SearchCap: The Day In Search, August 6, 2010

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

From Search Engine Land:

• Where Is Search Going? Surf Canyon’s Mark Cramer

  Some time ago, a gentleman by the name of Mark Cramer emailed me wanting to talk about the future of search. It was probably precipitated by the Search:2010 whitepaper we produced in 2007, where I talked to several search and UX notables, including Danny Sullivan, Chris Sherman, Marissa Mayer, Jakob Nielsen and others. […]

• How Many Books Are There On Earth? Google Knows

  Much like search marketers may salivate over some new piece of inside SEO info that Matt Cutts (or someone else at Google) shares, some book lovers seem to be fairly excited over an Inside Google Books blog post yesterday that answers the question, How many books are there in the world?
  The answer: 129,864,880 books.
  Google is, […]

• Hunch Tweaks Home Page, Focuses On Recommendations

  Hunch has announced what it calls a “streamlined and simplified” home page, but the changes really reflect a slight change in focus, too.
  When the site launched last year, we referred to Hunch as a “personal decision maker;” Hunch itself used the term “decision engine.” The new home page, though, presents a change of […]

• Google Loses Effort To Prevent Discrimination Case From Going To Trial

  Google lost a procedural ruling to prevent an age discrimination lawsuit from going to trial yesterday when the California Supreme Court upheld an appellate court ruling that the facts of Reid vs. Google justified a trial on the merits. The outcome was reported in the Wall Street Journal and elsewhere.
  As part of the case, the […]

• Google Dictionary Switched To Oxford Pocket Dictionary

  Google Operating System posted that the Google Dictionary has switched content providers.
  Google used Collins COBUILD Advanced Learner’s English Dictionary in the past but today they are now using Oxford Pocket Dictionary of Current English. What is the difference? Well, here are two words with different explanations:
  Collins: “If you call someone a swot, you […]

• Google’s Norvig: After The Top Result, There’s No Right Or Wrong

  In light of this week’s news that Google Wave has crashed, plus Danny Sullivan’s follow up piece about Google’s other failures, it’s somewhat ironic that Slate magazine this week published an interview with Peter Norvig about … being wrong.
  Norvig is Google’s Director of Research and has been with the company for almost ten years – […]

• The Value Of “Wasted” Search Marketing Dollars

  Advertising pioneer John Wanamaker once famously said, “Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is I don’t know which half.” And as digital marketers/SEO ninjas, you certainly know how this feels. We pay for impressions that result in almost no clicks. We pay for clicks that bounce like rubber balls. We […]

Search News From Around The Web:

Business Issues

• Google and Slide: building a more social web, Official Google Blog

Local, Maps & Mobile

• Can’t Update Your Google Places Business Info Using Internet Explorer, Search Engine Roundtable
• Mobile Local Search and the New Click Fraud, Search Engine Watch
• Seeking map data in response to Pakistan floods, Google LatLong
• Word "Google" In Google Places Submission Put You In A Manual Review, Search Engine Roundtable

Link Building

• 32 New Link Building Resources: the Local Link Building Edition – v13 7/30-8/5, Ontolo

Paid Search & Contextual

• A Look Ahead at the Transition to Microsoft adCenter, Yahoo! Search Marketing Blog
• New Google AdWords Advertisers Can’t Use Direct Debit Option, Search Engine Roundtable

Searching

• More Search-Powered Features on Yahoo!, Yahoo Search Blog
• Phasing Out The Bing Search API 1.1, Bing Community
• Q&A Site Quora Opens Up to Search Engines Tomorrow, Read/Write Web

SEM Industry

• Search Agency Update – What Are Companies Up To?, Search Engine Watch Blog
• Video Recap of Weekly Search Buzz :: August 6, 2010, Search Engine Roundtable

SEO & SEM

• Google Doesn’t Use Alexa Data For Sitelinks or PageRank, Search Engine Roundtable
• Is Author an Authority Signal for Google?, Search Engine Watch
• Since MayDay/Caffeine is PageRank Being Diluted More When 301 Redirected?, Search Engine Roundtable
• Small Business and Search: Where’s the Return?, Search Engine Watch
• Whiteboard Friday – Dominate Your Brand Search Engine Result Page, SEOmoz

Social Media

• 7 Ways Social Media Helps With Business Networking, Chris Garrett
• Massive Censorship Of Digg Uncovered, OOO
• What makes a tweet influential? New HP Labs social…, The HP Blog Hub
• Twitter’s Social Graph Is About To Get Pumped Up. “Who To Follow” Is Social Steroids, TechCrunch

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

• Are social signals ever going to usurp links – Pete Young asks if social media will form a strong ranking signal, and outlines several reasons why he doesn't think search engines are willing to make that step yet.