SearchCap: The Day In Search, Jan. 23, 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:

• SEMPO Institute: Online School For SEMs Announced
  SEMPO has launched the SEMPO Institute, an online school for search marketers. The fundamentals course is live now and will provide tracks on:…
• Yahoo’s Panama Migration: Mixed Reviews
  The Wall Street Journal (subscription required) has a surprisingly long article, in anticipation of Yahoo’s earnings call today, on experiences with Panama platform migration. The reviews and opinions presented are generally positive but the article also points out that some smaller businesses have had problems and frustrations….
• Google To Invest In Indian Companies Via Seedfund
  Google to Fund Indian Startups by Red Herring, reports that Google is to hand over undisclosed amount to Seedfund, to indirectly invest in technology in India. Both Google and Seedfund have not confirmed this but Samir Sood, Corporate Development, Google, who heads the Venture Investments and M&A team of Google…
• Google To Test New Video Ads From BMG and Warner Music Group Over AdSense Network
  The Google AdSense blog announced that Google is to test new video ads on the AdSense network from content providers such as Sony BMG Music Entertainment and Warner Music Group. AdWeek reports that the ads are to be tested for four-weeks, and have already begun. InformationWeek informs us that the…
• Google Takes Action To ‘Strip’ Confidential Information From Google Blacklist
  Vnunet reports that Google has admitted to the leak of passwords via the Google Blacklist. But Google has also issued a statement saying that they “procedures have been put in place to strip login information from future submissions.” As I noted yesterday, this is not the first time confidential information…
• Google’s Site Exclusion Tool Enables Unlimited Site Exclusions
  The Google AdWords blog announced that they have removed the cap on the number of sites you can exclude in the Site Exclusion Tool. Many advertisers that opt in to Google’s Content network (AdSense) often may run out of sites they want their ads to specifically not show up on….
• TellMe To Launch New Mobile Local Search Product
  Spotted this morning via TechCrunch, speech and directory assistance automation provider TellMe is about to launch a beta product called TellMe by Mobile. It’s free, direct-to-consumer, voice-enabled directory assistance (DA) or “mobile local search” if you want to “sexify” the product….
• Use Microsoft Live Search & Microsoft With Donate To Charity
  I am not really sure what to think of the most recent Live Search blog post that says, Use Live Search and We’ll Donate to Team Seattle and Ninemillion.org. If you search at http://teamseattle.live.com/, Microsoft will donate $1 to Team Seattle’s Seattle’s Children’s Hospital fund. Each time you search at…
• Google Adds RSS Snippets To Personalized Home Page
  Google Personalized Home Page Adds Expand & Collapse Per Post at the Search Engine Roundtable is where I discussed how Google has added RSS snippets to the Google personalized home page. Google has added these plus signs, next to each RSS title, if clicked, it will open up and show…
• SEO Your Title Tags
  Rand at SEOMoz has a Best Practices for Title Tags that goes over many of the simply fundamentals of a good title tag for both your users and search engines. Rand suggests that adding your brand name to the title tag is not a bad thing, but make sure it…
• Forget ABCs – The Social Media Alphabet Is DNRS
  Many search marketers know their search engine alphabet, A for Ask.com; G for Google; M for Microsoft Live.com and Y for Yahoo. But how many know the important letters of the social media alphabet, D for Digg; N for Netscape; R for Reddit and S for StumbleUpon? Comfortable with…
• Let’s Get Social: New Column From Search Engine Land
  Our third Search Engine Land column has now been launched, Let’s Get Social. This comes out Tuesday and covers issues relating to social media sites, such as Digg, Netscape, Reddit and StumbleUpon. Those names not familiar to you? Then check out today’s first column, Forget ABCs, The Social Media…
• Google Germany Gone Kaput?
  Reader Michiel Ouwerkerk just dropped an email to say that Google Germany has disappeared. Sure enough, when I go there, I get a holding page from what looks to be hosting company Goneo:…

Search News Headlines From Elsewhere:

• AdWords Position Preference Doesn’t Always Work, eWhisper.net
  
• My First Nofollow Comment Spam, Cartoon Barry
  

• New SEM Contest: Quit Tobacco, Chris Boggs
  

• Google Adds Blog Search OneBox, Google Operating System
  
• Overture Suggestion Tool Obituary, Marketing Pilgrim
  

• Search Marketing Standard Magazine – Spring 2007 Issue, Search Marketing Standard Blog
  
• Campaign to Reduce Wikipedia’s PageRank to Zero, Marketing Pilgrim
  
• Search The Search Marketing & SEO Forums With Our Google CSE, Search Engine Roundtable
  
• Two site comparison tools, SEO Scoop
  
• Microsoft’s Virtual Earth Adds More Birds Eye Imagery for European Cities and Regions, ResourceShelf
  
• Google Added Date Stamp to Personalized Home, Shandy King
  

• New statistics page, Google Custom Search
  

• Google Demands You Stay Productive While Peeing, Crunch Gear