SearchCap: The Day In Search, February 16, 2009

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

From Search Engine Land:

• Microsoft adCenter Desktop (Beta) Now Available To More Advertisers
  

  Microsoft has announced that the Microsoft adCenter Desktop (Beta) client is now available for more advertisers. Microsoft adCenter Desktop (Beta) was first announced at SMX Advanced on June 3, 2008. To be part of this beta now, you must be an advertiser based in U.S. or Canadian with fewer than 100,000 keywords in your combined [...]

• Google Believes It Has Ended (Some) Hijacked Listings In Google Maps
  

  Recent statements suggest that Google believes it has eliminated the hijacking of claimed business listings in Google Maps, and that hijackings overall (of both claimed and unclaimed listings) are now a rarity. Speaking last week at SMX West, Google’s Jennifer Chin, also known as “Maps Guide Jen” in the Google Maps Help Forum, said that overall [...]

• Pros & Cons Of Google’s “Darwinian Approach” To Products
  

  This year is the 200th anniversary of naturalist Charles Darwin’s birth. I bring that up because Google’s approach to product decision-making has always struck me as “Darwinian.” The company introduces new products and services, generally without much promotion and then it’s a version of survivor or “survival of the fittest.” Another appropriate metaphor here is the [...]

• Yahoo Continues New Home Page Test, Adds More Apps & Lightens Colors
  

  The Yahoo corporate blog announced that phase one of the Yahoo home page test is about done now. Yahoo has taken in a lot of feedback since launching a limited test of the new home page back in September 2008 and has decided to try some new things. Yahoo has decided to add more third-party [...]

• Yahoo Doesn’t Take Beef Over Akaushi Keyword Lawsuit
  

  Eric Goldman covers a recent lawsuit, where Heartbrand Beef, Inc. sued several companies, including Yahoo for selling the keyword Akaushi to Lobel’s of New York. Akaushi is a very expensive Japanese type of beef, known for being marbled with fat and coming out extremely tender. Lobel’s does not sell Akaushi, but Heartbrand is [...]

• Hyperlocal Is Happening
  

  Traditional news outlets are looking closer to home for ways to remain competitive, and in some cases, to survive. Many of these newspapers and television and radio stations are latching on to a trend of going “hyperlocal” with their content—serving the information needs of local neighborhoods or communities—as a way to counter the problems of [...]

• Is Your Search Advertising Budget Harming Your Results?
  

  Investment banks call me just about every week these days, asking whether our clients’ search budgets are growing or shrinking given the state of the economy. Their interest is in valuing Google and Yahoo stock, but I’m not sure my responses are terribly helpful to them. Very few of our clients have set budgets for search. [...]

• Google Is Testing SearchWiki As Way To Remove AdWords Ads
  

  Last night I discovered reports via WebmasterWorld that shows Google testing a flavor of Google SearchWiki directly on the paid ads, also known as AdWords results. Here is a screen capture of that in action:

  I have emailed Google for a statement and I will update this post when I receive one. If you want to discuss this [...]

• Happy Valentine’s Day From Google & Others
  

  Valentine’s Day is being celebrated around the world and today, Google had not one, but two different logos, depending on where in the world you accessed Google. Plus, search engines like Yahoo, Live, Ask and others had their special logos. Below is a compilation of logos that I collected throughout the day, the [...]

• ComScore To Report Google Maps Now Number 1
  

  Forthcoming January traffic data will reportedly show that Google Maps has taken the lead from MapQuest as the top mapping site in the US. According to the numbers that I received (I’ve asked comScore to verify), MapQuest’s January monthly unique visitors were 41.5 million and Google’s were 42.2 million. This is the first time that [...]

Search News From Around The Web:

Applications & Portal Features

• Yandex Launches Yandex.Answers, Quintura blog

Business Issues

• Green living at Google’s D.C. office, Google Public Policy Blog
• Fratrik on Google’s Departure from Radio, Kelsey Group Blogs
• Google’s YouTube Said to Renew Licensing Agreement With Sony, Bloomberg
• What Ad Companies Won’t Say About Privacy, New York Times
• How Google’s layoffs and project cancellations are affecting it’s culture of innovation, Dare Obasanjo
• Yahoo Search Service Will Have Variety of Commercial Models, PC World

Local, Maps & Mobile

• The Downfall of Geo Modifiers, Local Search News
• Android’s progress elevates Google’s mobile aspirations, FT.com
• Microsoft Pri0 | Microsoft announces Windows Mobile 6.5 features, new mobile services, Seattle Times Newspaper Blog
• Mobile Flash apps get better distribution, more money, VentureBeat

Link Building

• Suggesting Sites: Finding the Correct Category, DMOZ Blog
• Is Link Building a PR Function?, Stone Temple
• How to Use Google Wildcard Operator for Link Building and Baiting, Daily SEO Tip
• The Psychology of a Linkbait, Search Engine Journal

Paid Search & Contextual

• adCenter Best Practices for Automotive Advertisers – Adding/Updating Negative Keywords, adCenter Blog for Advertisers
• AdSense stats are not updating, JenSense
• FTC Backs Web-Ad Self-Regulation, Wall Street Journal
• Google Using AdWords Search Ads to Promote Sites They Don’t Own?, PPC Discussions
• Reports being updated, Inside AdSense
• Advertisers Complaining Yahoo Search Ads Not Sending Enough Traffic, Search Engine Roundtable
• Budgeting Search? What’s the point?, Rimm Kaufman
• Fake News Makes Its Way To Google News Via Ads, Search Engine Roundtable
• Google AdWords Now Requiring Pricing Details in Ringtone Ad Copy, Search Engine Roundtable

Searching

• Search Engines Don’t Take People Where the Search Engine Wants Them To Go
• Ask.com commits a cardinal sin, Pandia
• Authors Guild Digs Itself In Deeper Concerning Kindle Text-To-Speech, TechDirt
• Full Harper’s Index Now Searchable Online, Read/Write Web

SEM Industry

• Barbara Coll: Search Blogger of the Day, The SEO Scoop
• Google’s Matt Cutts at SMX West 2009 Search Engine Marketing Conferencing and Expo, OBSNews.com
• Ash Nallawalla: Search Blogger of the Day, The SEO Scoop
• Measuring the success of SEO campaigns – Email interview with Enquisite’s Exquisite Richard Zwicky, Site Visibility
• Two weeks in live @ Live Search, Locally Type

SEO & SEM

• Content vs SEO: Business Profit Margins, SEO Book
• Everything You Can Do with Raven SEO Tools, Search Engine Journal
• Learn about the Canonical Link Element in 5 minutes, Matt Cutts
• Video SEO for Google, Youtube and Beyond, Daily SEO Tip

Social Media

• As The Economy Sours, LinkedIn’s Popularity Grows, TechCrunch
• Breaking: Facebook Launching New Pages Product This Month, All Facebook
• Tech: Who Is Really Writing Those Twitter Feeds?, Newsweek
• Twitter Could ‘Go for Years’ Without Earning a Dime, Investor Says, Wired
• Twitter fends off second clickjacking attack, News.com
• Facebook’s New Terms Of Service: "We Can Do Anything We Want With Your Content. Forever.", Consumerist
• Twitter’s Analytical Business Plan, Forbes

Video, Music & Image Search

• MySpace Quietly Launches Site-Wide Image Search, TechCrunch
• YouTube Kills Our Video Download Tool, TechCrunch

Web Analytics

• Introducing the Google Conversion Room Blog, Google Analytics Blog

Other Items

• Google roams India in internet demo bus, Springwise
• Google Buys American for Friday Beer Bash, Valleywag
• "1234567890 Day" Google Logo Appears for Brief Time, Google Blogoscoped
• Google & Yahoo Stiff America On President’s Day But Logos From Live.com, Ask.com, & Others, Search Engine Roundtable

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

• An Interview with SEO Chick Lisa Ditlefsen
• The Psychology of a Linkbait : Real Links from Real Humans
• Science and Social Media Marketing (…it's social not science)
• Google Testing SearchWiki On AdWords
• Analytic Mashups For Advanced Keyword Research
• Jon Myers Interviews Michel Leconte of SEO Samba
• SMX West Liveblogging Coverage
• A Link Builder is Born: Learning to Crawl Before You Walk
• The Best 10+ Sites To Look For Stunning (and Free) Twitter Backgrounds
• Sphinn.com no longer belongs to the people