SearchCap: The Day In Search, July 12, 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:

• An Inside Look At China’s Internet Population
  Deborah Fallows, Senior Research Fellow, Pew Internet & American Life Project, has just published a fascinating report detailing the demographics of Chinese internet users. Deb, an American currently living in Shanghai, notes that “there are now an estimated 137 million internet users in China, second in number only to the…
• Sphinn: Our Social Site For Search & Internet Marketing Professionals
  When Search Engine Land launched last December, I talked about liking the name in part because it sounded like "a community, where people can meet, talk, discuss and network." I promised to upgrade the site to help a community thrive. It took much longer than the original "month or so"…
• Can Small Businesses Really Afford SEO?
  Lately, around the Pole Position Marketing office, we’ve been discussing the cost involved in providing top quality search engine optimization. All too often we find value added services or strategic improvements that require more time than initially anticipated. How much additional value can we provide without increasing fees? While…
• Google To Add “Unavailable After” META Tag
  Getting Into Google by Jill Whalen reports Dan Crow, director of crawl systems at Google, saying that Google is releasing a new META tag named “unavailable_after.” The “unavailable_after” tag will allow you to tell Google when Googlebot should no longer crawl that page. Jill explains that this tag comes in…
• Hijacking Google Image Search Results
  Google Blogoscoped discusses an issue with Google Images where Google will not always show the original source of the image in their results. In short, Google may display an image that is hotlinked via a third-party site, in a higher position within Google Images than the original image. One of…
• Yahoo.com Adds Search Suggestions
  The Yahoo Search Blog announced that the search box on Yahoo.com now offers search suggestions as you type. For example, as I started typing “danny s”, Yahoo offered suggestions, including “danny sullivan.”…
• Australian Watchdog Sues Google Over Deceptive Search Ads
  Watchdog takes Google to court from News.com reports that the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) is taking Google to court for allegedly listing misleading and deceptive sponsored results. Allegedly, in 2005, the Trading Post had ads in Google for “Kloster Ford” and “Charlestown Toyota” that directed traffic to the…
• Keyword Stuffing Is Gross And Disgusting!
  June was a busy travel month for me. I spoke at the SMX conference in Seattle and SES in Toronto, as well as at our own High Rankings Search Marketing Seminar. The common thing throughout my travels (besides discussing search marketing) was the abundance of food! On the road,…

Applications & Portal Features

• Korean Portal, Search Engine Yehey Partners With Pixsy, Search Engine Watch Blog
• Useful Google Bookmarklets, Google Operating System
• FeedBurner Integration for Blogspot Blogs, FeedBurner Blog
• Recommended Alerts From Google, SEO By The Sea

Business Issues

• Old-School Defamation Lawsuit Filed Against Google–Phillips v. Google, Eric Goldman
• Google leases former historic HP site, San Jose Mercury News
• Yahoo! Announces Completion of Right Media Acquisition, Yahoo - Press Release
• TheFind.com Shopping Search Engine Secures $15 Million in Additional Funding, Search Engine Journal
• Third Circuit Bounces Lawsuit Over Google Groups–Parker v. Google, Eric Goldman

Local, Maps & Mobile

• Bienvenidos!, Google Earth Blog

Paid Search & Contextual

• Google AdWords Editor Performance Issues?, Search Engine Roundtable
• Reminder: Scheduled Maintenance, Saturday July 14, 2007, adCenter Blog

• Google Banning Ephedra & Ephedrine Search Ads, Search Engine Roundtable

Searching

• Is Personalized Search Better?, Marketing Pilgrim
• Harry Potter: Now in (Ask)3D, Ask.com
• Yahoo Search Suggest Query Inspector, Google Blogoscoped

SEM Industry

• SEO is Like Music, aimClearBlog
• My time at Google, by the numbers, shellen dot com
• Come together, right now, all your search-types flung across the web, Vanessa Fox
• Say Hello to Sphinn: A New Site Focused on Search with User Submitted Content, Voting & Commentar, ResourceShelf
• I heart Sphinn, I Am Not a Doctor
• Spin, Sphinn sounds like spin thou, DaveN

SEO & SEM

• Yahoo! Allows Banned Sites in Search Submit Program, Search Engine Roundtable
• Do Link Exchanges Still Help With Improving Search Rankings?, Search Engine Roundtable

• Exploiting Your Current Backlinks and Link Referrals, Search Engine Watch

• Small Businesses and the Price of SEO, Search Engine Guide

Social Media

• Social Media Poisoning - Possibly the Most Insiduous Negative Tactic in SMM, SEOmoz
• Reputation Management Emancipation Proclamation - 10 Ways to “Own Yourself” Online, Stuntdubl

Video, Music & Image Search

• Researchers take Google approach to understanding photos, News.com
• Can you hear these images?, Yodel Anecdotal

Other Items

• Why Google is the service of choice for sploggers, Guardian Unlimited
• Universal, Google are game for Bourne deal, Reuters
• AJAX Search on Blogger and Linked Custom Search Engines, Google AJAX Blog
• Google Israel Supports Return of Abducted Soldiers, Google Blogoscoped