SearchCap: The Day In Search, December 11, 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:

• Google Expands AdSense For Domains – Enough Already
  The Google AdSense Blog announced they have begun rolling out the AdSense for Domain product to US based publishers and will continue to roll this feature out to all publishers in the future. AdSense for Domains allows publishers to place ads on domains that have not yet been developed yet, also known as parked domains. Google said they would show “ads, links, and search results on the pages, and may add other useful information in the future,” on these pages. You have to understand that AdSense for Domains, formerly known as Domain Park, is a product that has always been extremely controversial in the ad space market. Since 2005 and likely before then, Danny Sullivan has called for major reform of the product, because it delivered poor quality traffic sparked huge controversy. Not only that, we have reported lawsuit after lawsuit over the product and even with the reformed opt out feature, it still has resulted in more lawsuits.
• Chrome Comes Out of Beta with 10 Million Users
  As was reported yesterday, Google’s browser Chrome is coming out of beta — a mere 100 days after it was introduced. When I commented to Sundar Pichai, Product VP, that this had to be one of the fastest exits from beta for Google in recent memory he explained that “Google has a very traditional approach to our client software products,” meaning it accelerates the process of getting them to a general release.
• SMX West 2009 Agenda Is Up! Want To Speak?
  Search Engine Land’s next Search Marketing Expo conference, SMX West 2009, comes to Santa Clara, California this Feb. 10-12. The agenda has now been posted. It has sessions of interest to search marketers of all levels, and I’ll be doing a longer post in the near future to cover everything in the program. But for now, a simple call out to those interested in speaking. Our pitch form is open! The form lists all sessions where we have openings. Pitch now, as the sooner you do, the more likely the chance you’ll be accepted. We plan to …
• Video Of Marissa Mayer At Le Web Conference
  Michael Arrington has posted a video of his interview with Google’s Marissa Mayer at the Le Web Conference in France. Below is the video and I broke out the topics, showing you where in the video you can find it:
• Google Testing Sitelinks In Search Suggestions
  It was just a few months ago when Google.com added search suggestions to the main page. Now, I am receiving reports that Google is testing enhancing those suggestions by showing URLs in the suggestions, in some cases. For example, Sam at Oh! Nuts emailed me a screen shot of Google showing his URL in the Google Suggestions for when he typed in [oh nut], here is a screen capture:

Search News From Around The Web:

Applications & Portal Features

• Leaving Mozilla, Mozilla Security Blog
• Really new in Labs this time: SMS Text Messaging for chat, Official Gmail Blog
• Your blog, your data, Blogger Buzz
• Sharing the holiday spirit on Google Sites, Google Sites Blog

Business Issues

• Participate in Friday’s Google D.C. Talk, Google Public Policy Blog
• Baidu Announces Revised Outlook for Fourth Quarter 2008, MarketWatch
• Facebook adds Washington Post CEO to board of directors, VentureBeat
• Google names former Sony engineer to head Japan ops, Macworld
• Search Advertising Surges in Q4 – Defying the Economic Downturn, Marketing Pilgrim
• Yahoo amends controversial severance program, News.com

Local, Maps & Mobile

• Citysearch Vs. Yelp On The iPhone: Can You Tell Them Apart?, TechCrunch
• Google Local Survey – Is Google thinking of Charging for Local?, Mike Blumenthal
• Indian court urged to ‘ban Google Earth’, The Register
• "Report a Concern" at Google Maps, Google Blogoscoped
• Map making in new worlds, Google LatLong
• MapQuest Local Gets More Social with Twitter; Adds Jobs, MapQuest Blog

Link Building

• Give Me A Link In The X Spot, Search Engine Roundtable
• Linking Means Moving Backwards Too : Link History, Search Engine Journal
• Paid Links: A Black Hat/White Hat Discussion, Search Engine Watch Blog

Paid Search & Contextual

• (Ad)Word of the Day: Optimization, Inside AdWords
• AdWords API Hostnames, AdWords API Blog
• Quality Score fact of the day, AdWords Agency Blog
• Let’s Take it Offline: Beta Launch: Demographic Search for TV Ads, Google Traditional Media Blog
• Microsoft AdExcellence Exam: The Best Resources for Passing, SEOptimise
• Some Google AdSense Publishers Experience Four Month Hold on Funds, Search Engine Roundtable
• Why You Should Use PPC Before You Redesign Your Next Website, SEM Geek

Searching

• Google Expanding in All Directions, SEO Book
• Landing Page Testing – Are you sending traffic to the correct page?, Brad Geddes

SEM Industry

• SEO and Usability – SES Chicago 2008 Presentation, Jordan Kasteler
• Analytics – SMAnalytics!, AIM Clear Blog
• Blog: Day 3 blog coverage of SES Chicago!, Search Engine Strategies
• SES Chicago: SEO Through Blogs and Feeds, Online Marketing Blog
• Video: ComScore’s Eli Goodman on Profitable Opportunities for CPG Marketers, WebProNews

SEO & SEM

• Message Center info through our API, Official Google Webmaster Central Blog
• 3 Reasons Why Blogs for SEO Fail, Online Marketing Blog
• Assembling Your Landing Page Optimization Dream Team, Part 3, Search Engine Watch
• How Burstiness of Search Queries Could Increase Page Rankings, SEO By The Sea
• How Can You Block US Visitors But Not Block GoogleBot?, Search Engine Roundtable
• How Google Treats Trusted Sites Differently With Duplicate Content, Gray Wolf
• How To Create a Negative Keyword List, Search Engine Guide
• Lawrence Lessig’s Blog Dropped from Google, Digital Inspiration
• Look for SEO Opportunities in these Dire Economic Times, Search Engine Watch
• PPC TLA’s: WTH are KPI’s?, Search Engine Journal
• The 7 Reasons Every Blogger Should Be Guest Posting, SEO Smarty
• The exact science of hindsight and how this helps in SEO, SEOmoz
• What I Want for Christmas from the Search Engines: The Sequel, Search Engine Guide

Social Media

• Can Twitter Be Useful For Business?, Search Engine Guide
• Facebook Testing Even Simpler Sign Up; Closing The Gap With MySpace In The U.S., TechCrunch
• How Twitter’s competitors do what it doesn’t, News.com
• Submitting to Social Media Sites for Successful Link Bait, Search Engine Journal

Video, Music & Image Search

• Safety, Education, and Empowerment on YouTube, YouTube Blog
• YouTube Videos Are Pulling in Serious Money, New York Times

Web Analytics

• Don’t Be Overwhelmed By Data, adCenter Analytics Blog

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

• Free competitive benchmarking tools you should be using
• Vanessa Fox: Don't Be Overwhelmed By Data
• How To Quickly Evaluate Your SERP Competition
• Intel's Social Media Guidelines For Their Employees
• How Google Treats Trusted Sites Differently With Duplicate Content
• 5 Links Most SEO's are missing out on
• How to lose friends and uninfluence people on Twitter
• The Ultimate Social Media Etiquette Handbook
• Blackhat 101 – Cloaking, and How to Do It
• Jenuinely Joanna: My Interview With Joanna Lord
• 4,439 Words on Driving Traffic to Your Blog
• Rae Hoffman aka Sugarrae PubCon 2008 Affiliate Marketing Tips Video Interview
• Google May Use SearchWiki For Ranking Purposes
• 5 Tools to Measure Your Twitter Activity