SearchCap: The Day In Search, August 30, 2011

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

From Search Engine Land:

• Microsoft Tightens Relevancy And Quality Requirements In AdCenter

  Microsoft has announced changes that tighten up its adCenter Relevancy and Quality policy for ads served to the U.S. and Canada. Changes are set to take place tomorrow, August 31, though the company says it won’t begin enforcing the changes until the next week or two, giving advertisers a chance to make changes, if needed, […]
• Google Trusted Stores: For Organic Rankings & Search Ads?

  Google Operating System Blog discovered a new feature to be released by Google named “Google Trusted Stores.” The landing page for this feature will be at google.com/trustedstores but it is currently not live. There was a video that was released today that was just made private. The video was shared on Google Operating System Blog […]

• Google Decides Fate Of More Than Half Of Labs Projects; Correlate Survives, Sets Doesn’t

  Another week, another round of updates from the slow phase-out of Google Labs. This week, good news for fans of one keyword-related tool, but bad news for fans of another. Google Correlate Added To Google Trends Google Correlate has survived the chopping block. Previously available at correlate.googlelabs.com, it’s now been given a permanent home as […]

• ComScore: Android Continues Gains, RIM Tanking

  Today comScore released its latest mobile market share figures. Once again the smartphone story is the same: Android showed strong quarterly growth while the iPhone saw modest growth and all others saw declines, especially RIM. Among handset OEMs (all mobile devices), Samsung leads the pack with 25 percent of the US market. Motorola, which Google […]

• 6 Myths Chinese Search Engine Baidu Would Rather Like To Correct

  A few weeks ago, I spent a few days with the Baidu team in Beijing. My first conversation was with Kaiser Kuo who is the Director of International Communications and the very first topic we covered was in answer to the question, “What would you rather people better understood relating to Baidu and its position […]

• Linking Oddities That Ripley Would Like

  Ahhh, the strangeness that is links. This week’s column will hopefully spark some questions, answer a few others, and also point out some weird linking related phenomena, beginning with two examples: If this search is correct, Google indexes a little over (Use Dr. Evil voice) 1 billion pages from the Yahoo.com family of domains. But, […]

• Two Weeks Left Until Search Engine Land’s SMX East Conference- Register Now

  Only two weeks until Search Marketing Expo – SMX East returns to New York City, September 13-15. Here is what’s in store: Exceptional content: More than 55 sessions for search marketers of every skill level will be presented. Sessions will cover all of the search topics: paid search advertising (PPC), search engine optimization (SEO), local/mobile […]

• The (Social) Medium Is Not The Message

  Last month, I talked about how marketers need to distinguish between interactions and true engagement*. As part of that, I referenced the fact that Facebook and Twitter had been written about in relation to events such as the death of Amy Winehouse, the massacre in Norway and the Egyptian revolution. But since writing that, social […]

• Google Webmaster Live Help Via Google + Hangouts Tomorrow

  Google has been quietly hosting Google + Hangouts for webmasters to ask Google Webmaster analysts and engineers questions. The next Google hangout, named Google Webmaster Office Hours, was announced by Jenny Murphy and will take place tomorrow on her profile. Again, it will take place Wednesday, August 31st at 11:30am PDT / 2:30 EDT on […]

• Report: Those Searching For Google+ Are Younger & Have More Income Than Facebook Searchers

  In a recent study released by comScore, searcher demographics showed some striking differences between those looking for Google+ vs. those looking for Facebook in July. Surprisingly, Facebook had a larger percentage of searchers over the age of 35, while Google+ trended younger. 34.2% of searchers looking for Google+ were under 35 years old and only […]

Search News From Around The Web:

Applications & Portal Features

• Falsely issued Google SSL certificate in the wild for more than 5 weeks, Naked Security
• Free calls home from Gmail for all U.S. service members, Official Gmail Blog
• OpenDNS and Google team to speed up the web, gigaom.com

Business Issues

• For Google CEO Larry Page, a Difficult Premiere Role, Wall Street Journal
• A Very Gloomy Picture Of Larry Page’s Short Tenure As Google CEO, Business Insider
• Google’s Biggest Gamble [Infographic], Marketing Pilgrim
• Java founder Gosling leaves Google for startup, InfoWorld

Local, Maps & Mobile

• +1 your favorite custom maps, Google LatLong
• Google Places Descriptor Snippets, Mike Blumenthal
• Imagery Update: Week of August 29th, Google LatLong
• Yelp Scales Back Deal Service as Competition Rises for Internet Coupons, Bloomberg

Link Building

• Is An Image Link Worth A Thousand Words?, linkspiel.com

Searching

• What’s Top of Mind This Labor Day, Yahoo Search Blog
• Kicking off football season with NFL live results in search, Inside Search
• More Google Cursor Focus Bugs With Google Instant, Search Engine Roundtable

SEO & SEM

• Microsoft Advertising adCenter: Temporary Technical Difficulties, adCenter Blog
• #Optimize Your Online Marketing with Social Media, SEO & Content, Online Marketing Blog
• 3 Competitor Intelligence Secrets SEO Experts Don’t Want You To Know, Search Engine People
• Cleaning Up Trashy Web Content: How to Create Posts That Don’t Stink, BruceClay.com
• Get Your Own Content Development Process With This 4 Step Action Plan, Search Engine People
• Google AdWords Conversion Tracking Data Explained, PPC Hero
• Google Patents Seeing with your Hand, SEO By The Sea
• Google Plus Is A Ranking Factor, It Will Be Abused Like PageRank & Google Is To Blame, Search Engine Roundtable
• Multiple User Access Now Available For Google Merchant Center, Search Engine Roundtable
• Paid vs ‘Free’ Clicks: When to Buy a Keyword That Organically Ranks #1, Certified Knowledge
• The Real Impact of Search Engine Rank, iCrossing
• Why Bing Cannot Loosen Google’s Grip on Search, SEO Theory

Social Media

• Google +1 Extension for Chrome, Google Operating System
• Google Translate for Google+, Google Translate Blog
• Microsoft Gets Social In China With RenRen Agreement, Forbes
• The Skill-Set of a Social Media Marketer, Karl Ribas
• Twitter Confirms Issue Affecting Replies and Mentions, Read/Write Web

Video, Music & Image Search

• How Google plans to change the way you watch TV, gigaom.com
• Google testing voice search for web internationally. Here’s how you can try it now, thenextweb.com
• Introducing geofences on Flickr!, Flickr Blog
• YouTube is Useless, Search Engine Journal

Web Analytics

• Analytics Multi-Channel Funnels Overview, PPC Hero
• How Google Analytics Custom Reports Helped My Client to Increase His Revenue, SEOmoz
• Step-by-Step Instructions for Non-Branded Custom Segmentation in the new Multi Channel Funnels Section, SEOmoz

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

• A Primer on A/B Testing – Good post detailing the ins and outs of A/B testing from a starting perspective.
• 5 Steps to Link Building with Widgets – A great read about link building with widgets.  Also includes some good tips on what NOT to do when building links with widgets.
• Manage Your Online Reputation When Disaster Strikes – A case study on the right way to use social media during a disaster.