SearchCap: The Day In Search, July 26, 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:

• Official: Google Panda 2.3 Update Is Live

  Google has confirmed to Search Engine Land that late last week, it pushed out a small update to the Panda filter. “We’re continuing to iterate on our Panda algorithm as part of our commitment to returning high-quality sites to Google users,” a Google spokesperson told us. “This most recent update is one of the roughly […]
• Google Plus One Button Now 3X Faster

  Google announced they have now speed up the Google +1 button for websites. The button is now automatically up to 3 times faster and best of all, webmasters do not need to update their code for the speed changes to take affect. The change is automatic. Google said, “no action is required on your part, […]

• Just A Matter Of Time: Google +1′s Being Sold By The Thousands

  A report by the Atlantic shined a light on a new “social media service” which allows users to purchase Google +1′s in bulk. The site in question, Pluseem, has a variety of different Google+ package sizes, from 50 plusses to 2,000, with the prices ranging from $0.18 – $0.38 per plus. Of course this is a […]

• The Preview Post: Search Engine Land’s SMX East 2011 Comes To NYC & Why You Should Go

  Search Engine Land’s SMX East search engine marketing conference is headed back to New York City from Sept. 13-15. We’ve got a great agenda. This is my semi-traditional preview for our readers of what we’ve got planned. You should go! Here’s why. Why Everyone Should Come! SMX East is one of the two large Search […]

• Russia’s Search Engine Yandex Steathily Moves West

  Yandex now has deeper cash pockets following its IPO — so where and in what type of expansion is the company going to expand? Moving west and south perhaps? There are good competitive reasons why Yandex needs to take its battle with Google to other markets — but it also needs to be secure at home — in Russia.

• A Google Plus Primer On Links & Rank

  There are a lot of questions bouncing around about Google+ links and their impact and effect on rank. I will share what I feel confident about and also give you a road map of must read articles that once read, will really help you to feel more comfortable with what we do and don’t know […]

• Effects Of Choice Positioning On Social Purchasing Behavior

  As I discussed in How Prototype Theory Influences a Social Strategy, they way that people influence others and their decisions is based on their associations with certain words and phrases. For example, the word tree will most likely bring up an image of an oak or maple tree in a person’s mind, versus a less […]

• Twitter Search Gets “New Twitter” Look & Feel

  For ages, Twitter has operated a standalone Twitter Search site in addition to allowing people to search from within Twitter.com itself. Today, that standalone site has gained a new location and been upgraded to match the Twitter.com search experience. Previously, Twitter Search was located at https://search.twitter.com. Now, that address leads to https://twitter.com/search, as tweeted by […]

Search News From Around The Web:

Business Issues

• Baidu Profit Jumps on Customer Growth, Wall Street Journal

Local, Maps & Mobile

• Find nearby deals with Google Shopper 1.5 for iPhone, Official Google Mobile Blog

Link Building

• 7 Tips For Writing Better Link Pitches, Outspoken Media

Searching

• When is National Popcorn Day?, Inside Search
• California History: Online Archive of California (OAC) and Calisphere Add Local History Resources, infodocket.com
• Greplin Wants You To Redesign Wikipedia Search, TechCrunch

SEO & SEM

• A Shortcut to the Grail: How Semantic Search Can Boost Internet Marketing for Small Businesses, BruceClay
• Getting Stuff Done by Video, SEOmoz
• Google AdWords Testing Uppercase Display URLs, Search Engine Roundtable
• Google Plus Buttons Too Slow? Hurting Your Google Rankings?, Search Engine Roundtable
• How SEO and Social Media Add Up to Online Marketing Success, Search Engine Journal
• How SEO Link Wheels Work And Why Are They So Effective?, Shoemoney
• Microsoft adCenter Editorial Guidelines: Best Practices to Avoid Disapprovals, adCenter Blog
• Mind the Bid-to-CPC Gap in Paid Search, Rimm Kaufman
• New PPC Campaigns Don’t Start from Scratch, Alan Rothstein

Social Media

• AU — Don’t Judge a (Face)Book by its Cover: A critical review of the implications of social networking sites, INFOdocket
• Facebook Lets Users Opt Out of ‘Tag Suggestions’ Feature, Connecticut Says, Bloomberg
• How to Tweet From Your Archives Without Pissing People Off, Michael Gray
• New Report: “#SocialCongress: Perceptions and Use of Social Media on Capitol Hill”, infodocket.com
• The Social Media Showdown: Google+ Beating LinkedIn, Closing In On Twitter, Facebook, WordStream

Video, Music & Image Search

• 71% of Online Adults Now Use Video-Sharing Sites, Pew Research Center

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

• Multi Channel Funnels in Google Analytics – Good post on using and understanding Google Analytics’ multi-channel funnels.
• How To Filter Brand Terms From Generic Using Custom GA Segments – An original, advaned piece from Stephen Coombe on Youmoz, digging deep into GA.