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

From Search Engine Land:

• Compete: Microsoft Gaining Searches; Live Search Club Giveaway Working?
  Compete is out with its latest search marketshare report for June 2007, showing that MSN/Windows Live Search has posted a dramatic rise since last month. This appears to be do to the Live Search Club promotion that’s going on. Below, a look at the trend, a history of how giveaways…
• Flickr Now Second Most Popular Photo Site
  LeeAnn Prescott of Hitwise posted data showing that Flickr has surged to the number two spot, controlling over 6% of the market share in the US. Photobucket still leads the pack with a comfortable 43.5% share. But in the past four weeks, Flickr’s traffic grew 38%….
• Twitter Useless For Driving Traffic? Think Again
  In the past few weeks I have been hearing more and more people saying that Twitter is useless. For those of you who are not too familiar with Twitter I recommend reading my write-up on the service or better yet creating an account on twitter.com and start diving in….
• How To Optimize A Contextual Search Advertising Campaign
  The major pay per click engines, such as Google and Yahoo, include two different types of distribution: On their own search engine result pages, and on content pages elsewhere on the web. These two types of advertising, while often lumped together under the pay-per-click (PPC) label, are very different….
• What Triggers Google CAPTCHA Requests When Searching
  Ever done a search at Google and get a message saying you need to type some characters to keep searching? Those characters are called a CAPTCHA, a method designed to help someone prove they aren’t an automated program hitting Google. Sometimes Google can mistake a human for programs like these,…
• Scholarly Science Search Tools Explored
  Gary Price has complied a comprehensive list of science search tools that are available via the internet. He explored several science search tools including Scirus, Live Search Academic, Google Scholar, Scitopia, Global Science Gateway and others….
• Stumped By Safe, Burglars Google For Help, Steal $12,000
  Via John Battelle, Bumbling Bigg City burglars got $12K from the Colorado Springs Gazette covers how two burglars turned to Google to crack a safe….
• Where Should New Search Marketers Start?
  Ask SEMpdx: What is the best way for a Newbie to learn Search Engine Marketing? from Search Engine Guide covers a variety of ways on how new search marketers can go about learning the the trade. There are plenty of good resources and tips worth checking out….
• Is Google Gearing Up To Drop The Supplemental Result Label?
  Matt McGee reported last week that he noticed that a method where webmasters can see pages that Google places in its supplemental index appears to be disappearing from some of Google’s data centers. Now he’s spotted a comment at SEOmoz from Google’s Matt Cutts which suggests that Google might do…
• Search Illustrated: The Power Of 301 Redirects
  One of the most common questions we get is "how can I safely move a web page?" When moving a page or even doing something as simple as changing its filename (and thus its URL), it’s important to do it the right way. Done properly, you’ll let search engines…

Applications & Portal Features

• SMS to update your Google Calendar, Gmail Blog
• First look, Google Mashup Editor, Download Squad
• Google Finance Gets Some Gadgets, InsideGoogle
• Hello, I’m your content wrangler, My Yahoo Blog
• Build advanced Gmail filters and persistent searches, Lifehacker

Business Issues

• 7 Things Yahoo Does Better than Google, Search Engine Journal
• Facebook: "F—” you, Yahoo, they’re going IPO!", Valleywag
• Facebook makes top marketing hire, News.com
• Ballmer: Caught between a software rock and a services hard place, All About Microsoft
• Google to Announce Second Quarter 2007 Financial Results, Google Press Release
• A Reunion at the "MIT of India", Time

Conferences

• Offline Conversions: The Missing Metric – July 19 Webcast, Search Marketing Now
• Domain Roundtable Domainer Conference in Seattle – Aug. 13 – 15th, Stuntdubl

Local, Maps & Mobile

• Putting Google On Your Phone, Google Blogoscoped
• Pool Guy Taps Google Earth, Google Earth Blog
• The promise of open platforms in the upcoming spectrum auction, Google Public Policy Blog
• FCC Draft Auction Rules A Win For Google, Hi-Tech Industry, CNN Money

Paid Search & Contextual

• Google Ad Network Grows in Brazil, Lands UOL & Buscapé, Search Engine Journal
• Strange Bolded Letters in Google Sponsored Results, Search Engine Roundtable
• The Pros and Cons of the Google Network, ClickZ
• Study: Edwards Search Campaign Lacks Efficiency, McCain’s Is Strong, ClickZ
• How America Searches: Election ‘08, ResourceShelf
• 10 Reasons Why People Hate Google AdSense, Performancing
• Yahoo! Enters into a Sponsored Search Deal with GenieKnows.com, GenieKnows Press Release
• Scheduled Maintenance, Saturday July 14, 2007, adCenter Blog

Podcasts

• Google Loses Share To Microsoft; Getting Started In SEM; Burglars Google For Safe Cracking & More!, Daily SearchCast

Searching

• Chinese Develop New Search Technology As E.U. Waits For Google, MSN, Yahoo Data Privacy Changes — Search Engines, InformationWeek
• A Selection of Research Papers from Yahoo Research: From Web Links and Trade Relationships to Automated Classification, ResourceShelf
• eBooks: World eBook Fair Underway: Nearly 3/4 of a Million Books Available Online, Most at No Charge, ResourceShelf
• For Ask3D Power Users, Ask.com Blog
• Google UI testing, Dave Naylor
• Newsknife names top sources in Google News for environmental articles, Search Engine Watch
• True Religion #1 Most Searched for Jeans Brand, Hitwise
• SenseBot : Summarizing Search Engine Results, Search Engine Journal
• Google Has 10,000 Human Evaluators?, Search Engine Roundtable
• Udi Manber interview, Matt Cutts
• Keio University Joins Google’s Library Project, Inside Google Book Search

SEM Industry

• Search Marketing Commercial Airs on CNBC, Search Engine Roundtable
• All Networking and No Work Makes Your Business Falter, Search Engine Guide
• Advantages of In-house SEO, Search Engine Guide
• The Marketing Pilgrim Essays eBook, Marketing Pilgrim

SEO & SEM

• LSI, true or lie?, Mike Grehan
• Google’s 100 Link Per Page Suggestion, Search Engine Roundtable
• Domain Hacks: Find a good domain name with Bust a Name, Lifehacker
• Web Analytics: An Hour a Day, Pronet Advertising
• Google Universal: Friend or Foe?, Search Engine Watch
• Hosting Issues as They Relate to SEO, Search Engine Watch
• Using WordPress to Manage Your Web Site Content – Part 2, Search Engine Watch
• Landing Page Optimization – Potentially More Rewarding than SEO, SEOmoz
• Building a Web Site Theme With Silos Part 2 of 3, Search Engine Journal
• eBay Store Search Engine Optimization Tips and Tricks, Search Engine Roundtable
• MyAOL Personalization Suite Launches, Somewhat Frank
• AOL Launches Three New myAOL Products Into Beta, TechCrunch

Social Media

• Optimizing for Social Media, Yahoo Publisher Network
• Twitter badge for Blogger, Blogger Buzz
• DiggDown: Revision3 Vs. DiggNation Fan, Epicenter
• Microsoft to extend social networking with Windows Live Events, LiveSide
• Gleamd to Launch “Digg for People”, Mashable
• SideStep Acquires Travel Social Network TripUp, TechCrunch
• Mahalo Greenhouse accepts 100th search term… (plus bonus side rant about when people understand what you’re doing), Jason Calacanis
• Mahalo: Jason Calacanis has no friends at Google, Valleywag
• In The Shadow Of Facebook: Friendster & Orkut, Epicenter
• Data Junkie: Facebook revealed as Canadian social network, Valleywag

Video, Music & Image Search

• YouTube video embarrasses Google, FT.com
• Another Pointless Perfect 10 Suit Gets Shot Down, Techdirt
• willitblend.com: Speaking through YouTube, Charlene Li
• Zillow to show off its swanky office tomorrow, Robert Scoble
• Watchdog group flags top pirated films on Google Video, News.com
• Yahoo To Cut Musicmatch Jukebox’s Cord, WebProNews

Other Items

• Doodle: Argentina Independence Day, Googlified
• Stolen Google Logo, InsideGoogle
• Google Easter Eggs Video, Phil Bradley
• Featured Windows Download: Search text across multiple files with Windows Grep, Lifehacker
• Q&A with Mr. Smiley himself, Yahoo Anecdotal

Related Topics: SearchCap

---

About The Author: Danny Sullivan is editor-in-chief of Search Engine Land. He’s a widely cited authority on search engines and search marketing issues who has covered the space since 1996. Danny also oversees Search Engine Land’s SMX: Search Marketing Expo conference series. He maintains a personal blog called Daggle (and maintains his disclosures page there). He can be found on Facebook, Google + and microblogs on Twitter as @dannysullivan. See more articles by Danny Sullivan

---