SearchCap: The Day In Search, December 14, 2010

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 Voice Search Adds Personalization

  Traditional search on Google is already personalized (and has been for some time), and now the company has announced that its Voice Search service can also be personalized. With personalized voice search, Google will use recordings of your voice search to “build a speech model” that’s tied to your Google account. In doing so, Google […]
• Google’s Head Of Search: Google Does Not Give Brands A Bias

  Google’s head of search, head engineer, and Google fellow, Amit Singhal told Fast Company in an interview that Google Instant does not have a brand bias. Google Instant, the search predictions that Google gives searchers as they type a query, is not influenced by any brand bias, Singhal said. He said, “we didn’t want to […]

• Why Google Needs The Manipulative Web

  The Internet sometimes doesn’t work as we hope it would, or think it should. In certain verticals, great content doesn’t create great links, and because of that, SEOs are often forced to resort to manipulative link practices to get their clients and websites to rank. Websites with low “content link efficacy” are vertically positioned in […]

• Finding Answers Online: Social Networks Vs. Search Engines

  Now more than ever, people are flocking to the Internet to find information. Newspaper circulation has gone down at a rapid rate, while the era of smartphones, tablets, and the Internet continues to grow. In February 2010, Search Engine Land reported that there are 34,000 Google searches per second. That is a lot of people […]

• Report: AOL Abandons Yahoo Merger As Yahoo Cuts Headcount

  The would be AOL-Yahoo merger is apparently off, according to Crain’s New York Business. The site is reporting that “AOL tried to either get enough backing to make a run at Yahoo, or get Yahoo interested in buying it . . . Yahoo didn’t bite, and AOL didn’t have its ducks lined up to be […]

• Handicapping the Chrome OS-Android “Rivalry”

  Android is a monster success — much more successful than most would have predicted at the outset — while its sibling Chrome OS is just now getting its opportunity to prove itself. The use of Android as the OS for Google TV suggested to many that Chrome’s days were numbered. TechCrunch pointed out that GMail […]

• Google Now Helps Your Content Rank In Any Language

  Do you need to localize your website to reach local markets anymore? Maybe not since Google last week rolled our a feature to many markets globally, to automatically translate a keyword and search for results from webpages everywhere in every language? What does this mean about our future strategies? Do we need to have a fundamental re-think about international search?

Search News From Around The Web:

Applications & Portal Features

• Restore your contacts, Official Gmail Blog

Business Issues

• Google adds to NFC with Zetawire, Inorganic Growth
• Google apology to New Zealanders over Wi-Fi data, Yahoo! News
• Google, Jordan seal $10 million deal, The Associated Press
• Google, Microsoft Join Obama to Combat Knockoff Drugs, BusinessWeek
• Masayoshi Son: A Key Figure in the Future of Yahoo, New York Times
• Watchdog Says Google Dominant in France, Wall Street Journal

Local, Maps & Mobile

• Foursquare adds venue description and website, aboutfoursquare.com
• Won A Google TV Via Google TV Web Developer Promotion, RustyBrick

Link Building

• Building Deep Links Into E-Commerce Product Pages, SEOmoz
• The Power on Internal Links, Michael Gray

Searching

• Google’s Reading Level Algorithm Graded By Teachers, Search Engine Roundtable
• Google’s Newest Patent: The Browser Search Highlight Button, BNET
• More power to metadata, Google Custom Search

SEM Industry

• Google’s 2010 Holiday Gift In The Help Forums, Search Engine Roundtable

SEO & SEM

• Late December 2010 Google Updating Possibly Brewing?, Search Engine Roundtable
• New Record Index: 3 Trillion urls found, Majestic SEO
• SEO for e-Commerce Sites, dailyseotip.com
• SEO Planning for 2011, Search Engine Watch
• SEO Your Resume, Onward Search

Social Media

• 2010 Memology: Top Status Trends of the Year, Facebook
• LinkedIn Says Most Overused Buzzwords Are “Extensive Experience, Innovative and Motivated”, Business Wire
• Trackur Gets More Klout, Adds Twitter Influence Metrics, Marketing Pilgrim
• Visualizing Friendships, Facebook
• Why Big Brands Are Dominating Social Media, Ad Age

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

• Building Deep Links Into E-Commerce Product Pages – There are tons of ways to build links into the home page or blog/article pages of an e-commerce website. But most e-commerce SEOs suffer from the same problem: It's not so easy getting links into categories or product detail pages (PDPs).
• ‘Google Loves You’, ‘Santa’ & Other Myths – Lisa Barone's wake up call: (1) Life isn’t fair. It doesn’t even pretend to be. (2) Google doesn’t care about your Web site, your business or your plans. (3) There is no Santa Claus.  That’s an important thing for businesses to realize. Stop using Google as a crutch. Or worse yet, your mommy.
• Need Better Data? Pay More Attention to Your Web Forms! – A UX-must-read from the desk of Graham Rhind:  "Web forms are an essential part of the strategy of any organization that has a Web presence. Getting customers to our Web sites, then keeping them there is challenging enough. Once we accomplish that, we need to open a channel of communication with our customers. Web forms are often the channel of choice."
• New SEO Best Practice: Whining – In response to a recent WJC article, Frank Reed's opinion piece upbraids TripAdvisor, WebMD, Yelp, Citysearch & Co:   "For these companies to hold their breath and kick their feet because Google has taken away their search lollipop is absurd."