SearchCap: The Day In Search, February 3, 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:

• Another French Court Rules Against Google On Trademark Claim
  Google has been ordered to pay a total of €350,000 ($454,000) for violating two companies’ trademarks by allowing other companies to bid on those marks in AdWords in France. Google is appealing. According to a report in The Register: When web users typed the trade marked terms ‘voyageur du monde’ and ‘terres aventure’ into Google they say the search results produced by Google were accompanied by adverts for those companies’ competitors. The Court said that though the commercial harm was marginal it had denied the companies some customers by directing them to other sites, French newspaper Le Figaro reported.Last year …
• Google Launches Second Doodle 4 Google Competition
  Google has announced the second annual Doodle 4 Google competition. This year the contest is to design a Google Doodle that symbolizes the theme of “What I Wish for the World.” To enter this contest you need to make sure your school is registered with Google and your teachers can submit your Doodle for you. Registration closes at 11:59:59 PM Pacific time on March 17, 2009, plus all Doodles need to be submitted by March 31, 2009. The finalist …
• Google’s Recent Bugs: SMS Spam, Safe Filter Stuck, News Fonts & Google Docs Spam
  In the past day or so, I have spotted at least four somewhat major bugs with Google’s various products. They include Google sending dozens of unwanted SMS messages to thousands of users, Google’s safe filter not working properly, Google News using an unusually large font size and Google Docs has a major spam issue as well. Besides for all of these issues, don’t forget about the huge malware issue with Google over the weekend.
• Judgment Day For Four Google Execs In Italian Court
  Today is judgment day for the four Google executives charged by Italian prosecutors in June 2008. The New York Times blog reports a trail against them involving criminal charges of defamation and privacy violation begins this week in Milan. Like we reported in the past, the case is about a video uploaded to YouTube where a disabled child is being taunted. This case was suppose to go to trial in September, but did not actually happen until today. The four executives include David Drummond, Google’s senior vice president and chief legal officer; George Reyes, its former chief …
• Yahoo Communications Head Jill Nash To Depart
  Jill Nash, the head of communications at Yahoo, is leaving the company. According to AllThingsD, Nash is “spent” after the transition from Terry Semel to Jerry Yang and the roller coaster of MicroHoo. She spent two years at the company, originally coming from The GAP. Arguably she had to manage corp. communications during the company’s toughest PR period to date. AllThingsD has been a consistent beneficiary of employee leaks, including the one about Nash’s departure, which new CEO Carol Bartz is trying to shut down. Bartz has apparently suggested a cash award to flush out the leakers according to the …
• What Results Can I Expect From My Social Media Campaign?
  Social media comes in a variety of flavors, each with a very different end result. Networking campaigns occur on social sites like Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn where users or companies interact with others in the community. Social media news campaigns push content out onto larger social news networking sites like Digg and Reddit.  While both of these are types of social media marketing, the results are anything but similar. The main concept behind social media networking is that users can connect and communicate with each other. Usually a successful social media networking campaign isn’t judged …
• Who Owns Link Building?
  At the risk of offending anyone who earns their living by offering any of the below services, myself included, I pose this composite inquiry to all of us.  It helps illustrate what I view as the biggest problem with the link building services sector. The problem is that the majority of link building services for sale today are worthless.  The only people benefiting from them are the sellers of those services. Please read on Hi. My name is Prospective Client.  I have a web site, and I need some help.  I’ve been reading on the web that links are very important, and we need …
• Ask.com & Symantec Partner To Detect Malicious Sites
  Ask.com has partnered with Symantec to include a new “Safe Search” feature into the Norton 360 security suite, integrated into the Norton toolbar that is part of the suite. When a search is run from the toolbar, results are safety-rated by Symantec using a color-coded icon, to flag sites or sections of sites that may be malicious or harmful. Mousing over a rating will open a popup window offering more details about the Safe Search rating. The toolbar works on both Internet Explorer and Firefox, and is set by default to not display “red” or potentially malicious web site in …
• It’s Google’s Ocean, We Just Swim In It
  Earlier today Danny blogged the Google Ocean launch event live. It was the “most produced” and Apple-like of the numerous high profile Google announcements I’ve attended — featuring former Vice President Al Gore, singer Jimmy Buffett and several scientific and oceanographic luminaries such as Dr. Sylvia Earle. The crowd was star struck by Gore and Jimmy Buffett in particular. Buffett even closed the event with a Googlized version of his song Son of a Son of a Sailor. With humor and gravity each speaker made impassioned statements about how the new Google Ocean would advance the causes of conservation and …

Search News From Around The Web:

Applications & Portal Features

• Adding Google News to Your Site, Google News Blog
• GDrive, GMail & Measurement Lab Connections, beu blog
• New ways to label with "Move to" and auto-complete, Official Gmail Blog

Business Issues

• AOL Ad Head Clarizio Out–Being Replaced By Former Yahoo Sales Head Coleman, AllThingsD by Kara Swisher
• Bebo Co-Founder: AOL Sale Would Be ‘Mildly Disappointing’, paidContent.org
• IAC Reports Q4 Results, IAC
• Oh, Ouch. "Livesearch.com", John Battelle’s Searchblog
• Two Yahoo Brains Join up with Behavioral Targeting Firm, ClickZ

Local, Maps & Mobile

• Bebo Announces Bebo Open Mobile, Read/Write Web
• Google, Yahoo United in Map Services, Korea Times
• Incoming Trainwreck: Google Street View Cars Continue to Cause Traffic Havoc, Gizmodo
• Motorola: Google Android Better Than Microsoft Windows Mobile, Alley Insider

Link Building

• Enhanced Link Building Services: Link Building Just Got a Whole Lot Better, Vertical Measures
• Some Link Building Fallacies You Should Avoid (Part 1), Fantomaster
• Target your Linkbait Audience, Cornwall SEO

Paid Search & Contextual

• Discovering Keywords On the Cheap, PPC Hero
• Microsoft tries in-text advertising popups with new ‘Gaze’ project, TechFlash

Searching

• Bioalma Launches Novoseek PubMed Search Tool, ResourceShelf
• Canada: New Database: Census of Canada, 1891, ResourceShelf

SEM Industry

• 5 Client Pitch Tips That Score Contracts, Search Engine Journal
• Searchfest 2009 Interview: David Wallace, SEMpdx Blog

SEO & SEM

• 8 More SEO Topics that Have Me Stumped, SEOmoz
• Behavioral Metrics Analysis For the Worried SEO, Bob Massa
• Great Expectations, Brisbane SEO Blog
• How to Optimize Your Blog for Search Engines, Quick Sprout
• In Past Two Years, What Has Changed Most With SEO?, Search Engine Roundtable
• On-Page Optimization Tips, SEO.com
• Search Marketing is Hard, adCenter Blog for Advertisers
• Spying on Your PPC Competitors’ Keywords, And Lots More, Fantomaster

Social Media

• "Sorry, couldn’t display the page" earlier today, The LinkedIn Blog
• 3 Easy Tips For Improving The Potency Of Your StumbleUpon Account, Search Engine Journal
• 4 Simple Ways to Promote Your Site on Facebook, Search Engine Journal
• Dell Starts Offering Exclusive Discounts Through Twitter, TechCrunch
• Facebook Has Over 4 Million Daily Mobile Users, All Facebook
• Oops! LinkedIn Goes Down, Can’t Get Up, TechCrunch
• Out of Office: Job Loss in the Age of Blogs and Twitter, Wall Street Journal
• Thousands Of MySpace Sex Offender Refugees Found On Facebook, TechCrunch

Video, Music & Image Search

• Podcasters Set Ad, Measurement Standards, NewTeeVee
• Data protection meets YouTube, Google Public Policy Blog

Web Analytics

• Advanced Segments & E-Commerce, Google Analytics Blog
• Analytics App – Google Analytics now on your iPhone, GotApps.com

Other Items

• Ad Experts Talk-Up Google’s Obama Appointment, MediaPost
• India Internet Bus Project rolls in, Official Google Blog
• World-Renowned Scientists Team With Google And NASA To Launch Singularity University, TechCrunch

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

• 9 Effective Tips for a Better Landing Page
• Legitimacy of guaranteed SEO
• Translating inbound links into revenue!
• 3 Easy Tips For Improving The Potency Of Your StumbleUpon Account
• Dazzlin Donna talks Link Bartering
• How to Microblog Your Way To Success With Twitter
• Errors all over Google SERPS – This site may harm your computer