SearchCap: The Day In Search, Feb. 22, 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:

• Term Highlighting and Search Engine Optimization
  One of the reasons I tend to focus on “organic” search engine optimization (SEO), as an online marketing strategy is that the majority of search results come from the natural spidering process. Admittedly, searchers tend to look at and click on the top results from both the paid and…
• Yahoo To Redirect More Search Query Types Site Explorer
  August of last year, Yahoo began pointing “link:” and “linkdomain:” without other search operators queries towards Site Explorer. Today, Yahoo will be redirecting “domain:” and “hostname:” queries to Site Explorer as well. So if you do a search at search.yahoo.com and it is using those query types, they will soon…
• 100% Organic: New Column From Search Engine Land
  Our newest Search Engine Land column, 100% Organic, launches today. 100% Organic will appear every Thursday, featuring columns from Greg Boser, Todd Friesen, Shari Thurow, Stephan Spencer, and Jill Whalen and will cover issues related to being listed in the free, natural or “organic” listings in search engines. Today’s…
• Windows Live Shopping Goes Offline
  Brian Smith reports that Windows Live Shopping has been taken offline. The message on the Windows Live Shopping says: This beta test has now ended. Thank you for visiting the Windows Live Shopping beta and helping us test the site. Our vast product selection and user-created content, such as guides…
• Buyers & Information Seekers Search Differently
  A study released by De Vos & Jansen Market Research and Checkit reveals that buyers and information seekers search differently. Here are some key findings, however, you can download the full report as a PDF document. Buyers view more search results (10) and take more time to view the results…
• Google To Launch YouTube Content Identification System Soon
  Reuters reports that Google’s CEO, Eric Schmidt said they will be releasing anti-piracy technologies for YouTube “very soon.” Schmidt said the much delayed content identification system “is not far away.” It makes sense that this is one of Google’s “highest priorities.” Now what about search? ;-)…
• Google Shuts Down Blogger After Threats To New Zealand Politician
  Google axes death-threat blog at The Sydney Morning Herald reports that Google finally shut down CYFSWATCH New Zealand blog after numerous complaints from governmental officials in New Zealand. The blog, hosted on Google’s Blogger service, reportedly wrote a death threat against a New Zealand politician. When you access the blog…
• Yahoo To Launch Singing News Show Named “Odd News Underground”
  Yahoo news to tilt to a lilt from Reuters reports that Yahoo is going to be launching a news show by the end of this quarter named “Odd News Underground.” The spin to this news show is that the anchor will be singing the news, that “will leave you tapping…
• Google Launches Fee Based Google Apps
  As we expected, Google has launched Google Apps Premier Edition. As I explained in my post at the Search Engine Roundtable, Google Apps Premier will give you everything standard Google Apps has, plus the following features:…
• Google AdWords Quality Score Algorithm Live
  Google AdWords has begun to roll out the quality score column in advertiser accounts in AdWords last week. Now, Google has announced that the new quality score algorithm has been pushed to the Google servers. In the next few days, these changes will be complete and sponsored ads in the…
• What’s So Different About Being Small?
  Let’s get this out of the way right now: Hands-on SEO and SEM for small businesses is no different than it is for large corporations. Small businesses need to develop great content around targeted keywords and get quality inbound links… just as any other business does. On the PPC…
• Small Is Beautiful: New Column From Search Engine Land
  Our most recent Search Engine Land column, Small Is Beautiful, launches today. Small Is Beautiful focuses on, appropriately enough, the issues and unique challenges faced by small business owners as they try to manage search marketing campaigns while competing with large marketers with huge budgets and resources. Small Is…

Search News Headlines From Elsewhere

Business Moves:

• Google, Yahoo offer more mobile search opportunities, DMNews

• Google Secretly Strikes Back in Korea, The Korea Times

• Yahoo! Tiger Team is Hiring Senior Software Engineers, Jeremy Zawodny

Search Engine Optimization:

• Webmastercentral - Sitemaps – Webmaster Tools, David Naylor
• 16 SEO Tips from Yahoo, Viper Chill
• Putting An End To Supplemental Hell Because Of Site Moves, Site Restructure Or Big Site Launch, Search Engine Journal
• 6 Surefire Strategies for Bringing Your Old Blog Posts Back to Life, Search Marketing Standard Blog

Social Stuff:

• Anatomy of a Super Digg, SEOmoz
• Is Stumbleupon traffic worth getting?, Ogletree
• MyBlogLog Trick – How To Surf The Web As ShoeMoney, ShoeMoney
• The Scarlet Letters – an SEO’s Open Letter to Diggers, SEOrefugee Blog

• Our “Not-Made-For-Digg” Pledge, Marketing Pilgrim

Search Community:

• Portland Search Marketers Head to SEMpdx SearchFest, Marketing Pilgrim

• 2007: A Search Odyssey? Keynote Conversation with Matt Cutts, Search Engine Watch
• TLA / Problogger Meetup In NYC!, Link Building Blog

• WebmasterWorld Launches SMO Forum Named Social Media Tagging & Bookmarking Optimization, Search Engine Roundtable

• Search knowledge forums – why all the hating?, Online Marketing Help

Other Stuff:

• Some Other Google Doodles, Inside Google
• Google Sending Out More Google Coolers To AdWords Advertisers, Search Engine Roundtable
• Going to work with Docs & Spreadsheets, Google Docs & Spreadsheets Blog

• How to Remove YouTube Videos from a Google Video Search, Google Operating Systems
• Microsoft Consumer Intention Tool Rocks!, Search Engine Watch Blog
• New APIs for Google Apps, Google Code Blog

• Sproose to show ’subject expert’ information in search results, Search Engine Watch Blog