SearchCap: The Day In Search, Feb. 2, 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:

• Exclusive Interview: Larry Cornett, Yahoo Director of User Experience Design
  This week I caught up with Larry Cornett, the relatively new Director of User Experience Design at Yahoo and Kathryn Kelly, Director of PR for Yahoo! Search. Again, to set the stage for the interview, here are some high level findings from our eye tracking study that I’ll be…
• Search Month: January 2007 Search News, In Review
  Welcome to the second edition of Search Month, a monthly newsletter that recaps stories we’ve covered on Search Engine Land over the past month. It’s also available by feed here. I’ve now shifted Search Month to listing stories by topic, rather than by date. I’ve long done this to some…
• Viacom Tells Google’s YouTube To Remove Videos
  News is just coming out that Viacom, the parent company of MTV and Comedy Central, is demanding Google-owned YouTube to remove all of Viacom’s videos. Reuters.com has a brief article explaining that about “100,000 video clips from Viacom-owned properties including MTV Networks and BET has been asked to be removed.”…
• Google Local Ads In Google Earth
  Brad Geddes has spotted Google Local ads within Google Earth. We know Google has tested local ads within Google Maps in the past, more than just once. But I have never seen reports of Google Local ads within Google Earth, Google’s desktop based mapping system….
• SEO Gains Ground, Search Ads Top In Top Performing Online Ad Tactics
  eMarketer.com released a study that shows how SEO has grown 33% in 2005 to 45% in 2006 in the category of best performing online advertising tactic, whereas search ads have declined a from 52% in 2005 to 49% in 2006. As you can see, search ads are still rated the…
• Google Demanded North Carolina Stay Quiet
  Google put pressure on legislators to stay quiet at WCNC-TV reports that during Google’s negotiations with North Carolina to house a huge server farm, lawmakers in North Carolina were pressured to keep quiet about Google’s tax break demands. State Commerce Secretary Jim Fain was told that if it was not…
• Google Launches Maps For Windows Mobile
  Google isn’t taking chances in mobile. The company is making sure that you can access Maps and local information if you text, use a WAP/mobile browser or prefer a rich mobile application, previously available only for Java phones. But now Google has introduced its Maps application for Windows Mobile phones….
• Google AdSense Makes Changes to Publisher Referral Program
  Google AdSense has made some new changes to their referral program, with one of the changes resulting in publishers earning significantly more money than under the previous program. Now publishers can earn up to $255 for referring a new publisher to AdSense, up from the previous $100. They have also…
• Digg Drops List Of Top Users To Curb Gaming
  Kevin Rose, founder of Digg.com, has announced that Digg will remove (still live this AM) the “Top Diggers” list in order to help lower the perceived manipulation of the Digg system by those top diggers. Now, Kevin clearly explains that he does not believe the top diggers were manipulating the…

Search News Headlines From Elsewhere:

• New pricing structure for referrals, Google AdSense Blog
  
• Google Adds Developer Module To Personalized Home Page, TheMadHat
  

• Newspapers search for Web headline magic, News.com
  
• Personally speaking, Official Google Blog
  
• The Cure for Super Bowl Fever, The Ask.com Blog
  
• Yahoo tests Local mashups, GigaOM
  

• KeywordDiscovery offers free search term suggestion tool, Search Engine Watch Blog
  

• Gmail information added to personalization engine?, Googling Google
  
• An Ode to Overture, Bruceclay.com
  

• Yahoo Gives Tips To Improve Quality Score, Search Engine Watch Blog
  
• 10,000 strong (and growing), Inside AdSense
  
• Gawker Media mystery ads appear on YouTube, News.com
  
• YouTube execs due in Japan next week to talk copyright, Macworld
  

• Evolution of a Search Engine, Google Blogoscoped
  

• See Google AdWords Video Ads in Action, eWhisper.net
  
• Are User-Generated Web Sites Breaking The Search Engines’ Algorithms?, Search Insider
  

• Make Your Own Blogger Widgets, Blogger Buzz
• Real-world testing, Official Google Blog
• Out of cite!, Google Librarian Central
• 10e20’s Chris Winfield Captures The SEO Ladies Attention, The Men of SEO

• More real-time data on the way, Official Google Blog

• Action! Roll orkut videos!, Official Google Blog

• Office of the apes, Official Google Blog

• Wasting Link Authority on Ineffective Internal Link Structure, SEO Book.com
• Conversion Rate Tracking for Signups, SEOmoz Blog
• Hypertext Pioneer Ted Nelson Speaks at Google, SEO by the SEA
• Google Adsense referrals: weird earnings – New payment model, stefanjuhl.com

• Google is Dell’s past, but what of the future?, News.com

• Overture Keyword Selection Tool Back Online, Search Engine Roundtable

• 25 Signals of Poor Quality Sites, Search Engine Roundtable

• Google put pressure on legislators to stay quiet, WCNC.com
• How Yahoo! Aims To Reboot, TIME
• Yahoo Indian-language portals to meet mounting online use, IT World Canada
• FTC to assess ‘Yahoo monopoly’, Taiwan Journal

• Yahoo in Manchester move, Manchester Evening News

• Yahoo has a new mission statement, CNN Money