SearchCap: The Day In Search, February 8, 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:

• Microsoft Live Search Core Relevance Program Management Director Eytan Seidman Moves On
  Eytan Seidman, Program Management Director over core relevance for Microsoft Live Search, is leaving Microsoft (and Seattle) after six and a half years and heading to New York to work on a start up with his brother. I talked to him about life at Microsoft, the birth of Live Search,…
• Microhoo At One Week 1: Decision Nears? Yahoo Brand To Survive?
  Has it only been a week since Microsoft thought it was a nice day for a Yahoo wedding? Indeed, so. And what’s happened since? Rumors that Yahoo is nearing a decision, while Microsoft’s Steve Ballmer seems to want to encourage his potential new employees that a Yahoo brand will…
• Rumor: Google To Acquire Plaxo
  Wired says that Google is rumored to be buying Plaxo for roughly $200 million. The company was founded in 2001 as a tool to manage contacts and users’ email address books ("your address book for life"). Its aggressive customer acquisition strategy (read: spam) alienated many would-be users. Plaxo has been…
• Free Webcast Next Tuesday: Multi-National Search Marketing
  "Think global, act local" has long been a mantra for anyone marketing on an international scale, and it’s good advice for search marketers. While the worldwide reach of search engines offers incredible opportunities for marketers, there are plenty of issues to consider when you’re running a multi-national search campaign. What…
• Yahoo Live Launches – Online Video, Um, Live
  Techmeme is all abuzz with news of the Yahoo Live launch. I’m thinking Yahoo’s doing online video? Again? But weren’t they closing Yahoo Video? No, that was Yahoo Podcasts — it’s hard to keep track of the closures. But still, what’s special about Live? Then I hit the official Yahoo…
• Socializing Before & During SMX West 2008
  We expect more than 1,500 people to attend Search Engine Land’s three-day Search Marketing Expo West conference later this month in Silicon Valley. A monster show! There will be sessions stuffed with search marketing knowledge and a bustling expo floor. But it needn’t scare those looking to network. We’ve carefully…

Search News From Around The Web:

Business Issues

• Google’s Schmidt named chair of think tank, News.com
• Rumor: Plaxo Sold to Google for $200M?, Wired

Link Building

• Yahoo Answers User Generated Links Not Clickable, Search Engine Roundtable

Local, Maps & Mobile

• From style makers to mapmakers, Google LatLong
• The 411 on Local Search Data for Business, Search Engine Watch
• Is mobile really a sure thing for Google?, News.com

Microhoo!

• A Micro-Hoo Decision Coming Soon, Screenwerk
• An Open Letter to Steve Ballmer, BusinessWeek
• The Men Behind the Curtain, I, Cringely
• Is It Too Late for Yahoo?, New York Times
• Yahoo’s Likely Microsoft Decision: "Okay, Let’s Talk", Silicon Valley Insider
• Congress delays first hearing on Microsoft’s Yahoo bid, Mercury News

Paid Search & Contextual

• Amazon Quietly Launches Product Ads; Secretly Wants to Become a Shopping Search Engine., TechCrunch
• Courts Need Consensus on Trademark Law and Search, Search Engine Watch Blog
• Driving up placement targeting earnings, Inside AdSense
• Using PPC for Conquesting Your Competitor’s Brand Keywords, Search Marketing Sage
• Yahoo Panama Discriminates Against the Little Guy With Double Ads, Apple Pie & Custard
• Seasonal SEM Shift – from Retail to Travel, Finance Growth Slowing, Efficient Frontier

Searching

• From the mail bag: Where can I get this book?, Inside Google Book Search

SEM Industry

• Sphinn – Many Voices or Just a Few?, All Things SEM
• SEOs of the World, Unite!, Search Engine Watch Blog
• Publicis Adopts ‘Yield Management,’ Will Utilize System For Cross-Internet Media Buys, MediaPost
• How To Market Your Search Engine Agency – Part 1, Search Engine Watch
• SEMPO Recession-Proofs Institute Pricing, SEMPO Press Release

SEO & SEM

• Enquiro and Omniture Joint B2B Webinar, Web Analytics World
• Google Removed "Download This Table" From Webmaster Link Reports, Search Engine Roundtable
• How to Avoid an SEO Horror Story on Your Website, Stepforth
• How to Determine the Effectiveness of Your Internal Link Structure, SEO Book
• What Happens When You Ping Google, Irishwonder’s Black Hat SEO Blog
• Top Ten Online Marketing Tactics, Online Marketing Blog
• Australian Real Estate Agents File Defamation Claim Against Google, Eric Bramlett
• Has Google Canned The Fresh Content Boost "Experiment", Hobo SEO

Social Media

• Announcing Social Alerter, eKstreme.com
• FriendFeed: Ex-Googlers Create Social Network Experience Using Feeds, Read/Write Web
• Simple sharing directly from FriendFeed, FriendFeed Blog
• How Not To Lose RSS Readers After 30 Days Of Not Posting, SEM Spot
• Trimming The Fat From My Google Reader: Part 1, Karl Ribas
• Myspace Maven Mulls Microsoft Marauding, SEOmoz

Video, Music & Image Search

• Microsoft adCenter Unveils Contextual Video Ads, Reel SEO
• U.S. Internet Users Viewed 10 Billion Videos Online in Record-Breaking Month of December, comScore

Web Analytics

• Google Analytics 101 (Part 2), Inside AdWords
• Tracking and Analytics 101, Search Engine Watch
• Microsoft Gatineau Analytics Beta Open to International adCenter Users, adCenter Blog

Other Items

• Podcast: Feb. 6, 2008: Super Search Tuesday; Stay On Target Yahoos, Daily SearchCast
• Podcast: Feb. 7, 2008: Google News Gets Local; Ask.com News Gets Glitzy, Daily SearchCast
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Recent Hot Items From Sphinn, Our Social News Sharing Site:

• Has Google Canned The Fresh Content Boost ‘Experiment’?
• Results of TopRank Poll: Top Ten Online Marketing Tactics
• SEO & SEM Outside The U.S.—Tips & Advice
• Linkbait With Lyndon Antcliff (Lyndoman)
• SphinnCon Israel – Event Summary
• Sphinn – Many Voices or Just a Few?
• If Banner Ads Were Forced To Be Truthful…
• Why every SEO MUST learn Internet security
• New—And Unfortunate—Changes To Google Local Search
• How To Choose The Right Niche For Your Blog
• Link bombing – Like Google Bombing but different!
• SEO Consultants: The Good, The Rad and The Sexy
• Two Practical Landing Page Tricks That Will Save You Money
• Sphinn Now Offering Mutual *&%@ News!
• Do Directory Submissions Still Hold Any Value?
• I Jeff Quipp Am Not an SEO … I’m an Authority Builder
• 21 Linkbait Headlines for Internet Marketers
• How Brian Wallace Sells Social Media…
• Catch the brainwaves with Muhammad Saleem
• 23 Top online retailers analytic packages revealed