SearchCap: The Day In Search, July 14, 2010

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

From Search Engine Land:

• Facebook Advertising: An In-House Guide To Getting Started

  If your in-house programs for Google, Yahoo and Bing are running like well-oiled machines, it’s time to start poking around for new online marketing channels to test. An option many online marketers report increasing success with is Facebook ads. Facebook advertising doesn’t work quite like a search engine does, so read on for a primer […]
• If Windows Phones Don’t Succeed Can Bing?

  Yesterday at the Bing Search Summit in San Francisco I finally got my hands (for about 30 seconds) on a Windows 7 phone. It had a very slick interface, although that was about all I got to see.
  The point of the Microsoft event was to highlight Bing’s gains and momentum as well as show off […]

• 4 Tips To Make Content Network Advertising Work

  Have you ever tried something once, failed, and ditched it entirely because of that bad experience? Few of us would ever learn to ride a bike or do much of anything else following that model. Yet, that’s exactly the approach many B2B marketers have taken with content networks. But ruling them out could be a […]

• Chitika: Mobile Users 45% More Likely To Search Locally

  Search-based online advertising network Chitika reported, based on a “sample of more than 24 million impressions” that included PC and mobile queries, “users on mobile devices are 45% more likely to enter a local query than users on non-mobile devices.” These data are drawn from the company’s network.
  Last week Chitika announced a new Local Ad […]

• Google AdWords Updates Policies, Releases New Billing Tab & Broad Match Modifiers

  Google AdWords has made some changes to their AdWords policy recently. They also have expanded the reach of their new billing tab, as well as given more users access to the broad match modifier.
  AdWords Policies:
  If you look at the AdWords Policies release notes, you will notice serveral updates occurred this month. The […]

• Brand Champions In Conversion Optimization

  As marketers, we’re all ultimately in the conversion optimization business. The success of your venture depends on how many people you get to sign-up, register or order. You weigh the value of each conversion against how much it cost you to win it, and that’s the driving engine of ROI for your organization. The higher […]

• Twitter Adds Usernames To Search Results

  As TechCrunch discovered today, Twitter is now showing a sample of matching usernames/accounts for name-based queries on Twitter.com.
  A search for matt mcgee (without the @ symbol) now shows my account and the names of two others above the tweets that match the search query. There’s also a small link to view a more complete […]

Search News From Around The Web:

Applications & Portal Features

• Google Tests Multiple Accounts Sign in, Google Operating System
• Yahoo! Launches OMG! In Indonesia, Yodel Anecdotal

Business Issues

• Google’s Washington Influence Is Spreading, Some Say Too Much, Fast Company
• Our commitment to the digital humanities, Official Google Blog

Local, Maps & Mobile

• Apple acquires online mapping company Poly9 – report, AppleInsider
• Bug: Google Maps Pulling Wrong Star Ratings, Search Engine Roundtable
• Google Maps can now send destinations directly to more than 20 car brands worldwide, Google LatLong

Link Building

• An Inside Look at Competitors Backlinks with Open Site Explorer, SEOmoz
• Are Competitors Stealing Your Links?, Search Engine Roundtable

Paid Search & Contextual

• Announcing the AdSense in Your City program, Inside AdSense
• Facebook Ads…Instantly, Marketing Pilgrim

Searching

• Health and Fitness Data for Water Activities, Wolfram|Alpha Blog
• Google Books goes Dutch, Official Google Blog
• Google France Celebrates Bastille Day: fête nationale du 14 juillet, Search Engine Roundtable

SEO & SEM

• Case Study: Hosting & Speed, beu blog
• Cesspool Brands Are How You Sort (or Are They?), SEO Book
• SEO Analysis; Bing vs Google, huomah.com
• 31 Top Cultural Factors to Consider for International Search, Search Engine Watch
• Brands Are How You Sort Out The Cesspool, Hobo
• Can a purchased domain’s history affect its trust in Google?, YouTube
• Guest Blogging : Guide to Leveraging Expertise & Influence, blueglass.com
• How to Compare Google Webmaster Tools Data with Google Analytics Data (Excel), Search Engine Journal
• How to Use Game Mechanics to Improve Your SEO, quicksprout.com
• Real Time SEO: Monitor Your Brand & Build Links Simultaneously, SEO.com
• Top Tips for Multilingual Marketing and SEO, Search Engine Journal
• Visualize Your Keyword Research with Keyword Eye, Daily SEO Tip

Social Media

• Facebook to write “new chapter” of its mobile strategy, VentureBeat
• Twitter Jitters in China, Wall Street Journal
• 10 Top Tips to Secure Social Media Success, Search Engine Watch
• @earlybird: Ready to Fly, Twitter Blog
• Old Spice: The Man Your Content Could Smell Like, outspokenmedia.com
• The New Digg: What it Means For Power Users & Publishers, Read/Write Web

Video, Music & Image Search

• Connecting a Google account to your older YouTube account, YouTube Blog
• Google Testing New Image Search Interface & Features?, Search Engine Roundtable
• YouTube Down : Major Outage, Search Engine Roundtable

Web Analytics

• TubeMogul Makes InPlay, Its Google Analytics For Video, Free, TechCrunch

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

• 18 Examples of Awesome Viral Linkbait – Connecting great content with it’s target audience, promoting it on the correct channels, and causing an emotional response is not easy, but can yield excellent results when executed correctly. Let’s take a look at three kinds of viral linkbait content that audiences love: Videos, Infographics and Widgets.
• How to Conduct a Link Opportunity Inventory (Plus 9 Common Link Opportunity Types) – Sometimes it makes sense to design link building campaigns around the most common link opportunities in a given market. This article provides a framework + worksheet for discovering your market's most abundant link opportunities.
• The Evolution of Ranking Signals: Google Is Getting Past the Link – OK, well I decided to drop a post over on WS on what is likely going to be a bit of a controverial topic. But as an avid search historian, from a tech perspective, it does seem we're on the cusp of a new frontier of signals beyond the reliance on links. I am certainly open to ALL input on it though. It is an interesting topic worth discussing IMO.
• Google AdWords Suicide – Inspired by the Google AdWords customer in India who threatened to kill himself if Google didn’t respond to his Google AdWords Help thread, Ian Howie gives his top 5 AdWords grievances and offers some solutions.
• Google vs. Bing Part II: Link Analysis – Anthony Verre posted part II of his series (on the Trail) looking into the differences between Google and Bing – this time it's link analysis. There is even a nice download at the end with all the data – some really good stuff here. Thanks Tony.