SearchCap: The Day In Search, Dec. 15, 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:

• Korea’s Top Portal, Naver, Renews With Yahoo
  Yahoo has renewed their partnership with Naver, Korea’s largest portal. Yahoo will continue to be, in a multi-year contract, the exclusive provider of sponsored search listings for search queries on the Naver portal and through Naver’s toolbar application. This news comes days after Daum dropped Yahoo for Google, Daum is Korea’s second largest portal…
• Google Adds Ad Quality & Ad Performance Documentation To Help Section
  Google has been listening, I guess, to advertisers recent complaints over the new AdWords Quality Score and Landing Page update. The Google AdWords blog informed us that Google has added several pages of content to the help section better documenting the changes. Those pages include, and I quote:…
• Yahoo Publisher Network Adds Domain Level Blocking
  The Yahoo Publisher Network blog announced a new feature to allow publishers to block ads from showing up on the domain or sub-domain level. The feature is called “Ad Blocking” with a large text box, where you enter in domains or sub-domains of sites you would like to block. You can enter in a total of 200 URLs….
• Google On Using Images
  Vanessa Fox at the Google Webmaster Central Blog posted tips on using images on your site. In short, she explains that: 1) Don’t put the bulk of your visible text in images, use real text (2) Use alt tags to describe the images (3) Do not keyword stuff the alt tags…
• SES Chicago ‘06 Comic Reel
  The folks at SEOMoz have done it again, this time they designed this unique comic reel of what took place at SES Chicago a couple weeks ago. They did an excellent job capturing much of the action at the conference. I love this spin, great work guys. See the full comic strip by Rebecca. I took out one image, specifically for Lisa Barone over here…
• Top Searches At Windows Live Search (MSN Search) For 2006
  The Live Search Blog posted the top searches for 2006 list. Here are the overall top 10, for the categorized top tens, check out their post. Top Overall Searches at Live Search in 2006: Ronaldinho Shakira…
• Top Searches At LYCOS In 2006
  LYCOS sent me the top searches data from their database in 2006. Here it is: The LYCOS 50 Top 10 Search Terms for 2006 are: Poker MySpace…
• Internet Marketers of New York Hits The Big Apple
  A new organization has been launched specifically for Internet marketers named Internet Marketers of New York. The organization had it’s first meet last week, and I heard it was a huge success (sorry I didn’t make it, I totally forgot). Greg Niland (aka GoodROI) dreamed up this organization, with a few other founding members. I asked Greg to give me a little something to post here, so here it is…
• Google Applications Enables Domain Registration
  The Google Blog announced that Google Applications at http://google.com/a has added the ability to register a domain name, if you do not have one yet. What I find interesting, as I explained here, is that we know Google is a domain registrar for about two years now, but yet they are using GoDaddy and eNom to handle the domain registration information. I suspect they do not…
• Eurekster Swicki Improvements
  Eurekster have quietly rolled out some interesting improvements on their swicki system. Swickis are search engines created by individuals and used by groups which learn from their users and deliver more focused and targeted results. There are currently over 40,000 swickis in operation on websites and…

Search News Headlines From Elsewhere:

• Review your reviews on Google, Googling Google
  
• Competition between Yahoo and Google could be won by Ask.com, CNN Money
  
• Flickr Increases Account Sizes for Holidays, Search Engine Journal
  
• Live.com Tweaks Links on Homepage and Results Pages, ResourceShelf
  
• Google Earth exposes automakers’ secret test tracks around the world, Autoblog
  
• Microsoft launches new global ad site, NMA
  
• Sync Google Calendar With Windows Mobile, Inside Google
  
• Google Hints at New Office in Singapore, CNET Asia
  
• Google retreats from deal in Bellevue, may shop for office space in Seattle, The Seattle Times
  
• Yahoo to become Telecom’s Xtra partner, Stuff.co.nz
  
• AdWords Editor Shortcuts, eWhisper.net
  
• Dwelling on the past, Google Reader Blog
• Namespaced Extensions in Feeds, Google Reader Blog
  
• More results link, new Video Bar features, Google AJAX Blog
  
• Yahoo Music Releases Video 3.0, Techcrunch
  
• A new Payment History page, Google AdSense Blog
  
• The Library Project: Two years in, Google Book Search Blog
  
• Click Fraud for the Hundredth Time: When Balance Tips Over to Fatuous, Traffick
  
• New Research Prototype from MSR: AURA: Advanced User Resource Annotation System, ResourceShelf
  
• Banned From Digg at SEO News Blog, SEO News Blog
  
• 5 Myths about SEO, Online Marketing Blog
  
• Does Google Treat Their Employees Like Children, Threadwatch
• Version Support Policy Extended to 4 Months, Google AdWords API Blog