SearchCap: The Day In Search, February 14, 2008

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

From Search Engine Land:

• Vertical Search Provider Healthline Beefs Up Content, Features
  Health is one of the “strategic consumer verticals” that Microsoft has identified and is an important consumer and advertiser category for all the big search engines and portals (Google is soon to launch Health after delays). There’s also Steve Case’s much-hyped Revolution Health. (WebMD is the category leader according to…
• Microsoft Executive Shuffle Goes “Live”
  The anticipated Microsoft reorganization is now happening. We wrote about it previously with respect to the ouster of Steve Berkowitz. Some are speculating that these changes anticipate a future integration of Yahoo into the company. But Mary Jo Foley says they were in motion well before the announced bid….
• 7 Things I Love About Small Business SEO
  It’s Valentine’s Day, and what better day to give a big smooch to small businesses? Having worked exclusively with small businesses for the first nine years of my online marketing career, and with several small business owners in my family, I have a lot of appreciation for the hard…
• Hitwise Illustrates How A Google Slap Can Hurt Hard
  What happens if your site gets ‘blacklisted’ by Google? from Hitwise illustrates how dramatic a Google penalty can be to a company’s success. Hitwise collected search data and upstream traffic for searches for ‘car insurance.’ The search term saw a 31% increase in share of searches by the week ending…
• Google Logo & Others Say Happy Valentine’s Day
  Happy Valentine’s Day everyone! Google and other search engines and search blogs have special logos and themes up for the day. Here are logos from Google, Yahoo, Ask, DogPile and others in the search industry:…
• Wanted: Topics For Networking Lunch Tables At SMX West
  Last week, I mentioned the ways we’re helping people networking online ahead of our big SMX West conference later this month in Silicon Valley (Feb. 26-28), as well as the parties including the "Google Groove" on the last night. But we will also have special lunchtime tables set aside where…
• Citysearch And AOL Announce Reciprocal Content And Ad Distribution Deal
  Citysearch has announced a deal with AOL that provides Citysearch reviews and content (e.g., video) and place local Citysearch advertisers on AOL local properties. The two firms will share revenue from clicks or leads generated from AOL distribution….
• The Inconvienent Truth About Social Media Marketing
  Social media is hot. Everyone wants to be on Digg’s home page. Link baiting, especially using things like numbered lists, imperative rules or controversial hooks is the SEM strategy du jour. There’s just one — major — problem with spending so much time and effort on capturing the eyeballs…
• Meet The Moguls At Tube Mogul
  One of the “feel good” stories of the past year is Tube Mogul, the little start up that has come to support over 15,000 video creators as the video distribution and metrics tool of choice Tube Mogul began when a couple of UC Berkeley Business School students (John Hughes…
• Pew: Americans Increasingly Shop Online But Still Fear Identity Theft
  For the readers of Search Engine Land it might come as a surprise that, while most US adults find online shopping “convenient,” they still don’t like sending personal or credit card information over the internet. Based on a consumer telephone survey, among 2,400 adults (9/07), The Pew Internet Project found…
• Yang’s Letter: Dear YHOO Shareholders, Yahoo Will Be A “Must Buy” For Advertisers & Grow 15% Per Year
  Having earlier told Microsoft no, now Yahoo has explained to its shareholders why it declined to be purchased. The full letter can be found here. Below, some highlights….

Search News From Around The Web:

Applications & Portal Features

• 10 Similarities Between YouTube and Yahoo, Google Operating System
• New version of Gmail soon available in 37 languages, Official Gmail Blog

Business Issues

• Earnings: Baidu Q4 Revs More Than Double; Net Income up 79 Percent, paidContent.org
• Publicis Chief Outlines Tie-Up With Google, MediaPost
• What is a "balanced approach" to copyright reform?, Google Public Policy Blog

Local, Maps & Mobile

• Android SDK m5-rc14 now available, Android Developers Blog
• Mapping with Google Spreadsheets, Google LatLong
• Mike Blumenthal – Local SEO Interview 1, SEO Igloo Blog
• Global marketing challenge now underway, Official Google Blog
• Google Maps Visitors Older than MapQuest, Hitwise Intelligence
• Google’s Wireless Auction Play, BusinessWeek
• Mobile exec: Google, Yahoo are stealing our billions, Ars Technica

Link Building

• LinkRiver Enters Life Streaming Fray, Focused on Link Blogs: Silicon Valley Blog, louisgray.com
• What Link Monkeys Can Do For You, Bob Massa
• Using Photos to Build Inbound Links, Small Business SEM

Microhoo

• Little Room for Yahoo to Maneuver, New York Times
• Memo to Microsoft: Yahoo’s A-list, News.com

Paid Search & Contextual

• How to get online advertising for free, The Guardian
• Yahoo Search Marketing Votes Most Improved PPC Program of 2007, Search Engine Roundtable
• Google & Yahoo! Kill PPC Arbitrage, SEO Book
• Convert Your Clicks, Rock Coast Media
• Introducing the Google Business YouTube channel, Inside AdWords
• Search Ad Trends Favor Consolidation, eMarketer

Searching

• Largest Legal Vertical Search Engine Launches: Public Library of Law, Search Engine Watch Blog
• New Report: Can Social Bookmarking Improve Web Search?, ResourceShelf
• Chuck Norris Is Hiding, John Battelle’s Searchblog
• The Future of Search: Peter Morville Defines, Shows Examples, Read/Write Web
• Information Pollution, the Murder She Wrote, Hakia Blog
• Topper Makes Search Complicated In The Name Of Progress, TechCrunch
• 24 Metasearch Engines for Centralized , Search Engine Journal

SEM Industry

• Google’s Many Valentine’s Day Specials, Google Blogoscoped
• Happy Valentine’s Day in Google Earth, Google Earth Blog
• Search For Your Valentines – Happy Valentines Day ‘08, Search Engine Roundtable
• Confessions of a Search Addict, 10e20 Blog
• Search Engine Marketing Career Development, Search Engine Watch
• SEOs, Don’t Just Do Something, Sit There!, Search Engine Watch
• Spam Your Way Through Valentine’s Day, BruceClay.com

SEO & SEM

• Multi-National Search Marketing: Effective Strategies for Global Marketers, 10e20 Blog
• Part Three: How To Use Yahoo! Answers, Small Business SEM
• 17% of traffic clicks on the number 1 listing, BlogStorm
• Democrat Hillary Clinton: 2008 Presidential Candidates & Online Marketing Strategies, Search Marketing Gurus
• Richard & Judy Demonstrate TrustRank, SEOptimise
• How To: SEO Web Design, BruceClay.com
• Is Google’s Recent Geo Targeting Changes a Bug?, Search Engine Roundtable
• The SEO Sins No Designer Should Ever Commit, BlogStorm
• Death of SEO Transparency, Search Engine Journal
• Video: Improve Your Business by Spying on Your Competitors, Marketing Pilgrim

Social Media

• FriendFeed’s Google Connection, Google Blogoscoped
• If You Can’t Let Go, Twitter, New York Times
• Google throws a big YouTube party, loses my invitation in the mail, News.com

Video, Music & Image Search

• Google to enter China online music sector, Reuters
• What’s Next for YouTube (Video Editing, Recommendations, Advertiser Analytics), TechCrunch

Web Analytics

• Google Analytics Tips – 5 Analytics Features You May Not Know About, Online Marketing Blog

Other Items

• Don’t Be Poor: Google chef in homeless shelter, Valleywag
• Say Hello To The New Google Bot Logo, eVisibility.com

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

• SEO’s Unite! Our future depends on it!
• Death of SEO Transparency
• Online reputation management is hot — but is it ethical?
• Stumble Trolls Don’t Know They’re SEO’s
• Claire Schoen: SMX Power Player
• NowSourcing Featured on WebProNews
• SEO Tips for Public Relations
• Testing Matt Cutts’ & Google ‘Minty Freshness’
• Study Shows Heavy Clickers Distort Display Advertising Click Reality
• What Is Authority, and How Do You Build It?
• Banned by Google? Hitwise Shows the Impact (Charts)
• How to Write Posts That Set StumbleUpon on Fire
• The Ten Commandments of New Social Media
• PPC should be part of your long term strategy
• 9 Tips from Top 9 Social Media Marketers
• Lee Odden Interviews Matt McGowan: Lowdown on SES New York 2008
• 7 Must-Read Webmaster Central Blog Posts
• What is Your robots.txt File Telling Your Competitors About You?
• Social Media Pitfalls: 5 Lessons Learned
• The Crawling Process