SearchCap: The Day In Search, August 29, 2008

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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 Marketing & The US Presidental Race, Case Study: Sarah Palin
  After reading yesterday about how savvy both US presidential campaigns seem to think they are about search marketing, I decided I’m going to take a closer look at watching them. In particular, I noticed yesterday that both seemed pretty lame when it came to tapping into rising queries that…
• Google Tests Displaying Ads Under Search Results
  Tamar reported at the Search Engine Roundtable that Google has confirmed that they are testing displaying search ads under the search results. You and I are accustomed to seeing AdWords ads at the top and right hand side of the Google search results page, but we never see them under…
• Search In Pictures: Mandi Perkins at Yahoo, Google Dance & Yahoo Safari
  In this week’s Search In Pictures, here are the latest images culled from the web, showing what people eat at the search engine companies, how they play, who they meet, where they speak, what toys they have, and more….
• Microsoft Acquires Market Research Firm Greenfield Online To Get EU Shopping Engine Ciao
  Microsoft successfully bid to acquire Greenfield Online for approximately $486 million. But Microsoft isn’t really interested in Greenfield, it was after the company’s subsidiary Ciao GmbH. Founded in 1999 and acquired by Greenfield in 2005, Ciao is an Munich-based EU comparison shopping site with user reviews….
• Ask Kids Relaunches With Cute Kids Features
  A few days ago, Ask.com relaunched Ask Kids, their search flavored for children. The Ask.com blog just wrote about the launch last night. Ask.com said the Ask Kids site was “built from the ground-up, with our own search technology.” It seems like Ask.com added a “very strict” list of which…
• Human Hardware: Foraging for Information
  When looking to predict how MBA students and analysts would find information in a digital environment, Peter Pirolli found his answer in an unlikely place: animal’s foraging patterns. Pirolli, working at the Palo Alto Research Center, was trying to predict with some mathematical accuracy the behavior of humans when…
• Obama Vs. McCain: Display Vs. Direct Response
  The Wall Street Journal analyzes and compares the online marketing strategies, successes and weaknesses of the two US presidential candidates. McCain turns out to be the more savvy search marketer, while Obama does a better job at SEO and is investing more in online display advertising….
• Bill Tancer On 20/20 This Friday, Talking Search Behavior
  Many search marketers know of "data geek" Bill Tancer, who has long entertained folks at search marketing conferences with tales and observations of what you can tell about people through search trends. Bill’s got a great new book coming out, Click, which shares those insights with a broader audience….

Search News From Around The Web:

Business Issues

• Analyst trims Google estimate, Forbes

Local, Maps & Mobile

• Introducing the winners of the Android Developer Challenge I, Official Google Blog
• Tip of the week: Lat Long on Lat/Long, Google LatLong
• Google to buy GeoEye satellite imagery, News.com
• Live Search Maps Goes Live in Taiwan, Virtual Earth, An Evangelist’s Blog

Paid Search & Contextual

• Google Ad Planner Vs. AdWords Placement Tool: Which provides better sites to target?, PPC Hero
• Google Updates Java Client Library for AdWords API, Search Engine Roundtable
• Sample SOAP requests for several adCenter API V5.1 calls – adCenter API Blog for Developers, adcentercommunity.com
• Your guide to the Inside AdSense blog, Inside AdSense

Searching

• Google Cuts Off Forestle, Google Blogoscoped
• Windows Live Search Tricks You May Not Know About, Digital Inspiration

SEM Industry

• Cre8asiteforums Interviews Members Wit, JohnMu and Lee, Cre8tive Flow
• SEOktoberfest, 3 Dog Media
• SES: Catching Up with Vanessa Fox, WebProNews

SEO & SEM

• Online Marketing Tips Video: Utilizing Video in Online Marketing Strategies, Search Marketing Gurus
• What’s Broken in the Microsoft Development Stack?, Live Search Webmaster Center Blog
• Whiteboard Friday: A Farewell to Pagination, SEOmoz
• Aaron Wall and Wordtracker team up to publish – 50 Kick-Ass Keyword Strategies, SEO Book
• Applying onsite seo to website template (or why separation of code and content is a good thing), SEOmoz
• Digital PR and SEO Series: Part 3, Online Marketing Blog
• Div ID="Header" Different SEO Tactics, Search Engine Journal
• For Local Search, It’s All About the Online-Offline Gap, Search Engine Watch
• How Google Handles Flash in 2008, Former Googler Bergy Chimes In, Search Engine Roundtable
• Looking for Answers in a Search Marketing Forum? Be Specific!, Search Engine Watch
• Negative Keyword Filter for Google Webmaster Tools?, Search Engine Roundtable
• New Killer Keyword Research Ebook!, SEO Book
• Search Engine Penalties Are Scary, Says Most SEOs, Search Engine Roundtable
• Ten Top Tips for Tip Top Copy, SEOptimise

Social Media

• Yahoo Shuts Down Mash, 0-4 On Social Networking, TechCrunch
• LinkedIn Rolls Out Enhanced Groups Features, TechCrunch
• Traffic trends for Digg vs. nine other social news sites, Royal Pingdom

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

• The 30 Easiest Ways to Get Links and Exposure
• Digital Point's Shawn Hogan Sued for Cookie Stuffing
• How To Get Started In Social Media | A Beginners Guide
• Google Automatic Match – Measuring the Cost of Skipping Keyword Research
• 10 Meta-Search Engines Reviewed and Compared
• The Great Social Media Traffic Debate – Niche or Generic Networks??
• When Blackhat SEO IS Ethical
• 11 Slimy Internet Marketing Characters
• Giving Your SEO Enough Info to Succeed?
• Social Media Marketing: Getting Long-Term Results