SearchCap: The Day In Search, Jan. 26, 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:

• Google Checkout Blogs On Recent Promotions
  I gave Google Checkout some hassle earlier about promotion they were doing of the service. Earlier this week, I met with them during a visit to Google. The team explained that some of the promotion they’ve been doing is designed to react to consumer demand, to serve Google users that…
• Q&A With Marissa Mayer, Google VP, Search Products & User Experience
  Marissa Mayer has been the driving force behind Google’s Spartan look and feel from the very earliest days. In this wide-ranging interview, I talked with Marissa about everything from interface design to user behavior to the biggest challenge still to be solved with search as we currently know it….
• Just Behave: New Column From Search Engine Land
  Our most recent Search Engine Land column, Just Behave, launches today. Just Behave focuses on search and user behavior, and will appear every Friday. Today’s debut features Gord Hotchkiss with an exclusive interview with Google’s Marissa Mayer, who’s Vice President, Search Products & User Experience. Gord is a well-known…
• Intel Wins Back Google’s Server Business
  Intel inside again for new Google servers at News.com reports that Google has began purchasing Intel processors for their servers. Intel designed custom motherboards for Google, so that Google would use the hardware. Back when I was at Search Engine Watch, I reported on March 3, 2006 that Google switched…
• Google Book Search & Google Maps Team Up
  The Google Book Search Blog announced a new feature they worked on together with Google Maps that shows you “places mentioned in this book” on the Google Book Search page. For example a Google Book Search result for Illustrated New York (1888) brings back a Google Map on the bottom…
• Google, YouTube, & Wikipedia All On Top 2006 Brand List
  YouTube and Wikipedia storm to top brand ranking by Reuters reports that Google has secures the top spot in the online branding magazine brandchannel.com survey that asks, “Which brand had the most impact on our lives in 2006?”. Followed by Google, Apple is second on the brand list. The surprise…
• Dan Cohen, Ex-Yahoo Lead, New CEO of Pageflakes
  Ex-Yahoo Exec now Pageflakes CEO by Om Malik reports that Dan Cohen, who was the Head of My Yahoo business unit, left Yahoo to become the CEO of Pageflakes. Gary Price recently reviewed Pageflakes, describing it as an easy and free way to “build a dynamic personalized home/start page.” It…
• Microsoft Lowers Search Growth Expectations
  Microsoft ‘not happy’ with search results at News.com reports that Microsoft has lowered their expectations for growth of their search sales in the first two quarters of this year. Microsoft lowered those expectations from as high as 11 percent to as low as 3 percent growth. Microsoft CFO, Chris Liddell,…
• Google Kills Bush’s Miserable Failure Search & Other Google Bombs
  After just over two years, Google has finally defused the "Google Bomb" that has returned US President George W. Bush at the top of its results in a search on miserable failure. The move wasn’t a post-State Of The Union Address gift for Bush. Instead, it’s…

Search News Headlines From Elsewhere:

• Sing (or Hum) and Search and Record: midomi; Other Speech Recognition Search Tools, ResourceShelf
  
• Google’s Matt Cutts: Web Dominatrix, SEOrefugee Blog
  
• McDonald’s YouTube controversy, AZ Central
  
• Your Ad Display Preferences, Yahoo! Publisher Network
  
• Swag, Conventions and Google, McAnerin Muse
  
• New life for network equipment, Official Google Blog
  
• MSN Ad Revenue Increases 20%, MediaPost Publications
• Personalization of Search and SEO, Fortune Interactive
• Web Warriors Taking On Yahoo, RED HERRING
  
• Weather.com Yahoo! Search Box, Search Engine Journal
  
• Build Something Worth Spamming(and Scraping), Blackbeard SEO
  
• Recommendations for Google Gadgets, Google Operating System
  
• Are you below the radar?, Ramblings About SEO
  
• Dave Pasternack T-shirts, Kevin Lee
  
• Google Checkout Sucks! PayPal Has No Worries, Code and Coffee
  
• Google Checkout Sucks! PayPal Has No Worries: Update, Code and Coffee
  
• AdWords Editor now available for Mac, Google AdWords Blog
  
• Yahoo! Publisher Network Advice to Yahoo!, Search Engine Roundtable
  
• Open Advice to Yahoo! Regarding New Search Marketing Tool, Panama, Search Engine Roundtable
  
• Is Microsoft’s Impact On The Economy Bigger Than Google’s?, InformationWeek
  
• Google’s Powerline Play, Light Reading
  
• Google expected to report an 88% profit gain, MarketWatch
  
• The Search Tax: Are Search Engines Leeches?, ClickZ
  
• More PageRank Changes at Google?, Search Engine Roundtable
  
• Happy Australia Day!; Special Search Engine Logos, ResourceShelf
  
• We’ve Got Forums!, Bloglines
  
• Using Google’s Brand to Spam & Jam, Greg Boser
  
• This Blog in Chinese, Google Blogoscoped
  
• Algorithm to reduce Googlebomb impact, Matt Cutts
  
• A quick word about Googlebombs, Google Webmaster Central Blog
  
• Google Video Search Needs To Improve, Techcrunch
  
• Google Offering “Custom Placement Packs” AdSense Publishers, Search Engine Roundtable
  
• Search Engine Journal Not Indexed in Microsoft’s Live Search, Search Engine Journal
  
• Microsoft Search Lags, but Display Ads Up, ClickZ