SearchCap: The Day In Search, December 6, 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:

• Google Finds Dead Man Living In Panama City
  Woman found canoeist photo via Google from the Guardian Unlimited reports a dead man was found alive with the help of a Google search. John Darwin was declared dead in 2003 after not returning from a canoeing trip in March 2002. Mrs. Darwin claimed initially she thought he was dead…
• Inaugural Werewolves Search Spam Card Game At PubCon Vegas
  Last night in Vegas, SEOmoz held a card game featuring well-known names in the SEM industry. The game is based on the rules of the Werewolf card game but it features white hats and black hats, with pictures of folks in the industry. Ian Kennedy posted coverage with pictures of…
• More Fingers Spotted In Google Book Search
  Google Books Adds Hand Scans from TechCrunch reports finding more scans of fingers in Google Book Search. This time the fingers were spotted in a copy of the 1855 edition of “The Gentleman’s Magazine” on this page. This is not the first time we have seen fingers in Google Book…
• Larry Page & Lucy Southworth To Marry At Branson’s Necker Island
  We reported that Google’s founder, Larry Page will be marrying his long time girlfriend, Lucy Southworth this weekend. But at that time we did not know that many details. The NY Post has posted more details about the wedding. Reportedly, the wedding will be on a small Caribbean island named…
• Search Conference Coverage 2007: SES Chicago Day Three & PubCon Vegas Day Two
  Today is the third day of SES Chicago, and the second day of PubCon Vegas. Here is a recap of the coverage I found for the sessions both conferences, all mixed together….

Search News From Around The Web:

Applications & Portal Features

• Yahoo Local tests community suggestion board feature, News.com
• Embed charts in webpages with one of our simplest APIs yet, Google Code Blog
• Google Docs & Spreadsheets Usage Increasing – But is Google Apps the Market Leader?, Read/Write Web
• Several Google Accounts Disabled?, Google Blogoscoped
• Yahoo Messenger for Vista Preview Now Live, mashable.com

Business Issues

• eBay Sued for Failing to Take Down Listings–Hansson v. Brower, Eric Goldman
• Dow Jones CEO Resigns, As News Corp. Moves In, Wall Street Journal
• Facebook Messages: Small Change, Big Impact., TechCrunch
• JetBlue, Yahoo, Rim plan free in-flight Wi-Fi, Reuters
• Twitter is Banned in the United Arab Emirates, mashable.com

Conferences

• Is That A PubCon in Your Pocket or are You Just Happy to see Me?, SEOish
• Photos from PubCon Las Vegas – Day Two, Marketing Pilgrim
• PubCon Live Blogging, John Andrews
• Pubcon Video: Brett Crosby, Online Marketing Blog
• Strolling the Exhibit Floor at SES Chicago, Online Marketing Blog
• Pubcon Photos: Exhibit Hall, Online Marketing Blog
• SES Chicago 2007: Danny Sullivan, WebProNews
• SES Chicago, Day 3 Coverage, Search Engine Strategies

Local, Maps & Mobile

• TomTom to Google business information, Los Angeles Times
• December Updates in Google Earth, Google LatLong
• Flooding in Washington State, Google LatLong
• Google Mobile Updater for Blackberry, Google Operating System
• Pranks: Google Maps Catches Sophisticated High School Football Field Prank, Gizmodo
• Sharing Your Opinion for the Greater Good, Yahoo! Local & Maps Blog
• Space Shuttle STS 122 Ascent Profile in Google Earth, Google Earth Blog
• SuperPages Advertising Now Served on Findology’s ZipCodez.com Local Search, Search Engine Journal

Link Building

• A Convenient Truth: To Link Builders With Love, Search Engine Watch
• An Unjust Fear of Link Buying, SEO Book
• Nobody Wants A Google-Friendly Link – At Any Price!, The SEO Scoop

Paid Search & Contextual

• And the winner is…, Inside AdSense
• Announcing the launch of the Microsoft adExcellence Accreditation Program, adCenter Blog
• Google Content Network Tips: Part 3 – Optimizing your keywords for the content network, Inside AdWords
• Google Health: Advertising to Physicians and Privacy Concerns?, SEO By The Sea
• More Server Problems With Overture’s Keyword Tool, Search Engine Roundtable

Searching

• Comparing Personalized Search Tools, SEO By The Sea
• Ask UK Health Smart Answers from NHS, ResourceShelf
• Bloggers! Let hakia.com Help You with Your Facts, Hakia Blog
• NewsNow Beta Testing New Features and Design, ResourceShelf

SEM Industry

• Would You Be A Black Hat SEO If You Knew How?, All Things SEM

SEO & SEM

• Google Poisoning, SEO Speedwagon
• SEO for Non-Profits, SEO.com
• The unusual power of keyword searches, HalfAgain
• 3 Top Search Engines’ Webmaster Tools: Which Gives the Better Site Data?, Search Engine Journal
• Google’s Matt Cutts Drops Hints on PageRank Update , Search Engine Roundtable
• Microsoft Confirms Reverse DNS Bot Issue , Search Engine Roundtable
• Why Would an SEO Company Want to Remove Your Access to Google Webmaster Tools?, Search Engine Roundtable

Social Media

• Do you Have What it Takes to be a Social Media Ninja?, Collective Thoughts
• New Replies Settings, Twitter Blog
• 125 Social Bookmarking Sites : Importance of User Generated Tags, Votes and Links, Search Engine Journal
• 83 Social News Sites – Categorized By Niche, Square Oak
• Future Scanner: A Digg Clone That Tracks The Future, TechCrunch
• How to Add Content to Wikipedia the "White Hat" Way?, Search Engine Journal
• LinkedIn Turns On Its Own News Feeds (in Beta), TechCrunch
• Optimizing Viral Marketing, Jonathan Mendez’s Blog
• The Digg Effect, Read/Write Web

Video, Music & Image Search

• Fixing common photography problems, Google Photos Blog

Web Analytics

• Eye Tracking Research Library from Enquiro, Web Analytics World
• Paid v. Organic Search Tool Launches, Hitwise

Other Items

• Dec. 4, 2007: Top Search Terms Of 2007, Tracking Santa Via Google , Daily SearchCast
• Dec. 5, 2007: Google’s War On Paid Links; Facebook Backs Off On Beacon Ads , Daily SearchCast
• The giving-back part, Yodel Anecdotal
• A Google Seduction, MediaPost
• Google Lunar X Prize’s race to the moon has begun, News.com

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

• How to Increase Your Feed Subscriptions (Includes a Secret RSS Booster Tip)
• 125 Social Bookmarking Sites : Importance of User Generated Tags, Votes and Links
• Taking Social Media to The Next Level
• Is Google Evil or Is This Business?
• 3 Reasons You Desperately Need RSS Subscribers
• The unusual power of keyword searches: Blondes ARE the most popular…
• Why You Shouldn’t Be a Perfectionist
• 12 Product Page Conversion Strategies That Shant Be Ignored
• Link Buying, Pubcon Coverage
• 5 Free Search Engine Optimization Tools Available Online
• 3 revenue considerations transforms your puny website into a Godzilla money making machine
• Using Social Profile Pages To Your Advantage
• What Makes a Social Media “Expert”?
• Matt Cutts Ruins “Link Buying” Session at PubCon
• 6 Tips to Increase Landing Page Conversions
• Top 50 SEO Posts of the Year
• Don’t Buy Links – Buy the Whole Site
• Use These 10 Tips to Write Your Most Popular Post Ever
• The 6 Most Marketable SEO Skills
• MSN dudes stick to spamming, officially making a fool of themselves
• MSN Showing Extra Links For Certain Sites