SearchCap: The Day In Search, August 7, 2007

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

From Search Engine Land:

• Google Takes A Step Toward A Local Sales Force
  Originally spotted via gSpy, Google is soliciting "local business referral representatives" to gather metadata and take pictures at local businesses around the country. They will be paid and must apply. Indeed, Google appears to be targeting college students rather than serious sales people with the program….
• Yahoo To Host Web Only US Presidential Debate
  Yahoo! to stream web-only US Prez debate from The Register reports that Yahoo will be airing a web-only U.S. presidential debate soon. Yes, Google did something like this recently with YouTube and the Democratic debate. But Google’s version was not exclusive to online only, Yahoo’s is. Charlie Rose, of PBS,…
• Search Illustrated: Search Engine Click-Thru Behavior; You’ve Got To Be In The Top Ten!
  In search marketing, stats are important. But which metrics should you pay attention to? Page views? More elaborate measures with fancy acronyms like ROI or ROAS? There’s one metric that’s extremely important, according to a study of searcher behavior by iProspect. As simple (or simplistic) as it sounds, those…
• FTC Town Hall Meeting To Examine ‘Behavioral Advertising’
  The US Federal Trade Commission is going to have a public forum in Washington, DC on Nov. 1-2 to bring together various consumer groups, academics and interested parties to address concerns "raised by the practice of tracking consumers’ activities online to target advertising." The last time the FTC looked into…
• Forecast: Internet Expected To Exceed All Other Ad Media By 2011
  Private equity and investment firm Veronis Suhler Stevenson (VSS) put out a new ad spending forecast, covered in MediaPost and the Financial Times. Driven by audience migration, the US Internet is anticipated to capture $61.98 billion and become the top ad medium in 2011. Traditional media will show slow, low…
• MSN Is Back! At Least As Button On Live.com
  Just over a year ago, MSN seemed like the brand Microsoft wanted to deny ever existed. Almost like some embarrassing former leader of a country, the MSN name was excised or replaced in favor of the new Windows Live brand. But now MSN is back on Live.com, in the…
• More Join YouTube Class Action Suit Copyright
  More parties join Google copyright lawsuit from Reuters reports that eight more parties have joined the class action copyright lawsuit against Google’s YouTube. As we reported earlier, the lawsuit that English soccer’s Premier League Ltd and music publisher Bourne & Co have against YouTube is now beginning to get more…
• Google Maps, Privacy And The Eye In The Sky As More StreetView Photography Added
  The L.A. Times writes about the issue of privacy and Google’s StreetView photography, in the wake of more cities getting StreetView coverage. It covers much of the same territory as when the service initially launched (here’s our original article). But the service has become one of the focal points in…
• The Right Way To Fix Inaccurate Wikipedia Articles
  Suppose your company, boss or political candidate discovers that their Wikipedia article is wrong, or has subtle inaccuracies that nonetheless paint them in an unfavorable light? Most people unfamiliar with how Wikipedia works consider only two solutions: edit the article or sit on their hands. Unfortunately, neither approach typically…
• Combat Click Fraud By Blocking Low Quality Traffic
  Click fraud is a major concern to most advertisers. While advertisers should monitor their PPC activity and be aware of any possibilities of click fraud, there are several tools within Google AdWords and Yahoo Search Marketing accounts which can help to protect advertisers from potential click fraud….

Search News From Around The Web:

Applications & Portal Features

• Google Account Phishing Vulnerability, Google Blogoscoped

Business Issues

• Google SVP Exercises Options, Forbes
• Update on Copiepresse v. Google, Groklaw
• Google To Join Group To Protect Linux From Possible Patent Challenge — Google Linux, InformationWeek
• Official Google Blog: Joining OIN, Official Google Blog
• Creating a new Yahoo, San Francisco Chronicle

Conferences

• AdWords Seminars coming to Philadelphia, Inside AdWords
• San Francisco SEO Meetup Part II – Gordon Biersch – Friday August, 10th 6:00 pm, Stuntdubl

Link Building

• Review: LinksManager Links Exchange Toolbar, Search Engine Journal
• Outting Unethical .gov Link Techniques | Search Marketing Standard Blog, Search Marketing Standard

Local, Maps & Mobile

• Don’t Be a Local Yokel II: Enhancing Your Yahoo! Local Listing, Search Engine Watch
• Immersive Media’s Google [street mapping] deal in jeopardy, National Post

Paid Search & Contextual

• Yahoo! Panama Search Marketing Book, Page Zero Media
• What Everybody Ought to Know About Auditing Pay-Per-Click Campaigns, Rimm-Kaufman Group
• Yahoo To Only Show One Display Url Per Search Query, Searchnewz
• Yahoo’s Subphrase Matching Account Detail (SAGE) Search Marketing Report, Search Engine Roundtable
• Barry Schwartz Gives His Thoughts on Splogs with Adsense, David Dalka
• Google PPA Update, PPC Discussions
• When Google AdWords Goes Wrong – Sexy Ads on Sexual Harassment Site, Marketing Pilgrim
• Microsoft adCenter Editorial Review Team Overwhelmed by Requests, Search Engine Roundtable

Searching

• The 11 startups actually crawling the web, Skrentablog
• Why Aren’t Alt Search Engines Crawling Websites?, Read/Write Web
• Information pollution: Can semantic search save the day?, VentureBeat
• Striking Out with Live.com, PC Magazine
• Search, Buy, Receive Valuable Points, Provide Feedback to Rank Advertisements -SEO by the SEA, SEO By The Sea
• Personalized Search Primer – And Google’s Approach, Read/Write Web
• Why Do Search Engines Want Your Name?, Cre8PC
• DMV Smart Answer from Ask.com, ResourceShelf

SEM Industry

• MIVA to Cut Its Own Ad Spend, ClickZ

SEO & SEM

• How to Know if a 301 Redirect Counts, SEO Book
• First Reported Google Malware Notification Via Email, Search Engine Roundtable
• The Site Map: Gateway to Optimization, Search Engine Watch
• Combine & Conquer: The Accretive Powers of Joining Pages Together, SEOmoz
• The Importance of Hiding Success on a Competitive Network, SEO Book
• Wrong Page Ranking at the Top of Google’s Search Results, SEO Book

Video, Music & Image Search

• YouTube Video Links Are ‘NoFollowed’, Search Engine Roundtable

Web Analytics

• Dashboard Analytics = Dashalytics, Googlified

Other Items

• Yahoo pacts with reality-TV producer, Reuters
• Google Custom Search Blog Hacked?, Google Blogoscoped
• Podcast: Internet Ad Spend To Grow & Grow; Hey, That’s Newport Beach In StreetView & More!, Daily SearchCast

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