SearchCap: The Day In Search, Dec. 12, 2006

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

From Search Engine Land:

• What Google Can’t Do
  There’s an amusing item over at the Google Operating System (Unofficial news and tips about Google) weblog on What Google Can’t Do, and screenshots are included. The things that Google can’t do include translation, mail, blogs, news, ads and a few other things as well. It’s a very tongue in cheek piece, and it should give even the most dedicated fan of Google a wry grin….
• Simple Ways To Get Into Local Search
  Matt McGee writes 8 Simple Steps to Make a Page More "Local" at Search Engine Guide. The tips to get into local search, in short, place your address and phone number on your pages, ensure your contact us has your address, make a page for directions with written out directions, link to Google and Yahoo maps, include your geographic location in the title tag, list the locations your business services and link to your geo-specific pages with descriptive geo-specific anchor text….
• AOL Has "Safest" Results & Free Results Safer Than Paid
  A new survey from McAfee finds that AOL has the "safest" search results in terms of not listing sites that might be somehow be risky or unsafe for searchers. But most interesting to me was the fact paid results across the board were found far riskier than free, organic results. Let’s do the numbers, some summary plus tools that will help protect you and how to see if Google thinks you’ve been naughty….
• State Department Uses Google In Cracking Down On Terrorists
  Techdirt comments on a Washington Post article named Seeking Iran Intelligence, U.S. Tries Google. The article shows how when the CIA turned down the State Departments request for information on who to put on their banned list of Iranians, the State Department turned to Google for the information. The State Department figured that "those with the most hits under search terms such as "Iran and nuclear", became targets for international rebuke Friday when a sanctions resolution circulated at the United Nations." Techdirt said it "seems bizarre to think that the best way to determine dangerous people is to do a…
• Google Updates Google Finance Home Page
  The Google Finance home page has a new look this morning. All the details of what is new is currently at What’s new on Google Finance page. The new features include: Market Summary Sector summary Top movers Category pages Enhanced portfolios 40 years of historical stock data (launched a week or so ago) And more… Postscript: The Google Blog just posted an announcement on Google Finance, with a link to a YouTube video….
• Yahoo Opens Panama To New Customer Sign Ups
  Yahoo has opened up sign ups to the new "Panama" (i.e. Yahoo Search Marketing 2.0) to all new customers. When Panama was released, on October 17, 2006, sign ups were only available to some existing customers. Yahoo then opened it to all existing customers first via invite only and then on a wider scale. Yahoo surprised me with this announcement, I did not think they would open it up to new advertisers until the beginning of 2007. In any event, it is now open and new advertisers can sign up here, if you are an existing advertiser and want to…
• Google Patents Search Results Page
  Google patented "Graphical User Interface" from Dirson notes that Google was granted a patent today on its "graphical user interface" that most of us would call its search results page. Perhaps that might stop some of the copying going on! Seriously, I can’t find enough about the patent to see how extensive it might be or what exactly it covers. You’ll find the actual filing here. Bill Slawski might be along in a bit to dig deeper into the patent. Here are the three screenshots from the filing:…
• Google Copies Yahoo’s IE7 Page; Originality War Breaks Out!
  Google Blatantly Copies Yahoo!? from Yahoo’s Jeremy Zawodny makes a pretty damning case against Google for blatantly ripping off Yahoo’s Internet Explorer 7 promo copy. Yahoo offers a custom version of IE7 via a pitch page you’ll see here. Google appears to have launched its own pitch page yesterday, one that was amazingly similar in look and feel to Yahoo’s. Jeremy has the side-by-side photos of how the pages looked. Google’s page has since changed. In many places, the copy was either identical or the word Yahoo was simply swapped for Google….
• Google Puts Clickfraud Rate At Under 2 Percent
  Andy Beal over at MarketingPilgrim has a nice article on how Google’s click fraud rate is less than two percent, at least according to Google’s own figures. This is based off the "invalid" click rate that Google gave him, which includes click fraud and clicks that aren’t actually billed. I could have sworn that Google had given this type of invalid rate before but can’t track that down — so that definitely seems new. The idea that Google self-reports a click fraud rate far below that of some third party estimates is definitely not. Here’s a dive into Andy’s article,…

Search News Headlines From Elsewhere:

NOTE: It’s an extra long list as I’ve done some catch-up from items last week!

• 2006 Search Blogs Awards Nominations End Today, Search Engine Journal
• What we want from Google this Christmas, Pandia
• Google Web Toolkit Becomes an Open Source Project, Official Google Blog, Google Code
• Google And Opera Renew Deal For Browser Search, InsideGoogle
• Pennsylvania using Google Earth to promote tourism, News.com
• White paper says vertical search will hit $1 billion by 2009, Search Engine Watch Blog
• YAHOO: Engineers ‘boycotting’ London holiday party, Valleywag
• SEM Agency Differentiation (or the Lack Thereof), SearchViews
• Two New Features from Zillow: Real Estate Info Wiki; List Homes for Sale (For Real Estate Agents), ResourceShelf
• New Google VP Busted Mitnick, Wired
• Link Bait? Nope, HatBait!, Search Engine Journal
• Online Marketing Summit in San Diego, Search Engine Journal
• Calacanis SES 2006 Keynote video/audio, Jason Calacanis
• Podcast: Who Copies Whom? A Yahoo-Google Debate Erupts; Google Patents Search Results; Yahoo’s Panama Ad System Opens To All & More, Daily SearchCast
• Duplicate Content: What Is It 12/2006, Search Engine Roundtable
• Jonathan Simon Added to Google Webmaster Team, Search Engine Roundtable
• Switching with team blogs and getting out of beta, Blogger Buzz
• Should Search Engines Update Search Results During Holiday Season?, Cartoon Barry
• Yahoo! Search Update 12/11 Confirmed, Search Engine Roundtable
• Paid Blogging Trend Hits a Nerve, Spurs Competition, ClickZ
• Google Kirkland Holiday Party, Juberti
• PayPerPost Nabs MySpace Sales Exec, ClickZ
• Chinese Whispers in SEM, ClickZ
• Coke Teams with YouTube on Holiday Videos, ClickZ
• Wanted: PPC Search Industry Standards, ClickZ
• Yahoo’s “Project Fraternity