SearchCap: The Day In Search, February 6, 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:

• Super Tuesday, Internet Style: How We’re Using the Web In the 2008 Elections
  Today is Super Tuesday, which means that voters in 24 states are carefully reviewing their candidate research and doing last minute thoughtful analysis in preparation for voting in the primaries. Well, maybe that’s hopeful optimism, but in any case, the place these voters are turning to for information is…
• Ask Offers Smart (Election) Answers
  Thanks to Gary Price for pointing out that Ask.com is offering its own round up of content and information related to the primaries via its core "Smart Answers" functionality in search results. Search for "Super Tuesday" and you get a host of links and a pull-down menu that sends users…
• Two Practical Landing Page Tricks That Will Save You Money
  Do you want to know how to reduce your cost per conversion by up to $10.67 and improve your quality score at the same time? Let me tell you a story about how I used two easy landing page optimization tricks to do just this….
• The Latest From Jerry: Stay Focused, Yahoos!
  Yet another employee letter to Yahoos from CEO Jerry Yang has now become public, thanks to Yahoo being required to file these things with the US Securities & Exchange Commission. It makes you wonder why Yahoo (and Microsoft) don’t just publicly blog these letters to their workers, since they…
• Google Hiring In Africa
  Google is reportedly starting to bulk up a bit in Africa. The company is doing some new hiring in its Nairobi, Kenya African headquarters and opening new offices in several countries. International revenues represented 48 percent of Google’s earnings in Q4 2007….
• Berkowitz Had Hoped To Turn Around Microsoft, But May Find Himself In "Turnaound"
  According to CNET, Microsoft isn’t waiting for the Yahoo acquistion to happen before it reorganizes. Several internal groups are slated for leadership change, and Steve Berkowitz, former Ask.com CEO and current SVP of Online Services for Microsoft, is apparently part of the changes….
• New—And Unfortunate—Changes To Google Local Search
  Google recently made some quite significant changes to the "OneBox" result that appears at the top of the result page when you do a query that Google determines has local intent. Previously, Google would display three local search results in the OneBox area, with at star rating and a review…
• Google To Fight Baidu In China With Legal Music Downloads?
  One of the key weaknesses Google has seemed to face in growing market share in China has been the fact that many people turn to Baidu to download music. Now the company may be fixing this, reports the Wall Street Journal:…
• SphinnCon Israel 2008 Recap
  Photo from Yos SphinnCon Israel 2008 is now complete, and I wanted to share the coverage I found for the conference. SphinnCon is a networking event series from Search Engine Land’s parent company, Third Door Media. I hosted the first ever event in the series in Jerusalem, Israel….

Search News From Around The Web:

Applications & Portal Features

• iGoogleBar, Googlified
• Yahoo! Simplifies, Expands Webhosting Services, Screenwerk

Business Issues

• Time Warner Inc. Reports Results for 2007 Full Year and Fourth Quarter, Company Press Release
• AOL revenue continues to slide; Who are these 9.3 million AOL access subscribers?, ZDNet
• LookSmart Announces Preliminary Fourth Quarter 2007 Financial Results, LookSmart Press Release
• Earnings: IACI Q4 Revs Up 8 Percent; "New" IAC Revs Would Be Up 21 Percent; Big Loss On Lending Tree, paidContent.org

Link Building

• PageRank Is The Primary Google Search Ranking Factor, Andy Beard
• Another Paid Links Service Disguised As Hit Counter, Google Blogoscoped

Local, Maps & Mobile

• Charting the Undeniable Growth of Google Maps, Small Business SEM
• FCC Approves Sale of Nationwide Spectrum to AT&T, Yahoo News
• Google Likely Out, And Happy, Forbes
• Google Out of Spectrum Auction, But Wins Right to "Open" Network, Silicon Alley Insider
• Is Verizon gaming Google in US wireless auction?, The Register
• Google Maps Mashup list offers something for everyone, News.com

Microhoo!

• The Microhoo! hoo-hah, The Economist
• Yahoo Studies Alternatives to Microsoft, Wall Street Journal
• Microsoft-Yahoo Linkup May Shut Google Out Of Display, Bloomberg
• Could Anyone Buy Google? | Mark Evans, Mark Evans
• Microsoft/Yahoo – let the exodus begin, Redeye VC

Paid Search & Contextual

• Google Beta on AdSense for Games Coming, ClickZ
• Application delay, Inside AdSense
• When You Should Pause Your PPC Campaign, SEOmoz
• Advice for the Lovelorn, Yahoo Search Marketing Blog
• Microsoft demos next-gen ad technologies, News.com
• A Smarter Start, Yahoo! Search Marketing Blog
• Paid search does not need to be complicated, eVisibility
• January 2008 PPC Ad Spend Share: Google vs. Yahoo Microsoft, Rimm Kaufman

Primary Elections

• 7 Great Political Google Gadgets, SEOish
• Google Predicts Super Tuesday Results, SEO.com
• Republican Mitt Romney: 2008 Presidential Candidates, Search Marketing Gurus
• Following the polls on Super Tuesday, Google News Blog

Searching

• Microsoft on Reranking Search Results Based Upon Your Calendar, SEO By The Sea
• Dissident Chinese professor to sue Yahoo! and Google for erasing his name, Times Online

SEM Industry

• Can Search Marketers Grow Up? | Social Media Explorer, Social Media Explorer
• ad:tech supports SEO and then cancels in Germany, Andrew R H Girdwood
• So How Are Those SEO Fat Fighters Doing?, The SEO Scoop
• Microsoft Offering Seo Services, Dave Naylor
• iCrossing Rolls Out Cross-Practice Search Certification Initiative, iCrossing

SEO & SEM

• A white hat seo tool — whatever that is, Bob Massa
• Makeshift Anchor Text… Link Title Attribute vs Image Alt Tags: Which is Better?, SEO Book
• How to avoid and elude Google’s Sandbox, Mike’s Quarter
• Possible Microsoft Live Search Update, Search Engine Roundtable
• The Problem with Pagination on CPM Ad Driven Websites, SEOmoz
• Why storing URLs with truncated trailing slashes is an utterly idiocy, Sebastian’s Pamphlets

Social Media

• Facebook Begins Suggesting Friends?, Unofficial Facebook Blog
• Talking Web Marketing With 10e20’s Chris Winfield, ShoeMoney
• What Does Social Media Have to do with Search? Plenty, Bill Hartzer
• Rumour: Digg To Provide White Label Solution for IAC, Rev2.org
• Big brother is watching me, Alexander van Elsa
• StumbleUpon – Becoming More Active And Spend Less Time Doing It, How To Rule The World

Video, Music & Image Search

• TVGuide.com Launches Advanced Video Search Engine, URLwire
• Video site Revver shopping itself for a song, News.com

Other Items

• Ex-Googlers Launch Instructional Video Site Howcast, Raise $8 Million A Round, TechCrunch
• ICANN turns on next-gen IP addresses, News.com
• Google’s Chinese New Year Specials, Google Blogoscoped
• Doodle: Chinese New Year, Googlified
• Podcast: Yahoo & Microsoft Address Employees; New Way To View "Social" Links; Google Grooving At SMX & More!, Daily SearchCast

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

• You Make Me Sick – Viral Video Response
• Link Building Sucks! Tell Your Clients What They Need To DO About It
• SEOSmarty. Get know her better!
• StumbleUpon – Become More Active And Spend Less Time Doing It
• Examining a Manual Review By Google
• Mysterious Google Interface Design
• When Linking Experts Go Underground
• Blogging Fatigue – 8 Tips to Get Over Your Blogging Blues
• 99 Free Online Classes on Marketing, Business and Entrepreneurship
• Social News Central Officially Launches – Network with the Power Users
• Call for Official Google Policy on NoFollow
• 8 Tell-tale Signs of Hypnotic Sales Copy
• 23 Must-read Blogs for Social Media Marketers
• Reputation Management and Defending Your Brand
• PageRank Is The Primary Google Search Ranking Factor
• Matt McGee Charts the Undeniable Growth of Google Maps
• Five Tips for a Successful Freelance Writing Career