SearchCap: The Day In Search, Jan. 16, 2007

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

From Search Engine Land:

• Disclosing When Queries Are Autocorrected
  Google Auto-correcting Queries from Google Operating System notes that Google seems to have moved beyond suggesting spelling corrections and now automatically does them for you. Actually, I think this is the stemming feature kicking in. However, it highlights that it’s useful for search engines to tell you exactly what they’ve modified, if they do so….
• New Google Checkout Promo; New Google Trust Worries
  Gary Price pointed out something new to me on Google, the ability to filter product search results from merchants using Google Checkout. But more important, Google’s promoting this new feature right within its main search results. That move, along with just having dropped map links to competitors and in the wake of last month’s tips fiasco, rings alarm bells that Google’s not thinking clearly about the best way to balance promoting its own products and the trust of users. Here’s what you get at the top of results for a search for sd cards 128mb: Notice how that search generates…
• comScore: Google Wins Again & IE7 Doesn’t Stop Microsoft’s Slide
  It’s that time again — search popular stats for last month are coming out. Actually, Hitwise sent me their figures earlier this month but I’m diving in with the comScore figures that just came out. The main real news is despite the Internet Explorer 7 launch, Microsoft’s Live continues to show a drop in usage….
• Google No Longer Linking To Yahoo, MapQuest Maps
  Search Engine Land got an email this morning from Another Blogger alerting us to the apparent fact that Google had removed links to Yahoo and MapQuest maps. Previously, a search for "541 Lexington Avenue New York" (W Hotel), for example, would have yielded a choice among Google Maps, Yahoo and MapQuest. Here’s the search result today….
• Wikiseek: Leveraging Wikipedia For Web Search, Poorly
  The Wikipedia search engine has arrived — Wikiseek — but it’s not the Wikipedia search engine you’re thinking of. Wikiseek is completely different than the Search Wikia project backed by Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales that I wrote about last month. Below, a look at the disappointing new service along with a revisit to how it is different from Search Wikia. The idea behind Wikiseek is simple. Crawl only content referred to within Wikipedia itself, which the site boasts will make it better:…
• MetaGlossary - Two Million Terms, Phrases And Acronyms
  MetaGlossary provides users with access to over 2 million words, terms and so on. It works in a similar manner to the Google define: function, though I’ve found that it tends to be rather more comprehensive. Definitions for ’search engine optimization’ resulted in 1 related phrase with Google and 15 with MetaGlossary. Google gave a total of 23 definitions while MetaGlossary gave me 85 definitions. To be fair, this wasn’t always the case, since Google did come up trumps on some terms that I searched for, such as RAC (I was looking for Royal Automobile Club) and the MetaGlossary failed…

Search News Headlines From Elsewhere:

• AOL Won’t Raise TradeDoubler Bid, PaidContent.org
• Does Alexa Use Search Results to Identify Related Pages?, SEO By The Sea
• ANNE WOJCICKI: A startup for Google founder’s fiancee, Valleywag
• Podcast: Google Up, Microsoft Down In Search Ratings; Wikiseek Fails To Deliver; Google Drops Competing Map Links & More, Daily SearchCast
• Google Laugh Rank, Google Blogoscoped
• SEO Gets Its Own Rock Song, Marketing Pilgrim
• Five Ways to Delete Your Google Cookie, Google Watch
• Google Earth map marks Temple Mount Palestinian, Ynet News
• Why No "Golden Triangle" in the Microsoft Eye Tracking Study, Out Of My Gord
• Martin Luther King Googlebomb Campaign, Google Blogoscoped
• Referer Rankology, Skrentablog
• The Wikipedia Threat to Google’s Empire, Micro Persuasion
• Brett Tabke Asks For Practical Experience With "Domain Age", Search Engine Roundtable
• Improve Your WordPress Search Results, Search Engine Watch Blog
• Google Emails Webmaster Notificiation of TOS Violation & Penalty, Search Engine Roundtable
• Yahoo’s Acquisition Pattern: Smart and Cheap, Read/Write Web
• MyBlogLog Tools, Online Marketing Blog
• EMI, Baidu To Launch Ad-Supported Streaming Music Service In China, PaidContent.org
• 2006 Google Gadget University Awards, InsideGoogle
• List Of Sites Banned From Digg.com – Part 1, The Mu Life
• Oodle’s "Oodle Index" Identifies Good Deals in Classifieds, Search Marketing Standard
• Bidding War for Google: It’s Expensive, But What Is the Alternative?, WRAL North Carolina
• Badged Add social networking badges to your blog or web site, Phil Bradley
• On Google Security, Google Blogoscoped
• Another Google Hole Uncovered, Google Blogoscoped
• Boxxet offers sites on popular topics, VentureBeat
• Boxxet Launches Automated Portals, GigaOM
• Google Image Optimization, Pearsonified
• Launching a New Blog via MyBlogLog, Small Business SEM
• There’s More to Digg Than Meets the Eye, Pronet Advertising
• Two New Tools for Tracking Online Videos, Micro Persuasion
• Spending An Afternoon With Matt Cutts, Caydel
• Google UK senior managers leave company, Search Latitude
• Updated: CIA’s Most Requested FOIA Documents and Top 25 Search Phrases (via Electronic Reading Room Database), ResourceShelf