SearchCap: The Day In Search, December 10, 2008

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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 Biz: Ex-Yahoos Doing Well; Yahoo Shutters Brickhouse; Google Chrome Out Of Beta Soon & More
  With Yahoo layoffs underway, Forbes shares a reminder that there is life after a layoff, and it’s sometimes better. Forbes tells the story of ex-Yahoo bizdev guy Rob Bailey, who left the company in 2006, and is now an award-winning winemaker. While Big Business is laying people off left and right, Bailey’s wine operation has grown from two to eight employees. Also mentioned: ex-Yahoos Jennifer Dulski and Neil Budde, who now run Center’d and DailyMe, respectively. Sometimes the grass is greener….we sure hope so.
• Yahoo Layoffs Happening Live Online
  The Yahoo layoffs are underway, and are happening live online. Blogs, news sites, and social sites like Twitter are filled today with live reports about what’s going on inside Yahoo’s offices. Here’s a rundown of what we’ve found. Silicon Alley Insider is posting updated comments from the now ex-Yahooers, who are describing the scene at various Yahoo offices around the country:
• Importance of Rankings in Local Listings
  There are plenty of reasons besides user experience when adding categories to your internet yellow pages (IYP) listings on various sites. This simple step can result in supplying you with great results in Yahoo! Local, Google Local, increased web references, and potential increased rankings in Google web search. Here is how it works:
• How To Increase Your B2B Conversion Rates By Reducing Friction
  This month, I continue my series on improving conversion rates using the Conversion Sequence.  The Conversion Sequence is the heuristic that was created and is being taught by the good folks at MarketingExperiments.com.  Improving your conversion rates will obviously help squeeze more value from all of your diligent search engine marketing efforts. So let’s jump right in and talk about friction, how it causes people to abandon the conversion process, and what you can do to minimize it.
• Reputation Management: That Brand Thief Stole My Clicks!
  You may not be aware of it, but brand thieves are everywhere, lurking in the shadows of sponsored search, working hard to exploit your brand and steal your clicks. Their favorite tactics include hiding in lower positions during off hours, and targeting markets that you cannot see. Who are these brand thieves? How do they take advantage of brand equity they don’t own? And perhaps most importantly, how can you protect your own brand from the shifty tactics used by these charlatans? Read on.
• Google Zeitgeist 2008 Live; Lycos Announces Top Searches of 2008
  As a followup to the aggregate list of 2008’s Top Search Terms from the major search engines, Google has officially released its 2008 Zeitgeist, or “spirit of the times” list, covering the most popular searches of the year.  This year’s data includes a global look at the most popular search terms, gathering top 10 lists in 30 countries to give insight to search behavior around the world. YouTube, Facebook appear on many of the lists. Prior to releasing the full Zeitgeist for 2008, Google highlighted the fastest rising search terms of 2008, where Obama topped the list of U.S. based searches. Yet in the full wrap-up, Sarah Palin won out across the globe as the fastest rising search.
• AOL Debuts Bebo “Social Inbox”
  AOL is repositioning or perhaps enhancing Bebo as a kind of dashboard for the internet using the concept of a “social inbox.” The Wall Street Journal has coverage of what’s at stake for AOL and the challenges facing social media ad revenues. The social inbox idea is about aggregation of content and services (e.g., email) from a range of third parties and partners in one place.
• Google SearchWiki To Get Off Button, Might Get Used As Ranking Signal
  TechCrunch has coverage of Google’s Marissa Mayer talk at Le Web conference in Paris, France. In that talk, Mayer said SearchWiki will gain an option to let users turn it off and reiterated statements that Google’s previously made, that SearchWiki data might be used in the future to help rank ordinary search results.
• Free Trip To SMX — Win The Biggest Search Geek Contest!
  Want a free ticket to our upcoming SMX West search marketing conference this Feb. 10-12, complete with hotel and airfare? Marin Software’s got a package for you to win, if you’re geek enough. Biggest Search Geek enough, that is. The SMX Biggest Search Geek Contest by Marin Software tests you with 20 questions about search marketing. I’ve contributed a few of them on the organic search side, and there’s a good dose from the paid search side of the house.
• YouTube Continues To Dominate Growing Video Landscape
  Google continues to dominate the online video market in much the same way it dominates search. Google properties set a record in October with more than 100 million video viewers — 99.5 million of whom watched videos on YouTube. Those are some of the numbers issued this afternoon by comScore from its Video Metrix service. Google’s video market share represents more than two-thirds of the estimated online video watching audience for the month. As the chart below shows, Fox Interactive and Yahoo ranked second and third, respectively, in audience share.
• Local News Roundup: Google Shuts Down LBRR, G-Maps’ Double Coverage, Yelp Updates iPhone App & Yellow Pages
  Think of this post as a SearchBiz for Local, Maps & Mobile today; there was enough news to do a bit of a roundup. First up is Google’s announcement that it has dramatically expanded (”doubled”) the coverage available via StreetView, including many new states such as Maine, West Virginia, North Dakota, and South Dakota.

Search News From Around The Web:

Applications & Portal Features

• Creating change with your homepage, Official Google Blog
• First iGoogle Banking Gadget Released By Fidelity, Read/Write Web

Business Issues

• Shrinking Mass Media Masses At Googleplex, Silicon Valley Watcher
• Sprint Considers Google-Powered Device to Lure Users, Bloomberg

Local, Maps & Mobile

• Handling Geocoding Error Screens in Virtual Earth, Virtual Earth, An Evangelist’s Blog
• Android Market may be getting Ringtones, Wallpapers, and Google Checkout, MobileCrunch
• Google Maps GeoCoding Conundrum, Mike Blumenthal
• Google’s Android Gains More Powerful Followers, BusinessWeek
• Kansas Department of Transportation, Virtual Earth, An Evangelist’s Blog
• Microsoft’s mobile Live services slip beta label, The Register
• Street View on Nokia S60 and Windows Mobile? Check., Official Google Mobile Blog

Link Building

• Belated Whiteboard Friday – Can Bad Links Hurt Me?, SEOmoz
• Google Experiment Results: The Power of Navigation Links, Search Engine Roundtable

Paid Search & Contextual

• adCenter Bulk Changes and Uploads, adCenter Blog for Advertisers
• Improve Your Content Network Campaigns with Demographic Bidding in Google, PPC Hero
• Sending Customized Reports in Google AdWords, Search Engine Journal

Searching

• Does Google Cache Store Pages Locally?, Search Engine Roundtable
• Google Changes Misspelled Results – Did You Mean, BlogStorm
• Grouper Co-Founder’s New Gig: LiveKick, A Concert Ticket Search Engine (Invites), TechCrunch
• The global Zeitgeist, Official Google Blog
• What the Search Engines Have Found Out About All of Us, New York Times

SEM Industry

• Search Is Changing Forever, Rand :)., SEOmoz
• Blog: Day 2 blog coverage of SES Chicago!, Search Engine Strategies
• Day 2: My Daily Takeaways From SES Chicago, AIM Clear Blog
• Erica DeWolf: Search Blogger of the Day, The SEO Scoop
• Human Internet Psyche, Bill Tancer & Kevin Ryan, AIM Clear Blog
• Search Engine Marketing and Consumer Packaged Goods, David Dalka
• SES Chicago: SEM Small Business Blitz, Web Analytics World Blog
• The Real Key to Keyword Research: People, AIM Clear Blog
• Universal Search & Optimizing For Blended SERPs, AIM Clear Blog
• What I Learned at Search Engine Bootcamp, ProBlogger

SEO & SEM

• Click Data Used in Google Rankings? Google Kind Of Comments, Search Engine Roundtable
• Replacing the Media, SEO Book
• SEMRush : Advanced Keyword and Competitor Research, Search Engine Journal
• Yahoo Search Fixing 301 Redirect Issues Already?, Search Engine Roundtable

Social Media

• 5 Tools to Measure Your Twitter Activity, Search Engine Journal
• Are Social Networks Sinking?, Technology Review
• Live: Facebook Announces $250,000 fbFund Grant Winners, Inside Facebook
• Social Media Tactics, Web Optimist
• Social Media: The People’s Choice Awards of the Internet, SEOmoz
• The Ultimate Social Media Etiquette Handbook: The Most Egregious Sins on Social Media Sites, Exposed, Techipedia
• Traffic Is Cool and All, But How Do You Turn That Into Conversions?, Search Engine Guide
• Vint Cerf’s Twitter account hacked, suspended for spam, ZDNet
• Web Directories in the Social Networking Landscape, DMOZ Blog

Video, Music & Image Search

• YouTube On Your Desktop, YouTube Blog
• YouTube HD on a Big TV (via Netgear), NewTeeVee

Web Analytics

• FeedBurner Not Tracking Bloglines Subscribers, Search Engine Roundtable

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

• 9 Myths of Landing Page Quality Score
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• Hackers stealing your PageRank
• 19 Handy Twitter Mashups and Tools
• Great Results from the SEM Pro 2008 Survey
• 3 Tips to Get Around the Link Bait RoadBlock
• URL Referrer Tracking…tips on how to do it properly….
• Forum Spam Is In The Eye Of The Beholder (Part 2)