SearchCap: The Day In Search, Feb. 7, 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:

• Rand Fishkin’s Belated SuperBowl Proposal Gets A Yes
  Have you been wondering who the mystery guy was behind plans to pop the question to his girlfriend during a SuperBowl commercial last Sunday? Now you know — search marketer Rand Fishkin. Rand’s plans for the SuperBowl announcement didn’t happen, so it was backup plan time — a commercial during…
• Google To Roll Out Fee-Based Google Apps?
  Google Steps Into Microsoft’s Office from BusinessWeek covers how Google appears ready to begin charging corporations for use of Google Apps, which is free at this time. I suspect the "subscription fee amounting to a few dollars per person per month" described in the article is to allow Google to…
• Gmail Now Public Beta, Open To All
  Google Operating System reports that Google has opened up Gmail for anyone to sign up for a Gmail account. Some history of how getting into Gmail has evolved, below:…
• Searching For "The Next Google"
  "Company X could be the next Google" is a platitude often bandied about by financial journalists or investment analysts touting typically obscure companies that could, potentially, score success on a Google-like scale. Most companies never come close to achieving Google’s financial or commercial success, of course. But say you were…
• SideStep Raises $15 Million
  SideStep today announced that it raised $15 million in it’s Series C round, led by Norwest Venture Partners. Other VCs involved include Trident Capital, Leader Ventures and Saints Capital. To date, SideStep has raised aproximately $32 million. Competitor Kayak has raised $30 million….
• Live Search SOAP API Out Of Beta
  The Live Search Blog announced that the Live Search SOAP API is now out of beta. In addition, they added some new features including more languages, increased search results, enhanced search tags, more local options, improved phone results and more coding samples….
• Yahoo Adds Featured Search Builder Sites Box
  The Yahoo Search Blog announced that they have added a box to the home page in order to promote user generated search sites. Yahoo will feature selected sites that use the Yahoo Search Builder tool. If you want to ask Yahoo to feature your site, you can use this form…
• Google Sends Mr. Schmidt To Washington
  Google Still Searching For Recognition in D.C. from the Washington Post covers how Google sent CEO Eric Schmidt to Washington yesterday. Schmidt had meetings with several important politicians and decision makers, but the article says Google’s still working to gain respect. The attention Google gets in the technology world and…
• Kudos To National Pork Board For Apologies & Fundraising Efforts
  One more on the entire National Pork Board going up against search marketer and breastfeeding activist Jennifer Laycock. Jennifer has now received two letters of apology, plus the National Pork Board is backing a fundraising campaign for the Mother’s Milk Bank Of Ohio. Good move, National Pork Board! In addition,…
• Name The Search Engine Land Gossip Column!
  Next week, Search Engine Land’s gossip column launches. OK, so it’s less gossip of the Valleywag style and more about "movers and shakers" and rumors stuff. Who is moving where? Who has already gone? What’s about to be launched that everyone’s trying to keep quiet? We wanted to have a…
• Google Maps Australia Turns 30 Second Walk Into 18 Minutes Drive
  Send for the search party, Google gives a bum steer from the Sydney Morning Herald reports how the just launched service Google Australia Maps was dinged after someone discovered it turned a 30 second walk into a 18 minute car journey….

Search News Headlines From Elsewhere:

• Senator to propose surveillance of illegal images, News.com
• Personalized Search Brouhaha, Out Of My Gord
• When Google Changes, SEO Takes It Personally, ClickZ
• Podcast: Daily SearchCast, Feb. 6, 2007: Google’s New Link Reporting Tool; Google Penalties Roundup, Headlines To Hook Linkbait & More!, Daily SearchCast
• Google Base Bulk Upload fails with Zero (0) Errors, e-Business Resource Blog
• MeeVee now gives you guide for "every" video, VentureBeat
• Google and cable firms warn of risks from Web TV, Reuters.co.uk
• Hello World, Official Google Docs & Spreadsheets Blog
• Add Book Search results to your site, Inside Google Book Search
• Top 25 Web 2.0 Search Engines, OEDb
• Yahoo! opens office in Manchester, England’s Northwest
• Google Webmaster Tools - Query and Link Stats File Converter, Search Engine Journal
• January Top Search Terms: Death, Taxes and a Really Nice House, Compete Blog
• Yahoo touts virtual Pontiac car club, News.com
• Google Earth may blur sensitive sites, VNUnet
• Google Earth Censors Sensitive Indian Sites, Google Watch
• Google Maps Smoke Signals, Google Blogoscoped
• MySpace’s Deal With Google Hits a Bump, With eBay In The Middle: WSJ, PaidContent.org
• MySpace’s Pact With Google Hits a Snag, Wall Street Journal
• The Science of Search Engine Rankings, ClickZ
• Top 10 Search Providers, December 2006, ClickZ

• Online Forecast to Hit 20 Percent of Total ‘07 Ad Spending, ClickZ

• New ‘Smart’ Digg This Buttons For Your Website/Blog, Digg

• Why Socially Driven Sites Hate SEOs, Pronet Advertising

• What 15 Days on Digg Can Do For You, Pronet Advertising

• Rush Hour: Our new podcast, Pronet Advertising
• Increasing your StumbleUpon Audience, Link Building Blog

• Yahoo and Microsoft Indexing Blogs Poorly, WebProNews

• NBC blasts Google’s YouTube over copyright, News.com

• AllTheCode Launches New Code Search, TechCrunch

• All The Code – New Search Engine for Programmers, Search Engine Watch Blog

• Blinkx Co-Founder, Suranga Chandratillake, Chats with Technology Review, ResourceShelf

• Sex Lives of SEOs – The Inside Scoop, Threadwatch

• Google Adwords Arrow Trick To Increase Click Through Rates, Shoemoney

• Bruce Clay Adopts Collarity, Bruce Clay Blog

• More trouble ahead for Google’s SF Wi-Fi plan?, Google Watch

• 25 things to see at the Googleplex before you die, Valleywag

• Some Googleplex Photos, Google Blogoscoped

• Dealing With Scrapers: What Do You Do?, 10e20

• Googler Opens "Pay What You Want" Cafe, Google Blogoscope

• The Last Word on Link Buying, Marketing Pilgrim

• Google may identify search engine spammers using historical data, Pandia

• Google Europe Domains, Google Blogoscoped

• Google’s Home Page Has 67 Validation Errors, Search Engine Roundtable

• When Is Search Engine Optimization Not Required?, Search Engine Roundtable

• Google: Glamour…Puss?, Forbes.com

• The best kept secrets in SEO, SEO Theory

• Google Patent on Extended Search Indexes, SEO By The Sea
• Google Talk URLs, juberjabber
• Jill Whalen Interview – SEO Seminar Minneapolis, Online Marketing Blog
• Welcoming Princeton University to the Library Project, Official Google Blog
• How to Share Your Favorite Search Results, Google Operating System
• Centralized Search, Google Operating System
• Cnet Bastards, WebGuerrilla
• Duplicate Content Problems Only For The Weak, Marketing Pilgrim
• LinkMoses On The New Google Link Analysis Tools, Eric Ward
• WTF? It’s a new feature!, Technorati
• Technorati Seriously WTF Dudes, Shoemoney
• Technorati WTF annotates keyword search results, Niall Kennedy

• Search Engine Strategies London Attracts Record Number, SES Blog

• LondonSEO.org Party Confirmed For 15th, Threadwatch
• SES / Incisive seeking Danny Sullivan 2.0, SEOassassin
• Search In The City Of Dallas, Media Post