SearchCap: The Day In Search, January 21, 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:

• The Google Webmaster Tools Quick Start Guide
  Google has created the Google Webmaster Tools Quick Start Guide to help webmasters learn the features and reasons to use the tool. The ten step guide displays details on the dashboard, the overview section, the diagnostics section, the top search queries screen, crawl stats page, the “What the Googlebot Sees”…
• Comparing Mobile Search Surveys: Early Adopters Vs. Mainstream Users
  I conducted a very informal, online Search Engine Land reader survey several weeks ago on a range of high-level topics pertaining to mobile search. The ultimate number of responses from SEL readers was a small sample of 77. Mike Blumethal, a contributor to SEL who writes the Understanding Google Maps…
• Google-DoubleClick Drama Moves To European Stage
  Much of the discussion and debate in the U.S. over Google’s proposed acquisition of DoubleClick was about the impact of the deal on consumer privacy, even though that wasn’t technically part of the anti-trust analysis before the FTC. Accordingly, the FTC approved the acquisition with one commissioner dissenting largely on…
• Yahoo Tests Delicious Integration In Search Results
  Yahoo has sent word that they are testing integration of data from their Delicious social bookmarking site within the Yahoo search results pages. For some users, a search will now show whether a page listed in Yahoo results is also on Delicious and how it has been tagged. It…
• Search Engines Commemorate Martin Luther King Jr. Day
  Today is Martin Luther King Jr. Day in the United States, and many of the search engines have special logos up for the day. Google has has an artistic logo, with children drawing the face of Martin Luther King Jr. on a sidewalk. Ask.com illustrates their background with Martin…
• Yahoo Planning Big Job Cuts?
  Over the past several days, a number of blogs (PaidContent, Silicon Alley Insider, TechCrunch) have reported and speculated (based on tips) that Yahoo was contemplating significant job cuts, perhaps as many as 2,500….
• Project Palimpsest: Google To Host Open-Source Science Data
  Google to Host Terabytes of Open-Source Science Data from Wired reports Google Research will be hosting terabytes of open-source scientific datasets under Project Palimpsest. The data that Google will be hosting will not only be available for scientists but also available for free for anyone. Google will also be providing…
• Welcome To The Local Search Jungle
  Welcome to the jungle. As the first column from the Yellow Pages Association and the Local Search Guide, it is very exciting to join the Locals Only forum with some of the most notable local search contributors in the industry. Representing more than 150 Yellow Pages publishers, we are…

Search News From Around The Web:

Applications & Portal Features

• Knol not one of Google’s "urgent" projects?, Googling Google
• Associate Email Addresses With Your Google Account, Google Blogoscoped
• Making Google Reader More Like Gmail, Google Operating System
• 50 Google Calendar Tips, Google Blogoscoped

Business Issues

• Answers.com Shares Crater; Share Sale Threatened?, paidContent.org
• Former Google exec to lead Ask.com in Europe , Brand Republic News
• Nokia To Invest In Facebook?, TechCrunch
• Making Fast work of search, seattletimes.nwsource.com
• Google of Mobile: Smaato Dials In $3.5M, Red Herring
• LinkedIn: Yes, We Had M&A Talks, paidContent.org
• LinkedIn Founder Has Golden Touch, AP
• Russians Invest $30 Million in Social Networking Site Badoo, TechCrunch

Conferences

• Search Marketing Expo West: SMX Theater Presentations, adCenter Blog
• Engage for Search – Half day conference, IAB UK
• Kevin Ryan Speaks About his First SES Chicago, Stone Temple

Local, Maps & Mobile

• Mobile-application developers grow tired of waiting for Google’s Android code, Mercury News
• Patent Filing on Interactive Elements of Google’s Keyhole Markup Language, SEO By The Sea
• Google Earth Blog: Neighborhood Boundaries in Google Earth, Google Earth Blog
• Google forced my phone choice, Techworld.com
• Double Maps on Google , Screenwerk

Link Building

• Building Links For Fun And Profit, Vanessa Fox
• 5 Principles for Link Buying (Also, Does It Work?) | Performancing.com, Performancing.com
• Do Links Get Old , Search Engine Roundtable

Paid Search & Contextual

• Learn How to Think and Search Like Your Customers, PPC Hero
• Is Google Skimming Affiliates with the Referrals Product?, Search Engine Roundtable
• The 7 Habits of Highly Successful Search Marketing Campaigns | Search Marketing Standard Blog, Search Marketing Standard
• Google AdWords Editor Communication Error Back, Search Engine Roundtable
• How to Write Ad Texts that Promise and Landing Pages that Deliver, PPC Hero
• How to Select a Paid Search Management Application, 10e20
• Virus Bulletin : News – Google links scam Avira users, www.virusbtn.com

Searching

• Top 12 Reasons to Distrust Google, Collective Thoughts
• 10 Things Yahoo! Search Must do to Become Relevant, SEO Book
• Google The Double Standard of Being an Authority Website, Gray Wolf
• US: Most Depressing Day of the Year?, Hitwise
• Hate site no longer top Google search result for "MLK", Valleywag
• Humans Disrupting Algorithms, DLD Conference

SEM Industry

• Get Your Free Links From johnon.com?, John Andrews
• Study: Internet Ads Will More Than Double By 2011, MediaPost
• Search Engine Roundtable a Power 150 AdAge Blog, www.cartoonbarry.com
• SEMDirector Rebrands as Covario In Race for Interactive Advertising Platform, Search Engine Watch Blog
• 2,500 Hot Sphinns Reveal Patterns and Trends, All Things SEM
• The Oilman Moves On, Todd Friesen

SEO & SEM

• Go Google Go!, John Andrews
• Marketing Your Service-Based Small Business, Small Business SEM
• Playing with the X-Robots-Tag HTTP header, Joost de Valk
• The Secret of Getting a New Site to Beat an Old One or Content is King is Just a Cliche, Bob Massa
• Deconstructing Google snippets, Stephan Spencer
• Rewriting the Beginner’s Guide Part IV Continued – Canonical and Duplicate Versions of Content, SEOmoz
• Weird Product URL, Google Blogoscoped

Social Media

• MySpace Russia Quietly Launches; MySpace Turkey Coming, TechCrunch
• Does Gaming Social Sites Ruin Lives?, AIM Clear Blog
• Popular Shared Items in Google Reader, Google Operating System
• 5 Feeds We Monitor for Clients, ViperChill
• The Significance of the MyBlogLog API – ReadWriteWeb, Read/Write Web
• Will We See Delicious 2.0 This Week?, TechCrunch

Video, Music & Image Search

• Community Council Update, YouTube Blog
• YouTube Gets Second Ban From Turkey, AHN

Other Items

• Ask Dosh Dosh: How Can You Measure the Success of Your Blog?, www.doshdosh.com
• Google Master Plan Bus Ad, Google Blogoscoped
• Google Zeitgeist Game, Google Blogoscoped

Last 20 Hot Items From Sphinn, Our Social News Sharing Site:

• 2,500 Hot Sphinns Reveal Patterns and Trends
• The Freebie Niche: A Secret and Powerful Vector for Social and Viral Marketing?
• Silence Of The Link Lambs
• Advancing Advanced Search
• 5 Tips to Make You a Better Twitter User
• Google The Double Standard of Being an Authority Website
• Movie Director Peter Jackson: Black-Hat Spammer?
• Learn SEO Humor
• The 5 Barriers to Blogging Success Series — Part 1: Lack of Significance
• Getting Blog Readers to Convert – Say Hello to PAT
• Reader Poll: Is Facebook Losing it’s Luster?
• How Search Really Works: Keyword Links
• Go Google Go!
• 3 Reasons SEO won’t die anytime soon
• Ask Dosh Dosh: How Can You Measure the Success of Your Blog?
• 12 Popular Browser Toolbars Reviewed – The Worthwhile and the Worthless
• Silly SEO’s! Stop ‘airing your dirty laundry’ and do some work!
• Yahoo Integrates Delicious Into Organic Search Results
• Congrats Derek on Birth Of Baby Olivia Jean!
• 31 Days to Becoming a Better Blogger
• Twitter: What Are You Thinking?
• 3 Reasons Shoemoney is a Damn Hypocrite
• Big time bloggers to their readers – You Suck!
• When Did Sphinn Get to be the Get Rich Quick Article Repository?
• FeedBurner Numbers Spike — Blame FeedBlitz!