SearchCap: The Day In Search, December 21, 2007

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

From Search Engine Land:

• If Paid Search Isn’t Working Then You’re Doing Something Wrong
  The Nielsen Company recently completed a survey asking consumers their opinions on advertising, including offline and online. When asked “To What Extent Do You Trust the Following Forms of Advertising?” paid search ads were ranked near the bottom compared to other forms of advertising. This should not come to…
• Yahoo China Loses Case On Linking To Unlicensed Music
  Yahoo! Found Guilty of Mass Copyright Infringement from TorrentFreak reports Yahoo China has lost their case over linking to unlicensed music in China. Didn’t they already lose the case? Well, in April they were ordered to remove those links and ordered to pay 200,000 yuan. But they then appealed that…
• Search and Interactive Marketing Associations List
  Lee Odden is compiling a list of regional search and interactive marketing associations and is asking for your help. He currently has over 25 on the list, but I am sure there are a lot more. So if you know of any he is missing, comment as his blog and…
• Travel Search Sites Kayak And SideStep To Merge In Nearly $200 Million Deal
  TechCrunch reported last night that travel meta-search site Kayak had closed a whopping $196 million round and then turned around and bought competitor SideStep for almost that same amount. The press release officially describes the transaction as a merger and both brands will apparently be preserved, but Kayak is clearly…
• Holiday Search Engine Logos
  Happy Holidays Search Engine Land Readers! The logos above are from Google, Yahoo and Ask.com for the 2007 holiday season. Google will actually be uploading a new holiday logo each day, Yahoo’s logo is very animated and Ask.com has snowflakes falling from the sky! Plus, as always, ‘07 Holiday…
• Search News Headlines Application For Facebook
  Finally, Barry and I can share an application that we’ve been cooking up — Search News For Facebook. Install this, and by default you’ll get the top headlines from Search Engine Land and Search Engine Roundtable combined, showing on your Facebook profile page. You can also add your own feed…
• Vote Now For 2007’s Funniest Search Blog Posts
  I’m now taking nominations for the 2007 top 10 list of the funny/irreverent blog entries in search. Why? The search industry is important. I mean, what industry (besides the sex industry) can single handedly cause Google to change its vaunted PageRank algo? However, on occasion we tend to take ourselves…

Search News From Around The Web:

Applications & Portal Features

• Mac OS X Dashboard widget security issue, Official Google Mac Blog
• IBM unveils ’smart’ e-mail search engine, InfoWorld
• New Toolbar adds accessible features, Official Google Blog

Business Issues

• The Southpark Google Organizational Information Flow Patent Application, SEO By The Sea
• Open for business in Quincy, Yahoo Blog
• UK: Paypal vs. Google Checkout in the UK, Hitwise Intelligence
• AOL Closes Quigo Buyout And Begins Shifting Personnel; CEO Yavonditte Steps Down, paidContent.org
• Advertising.com Beats Yahoo in Reach, Adotas
• European govts embracing openness, Google Public Policy Blog

Conferences

• Search Insider Summit: Global Search Marketing, Marketing Pilgrim
• Search Insider Summit: Search Insiders Tell All, Marketing Pilgrim
• Search Insider Summit: Search Marketers Pursuing Display, Marketing Pilgrim
• Best Conference Ever, BruceClay.com

Local, Maps & Mobile

• Google LatLong: Mapping at the speed of light, Google LatLong
• Mowser: Stop letting Google transcode your content!, RussellBeattie.com

Paid Search & Contextual

• Contextual Web Ads Exploit Weak, Poor, Desperate, and Stupid People, SEO Book
• Post-holiday best practices, adCenter Blog
• 7 Ways to Be Sure You’re Writing the Best Ads Possible, PPC Hero
• Can Writing Google AdWords Ads Be Automated?, Search Engine Roundtable
• Google AdSense Opens Hebrew Forums, Search Engine Roundtable
• You Will Never Write the Perfect Ad Text, but Here Are 2 Ways To Keep Getting Closer, PPC Hero

Searching

• Get your cricket scores here, Official Google Blog
• The Santa SmackDown in Search: You Better Watch Out, You Better Not Cry, Yahoo Search Blog
• The Year in Ask: 2007, Ask.com Blog
• More On FTC’s Proposed Online Advertising Principles, paidContent.org
• Orkut OneBox for People Search, Google Operating System

SEM Industry

• Why Many of the Best SEO Ideas Are Not Found on Popular SEO Blogs, SEO Book

SEO & SEM

• CONTENT HOSTING – The Good, The Bad and The Ugly — part due, Bob Massa
• SEOmoz | Whiteboard Friday – "Changing Context", SEOmoz
• Online Travel SEM Addictions: Web 2.0, Paid Links, Social Media, Search Engine Watch
• SEOs Must Work Closely With Development, Stone Temple
• Swisher: Yahoo Should Sell Search Marketing, WebProNews

Social Media

• Why Nobody Should Buy Digg, Techipedia
• Pownce Is Still Alive, uncov
• Long Bet Winner: Weblogs vs. The New York Times, www.cadenhead.org
• OpenSocial 0.6 and Beyond, OpenSocial API Blog

Web Analytics

• Your Logfiles May Be Missing Important Data, Stepforth
• adCenter Blog: Microsoft Web Analytics – Gatineau Beta Holiday Update, adCenter Blog

Other Items

• Daily SearchCast, Dec. 20, 2007: GoogleClick Approved; Google Airwaves Coming? And More!, Daily SearchCast

Last 20 Hot Items From Sphinn, Our Social News Sharing Site:

• 5 Things MSN Must Do To Gain Search Share
• Matt McGee -What the End of Supplemental Means to You
• Supplemental No More?
• TIP: AdWords Keyword Data Exposed With Google Analytics
• Search News Headlines Application For Facebook
• Mosaic Cloaking – Pushing IP Delivery to the Next Level of Black Hat SEO ::
• Why Nobody Should Buy Digg
• The New Economy of Digg Blackmail
• Kill “Craven StumbleUpon Traffic Whores?”
• How to Leapfrog Your Competition on Live.com Maps
• Sculpting Your PageRank For Maximum SEO Impact
• Digg Selling for $300 Million?
• SEO Software: Is there any such thing? » HRA – Jill Whalen
• Now taking nominations: The 2007 Top 10 List of the Bizarre, Funny and/or otherwise Irrelevant blog entries in the Search World
• Taking Advantage of Offline Advertising
• Pursuit of Social Perfection – Tamar Weinberg
• 5 Typical Website Obstacles
• Congrats to Andy Beard on 100 Front Page Sphinns!
• Technorati Tip: Improve Your Authority
• Ping the hell out of Technorati’s reputation algo
• 8 bold predictions on Google’s next moves
• 7 Reasons Why Wordpress is the Ultimate SEO Tool
• Ten Paid Link Strategies Approved by Matt
• Google Puts the Smackdown on theMadHat as well
• How to Design a Terrible Website