SearchCap: The Day In Search, Feb. 23, 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:

• Major Microsoft adCenter Bug Costs Millions
  I normally would not report bugs like these but the adCenter blog just posted an official confirmation of the bug I reported early this morning at the Search Engine Roundtable. The bug is that advertisers were being charged astronomical prices per click, even though they have set their bids lower….
• Happy Anniversary, ResearchBuzz!
  Tara Calishain’s wonderful ResearchBuzz, tagged as “news about search engines, databases, and other information collections,” marked a major milestone yesterday, with 400 “issues” having appeared in nearly nine years of publication. If you’re not familiar with ResearchBuzz, you should be. Many search marketers aren’t familiar with the “other side” of…
• Yahoo Search Improves Movie Shortcut Results
  The Yahoo Search Blog announced they have improved their movie shortcuts to add more information. The added information includes, movie trailers, user and critic ratings, a brief summary, and movie showtimes. For example, a search on Dreamgirls, 10025 brings up this Yahoo Shortcut….
• Top 25 Web 2.0 Start Ups To Watch
  The Next Net 25 by Business 2.0 ranks the top 25 up and coming Web 2.0 for this year. Here is the ordered list:…
• Search Suggestions The Default At Google China?
  Philipp Lenssen reports that when you begin typing a search in at Google China, Google begins offering you suggestions. At Google.com, the default is not to give you suggestions, you have to go directly to Google Suggest to get that feature. It appears that Google China, by default, has Google…
• Google Explains The NOINDEX, NOFOLLOW, NOARCHIVE & NOSNIPPET META Tags
  The Google Blog has a basic but clear explanation of the robots exclusion protocol. In this blog post, Google explained how the NOINDEX, NOFOLLOW, NOARCHIVE and NOSNIPPET META tags function. In short: NOINDEX tag tells Google not to index a specific page NOFOLLOW tag tells Google not to follow the…
• Yahoo Searchlight Awards Last Night
  I had the honor of being a panelist for the 2nd (now) Annual Yahoo! Searchlight Awards. Also on the panel were Brad Berens, iMedia Communications, Jon Fine, BusinessWeek and Brian Morrissey, Adweek. The four finalists were: Sprint-Talladega Nights, presented by NeoSearch Special K, presented by Starcom Lexus All-new LS Launch,…
• New Search Engine Optimization
  Todd Malicoat has a nice write up on what he calls “new school SEO.” Danny and I (as others) have been talking about this form of SEO for a while, but I thought it would be nice to revisit it. So what does Todd consider to be new school SEO?…
• Just Behave: Google’s Marissa Mayer on Personalized Search
  It was almost 3 weeks ago today that Google posted on their corporate blog about some changes to the personalized search sign-up process. Danny covered this development quite nicely in a very comprehensive post, looking at the specifics of the announcement and what it means for users. The announcement…
• SMX Advanced Opens For Registration, Two Further SMX Shows Announced
  I wanted to pass along some news about the Search Marketing Expo shows that Search Engine Land’s parent company Third Door Media is doing this year. Registration for our first SMX Advanced event in Seattle this June 4-5 has now opened on the newly redesigned SMX web site. In addition,…
• Search Rises Above Porn In U.K. Visits
  Hitwise reports that search engines have overtaken adult sites in share among U.K. internet users. In January, search engines accounted for 13.3% of all UK internet visits, compared with 11.5% for adult websites. The market share of UK internet visits to search engines grew 21% year-on-year in January, while Adult…
• Free Speech Vs. Trademarked URLs & Keywords
  Consumer watchdog Public Citizen has filed a friend of the court brief on behalf of Michael Morgan, a Florida realtor sued by homebuilder Lennar for using its corporate name in the URL of a web site critical of Lennar, and for buying sponsored search ads using the trademarked name to…
• The Numbers Behind Your Feeds
  FeedBurner’s View of the Feed Market at FeedBurner’s blog gives us a detailed look at the numbers and statistics behind your feeds. With the recent adoption of Google Reader subscriber numbers, many bloggers have seen their “subscribers” and other feed stats spike up. In fact, we learn from FeedBurner’s post…

Search News Headlines From Elsewhere

Business Moves:

• Rescuecom v. Google Law Professors’ Amicus Brief, Technology & Marketing Law Blog

• Where’s Danny Sullivan Speaking At In 2007?, Daggle
• Major shakeup at MSN?, Valleywag
• UBS: Panama Could Push Yahoo Revenue up 45 Percent, MarketingVOX
• Google’s Transferable Stock Option Program Begins, Paul Kedrosky
• Fox Interactive Acquires Ad Optimization Company, Techcrunch
• Google, Profiled by a Former Intern, Google Operating System
• Microsoft, Baidu Partner In China, WebProNews

Paid Search:

• Search Engine Wish List, Part 1, ClickZ
• Microsoft adCenter CPC Costs Spike: Known Bug, Search Engine Roundtable
• Promoting Google Referral Products Using AdWords & Google Pages, Search Engine Roundtable
• Geo Targeting Tips With Yahoo! Search Marketing, Search Engine Roundtable

Search Engine Optimization:

• Yahoo! Search Now Highlighting Keywords In Cache Results, Search Engine Roundtable
• Google on Letting Searchers Remove Pages from the Web, SEO By The Sea
• Google Patent Application On Personalization & Removing Documents From Google.com, Search Engine Roundtable
• 5 Ways to Improve Your Website Design, Link Building Blog
• Blogger noindex meta tag problem fixed, SEOptimise
• 11 Guidelines for Getting Authoritative Links, Search Engine Watch Blog
• Google Changes Redirects, Adds Nofollow To Blogger, InsideGoogle

Social Media:

• A Late Afternoon Digg Sent ~17,000 Visitors, Cartoon Barry
• Word of Mouth Marketing, Part I, Yahoo! Publisher Network
• Banned From MyBlogLog, ShoeMoney
• Digg’s Top 10 List – “Top 10 Lists of All Time”, Im Not A Doctor
• Wikipedia Roundup, ResourceShelf

Other Stuff:

• Online Searches for ‘Global Warming’ Heating Up In February, Hitwise
• Google Percent, Google Blogoscoped
• Inside Google China, Google Blogoscoped
• Google to start filtering YouTube videos, MercuryNews.com
• Buddy Book Searches… and it works!, Inside Google Book Search
• Will you trust Google with your data?, Between the Lines
• How Google Has Helped Build Brand Advertising Online, Advertising Age
• Storage Insight – Google’s storage infrastructure – part 2, Techworld.com
• Google Apps: Should You Switch?, Wired News
• Google Images China Censors Friend and Foe, Google Blogoscoped
• Google Promotes Gmail With Banner Ads, Google Blogoscoped
• New SEM Scholarship Contest Coming in March, Marketing Pilgrim
• Flickr shows a little too much skin, News.com
• How Do I Find Good Threads On Search Topics At Forums?, Cartoon Barry