedly about to help Google launch a LendingTree-like loan aggregation or mortgage lead-gen service. According to a press release issued yesterday about the litigation by LendingTree: Mortech, whose technology helps automate lender offer pricing, violated [...]

• What Is The Potential For Growth In SMB Online Marketing?
  

  The handful of SEM companies that we work with at Palore make millions of calls to Small and Medium Businesses (SMBs) every year. This raises the question of whether the market for SMB online advertising is saturated, and how much room there is for growth. A good (albeit somewhat simplistic) way of answering that question is [...]

Search News From Around The Web:

Applications & Portal Features

• Changes to the Yahoo! header, Yahoo! Groups Blog
• Sprinkle Some Cocoa on Bing, Bing Developer Blog
• Translate documents: sharing across languages and generations, Official Google Blog

Business Issues

• Bing Ad Gets WPP Sued, Business Insider
• Google’s Chinese Music Box, Forbes
• Yahoo’s Huge Ad Campaign Scheduled To Launch September 22, Business Insider

Local, Maps & Mobile

• Google Maps Live Traffic Changes Based on Zoom Level?, Search Engine Roundtable

Link Building

• Five Approaches to Creating a Link Building Strategy, SEO Speedwagon

Paid Search & Contextual

• How to Reduce and Control Your PPC Campaign Costs, Daily SEO Tip
• PPC Agencies Promising/Forecasting Results, Rimm Kaufman
• PPC Landing Page Optimization | Why PPC Marketers Need To Be Sneaky Bastards, SEM Geek

Searching

• Google Changes Homepage: Preferences Now Search Settings, Darrin Ward

SEM Industry

• SEO goes back Underground in 2009, John Andrews
• Will Google Send Christmas (Holiday) Gifts This Year (2009)?, Search Engine Roundtable

SEO & SEM

• Google Loving Keywords in URLs Now?, Search Engine Roundtable
• Should You Flaunt Your Search Engine Rankings?, Search Engine Roundtable
• How to Do Keyword Research with OneLook Wildcard Search, Search Engine Journal
• Rankings Change. (Here’s How to) Deal With It! Part II, Search Engine Guide
• SEO Competitive Intelligence : Learn From Your SEO Rivals, Search Engine Journal
• SEO Mythbusters: “Do You Need Lots Of Content?”, Search Engine Journal
• Ultimate Guide To Web Optimization (Tips & Best Practices), Hongkiat.com

Social Media

• Facebook agrees to privacy changes, The Globe and Mail
• TwitterSense. It’s Coming., TechCrunch

Video, Music & Image Search

• YouTube Mobile App Expands to Five New Languages, YouTube Blog
• Getting up to speed in Google Video for business & education, Official Google Enterprise Blog
• YouTube Ranking Factors: 15 Guerrilla Tactics, AIM Clear Blog