SearchCap: The Day In Search, July 2, 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 Blog Search Sees Twitter Trends & Raises With Blog Search ‘Hot Queries’
  

  A lot of the innovation in search these days is all about What’s happening right now? Twitter is the poster child where real-time search is concerned, and despite its ongoing spam problem, Twitter Trends has become one of the primary places to get a snapshot of what’s happening now. Google Blog Search is getting in the [...]

• What Ads Types Are Most “Helpful”? Search Ads Follow Newspapers, TV
  

  Trade magazine AdWeek and pollster Harris Interactive conducted a survey in early June among 2,521 US adults. People were asked what types of ads they found most “helpful” and what types of ads they ignored. Below are the top-line results as well as the age and geographically segmented data. Most helpful in making purchase decisions:

  37 percent [...]

• The Collusion Of Editorial & Advertising; Plus: Cheap Ways To Buy Exposure
  

  Many reporters would like you to believe there is a firm wall between content and advertising, but often they merge…particularly for niche or trade related publications. When my wife was getting started in business and wanted to promote her first website, a trade magazine kept trying to push her for an ad and she kept [...]

• Google News No Longer Wants Newsmaker’s Comments
  

  In August 2007, Google News released a feature to allow newsmakers to add comments to stories found in Google News. That feature has gone away very quietly. When Google News launched the feature, not only did we find it “weird,” but we felt that Google didn’t “know what they’re getting into.” Google told the [...]

• Google Expands Universal Search To More Phones In More Countries
  

  Of the big three search engines, one could argue that Google is directing the most focused, ongoing effort toward mobile. Clearly Yahoo and Microsoft see mobile as a critical part of their business but Google is more or less continually doing things that seek to improve the mobile user experience. First, of course, there’s Android itself. [...]

• It’s All About Local Organic Domination
  

  Lately I’ve been speaking with SEM experts about what small business owners should do to increase their online visibility. While opinions vary, most experts agree about the importance of ranking high on Google’s various organic search results. Listening to them explain what a local business can hope to achieve, I found that the language was hardly [...]

• Google Book Search Lawsuit Gets Conference Treatment
  

  New York Law School will host a three-day conference about the Google Book Search lawsuit starting on October 8 — one day after the rescheduled fairness hearing that may decide the case’s future. You may recall that the judge in the case has already given tentative approval to the $125 million settlement, but about six weeks [...]

• Hunch Doing ‘Pretty Well,’ Co-Founder Says
  

  Barely two weeks after its launch, Hunch is already taking stock of its progress. “How well do we think Hunch is working?,” asks co-founder Chris Dixon. “Pretty well, although we still have a ways to go.” Writing on the Hunch blog, Dixon explains that the decision engine is using what it calls “success rate” as its [...]

• Bing Adds Twitter Smart Answers
  

  Bing has announced they are now displaying Twitter results for a few thousand “prominent and prolific” Twitterers in their search results. The Twitter results show the person’s latest Tweets and a link to “see more tweets” from that user. For example, if you search for [Danny Sullivan Twitter] or [Danny Sullivan Tweets or [@dannysullivan] in Bing, [...]

Search News From Around The Web:

Applications & Portal Features

• Improvements to Google Apps contacts, Official Google Enterprise Blog
• Facebook Connect Is A Huge Success — By The Numbers, Business Insider
• Happiness is more subject in your subject line., AdSense for Feeds
• Yahoo Answers: No Links for New Folks, Small Business SEM

Business Issues

• Bing finds meaning in Powerset, The Register
• Europe still waiting for the ‘Bingvasion’, Search Cowboys
• Google finally sued by makers of Finally Fast, News.com
• Microsoft clips Butterfly program’s wings, ZDNet
• Online Ad Spending Overseas to Hit $25 Billion by 2013, Ad Age

Local, Maps & Mobile

• Google Maps: Tightening down on Locksmiths, Mike Blumenthal
• A festive Fourth with Google Maps, Google LatLong
• Google Maps limits view of Categories via Community Edits, Mike Blumenthal

Link Building

• Will a link to a disallowed page transfer PageRank?, YouTube

Paid Search & Contextual

• Break Out Your Yahoo Sponsored and Content Keywords with the Touch of a Button, PPC Hero
• Summer Love—for Your Ads, www.ysmblog.com
• Firefox 3.5 Now Supported by Google AdWords, Search Engine Roundtable
• Google Finally Drops Call Tracking Phone Numbers?, Search Engine Roundtable
• Speeding up: Attracting more visitors with content and community, Inside AdSense

Searching

• breaking news presents challenges and opportunities to improve, Bing Community

SEO & SEM

• Can my blogroll affect my blog’s reputation in Google?, YouTube
• Offering SEO Before The Site Is Developed, Search Engine Roundtable

Social Media

• Facebook for iPhone 3.0, Facebook
• Yahoo! Answers Update: Level 1 URLs, Yahoo Answers Blog
• Coke, Pepsi Make Nice on Twitter, Ad Age
• Hammering Usernames, Facebook
• New Logo For MySpace: No Longer A Place For Friends, TechCrunch
• Once Again, Twitter Trending Topics Polluted By Spam (Or Not), TechCrunch
• Russia has World’s Most Engaged Social Networking Audience, comScore
• Twitter followers ‘can be bought’, BBC NEWS
• Twitter Raises API Limits?, Socialgeist
• Twitter’s Popular Facebook App Has Been Broken Or Exploited For Days., TechCrunch
• Yelp Adds Sharing on Facebook and Twitter, Screenwerk

Video, Music & Image Search

• YouTube Changes HD Viewer? Increases Upload Size to 2GB, Search Engine Roundtable

Web Analytics

• Analytics: Is it Fun or Easy. Part 2- “Ambiguity is Opportunity”, www.sitelogicmarketing.com

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

• Should Your Small Business Have a Blog?
• Continuing the Conversation – Social Media & Microsoft Advertising
• The Importance of Commenting on Other Blog
• Get a Website Indexed with No Links and XML Sitemaps
• Google Analytics For Local Search Part 1 of 7: Tracking Traffic From The 10 Pack
• Facebook or Just Face-Look? Are People 55 And Older Really Using Social Networking Websites?
• Custom Link Love For Wordpress Comments
• Maximize Traffic With Proper Use Of Stumbleupon