SearchCap: The Day In Search, December 31, 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:

• 6 Usability Tips to Maximize B2B Website Conversion
  B2B marketers invest a substantial amount of time, effort, and money driving is critical to maximizing online marketing results and alleviating obstacles that prevent prospects from taking the desired actions. Below are six, easy to implement usability tips to ensure that visitors get the most from your site and you get the most for your search marketing investment.
• Google Updates Toolbar PageRank For New Years
  Some webmasters are celebrating, others not so much, as Google closes out 2008 with another toolbar PageRank update — the first one since September. Google’s Matt Cutts confirmed the update via Twitter late last night. There’s lots of Twitter talk today about the update, along with discussion on Search Engine Roundtable and Search Engine Journal. It’s worth reminding readers that PageRank itself is just one of 200+ factors in Google’s ranking algorithm, and that toolbar PageRank is considered to be outdated as soon as it’s updated.
• Link Week Loose Ends
  My Link Week columns rotate every other week, and over the course of the last few columns several questions and comments have been sent my way.  For this week’s column, I’m responding to a selection of those questions and comments.
• Rumor: Marissa Mayer, Google’s 19th Employee, To Leave
  Gawker reports that Google’s 19th employee, Marissa Mayer, is planning on ending her career with Google in 2009. Marissa Mayer is one of the most public figures that Google has ever had. Gawker reports receiving word that someone overheard discussion from “Top Googlers” that Mayer will be leaving in 2009. Clearly, Mayer doesn’t need the job for money, but to have a Google without her would be weird – at least for me. Google has lost many major executives in the past, but if Mayer goes, would this be Google’s biggest loss? Right now, these are …
• Google’s Product Search Gaining & A Look At Google’s Top Services
  Google’s Product Search Catching Up Fast With Shopping Rivals from Investor Business Daily reports on a comScore release that Google’s Product Search is gaining in the category of shopping search. In fact, Google Product Search is up 786% from the year-ago November. TechCrunch ranks the top ten Google products and services by the two data services, comScore and Quantcast. Here is the breakdown:

Search News From Around The Web:

Applications & Portal Features

• Top 10 objectively biggest tech stories of 2008, Techmeme News
• Adobe’s Flash and Apple’s Safari Fail a Privacy Tests, New York Times
• Google Reader API, Niall Kennedy

Business Issues

• Doe v. SexSearch Affirmed by 6th Circuit, But Not on 230 Grounds, Eric Goldman
• Sales during Online Holiday Shopping Season Decline by 3 Percent, comScore
• Wikipedia’s new plea for donations stirs skepticism, Ars Technica

Local, Maps & Mobile

• A $3 billion buried treasure found via Google Maps?, VentureBeat
• Loci 2008- Greg Sterling’s Significant Developments in Local in 2008, Mike Blumenthal
• Vote for new Google mobile product features, Official Google Mobile Blog

Link Building

• Google Guide to SEO – Are Social Media Links on Death Row?, Gray Wolf
• Link Building this Year, Wiep.net

Paid Search & Contextual

• 6 Ways Diagnose a Problem Within Your PPC Account, PPC Hero
• Did Digg Really Improve Their Ad Targeting?, CenterNetworks
• Google AdSense Now Pushing Fat Ads: Is this Offensive?, Search Engine Roundtable
• Google AdWords Requiring Some Advertisers to Login Twice, Search Engine Roundtable

Searching

• Translation is Risky Business, Official Google Research Blog
• Search For Child Day Care Site & Google Suggests Porn Site, Search Engine Roundtable
• Searching for a Flag? Try Flag Identifier!, AltSearchEngines

SEM Industry

• Best of Search Conferences 2008: Day 2, BruceClay.com
• 2008 Top SEO Blogs by RSS Subscribers, Online Marketing Blog
• Best of Search Conferences 2008: Day 3, BruceClay.com
• Google Webmaster Helps Tries Live Lively Event, Before Lively Shuts Down, Search Engine Roundtable
• Looking Back on 2008, We Build Pages

SEO & SEM

• Google Metadata Test Completed, eContent
• Six Lessons from a Wooden Boy: Part Two: Online Reputation Means Straight Talk, Search Engine Guide

Social Media

• Content, Social Media Spends Rise For 2009, We Build Pages
• Bad news for workers is good news for LinkedIn, USATODAY.com
• Dupes & ongoing updates to Digg’s promotional algorithm, Digg the Blog
• Top Social Media Sites of 2008 (Facebook Still Rising), TechCrunch
• Update Twitter, Doogie Howser M.D. Style, TechCrunch

Video, Music & Image Search

• 2008: The Year In Video, YouTube Blog

Other Items

• How Much Money Do Bloggers Make Blogging?, ProBlogger

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

• Keep Innovating or Prepare To Be Run Over
• Little Known High Value Links!
• How To Bitch With Grace
• Top 20 Twitter Posts of 2008
• Love Means Never Having to Fake It