SearchCap: The Day In Search, February 26, 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:

• SMX West Day One Coverage
  The sessions for the first day of Search Marketing Expo West is now complete. I am about to head into the Search Bowl Tailgating and SMX Search Bowl but I’ll post that coverage tomorrow, if any. Here are the blog posts and news items I found throughout the web for…
• Minimum Bids In Yahoo About To Change
  Yahoo announced that the minimum bid of $0.10 within the search network will no longer be a true minimum bid. Yahoo is changing it so that the minimum bids can be lower or higher than $0.10. This does not impact the content network. What makes a minimum bid go higher…
• How Depending on Quality Content Can Actually Cost You Links
  “Content is king.” If you’re like me, you’ve heard that phrase more times than you can count. And for the most part, it’s true. Truly unique content can make or break your link development campaign. If you have it, you’ll find attracting quality links takes minimal effort for exceptional…
• From SEO to Social Media: Content is Still King
  There was a time in social media, just as in search engine optimization (SEO), when everything was only about getting to the front page. Little attention was paid to what happened after you got there and for a while it seemed as if you could do it in your…
• Yahoo Executing Amid Takeover Turmoil
  A curious thing is happening: Yahoo seems to be executing in the midst of the chaos of uncertainty surrounding its future. Speaking at an IAB event yesterday, Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang said the Microsoft takeover bid has been “a galvanizing event for everyone at Yahoo.”…
• Google AdWords Launches Limited Beta Test Named “Automatic Matching”
  Dan Thies reported that some Google AdWords advertisers are beta testing a new AdWords feature named “Automatic Matching.” Automatic Matching way for Google to help the advertiser utilize their full budget towards keywords that they may have not been targeting. So if they have used only 50% of their ad…
• Google Updates AdSense Terms & Conditions
  AdSense publishers, the next time you login to your AdSense console you will likely have to agree to new terms and conditions. The Inside AdSense blog announced that Google has updated their AdSense terms and conditions to include better verbiage for new products and features as well as an update…
• Google Talk / Gmail Adds Live Chat & Invisible Mode Features
  Google Talk has announced a couple new features including Google Talk Chatback and invisible mode. The first feature is similar to a live chat box that you can add to any web page and chat with anyone via your Google Talk or Gmail account. Google calls the feature “chatback” and…
• Google Joins “Unity” Undersea Cable Consortium For More Transpacific Bandwidth
  Google has joined a consortium of Asian companies, Bharti Airtel, Global Transit, KDDI Corporation, Pacnet and SingTel, to build an undersea transpacific fiber optic cable that will provide much greater bandwidth capacity between the United States and Japan. According to the press release the cost of the new “Unity” cable…
• Search Illustrated: How To Use Social Media Sites
  As SEOs, we know that a little creative thinking goes a long way in using social media sites to promote a business. In one way or another, these collaborative communities provide endless opportunities for viral and word-of-mouth marketing. This week’s infographic provides a handy snapshot of the top social…
• Yahoo Buzz Launches: Votes, Searches & Emails Used To Rank News
  As expected, Yahoo Buzz has now launched — a site where "buzz-worthy" news articles are highlighted based on user votes, searching activity and email sharing. Hot stories on Buzz may also get featured on the Yahoo home page, an added incentive to get publishers considering the program….
• Yahoo To Announce “Search Monkey” Enhanced, Annotated Results At SMX West
  Today, at the inaugural Search Marketing Expo West conference, Yahoo plans to unveil a project code-named “Search Monkey,” a set of open-source tools that allow users and publishers to annotate and enhance search results associated with specific web sites. The new enhancements differ from Yahoo’s “Shortcuts” that sometimes appear at…
• Andy Beal Launches Trackur For Monitoring Online Reputation
  When monitoring what people are saying about you and your brand online, you have two main choices. You can use Google Alerts as well as search a variety of social media and social networking sites manually or you can pay a reputation management firm to do expensive monitoring for you….

Search News From Around The Web:

Applications & Portal Features

• OpenSocial website: now with more video, OpenSocial API Blog

Business Issues

• FriendFeed Raises $5 Million, Now Open to Everyone, TechCrunch
• Supporting cluster computing in the research community, Official Google Blog
• Yahoo says RP office in the works, INQUIRER.net
• Google Shares Slide On Weak Paid Click Data; Is The Crumbling Economy Dragging Down The Search Business?, Barron’s Online
• Google: Does Search Data Indicate a Recession?, Hitwise Intelligence

Local, Maps & Mobile

• Are we going to Greece or Thailand?, Google LatLong
• Google2Go for Windows Mobile, Google Blogoscoped
• The South China Sea Project, Google LatLong
• Marchex and Citysearch in Distribution Deal, Screenwerk
• Refine by user ratings and neighborhoods, Google LatLong
• Take addresses to go with mobile map links, Official Google Notebook Blog

Microhoo

• Microsoft Bid ‘Galvanizing’ Yahoo, Ad Age
• More shareholders sue Yahoo board over Microsoft response, The Guardian
• Overseas Search Execs Say Microsoft Should Look Beyond Yahoo, ClickZ
• Yahoo Shareholders Sue Board for Golden Parachutes, Wall Street Journal
• AOL CEO Randy Falco: Microsoft-Yahoo a Mistake, Ad Age

Paid Search & Contextual

• Demand for Web Ads Is Still Strong, Says Yang, Wall Street Journal
• Interactive Advertising Revenues to Reach US$147 Billion Globally by 2012, According to The Kelsey Group’s Annual Forecast, The Kelsey Group
• Introducing Analytics Seminars for Success, Inside AdWords
• PPC for B2B: Real World Recommendations You Can Use, PPC Hero
• Yahoo streamlines ad platform, The Guardian
• Webinar: Website Optimizer, What Should I Test?, Inside AdWords
• Your questions answered: contacting adCenter Support, adCenter Blog

Searching

• An easy way to add new features to Google, Matt Cutts
• Google "blocks" AFL websites, Australian IT
• Hungry? Try My Top 10 Food Search Engines, Alt Search Engines
• Search Message Boards with Dipiti, Alt Search Engines
• Searching for the Potomac primaries, Official Google Blog
• Gigablast Launches New Search Engine, Alt Search Engines
• Searching right to left, Official Google Blog

SEM Industry

• Random Bits Podcast with Danny Sullivan, Search This
• Sugarrae Interview, Performancing.com

SEO & SEM

• How many baskets are your eggs in? How to go from a single income source to multiple sources, Jennifer Slegg
• @ALL: Give Google your feedback on NOINDEX, but read this pamphlet beforehand!, Sebastians Pamphlets
• Common but pointless SEO tactics, E-Consultancy
• Global SEO Strategy: Advanced Search for Large Enterprises, Search Engine Watch
• Organizational Structure of a Search Team, Shimon Sandler
• Possible Google PageRank Update?, Search Engine Roundtable
• SEO Site Clinic: American Express, Search Engine Watch
• Yahoo on Segmenting Web Sites into Topical Hierarchies, SEO By The Sea
• Searching for Better On-Site Search Usability, Search Engine Guide
• Selecting Your SEO Competition : Thinking Young, Search Engine Journal
• Shaking Out the Bad Websites in Google, John Andrews
• Why Do The (Good) SEOs Cost So %, Search Engine Guide

Social Media

• Facebook traffic declines – much ado about nothing?, Hitwise Intelligence
• Digg Implements the $1M Idea: non-www 301 Redirect, 3tailer.com
• Feature: Manage Your Online Reputation, lifehacker.com
• FriendFeed is officially launching, FriendFeed Blog
• 10 Ways to Get More Out of Friendfeed, Google Blogoscoped

Video, Music & Image Search

• Big Question: Resizing the player, Yahoo! Video Blog
• New Experimental Personalized Homepage, YouTube

Web Analytics

• Webinar: Website Optimizer, What Should I Test?, Google Analytics Blog

Other Items

• A renewed wish for open document standards, Official Google Blog
• Google Master Plan Jobs Billboard, Googlified

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

• Wordpress Crawl Rate Tracker Plugin
• Selecting Your SEO Competition : Thinking Young
• Why Do The (Good) SEOs Cost So %&*# Much?
• SEO Solutions for Web Redesign
• Live Blogging from SMX West 2008 today
• Hiding the Sphinn Button When a Post Fails to Go Hot
• Finding New, Freshly Squeezed Content For Your Blog
• IM-NY SES NY Charity Party Sponsored by BOTW
• Performancing Interviews Sugarrae
• From SEO to Social Media: Content is Still King
• Color Branding: Geographic and Niche Targeting
• Social Media Secrets from a Green Geek!
• How to Say “Your Site Sucks” Nicely
• Group Social Media Interview with 4 Experts
• The Uncanny Evolving Social Media Blog List!
• Building an Audience with Social Media
• A noble quest for #1 Ranking
• SMX West: Most Popular Guy at the Bar?
• Three Great Resources That Won’t Cost You a Dime
• What to do When Google Kicks You in the Goolies.
• Are doorway pages making a comeback?
• SEO Myths | Keyword Density?