SearchCap: The Day In Search, July 1, 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 Long Road To The Debate Over “White Hat Cloaking”
  I really hate arguments over cloaking. Like really hate them. But Rand Fishkin recently did a chart outlining the degrees of "safeness" to cloaking that in turn riled up Google’s Matt Cutts in comments there. No doubt others at search engines also dislike the idea that any cloaking is…
• Official: Microsoft Buys Powerset
  Consistent with the rumors last week, Microsoft confirmed today that it has acquired Powerset for an undisclosed amount (speculation put it at around $100 million). The company was reportedly valued at just over $40 million. It appears that Microsoft was motivated to acquire Powerset as much or more by the…
• Google Adds Positive Attributes To Look For When Hiring An SEO
  The Google Webmaster Central Blog announced that they have updated the content of the What’s an SEO page to provide examples of how SEOs can help you site. Previously, the page mainly focused on what scams and things to watch out for from SEOs. Now, Google added some of the…
• Google Launches Google Affiliate Network & Retires Pay-Per-Action/Referrals
  Google has launched a new affiliate network named the Google Affiliate Network. In an effort to consolidate the DoubleClick acquisition, Google created the Google Affiliate Network and has announced the retirement of AdSense Referrals, which is part of Google’s Pay-Per-Action product. Google launched Pay Per Action ads in March of…
• Where You May Find Google Ads On Yahoo Search Results
  In about two months from now, we may start noticing Google ads on the Yahoo Search results page through a deal that was brokered last month. The major question now is where, how and when will Google ads appear on Yahoo? TechCrunch posted slides of the Yahoo’s presentation to shareholders…
• Search Illustrated: Five Tips For Optimizing An eCommerce Product Detail Page
  Search marketing strategies for large ecommerce sites can, at times, seem overwhelming, and important details can get lost in the shuffle. This week’s infographic provides a reminder of which page elements shouldn’t be overlooked in optimizing an ecommerce product page:…
• Google-TeleAtlas Collaborate To Improve Local Data
  No matter how much 3D, imagery, flash, and other impressive functionality you build into maps, data are the core of the experience. And improving local data is like building the pyramids in a sense. It takes lots of effort from many people. For this reason Google opened up Google Maps…
• Google Now Crawling and Indexing Flash Content
  Historically, search engines have been unable to extract content, such as text and links, from Flash (SWF) files. Subsequently, much of the Flash-based content on the web has been unavailable in search results. This situation has been frustrating for web developers, who have tried to come up with workarounds to…

Search News From Around The Web:

Business Issues

• Google allowed to sell AOL stake Tuesday, News.com
• Yahoo Board and Investors Burn, While Everyone Else Fiddles, AllThingsD
• Yahoo Gets Dumped By Maxim, TechCrunch
• Microsoft’s Plan B for Search, BusinessWeek

Local, Maps & Mobile

• Golly Gee, look who’s 3…, Google LatLong
• Sightseeing in South Africa, Google LatLong

Link Building

• Law Firm Links – "DoFollow" Tuesday, Link Building Best Practices
• Grab Your Profile Link Before Some Jerk Does, The Link Spiel

Paid Search & Contextual

• What Will the Future of Advertising Look Like?, Dosh Dosh
• PPC Platform Competition and Google’s "May Not Copy" Restriction, Ben Edelman

Searching

• How a Search Engine May Expand Search Queries Based upon Popularity Measured by User Behavior -SEO by the SEA, SEO By The Sea
• Google Bolding Letters Not in Search Query , DerekChew.com
• From the Semantics of Humor to Semantic Search, Hakia Blog

SEM Industry

• The Ugly Side of The SEO Industry, SEO Book
• Search Engine Watch Forums Goes Offline: Hack? Server Issue?, Search Engine Roundtable
• Ad Agency Callout: Reprise Media to Bartle Bogle Hegarty Honcho Steve Harty -You’re Wrong About Search Marketing, Searchviews
• Should Companies Hire Multiple Search Marketing Firms? | Online Marketing Blog, Online Marketing Blog

SEO & SEM

• New SEO Plugin for Wordpress: Internal Link Building, seoroi.com
• Cross-domain Google Sitelinks, Google Blogoscoped
• How to Fix the Bloated (CSS and JavaScript) Code that is Jacking Up Your SEO, Search Engine Guide
• SEO Quarterly Web Site Review: Villas of Distinction, Search Engine Watch
• Some New SEO Services Not So "Special", Search Engine Watch

Social Media

• 13 FriendFeed Tools for Twitter Refugees, TechCrunch
• FriendFeed iPhone interface, FriendFeed Blog

Video, Music & Image Search

• Google Photos?, Google Operating System
• Will Picasa become Google Photos?, News.com

Web Analytics

• No Panic: Digital Buyers Shrug Off Google’s Web Metrics Launch, MediaWeek

Recent Hot Items From Sphinn, Our Social News Sharing Site:

• Yahoo Officially Discontinued The Overture Keyword Suggestion Tool
• Using the Cross Pollination Concept to Aid With Social Media Success!
• Grab Your Profile Link Before Some Jerk Does
• How to Create, Market and Sell an eBook for Branding & Profits
• Google Now Crawling and Indexing Flash Content
• The Value of 50 Sphinns
• TheVanBlog : Best of June links
• Stop! Don't Move! Give up your 404s, and show me your 301s
• Keyword Potential: Pull Keyword Needles Out Of Analytics Haystacks
• The Usability of SEO
• Happy Birthday Lisa Barone!