SearchCap: The Day In Search, July 21, 2011

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

From Search Engine Land:

• StumbleUpon Testing New ‘Explore Box’ Search Tool

  Some StumbleUpon users have been opted in to a new feature that seems to be aimed at helping them search and find interesting web pages more easily. StumbleUpon calls it their “Explore Box” and, if you’re part of the test, it can be accessed at www.stumbleupon.com/explore. The page, shown above, is currently very Googley with […]
• Bing Getting Ready To Launch HTML5 Interface? Live Tiles, Instant Results & More

  Rafael Rivera spotted a new Bing interface where Bing was overlaying “live titles” on top of the home page’s awesome backgrounds. This is the new Bing HTML5 interface, that Bing has been for several months. Winrumors reports that along with these “live titles,” Bing will be introducing a form of Google Instant search. The Instant […]

• Content Marketing is the New Black

  Learn how marketers are building successful content marketing campaigns — and how to find the right content marketing partner for your business. Read this E-Solution Spotlight at Search Engine Land.

• Google Adds URL Parameter Options to Google Webmaster Tools

  In 2009, Google launched the parameter handling feature of Google webmaster tools, which enabled site owners to specify the parameters on their site that were optional vs. required. A year later, they improved this feature by providing an option for a default value. Google says that they’ve seen a positive impact from the usage of those […]

• Google Removes Mashable, Sesame Street & Other Prominent Accounts From Google Plus

  Some of the biggest company/brand accounts on Google+ have now — finally, some might say — been removed. The Google Plus pages for Mashable, Ford and Sesame Street are all gone. Our own Search Engine Land page has also been removed. Mashable was, according to SocialStatistics.com, the No. 4 most popular account on Google+ with […]

• Google+ Traffic Growth Continues, Up 283% From Previous Week

  Numbers from Experian Hitwise show that Google+ showed big gains again last week. For the week ending on July 16th Google+ saw over 1.8 million total visits. This is a 283% increase from the previous week and an increase of 821% from the week of July2nd. The following chart shows the total US visits to Google+: Other pertinent […]

• Report: 58% of SMBs On Social Media Sites, Most Have Only Limited Engagement

  There’s been a boatload of survey data released in the past six months documenting the adoption of social media by US small businesses (SMBs). The numbers range from about 40 to 70 percent of SMBs reporting they’re using social media to some degree. Yet survey data aren’t always accurate because it’s challenging to get a […]

• Load Speed Matters: Where To Start Trimming The Fat

  How fast a webpage downloads and displays in a user’s browser has always been important for online stores, primarily because faster loading pages convert better than slow pages. One of the easiest ways to increase sales is to radically slim down category and product pages to make shopping faster and easier. But in recent times, […]

• After Six Years, Google Drops Support For Toolbar On Firefox

  Google has announced the end of supporting the Google Toolbar for Firefox. Google said the Google Toolbar works in versions of Firefox 4 or younger, but not the new version 5 of Firefox. Google explained, “many features that were once offered by Google Toolbar for Firefox are now already built right into the browser.” So […]

• How Attribution Management Enhances Search Retargeting

  The concept of search retargeting isn’t especially new, but it certainly remains in the early adopter stage from a practical perspective. For a while now, companies like Simpli.fi, Magnetic and Chango have been offering marketers the ability to identify Internet users who have performed a search on a given search term on one of the […]

• Key Principles To Follow When Examining Keyword Difficulty

  Understanding keyword difficulty will help you to choose which queries to compete for, both now and in the future. It comes down to three things. Competition. The number of pages indexed by a search engine for a query. Authority. The ranking strength of a webpage as determined by incoming links to the page and the […]

• The Bassackwardness Of Being Verified On Twitter, Facebook & Google+

  As we await for Google+ to figure out however it wants to handle verified accounts, it’s worth reflecting how Google already has a verification system in place that’s been lost and how Twitter’s supposedly “closed” program continues on in stealth mode. Why can’t either of these companies get it right? And why can’t Facebook even […]

• Local Search A Multi-Site, Cross-Platform Affair — Report

  Google may currently “own” search, but local search is a different story. Mapping sites, specialized local sites, general search engines and deals, as well as mobile browsers and apps constitute the distributed landscape of local, according to a new report, “The State of Local Search,” released yesterday by the Local Search Association (LSA), with data […]

• Harry Potter EBooks To Be Released In Open Google EBook Format

  When “Harry Potter” series author J.K. Rowling announced she would finally allow e-book versions of her titles to be sold, though exclusively on the soon-to-be-launched Pottermore.com, it was noted that the move bypassed retailers like Amazon.com. Google has managed to get in on the action, however — at least from a PR perspective — as […]

Search News From Around The Web:

Applications & Portal Features

• Make multiple calls in Gmail, Official Gmail Blog

Business Issues

• Apple, Google Are Said to Be Among Companies Sizing Up InterDigital Offers, Bloomberg
• Exclusive: Google offers credit card to advertisers, Reuters
• Fridge Acquired by Google to Build Groups in Google, AllThingsD
• Google And Facebook Spent Record Amounts On Lobbying In Q2 2011, TechCrunch
• Google Tried To Buy Color For $200 Million. Color Said No., TechCrunch

Local, Maps & Mobile

• Nexus S Comes to AT&T, Official Google Mobile Blog

Link Building

• Surveys For Link Building, Search Engine Roundtable

Paid Search & Contextual

• Upcoming improvements to Custom Search Engines, Inside AdSense

Searching

• Google Scholar "Citations" Launches & A Look at What Microsoft Is Up To With Academic Search, infodocket.com

SEO & SEM

• 24 Top Paid Search Metrics Explained, Rimm Kaufman
• 8 Crazy Titles Every Good SEO Expert Should Have!, Box Of Insight
• Doorway Pages Traffic Apocalypse, hobo
• Google Says Do Not Use Meta Refresh Tags, Search Engine Roundtable
• How Google Might Rank Pages Based upon Usage Information, SEO By The Sea
• Optimizing H1 tags using sIFR, Shimon Sandler
• SEO Developments You Need to Know About, WebProNews

Social Media

• Google Hires JustSpotted/Scoopler Team To Work On Google, TechCrunch
• How Blocking Users on Twitter, Facebook and Google Plus Works, SEO Smarty
• More Than Two-Thirds of Google + Activity Is Private, AllThingsD
• Tulalip Tribes question Microsoft about name for company’s social media project, HeraldNet.com

Video, Music & Image Search

• Your Old Photos May Be Visible to All on Google, PC Magazine

Web Analytics

• Google Analytics – Is that really you?, Search Engine People

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

• Top 10 Ways to Use Email Marketing Effectively – Many businesses implement the use of email marketing in tandem with their overall marketing strategy. From e-commerce sites to brick and mortar stores, large or small, business all around are engaging in email marketing to increase sales. Statistics don’t lie, 88% of B2C firms currently use email marketing and another 10% are planning to use it before December 2011. This is great for business as 72% of responding companies reported ‘excellent’ or ‘good’ return of investments for email marketing plans.
• The Commoditization of SEO – An interesting take by Tony Verre on how the commoditization of SEO service might effect the individual SEO practitioner.
• Blog SMO Guide: How to Apply Social Media Optimization to Your Blog in 33 Steps – Fairly deep post with examples on how to work social media into a blog.
• How I became a postmodern SEO – Great guest post by Joe Hall on how to approach SEO based on context instead of some sort of idealic "best practices" mentality.