SearchCap: The Day In Search, July 16, 2009

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

From Search Engine Land:

• Google Has “Stabilized,” Reports $5.5 Billion In Q2 Revenues
  

  Google just reported second quarter earnings of $5.52 billion, representing “an increase of 3% compared to the second quarter of 2008.” The first quarter of 2009 was $5.51 billion, by comparison. So growth was flat quarter over quarter. According to Google CEO Eric Schmidt, Google’s business has “stabilized” and has seen growth in certain areas in [...]

• Local Search Marketing: More Than Just Google
  

  From marketers to Wall Street analysts to the Department of Justice, everyone (even the general public) recognizes that Google is the 800-pound gorilla in the world of search. And particularly with the introduction of the generic 10-pack to Universal results, this fact largely holds true in Local Search as well. Google Maps has pulled even with [...]

• 8 Dimensions Of Excellent Landing Pages
  

  Are your landing pages feeling tired? Is your conversion rate stagnant? Not quite sure what to try next? To re-energize your post-click marketing, it can help to step back and evaluate your approach from several different perspectives. Here’s a quick exercise, the Landing Page Wonder Wheel—as in, “I wonder how to improve my landing pages?”—that can [...]

• Google Street View’s UK Charm Offensive Hits Coronation Street, Stonehenge
  

  Once upon a time, my evenings were spent watching the popular British soap opera Coronation Street. And once upon a time, I lived about five miles from Stonehenge. Living back in the US now, Google’s got me covered if I fancy a trip down memory lane. Google Street View is mapping both places — and [...]

• Google Sets & Squared: Powerful Keyword Research Tools
  

  One of the toughest challenges facing pay-per-click marketers is keyword expansion. Marketers need to be adept at selecting keywords that will not only drive traffic, but more importantly, will drive conversions in a cost-effective manner. As competition intensifies, identifying unique, high quality keywords becomes increasingly important-and difficult. While basic keyword research remains important, search marketers [...]

• Yahoo!’s Rich Ads In Search – Are Video Ads Golden?
  

  Yahoo’s Rich Ads in Search (RAIS) combine paid search with rich media to further engage consumers within Yahoo search results. These ads provide an effective and clever approach to cross-channel marketing. With these new ads, advertisers are given the opportunity to market their business beyond the typical paid search ad copy. Their Yahoo paid search [...]

• Yahoo Dominates The Web, Just Not In Search
  

  Gigaom writes that although Yahoo is number two at search, they are still number one at so many other things. That is exactly what Carol Bartz, Yahoo’s CEO, wants to communicate with the world, that Yahoo is not just a search company and does great things also outside of search. Gigaom reached out to comScore [...]

• Google For iPhone Adds “My Location” Feature
  

  When the new iPhone operating system came out, version 3.0, mobile Safari was able to pass your location to the browser. Google recently updated the iPhone version of Google to allow searchers to send Google their location, which should help make the search results more tailored to that searcher. When I first looked at how [...]

• Google Announces “Favorite Places” Amid SMB Sales Event
  

  Yesterday Google held a private event for small businesses (SMBs) at San Francisco City Hall hosted by SF Mayor Gavin Newsom. Private it was. As I searched for the email confirming that I was “on the list” (because I was told I wasn’t on the list when I arrived), I saw the gatekeepers turn many [...]

• Is Most Of SEO Just A Boondoggle?
  

  The SEO industry is beset with people who are making unnecessary changes to client websites based on unfounded theories that at best produce the teeniest boost to the site, and at worst “fix” problems that never existed in the first place. Jill Whalen explains why most of SEO is just a boondoggle.

• What Happened To Google’s ‘Commitment To Transparency’?
  

  It’s no secret that Google — and other search engines — uses a variety of factors to customize search results: your search history, your location, and so forth. If you misspell a word, search engines often guess what you intended to type and show auto-corrected results. But on Google’s search results pages, it’s becoming [...]

• Bing: It’s The Relevancy, Stupid
  

  Lost in the shuffle of yesterday’s report about Bing’s impact on the search industry was some interesting and, for Microsoft, potentially valuable feedback on its new search engine. The J.P. Morgan report (available to the company’s clients at mm.jpmorgan.com) is based on a survey of 763 U.S. adults and their search behavior during June — Bing’s [...]

Search News From Around The Web:

Applications & Portal Features

• Following, liking and people searching, Official Google Reader Blog
• Farewell to Mashup Editor, Google Mashup Editor Blog

Business Issues

• Chris Anderson on Google vs. Microsoft in the ‘Free’ economy, TechFlash
• comScore Releases June 2009 U.S. Search Engine Rankings, comScore
• Google to monetize Voice via ringback advertising auctions?, Unwired View
• Google’s Chiller-less Data Center, Data Center Knowledge

Local, Maps & Mobile

• Former Googler Sanjeev Agrawal To Lead Just-Funded Mobile Search Startup Aloqa, TechCrunch
• Google Maps Rolling Out New Ads & New PR Campaign but Same Customer Service, Mike Blumenthal

Link Building

• Link Building With Content Ideas, Link Spiel
• Measuring Link Bait, Natural Search Blog

Paid Search & Contextual

• 10 Easy Ways to Optimize Your PPC Landing Pages & Increase Conversions, PPC Hero
• New Case Study: Connect with YouTube for Brand Advertising, AdWords Agency Blog

Searching

• How Search Engines May Decide Upon and Optimize Query Suggestions, SEO By The Sea
• Plan ahead: Document and share your health wishes with Google Health, Official Google Blog
• Quintura Site Search Introduces Search Box Suggestions, Quintura blog

SEM Industry

• Poll: Should Search Updates Be Named?, Search Engine Roundtable

SEO & SEM

• Are Google’s UK search results broken?, Econsultancy
• Choosing a Web Host Provider That Won’t Jack Your Rankings, Part II, Search Engine Guide
• Google Gives Blessing To Image Replacement Techniques, Search Engine Roundtable
• WordPress Can Help Me With SEO?, SEO.com

Social Media

• Facebook Working on New Twitter Integration?, Inside Facebook
• LinkedIn Drills Down Into People Search With New Beta, TechCrunch
• MySpace CEO: “Our users don’t know if we’re a social portal, a music site, or an entertainment hub”, TechCrunch
• Poll: Levels of Corporate Social Media Engagement, Online Marketing Blog
• Surprise: Twitter Would Rather You Not Follow the Site That Leaked Its Hacked Files, Gawker

Other Items

• The Great Google Doodle Triforce Conspiracy, Google Blogoscoped