SearchCap: The Day In Search, July 14, 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:

• Microsoft-Icahn-Yahoo Dealings Degenerate Into Trading Public Accusations
  In the latest and perhaps strangest escalation of name calling and “he-said/she-said” accusations, Yahoo, Yahoo insurgent shareholder Carl Icahn and Microsoft have all issued dueling press releases in the wake of the latest Yahoo rejection of the latest, somewhat unexpected Microsoft (now + Icahn) search takeover offer….
• Getting Multivariate Landing Page Testing Straight!
  These days, you can’t go anywhere without hearing about multivariate testing so I thought I’d walk through a landing page test. Along the way, I’ll provide testing pointers and leave you with several testing considerations. I'll highlight the importance of both multivariate and A/B testing  and to show it…
• SMX Local & Mobile In Less Than Two Weeks
  Search Marketing Expo – SMX Local & Mobile is in less than two weeks — July 24-25 in San Francisco. Register today and reserve your spot at the only event 100% dedicated to getting internet and search marketers up to speed on these ROI-driving opportunities….
• Google Launches Webmaster Tools Access Provider Program
  The Google Webmaster Central blog announced the launch of the Google Webmaster Tools Access Provider Program. The tool is an extension of the GoDaddy Webmaster Tools plugin, which enables hosting service providers to build tools directly into their hosting consoles for their customers to utilize Google Webmaster Tools. Through the…
• Yahoo Announces SearchMonkey Developer Challenge Winners
  Yahoo has announced the winners of the SearchMonkey Developer Challenge. The judges, including our very own Danny Sullivan, reviewed “hundreds of submissions” and selected five winners. The winners include: StumbleUpon for building the SU Infobar that shows you “website reviews and ratings,” before you click on the search results in…
• SEO For Semantic Search Engines
  A new generation of search engines are starting to become publicly available and so it’s time to start thinking about how they will affect SEO efforts. The new search engines I’m talking about are the semantic search engines, meaning they are search engines that can be queried using natural language…
• More Google Trends Manipulations
  Another day, another Google Trends abuse. As spotted at Google Blogoscoped Forums, Google Trends on July 13th was showing “ǝlƃooƃ noʎ ʞɔnɟ” as the number one hot trend amongst blogs, news sites and so on. I personally see it, when I navigate back to July 13th in Google Trends….
• Yahoo Rejects Joint Microsoft/Icahn Deal But Open To $33 Per Share All-Microsoft Sale
  Microsoft has once again put in an offer to buy Yahoo’s search assets — and once again been rejected. The latest offer was a joint one made by Microsoft and Carl Icahn. Yahoo slammed what it described "take it or leave" it offer and the one day deadline that…

Search News From Around The Web:

Applications & Portal Features

• Google Notebook Bookmarklet, Google Operating System
• Gmail to No Longer Auto Add Contacts, Google Operating System
• Gears for Google Calendar may be getting close, again, Googling Google
• iGoogle Reaches 100 Million Users, SEOish
• App Engine Community Update, Google App Engine Blog

Business Issues

• Kohl schedules antitrust hearing on Yahoo, Google deal, MarketWatch
• Google Co-founders Talk Tech, MediaWeek
• Google, Viacom now clashing over YouTube employee records, News.com
• States Probe Advertising Deal Between Google and Yahoo, Washington Post
• MediaGuardian 100 2008: Top 10 under-40s, The Guardian
• Giving Some Thought to Google, the ‘Potential Monopolist’, Ad Age
• Is Digg Looking to Sell to the Guardian?, CenterNetworks

Local, Maps & Mobile

• Is Gphone For Real?, GigaOM
• Google’s Carter Maslan and Eric Enge talk Local Search, Stone Temple
• Booting Your Competitors From Google’s Local Results in Web Search, Search Engine Roundtable
• Where in the world is…, Google LatLong

Link Building

• Keyword Research, Link Building & Linking Diversity, Search Engine Journal

Paid Search & Contextual

• Google Finally Removes Comic Sans Font From AdSense Ads, Search Engine Roundtable
• Creating PPC Campaigns: the ‘Live or Die’ Settings , Search Engine Watch

Searching

• Could Google Monopolize Knowledge?, ABC News
• Google Suggest Preparing for Global Launch?, Google Operating System
• Search Socially! — Social Search Engine Scour.com Launches, Offers Incentives to Search, Vote, Comment and Refer, BusinessWire

SEM Industry

• GWHG Looses a valuable Googler, JLH Design Blog
• Cre8asiteforums Co-Administrator Leaves Post, Cre8tive Flow
• An Interview With The Creator Of Too Much StumbleUpon – A Piece Of Viral Marketing Genius, SEOco
• Marketing Sherpa 2009 Benchmark Search Marketing Guide, Online Marketing Blog

SEO & SEM

• SEM Bootcamp: Five Steps to Organic Success, Search Engine Guide
• 20 Must-Have FireFox Search Plugins for SEOs, Search Engine Journal
• Guest Post By SEO Superstar: Gab Goldebnberg, Jordan Kasteler
• 5 WordPress SEO Subdomain to Subfolder Migration Steps, SEOptimise
• Advanced Keyword Research for SEO, Jordan Kasteler
• Misinformation / Information Pollution Adds Value to Paid Content Business Models, SEO Book
• Seven Habits of Highly Effective SEM, Part III: Creating the Right Ad Text, Search Marketing Standard
• What To Do When Google Bans Your Site Because Of A Bogus DMCA Take-Down Notice, SEOmoz
• Destination Search Engine Marketing, Part I: Do you Deserve Top Search Rankings?, Search Engine Guide
• Don’t Be Popular. Be Useful., BruceClay.com
• Google Learns To Crawl SWFObject, beu blog
• Robots.txt : 4 Things You Should Know, Search Engine Journal
• The Economics of Success (Or How To Launch A New Site Per Aaron and Giovanna Wall), seoroi.com

Social Media

• Social Graph Data: XFN, SEOish
• Screen Shots Of Upcoming MySpace Data Availability Widget for iGoogle, TechCrunch
• Techmeme’s Leaderboard is Shifting: Nearly 1/3rd of Leaderboard is New, RyanSpoon.com
• Facebook Puts A Diplomat In Charge Of The Platform, TechCrunch
• Guy Kawasaki’s Alltop Launches Frienderati: The Top Friends From FriendFeed, TechCrunch

Video, Music & Image Search

• How can Google break the ad-free culture on YouTube?, News.com
• New "My Videos" & Subscription Center, YouTube Blog
• Baidu’s Ploy To Divide , Music 2.0

Other Items

• Official announcement regarding my retirement from blogging., Jason Calacanis
• Video Recap of Weekly Search Buzz :: July 13, 2008, Search Engine Roundtable
• No cameras. No lights. Just data., Official Google Blog
• Save 20% on Best of the Web Ads & Listings, Search Engine Journal

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

• Don't Be Popular. Be Useful.
• SEM in Canada: Conference Postponed & Insights into the Canadian Search Marketplace
• Misinformation / Information Pollution Adds Value to Paid Content Business Models
• 20+ Must-Have FireFox Search Plugins for SEOs
• Post-Click Perspectives: Q&A with Carrie Hill
• Robots.txt : 4 Things SEOs Should Know
• Forget about SEO – Focus on the Content
• Using KW research to diversify link profiles
• What is Advanced SEO?
• Facebook Disables Yet Another Account For No Good Reason
• Collective Wanderings; First Edition
• Reddit Adds Image Thumbnails to Submissions
• Google Confirms NewsDay.com Received PageRank Penalty for Selling Links
• Cash, SEO and Ethics
• New SEO Tool: Acrobat Pro 9?
• SEO’s Still Dominating Digg
• How to Stop Being Invisible as a Blogger
• Online Negative Reputation Case Studies – That's Never Been Easier
• Yahoo Patents Anchor Text Relevance in Search Indexing
• Official Google Blog: Introduction to Google Ranking
• The Ultimate Guide to the Google Search Parameters
• The missing Avinash Kaushik analytics kick start guide…
• Hire A Crappy SEO Firm in Only 10 Steps
• Things That Are, And Things That Are Not, Linkbait