SearchCap: The Day In Search, July 23, 2008

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’s Knol Launches: Like Wikipedia, With Moderation
  After six months of testing, Google has formally rolled out Knol, a service designed to let people create pages of knowledge on any topic they choose. While Google says Knol is not designed to compete with Wikipedia — and there are good arguments to back this up — I…
• Now Google Searches For “Educating” Not Safe For Family Viewing
  I feel bad for always seeming to pick on Google about showing inappropriate images in normal web search. But it’s happened again. This morning at the Search Engine Roundtable, I explained that a search for [educating] returns a “teacher standing over a student holding a small rod, with the student’s…
• Live QnA Adds Features & Firefox 3 Support
  The Live QnA blog announced that the Live QnA question and answer site has been updated with several feature and design releases. Here is a brief overview of those changes:…
• The Better Business Bureaus Rates Google As “Unsatisfactory”
  Google, the superbrand and top global brand is also listed on the Better Business Bureaus (BBB) list of businesses as having an “unsatisfactory record.” The reason Google has this unsatisfactory rating from the BBB is because Google has failed “to respond to one or more complaints and or two or…
• Rumor: Google To Buy Digg For $200 Million?
  There are ways in which Digg is like YouTube: it’s the “brand” in a competitive “social news” segment that also features Yahoo Buzz, AOL’s Propeller, MySpace News, Reddit, Ask Big News and, by some counts, more than 80 others. Similarly YouTube was the “brand” in a crowded video segment when…
• Yahoo Q2 Revenues Flat, No Help For Shareholder Meeting
  Analysts expectations were low and, depending on the analyst, Yahoo barely met or missed them. According to the press release, “Revenues were $1,798 million for the second quarter of 2008, a 6 percent increase compared to $1,698 million for the same period of 2007.” Net income fell 18 percent. The…

Search News From Around The Web:

Applications & Portal Features

• Drug Scams on Google Sites, Digital Inspiration
• Google launches gallery of 300 document templates, Newsday.com

Business Issues

• What’s Google News worth? $100 million, FORTUNE
• How I Spent My Weekend, The Icahn Report
• Yahoo: Microhoo, Icahn drama cost us $22 million; Economy soft, ZDNet
• Leaving Yahoo!, Chad Dickerson
• IAC to take $170M in charges for spinoffs, The Associated Press
• Viacom CEO Philippe Dauman on Google’s ‘rogue company’, News.com
• How Google could lose the Viacom/YouTube lawsuit – Part I, E-Consultancy
• News Corp. COO: ‘Scarcity’ key to online advertising, News.com

Local, Maps & Mobile

• Are Google Maps good or evil?, News.com
• Waiting for Google, BusinessWeek
• AT&T developing voice-controlled iPhone apps (video), AppleInsider
• Episodic Makes Flash Videos iPhone-Friendly, TechCrunch

Paid Search & Contextual

• Find your adCenter ad on Live Search: "Where is my ad?" Flash tutorial – adCenter Blog for Advertisers, adcentercommunity.com
• Recording of July Webcast with Program Manager Shamit Patel On adCenter API Version 5.1 Update – adCenter API Blog for Developers, adcentercommunity.com
• Are Small Businesses Giving Up on Google AdWords?, Search Engine Roundtable

Searching

• Google on One Boxes and Grouping Result Types to Fill Informational Needs, SEO By The Sea
• MedPedia Is Wikifying the Medical Search Space, TechCrunch
• Google launches Maori-language search site, www.news.com.au
• Alternative Search Results Part II, altsearchengines.com
• Trouble in Online Travel: American Airlines Ditches Kayak (Maybe Orbitz Too), TechCrunch

SEM Industry

• Tamar Weinberg 1 of 5 interviews with Austincast.com, blip.tv
• Search Engine Optimization in Haiku, SEOmoz

SEO & SEM

• Google’s Keyword Tool With Volume Numbers: Useful or Ho-Hum?, Traffick
• SEM Bootcamp: How Search Engines See Keywords, Search Engine Guide
• Google’s Cache Database Back On Track?, Search Engine Roundtable
• How Valid Are Your Landing Page Test Conclusions?, Search Engine Watch
• Is the role of the SEO dead and should PRs own natural search?, E-Consultancy
• Seven Building Blocks of a Destination Website, Search Engine Guide
• On-Site Geo-Targeting and Local Search Optimization, Search Engine Journal
• The Japanese Search, Why Don’t We?, Search Engine Watch
• Pagination – php .htaccess paging code for seo, SEO Home

Social Media

• Facebook Wants To Be Your Default Home Page, Vanessa Fox
• FriendFeed adds support for Plurk and Identi.ca, Inquisitr
• Global Neighbourhoods: Is social media becoming a vast wasteland?, Global Neighbourhoods
• Follower Stats by TwitterCounter, Twitter Blog
• It’s Facebook Day! Say Hello To The Three Tier App System, TechCrunch
• Twitter v Google, Wikipedia, Digg & Yelp, Global Neighbourhoods

Video, Music & Image Search

• More Inappropriate Images Popping Up in Google Web Search, Search Engine Roundtable
• NEC Develops Ad System w/ Face Recognition Technology, Tech-On!
• YouTube Exec: We’re Selling Ads Against ‘Less Than 3%’ Of Our Videos, Alley Insider

Other Items

• Google announces the winners of the 2008 Google-O’Reilly Open Source Awards, News.com
• What if you could own your Internet connection?, Google Public Policy Blog

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

• Usability and SEO
• The Danger of Social Media and Too Much Trust
• Paid Search in Football Terms
• What’s the Real Benefit from Google Sitelinks?
• Cool Tools & Firefox Extensions for SEO Enthusiasts
• Google In Final Negotiations To Acquire Digg For “Around $200 Million”
• 301 Redirect SEO Nightmare From Hell
• B2B Content SEO
• Building Social Networks With Guest Blogging
• New Analytics Package Tracks Conversions – BLVD Status
• Sphinn Adds Nofollow To Upcoming
• Local SEO. Is Merchant Circle SEO better than Facebook + LinkedIn for Small Businesses?
• 6 Common Mistakes Companies Make in Social Media
• Proof You Can Buy Your Way to No. 1 on Google & Yahoo
• The Link Building The Kiss of Death
• Are You Letting Your Employees Out on the Green in Social Media?