SearchCap: The Day In Search, February 13, 2009

Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web.

From Search Engine Land:

• Yahoo Discontinues MyWeb, Pushes Delicious
  The Yahoo Search Blog announced that Yahoo will be discontinuing MyWeb, a way to save search results or other Yahoo data to a single location. MyWeb launched in 2005, as part of Yahoo’s vision for a “very individual Web.” On March 18, 2009, the service will be closed down. Yahoo is asking you to switch to either Yahoo Bookmarks or Delicious and explains how to export or migrate your data to these services. May I dare ask, is Yahoo is finally working on their peanut butter problems?
• Android Paid Apps Launch: “It’s Business Time”
  People have been expecting the paid Android apps market for months and it’s finally, officially here. What this means is that developers can start charging for their apps and consumers will start gaining access to and paying for selected apps on Android phones (which now is only the G1). The Apple iPhone paid apps market has been very successful, with games leading the way among paid apps. Most of the top paid apps in the iTunes store run either $.99 or $1.99. Apple takes a cut of every transaction, whereas Android/Google …
• Newspapers, Google And The “Devaluation” Of Content
  The word “content” wasn’t historically used to broadly describe writing or imagery or video until the internet. The term “content” also implies a kind of generic equivalence — lots of things that are more or less of equal value or can be lumped into the same bucket. That notion certainly applies to what’s happened to news online. We all know the well-documented survey data that show the internet has become the preferred news source (or in some surveys second to TV) across age groups in the US. We all also know the terrible financial condition of major metro daily newspapers …
• Google Analytics On The iPhone: 3 Apps Reviewed
  You’re already using your smartphone to search and surf the web. You’re using it to read and write email. You might be using it to tweet, post to your blog, or network on Facebook. If your smartphone is an iPhone, you can also use it to keep an eye on all the sites in your Google Analytics account. With the recent launch of Analytics App, there are now three primary apps that bring Google Analytics to the iPhone; myAnalytics and Analytics Pro are the others. Analytics Pro also has a “lite” version. But are they any good? After using …
• Google: ‘Don’t Blame Us For Terrorism’
  Comparing it to blaming car makers for deadly car bombs, Google Earth chief John Hanke recently said Google shouldn’t be blamed for terrorist use of Google Earth. Hanke defended his online mapping tools in a recent interview with the Sydney Morning Herald newspaper. “You have cars; you have car bombs,” Hanke said. “You have GPS transceivers that help you navigate; those GPS transceivers could be used for lots of nefarious purposes. Cell phones have all kinds of benefits; cell phones can be used to detonate a remote explosive device.” His comments are in response to ongoing concerns over Google Earth — …
• Tool Review: WordStream Helps SEM Pros Streamline & Segment Keyword Lists
  As Search Engine Marketing grows as an industry, it’s inevitable that new technology will evolve to fill in the gaps where current solutions fall short. Case in point is WordStream, a new SEM tool that specifically helps raise productivity for handling, assembling, and segmenting your keyword list. The main value that I see in WordStream is in helping SEM Pros sift through huge keyword lists and quickly segment them into campaigns and ad groups. Then, as you drop in more keywords over time (the tool even helps with that part), the keywords “segment themselves” into these campaigns …
• SMX West ‘09 Day Three Recap
  SMX West 2009 is now complete, the feedback and buzz around this conference was really fabulous. In any event, here is some of the coverage and live blogging, I found throughout the blogosphere on SMX West’s last day:

Search News From Around The Web:

Applications & Portal Features

• Add, edit, sort, and filter: Improved mobile access to spreadsheets, Official Google Docs Blog
• Edit Google Spreadsheets on a Mobile Phone, Google Operating System
• Farlex Adds a Number of New Titles to TheFreeDictionary, Farlex
• First Screenshot of Google Chrome for Mac, Google Operating System
• Gmail Tests PGP Signature Verification, Google Operating System

Business Issues

• Opportunity Knocks, Twitter Blog
• Rodeo group to pay $25,000 for YouTube takedown requests, News.com
• Yahoo Plumber Becomes Chief Technologist, Read/Write Web

Local, Maps & Mobile

• Calling all business owners, Google LatLong
• Google: Claimed Business Records No Longer Can be Hijacked, Mike Blumenthal

Paid Search & Contextual

• Google Tells Suspended AdWords Advertisers Not To Try Reversing The Suspension, Search Engine Roundtable
• Keyword Expansion with The adCenter Add-in (Beta), adCenter Blog for Advertisers

Searching

• An Effort to Upgrade a Court Archive System to Free and Easy, New York Times
• How Search Engines May Try to Match Searchers’ Intents from Analysis of Search Engine Query Logs, SEO By The Sea

SEM Industry

• Video Recap of Weekly Search Buzz :: February 13, 2009, Search Engine Roundtable

SEO & SEM

• Use Excel to Plan Meta Tags, Titles and URLs for SEO, Search Engine Journal
• Whiteboard Friday – Using The Hash, SEOmoz

Social Media

• Twitter and status updating, Pew Internet
• Twitter Optimization Part 5: 10 Ways to Make Money on Twitter, SEOptimise

Web Analytics

• Visualizing Blog Analytics, Online Marketing Blog

Recent Hot Items From Sphinn, Our Social News Sharing Site:

• An interview with Lisa Barone
• Google, Yahoo & Microsoft Unite On “Canonical Tag” To Reduct Duplicate Content Clutter
• fantomaster’s Ten Commandments of SEO According to Google ::
• Q&A Including Recession Marketing Tips from Conversion Rate Experts
• If Google Is Unable To Remember Its Own Rules…
• Ignorant Do-It-Yourselfers: The Real Trouble With Search Engine Optimization
• Solving your issues with canonical URL links