SearchCap: The Day In Search, July 31, 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:

• Del.licio.us Now Delicious.com, With Improvements
  Delicious has now relaunched under Delicious.com with some new functionality. The old Delicious was at del.icio.us and should soon redirect to the new dot com address. Along with the domain change, the Delicious site has been redesigned to aid newcomers on using the site. Here are before and after screen…
• Google Tests Related Search Phrases Inline With Search Results
  Aaron Wall noticed Google is testing a new location for “related” search results. This time, the location appears to be directly under each individual search result’s URL. Here is a screen shot of it in action, from Aaron’s blog:…
• Britain Clears The Way For Google Street Views; Google Argues No “Complete Privacy” In US StreetView Court Case
  Watchdog clears Google’s street cameras from The Guardian reports Britain’s Information Commissioner’s Office has officially given their approval over the privacy risks with the Street Views option in Google Maps. Meanwhile in the US, Google is arguing in a court case against StreetView that there is no “complete privacy.”…
• Do The Google Webmaster Support Reps Really Work?
  Maile posted a Google blog post named A day in the life of webmaster support. The blog post basically takes you through a typical day at Google for a Google Webmaster Trends Analysts. Here is the video, it is about 7 minutes long and is fun to watch:…
• Report: Google To Develop A Venture-Capital Unit
  Google to Extend Reach With Venture-Capital Arm from the Wall Street Journal reports Google is in the early stages of putting together a corporate venture-capital unit, within Google. Google’s senior vice president of corporate development and chief legal officer, David Drummond, is reported to be leading up the new unit….
• How To Get New Web Sites To Rank Quickly
  What is the difference between an unremarkable no value add thin ecommerce site, and a top ranked site? In some industries the difference is simply site age. Sites that were around a few years ago had fewer competitors, so it was easier for them to rank. As they aged…
• Is Google Universal Search A Walled Garden?
  Although Google Universal Search (GUS) is still very much in flux, it’s been a part of the SEO landscape for a while now. In that time, there have been some good studies about how often GUS presents video results, and some research into how it ranks videos versus text…
• Report: Newspapers, Yellow Pages Battle For Local Online Advertising Revenues
  A new report from analyst firm Borrell Associates contains fairly dire revenue projections for both local newspapers and print yellow pages ($5 billion in projected print revenue losses in five years). The newspaper angle is picked up today by the Wall Street Journal and PaidContent, which both lay out some…
• A Small Business Marketing Success Story: K9cuisine.com
  Being small is hard enough. But being small and in retail? That’s like having two strikes against you before the game even begins. From setting up relationships with banks, to finding trustworthy suppliers, to building a loyal customer base, being a small retailer is a challenge many businesses can’t…

Search News From Around The Web:

Applications & Portal Features

• More layout control and better integration with Google Docs and Webmaster Tools, Google Sites Blog

Business Issues

• Google’s Tookey takes European role at Ask, NMA
• Icahn Won’t Attend Yahoo Annual Shareholder Meeting, CNN Money
• Joining Hunch, Caterina.net
• Google VP Marissa Mayer Appears on Fox Business Network, Search Engine Watch Blog

Local, Maps & Mobile

• Brand New Beijing Olympics Satellite Imagery in Google Earth, Google Earth Blog
• Eye on Earth Water Watch (and Virtual Earth), Virtual Earth, An Evangelist’s Blog
• Google LBC Communications Options Explained, Mike Blumenthal
• Google Maps and the wrong URL, Mike Blumenthal
• Google Maps Reincludes "Fix Incorrect Marker Location" Feature, Search Engine Roundtable
• Google: "Complete Privacy Does Not Exist", The Smoking Gun
• Microsoft Virtual Earth Deprecation Reminder, Virtual Earth, An Evangelist’s Blog
• Avoiding tolls, Google LatLong
• Google Street View car pulled over by police for driving in bus lane, Telegraph

Link Building

• Link Building: Understand Where You Are To Know Where You’re Going, Search Engine Watch

Paid Search & Contextual

• (Ad)Word of the Day: Keyword Insertion, Inside AdWords
• Getting started with adCenter: creating ad groups – adCenter Blog for Advertisers, adcentercommunity.com
• adCenter France – PPC Search Market Research – adCenter Blog for Advertisers, adcentercommunity.com
• Yahoo Publisher Network Payout Decrease an Error, Search Engine Roundtable

Searching

• Most drive-by malware comes from China, Google says, News.com
• Yahoo! BOSS is easy – meet Yuil, java rants
• Where is _____? The Internet Lost and Found, Hitwise

SEM Industry

• SEO Training: What’s Your Favorite Flavor?, BruceClay.com
• Is the SEM Intern Today’s Apprentice?, EngineWorks
• SearchCamp Launches with PodCamp Philly in Philadelphia!, Search Marketing Gurus

SEO & SEM

• Content and Marketing Lessons Learned from The Dark Knight, SEOmoz
• Getting Paid to Edit the Search Results, SEO Book
• Google Webmaster Tools Incorrectly Reporting Some 404 Errors, Search Engine Roundtable
• How Do You Tell Your Client about the SEO Work You’re Doing?, Search Engine Roundtable
• It’s an SEO and PPC Party, but are They Missing an Important Friend?, Serengeti Communications
• SheerSEO : Another Way To Track Your Google Rankings, Search Engine Journal
• The Future of SEM Education, Search Engine Watch
• What are the Most Important Search Engine Optimization Practices?, Search Engine Roundtable
• I Have A Question: The Best Of Q&A, SEOmoz
• Introducing the New Froogle Performance Dashboard, The Matchbox
• Submit Your Google Sites Sitemap to Google Webmaster Tools, Search Engine Roundtable
• The Importance of Context in Content, SiteLogic

Social Media

• Facebook Launches News Feed Filters – First Look, Inside Facebook
• Socialmedian Brings A New Take On News Filtering, TechCrunch
• Twitter Versus Plurk: The UI Advantage, Read/Write Web

Video, Music & Image Search

• A More Customized Local Experience on YouTube, YouTube Blog
• YouTube Has Speech-to-Text Functionality…..and it Works, Beet.TV

Web Analytics

• adCenter Analytics Deep Dive – The Dashboard – adCenter Analytics Blog, adcentercommunity.com
• What Is Considered a "View" in YouTube?, Search Engine Roundtable

Other Items

• Google Energy Guru Pushes Congress to Insulate America, New York Times
• Getting to grips with Google Earth, CNN.com

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

• SEMpdx Search Fest 2009 – Danny Sullivan Keynote Speaker 
• Google Suggests Disabled Dating Clubs For Cheap Dates
• 3 Ways to Give Your Keywords Prominence
• SEO Terminology: Orphan and Dead-End Pages
• Reputation Management: Because You’re Worth It
• Chatting with a Google Street View Driver
• Checking Page HTTP Headers
• Successful Viral Marketing Strategy: Interview with Dave of Language Trainer's Accent Game
• Sell your #12 Google Ranking to Dragons Den for £255,000!
• Traffic Marks: Terrific New Linkbuilding Tool
• Oriango is the First Dictionary of Contents on the Web.
• Ways to Find Out if Your Site Has Been Hacked or Hijacked
• Julie Joyce Vomits on Banal SEO Blogging
• What Are Your Favorite SEO Analogies?
• 5 Powerful Local SEM Tactics
• How to learn SEO in 2008
• Comparing Search Engine Performance: How does Cuil Stack Up to Google, Yahoo!, Live & Ask
• Protect Your Reputation Via FriendFeed
• Advanced Backlink Research Queries: Rand's "Give it Up" Presentation