SearchCap: The Day In Search, August 8, 2008

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 In Pictures: Yahoo Indoor Golf, Los Lonely Boys Perform & Google Banner Vandalism
  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….
• Yahoo To Enable Opt Out Feature For Customized Ads
  Yahoo has announced that they will begin giving their users the ability to opt-out of customized advertising on Yahoo.com. The feature will be added to Yahoo privacy center by the end of August. This is an expansion of Yahoo’s opt-out program for third-party networks. This was done in response to…
• Google 10-Q Filing: AOL Investment “Impaired” And Other Tidbits
  Gary Price alerted us yesterday to Google’s 10-Q filing. There’s lots of stuff in there worth drilling into. The headlines this morning, however, concern Google’s statement that it thinks it’s not going to get full value from its previous $1 billion, 5 percent AOL investment several years ago….
• Olympics Logos From Google, Yahoo & Ask.com
  Today is the day that the 2008 Summer Olympics kick off in Beijing. Here are the logos from Google, Yahoo and Ask.com for the special day:…
• The Ultimate Guide to Search Marketing Optimization Part 4: Ten Vital Tech Resources and Compete.com
  In The Trenches is a weekly spotlight of tips, tricks, and news about the tools search engine marketing professionals use to give them a leg up on the competition. Today: News from the search engines, today’s in-depth look, The Ultimate Guide to Search Marketing Optimization Part 4: Ten Vital…
• A Roundup Of SMX Local & Mobile Coverage
  Mike Blumenthal, who pens the estimable Understanding Google Maps & Yahoo Local Search blog, has compiled a comprehensive list of coverage for the SMX Local & Mobile show that’s the best roundup of coverage I’ve seen for the show, despite its witty, self-deprecating title: The Lazy Son of The Mother…

Search News From Around The Web:

Business Issues

• Google Makes Brazil Center of Latin American Operations, TechCrunch
• Former AOL Exec Jumps to Second Life, Inquisitr
• Moving closer to filling in the white spaces, Google Public Policy Blog
• Plans on hold during wait for dark fiber, Columbia Basin Herald

Local, Maps & Mobile

• Tip of the week: Link directly to a Mapplet, Google LatLong
• Google Translate now for iPhone, Official Google Mobile Blog
• Local Search Ranking Factors, Screenwerk

Link Building

• Five Search Queries to Find Sponsorship Link Opportunities, Gray Wolf

Paid Search & Contextual

• Avoid the AdWords Quality Score Slap: How to Make Common Changes to Your Account Without Damaging Your Quality Score, PPC Hero
• Did More Google AdSense Publishers Get the Ad Review Center?, Search Engine Roundtable
• Google AdWords API Version 11 To Be Discontinued August 26th, Search Engine Roundtable
• Keywords, budgets and marketing pennies, SEOptimise

Searching

• "Is Google Making Us Stupid?": sources and notes, Rough Type
• Search is Happening in Israel – Part I, altsearchengines.com
• Getting Vertical Search Right: A Sneak Preview, Search Engine Watch
• Quintura Reaches 25% of Runet’s Female Audience, Quintura blog

SEM Industry

• Get better returns on your conference investment, iMediaConnection.com
• Live Search Greatly Improves Webmaster Tools But Webmasters Don’t Give a Hoot, Search Engine Roundtable
• Revenge of the Straw Man Argument: Jarvis Unhinged, Traffick
• Richard Burkhardt: Search Blogger of the Day, The SEO Scoop

SEO & SEM

• One Pet Peeve Viral Marketing and Search Engine Optimization Have in Common, Search Engine Guide
• How To Compare Your Blog Power, Search Engine Journal
• How to Grow Your SEO Firm, SEOmoz
• Oil and Water? SEOs vs. Content Owners, Search Engine Watch
• The Difference Between Crawling and Indexing, SEO Speedwagon

Social Media

• New Facebook App Visualization, FaceReviews
• How To Get to the Front Page of Digg – 6 Ingredients of a Successful Digg Campaign, www.problogger.net
• Social Media Relationships Without a Face – SEO Blog, BruceClay.com
• The Evolution of Twitter Profiles – SEO Blog, BruceClay.com
• The Many Challenges of the Social Media Industry, Web Strategist
• The Rise and Fall of Twitter, TechCrunch

Video, Music & Image Search

• Location, keeping it real on the streets, yo!, Code: Flickr Developer Blog

Web Analytics

• Alexa is Becomeing Completely Worthless, Daily Blog Tips
• Early Adopters What’s Hot Tomorrow?, New York Times
• Upcoming Seminars For Success: San Diego, NYC and Phoenix, Google Analytics Blog

Other Items

• Video Recap of Weekly Search Buzz :: August 8, 2008, Search Engine Roundtable

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

• New Follow Me Social Media Profile Plugin
• Top Website Usability Mistakes – 10 Costly Assumptions
• 30 Quick and Clean One Minute SEO Tweaks for Higher Profits
• Tools to Explore and Validate Page Outbound Links
• StumbleUpon is Removing the 200 Friend Limit
• Can You Swing To the Comment Spam Two-Step?
• Majority of SEOs Wants to Buy Nofollow Links
• Because People Don't Speak in Buzzwords. Marketers Do.
• Alexa is Becomeing Completely Worthless
• Local SEO : What if You Need to Target 50+ Locations
• The Adolescence of SEO