SearchCap: The Day In Search, December 22, 2009

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

From Search Engine Land:

• Behavioral Targeting & Google Analytics: How To Create Personas

  Following my last post on behavioral targeting, which was an overview of the field, I will provide a more hands-on approach in this post. To briefly recap, behavioral targeting involves creating multiple “personas” that represent multiple users of your site, and using analytics to create a unique experience for each persona group based on observed […]
• That Small Country In Europe Offers Big Opportunities

  Are you marketing only to the larger countries in the world? That may be a mistake, and I’ll explain in this post, where I’m taking you to one of the smaller countries in Europe. The Netherlands is only 16,000 square miles, but still has 17 million people living on that small piece of ground, and […]

• Latinos Online: How Changing Demographics Of Those Online Impacts Search

  The PEW Internet and American Life Project just released new information about use of the internet by Latino adults in the United States. How does this relate to search engine optimization? Understanding who’s online and how they search is core to success in search acquisition beyond simply ranking well. Over a billion people are now […]

• 8 Steps To Avoid Link Analysis Paralysis

  When you begin a link campaign, whether you’ve inherited one or you’re starting fresh, it’s obviously a good idea to get a sense of where things stand. There are tons of articles and tools out there that exist to help you do this, and that’s fantastic (and much nicer than what we had a few […]

• Google Money ‘Scammer’ Says They Will Settle Legal Dispute With Google

  Pacific WebWorks says it is settling Google suit from the Associate Press reports that the ‘Google Money Kit’ type of alleged scammer will settle the dispute with Google. A week ago, we reported Google filed suit against this organization, in order to help prevent these types of scams.
  Pacific WebWorks, one of the companies in […]

• MapQuest Integrates Citysearch Content

  MapQuest or variations on its name represent five of the top 22 search queries in the travel category (in November) according to Hitwise. However Google Maps is solidly in first place now as the top mapping site online. That puts MapQuest in the position of having to figure out whether to be content with its […]

• Yahoo Compels Employees to Take Extended Holiday

  According to the Wall Street Journal Yahoo is compelling most employees to take the week after Xmas off, using vacation or unpaid leave. It is also shutting down offices until after January 1. The move is an effort to save money.
  Yahoo employees over the past few years have been “encouraged” but until now not required […]

Search News From Around The Web:

Business Issues

• Martha Stewart And Yahoo Expand Online Advertorials To Other Platforms, paidContent.org
• The meaning of open, Official Google Blog
• Google should open source what actually matters: their search ranking algorithm, chris dixon’s blog
• SEC Watch: Diller Still Tweaking IAC, paidContent.org
• Who Walked, Google or Yelp?, New York Times

Local, Maps & Mobile

• Bing Maps Application Gallery Overview…New App!, Bing Maps Blog
• Bing Maps in Bing Toolbar and Accelerators, Bing Maps Blog
• MapQuest Mobile Web: Geo-Location for Android Devices, MapQuest Blog
• More to see in 3D, Google LatLong
• Twitter Captures A Nexus One Unboxing And Another Video, TechCrunch

Paid Search & Contextual

• Google Cutting Personalized AdWords Representative Support?, Search Engine Roundtable
• Google Sends Out $20 Million Worth of Holiday Presents in 2009, Search Engine Roundtable

Searching

• Searchable Databases of Speeches and Activities by President Obama from the Washington Post, ResourceShelf

SEO & SEM

• 2010 : A New Age For Search Marketers, Search Engine Journal
• Gaining SEO Value From Your Affiliates, Rob Kerry
• Google’s Youtube Caught Cloaking to Spam Google Users & Increase Ad Revenues, SEO Book
• How Google May Expand Searches Using Synonyms for Words in Queries, SEO By The Sea
• How Personalized Search Changes SEO (and Doesn’t), SEOmoz
• How to Identify Your Own Top Trends of 2009, AdamSherk.com

Social Media

• 10 Creative Ways Businesses Used Twitter in 2009, Small Business SEM
• Are You Building Brand Instead of Reputation?, outspokenmedia.com
• Some Thoughts on the Twitter API as a "standard API" for microblogging, Dare Obasanjo
• Tweet Spinner Review: A Powerful Application to Manage Your Tweets, Techipedia

Video, Music & Image Search

• Make Way for youtu.be Links, YouTube Blog
• Backed By Google Ventures, EnglishCentral Raises $3.5 Million For Video Language Learning, TechCrunch
• Google Images Bug Shifts Images Off Search Results Page, Search Engine Roundtable

Web Analytics

• Google Analytics 301 Reporting Accuracy, beu blog

Other Items

• Christians Upset Google Logo Doesn’t Say "Merry Christmas", Search Engine Roundtable