SearchCap: The Day In Search, July 20, 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 Seeks Privacy Counsel With Gov’t Ties
  

  Google Watch points out a job posting on the Google site for “Privacy Policy Counsel” based in Washington, DC. Given that Google is under much more pressure and scrutiny from the US Department of Justice these days, this kind of hire makes sense. Google is recognizing that it’s got to build direct relationships with legislators [...]

• Alan Rimm-Kaufman Passes Away After Courageous Bout With Leukemia
  

  The editorial staff at Search Engine Land has just learned that over the weekend, on July 18th, Alan Rimm-Kaufman passed away following a 16 month long battle with leukemia. He bravely faced countless rounds of chemotherapy and a bone marrow transplant in hopes of a cure. Alan Rimm-Kaufman was just 41 years young, and is survived [...]

• Search The Moon With Google Earth For Moon
  

  Today is the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11th mission where man landed on the moon. To celebrate the anniversary, Google announced the launch of Moon in Google Earth. You can now use Google Earth to explore, fly around and search the moon. Here is the video blog post explaining this announcement:

  The Google LatLong [...]

• AOL CEO Tim Armstrong: “The Model Is Disney”
  

  It’s been roughly 100 days since Tim Armstrong was named CEO of AOL in anticipation of a spin-off/IPO of the company from corporate parent TimeWarner later this year. There are a slew of interviews out this morning in which Armstrong assesses his first 100 days, the state of the business and gives some indications of [...]

• Bing To Ramp Up MSNBot 2’s Workload
  

  Microsoft announced that MSNBot 2, which is currently in beta, may be ramped up a lot more and webmasters might begin to notice the new bot in their log files. The new bot has been out there since December 2008, and the useragent is just about the same as the original bot. New Bot: msnbot/2.0b (+http://search.msn.com/msnbot.htm) Current [...]

• 5 Ways To Track Phone Calls Generated From PPC Clicks
  

  The web has given us the ability to track amazing amounts of data. However, that data is only easy to track when the actions take place online. When you conduct business via the phone, in-store, or other ways that cause the user to go offline, the reliability of data begins to suffer. There are several companies [...]

• SMX East Pre-agenda Rate Expires this Friday, July 24 – Don’t Miss Out – Register Today!
  

  Attend Search Marketing Expo – SMX East October 5-7 in NYC and become be a more effective, innovative and inspired internet marketer. Register by this Friday, July 24th and pay only $1095 for three days of exceptional content, invaluable connections, and all with the essential conveniences SMX events provide. The editors of Search Engine Land [...]

• Leveraging Competitive Intelligence For Link Building Campaigns
  

  One of the most common recommendations people make about link building is to find out who links to your competitors (aka backlinking your competitors). This is a great idea, but many people who do this miss the most important point of why you do it. Let’s explore the good things you can do [...]

• Should You Geotag Pages For Local SEO?
  

  Geotagging, the practice of associating precise geocoordinates with webpages or other content, has been around for a while and has seen some popularity increase as sites such as Flickr and Panoramio have adopted the practice. Is it worthwhile for your locally-oriented site as well?

• Is Twitter Sending You 500% To 1600% More Traffic Than You Might Think?
  

  Earlier I posted that Google Analytics and other JavaScript-based tracking tools might be undercounting visits from Twitter. I’ve done some more digging, which supports the case. In my test, Twitter seems to have sent 500% to 1600% more traffic than log files or hosted stats packages like Google Analytics might show. How Twitter [...]

Search News From Around The Web:

Applications & Portal Features

• Could new Google Docs be interface for GDrive?, Googling Google
• Additions to our blog, Yahoo Answers Blog

Business Issues

• Bing, Yahoo! Search and Ad Sales Efficiencies, Hitwise
• Concerns raised as LA looks to Google Web services, The Associated Press
• Google Radio’s Assets Being Bought by WideOrbit, paidContent.org
• Is Yahoo launching a cloud storage solution : MObStor, Royans.net
• Microsoft’s MSN Preps for Major Renovation, AllThingsD
• Yahoo board member Icahn wants Microsoft deal, Reuters
• EU sets hearing over Google books deal, Reuters
• Google not liable for defamation in search results, rules high court, The Guardian
• Hey Newspaper Guys: Google’s Not Making Money From News, TechDirt

Local, Maps & Mobile

• Sorry Google, ‘There’s A URL For That’ Doesn’t Have The Same Ring, mocoNews
• Google Maps suffers Brain Fart: "The Cluster" works in mysterious ways, Mike Blumenthal
• Google Voice: Trouble Calling for Skype?, BusinessWeek

Link Building

• How To Get Quality Back Links The Top Competition Has, Hobo
• Checking for Broken Links and Link Rot and the Importance of Good Site Architecture, Michael Gray
• Cleaning Up Your Website’s Link Architecture, Search Marketing Standard
• It Is Almost Official: Link Exchanging is Still Worth It, Search Engine Journal
• Search Shorts: Link Exchanges Are So 2002, Nine By Blue

Searching

• Yahoo! Search Pad: Using client-side storage to improve user experience, wonko.com
• 50 Tips & Tricks for Researching with Bing, Becoming a Computer Technician
• sigir microsoft research = love, Bing Community

SEM Industry

• Video Recap of Weekly Search Buzz :: July 17, 2009, Search Engine Roundtable
• A Guy Threatens to Sue Me Because My Client is on Page 1, SEO Aware
• Moon Landing Logos From Bing, YouTube But Not Google, Search Engine Roundtable

SEO & SEM

• head’s up on <head> tag optimization (sem 101), Bing Community
• 10 Steps to Advanced Keyword Research, SEOmoz
• Formula To Determine How Competitive One Can Go in SEO, Search Engine Roundtable
• Getting an SEO Copywriting Job, SEOmoz
• Google Picking Titles Incorrectly?, Search Engine Roundtable
• How Google Lifts Mobile Search Ad Success For Vegas.com, MediaPost
• How To Integrate Viral Marketing Into Your Small Business, primaryaffect.com
• Microsoft’s Search Bot MSNBot 2 Adding Pound Signs to URLs?, Search Engine Roundtable
• SEO Can’t Be Automated — or Can It?, Search Marketing Sage

Social Media

• Here’s how you make money out of Twitter – charge £495 for a search interface, TechCrunch
• DiggBar Commits Career Suicide, Starts Redirecting Users To Digg Homepage, TechCrunch
• FriendFeed API v2: Real-time, OAuth, file attachments, and more, FriendFeed Blog
• Is Social Media Really Free?, Serengeti Communications
• StumbleUpon Users… Be Careful What You Stumble, Brent Csutoras
• Web Community Building: Making It Thrive, Online Marketing Blog

Video, Music & Image Search

• Wikipedia’s controversial video player coming soon, News.com
• Google Image Search – Second Only To Web Search In Size, Natural Search Blog
• YouTube Testing 3D Videos (YT3D), Search Engine Roundtable

Web Analytics

• Comparing Days Of The Week, Google Analytics Blog

Other Items

• Google Removes Triforce From Logos, Google Blogoscoped

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