SearchCap: The Day In Search, June 1, 2007

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 Confirms Acquisition Of FeedBurner
  The Google Blog has confirmed the rumors upon rumors that they have acquired FeedBurner. Google said they have acquired them to give “AdWords advertisers broader distribution to an even wider audience of users.” You can find FeedBurner’s CEO, Dick Costolo’s thoughts on the acquisition here….
• Search In Pictures: Huge Google Maps Pin, Tiny Yahoo Car, & No Worries At Outback Steakhouse
  In this week’s Search In Pictures, here are the latest images culled from the web, showing what people eat at the search engine companies, how they play, who they meet, where they speak, what toys they have and more….
• SMX Advanced Now Sold Out; Only Expo Passes Available
  That’s it! The last conference pass for our first Search Marketing Expo event — SMX Advanced in Seattle next Monday and Tuesday — has now gone. Huge thanks to everyone who has helped make the event officially a sell-out success. Networking passes allowing entrance to the expo hall and networking…
• Google AdWords Getting Bolder
  We spotted a new Google AdWords phenomenon yesterday – as you know, Google “bolds” words in ad text that match the keywords you’re bidding on. The example below shows that synonyms of keywords are now appearing in boldface. We’ve confirmed with Google that this is a new “feature,” and it…
• Dogpile: Search Results On Major Engines Diverging
  InfoSpace-owned metasearch engine Dogpile, which recently refreshed its homepage and made other, minor changes, published the results of its second “search overlap” study. The first study, released in 2005 and commissioned from the University of Pittsburgh and Pennsylvania State University, found that 84.9 percent of results on search engines were…
• AOL Local Search Released Second Beta
  Gary Price reported that AOL Local Search announced the release of their second beta for AOL Local Search. The new features documented in this second release include:…
• Schmidt Calls Viacom’s $1B Lawsuit “Just A Mistake”
  Google’s Eric Schmidt: Viacom’s lawsuit is ‘just a mistake’ from News.com reports that when Walt Mossberg questioned Eric Schmidt about Viacom suing YouTube for $1 billion earlier this, year, Google’s CEO responded that “it was probably just a mistake.” Of course, Mr. Mossberg was not satisfied with that answer. He…
• Google Provides More Hints On Mobile Phone Rumors
  Google Offers New Details On Its Cellphone Strategy from the Wall Street Journal reports Eric Schmidt, Google’s CEO, revealed more information on Google’s mobile phone plans. While Schmidt did not confirm rumors to build their own phone, it is believed that Google is building a mobile phone operating system. Schmidt…
• Google Custom Search Engine For Book Search Partners
  Google Launches New Tool for Google Book Search Partner Program from the Book Standard reports that Google is launching a new tool for Google Book Search partners. The new tool appears to be like Google’s Custom Search Engine, but specifically designed around Google Book Search. Partners will be able to…
• Microsoft Adds In-Copyright Books & New Features To Live Search Books
  Today Microsoft announced that they have added in-copyright books to Live Search Books. Microsoft said they have only included books that their publishing partners have given permission to include. In addition, Live Search Books upgraded their design to enable two pane browsing of books. On the left pane are book…
• What To Make Of Google Gears
  Being a non-developer I was a bit of a fish out of water at Google Developer Day yesterday. The event, which took place in the 10 countries where Google has offices, was intended to showcase Google Gears and the company’s various APIs. I attended the event in California, which was…
• Searcharazzi: Let the Layoffs Begin
  Listen up, HR managers, there’s a fresh crop of search employees on the block. iCrossing commenced a round of layoffs this week. Rumor has it that the new CFO, Michael Jackson, is not driving continued growth, but cutting the fat based on profitability of offices and accounts. As of…
• A Tale Of Two Cultures
  Last week I had the opportunity to present some very preliminary results from our Chinese eye tracking study to a Chinese audience at Search Engine Strategies Xiamen. We’re still going over the results and preparing a final report, the highlights of which I’ll cover in this column in a…

Search News Headlines From Elsewhere

Applications & Portal Features

• New Domains Registered to Google; New Google ‘Mashup’ Blog, ResourceShelf

• Full-Featured Gadgets for Google Services, Google Operating System
• Declutter iGoogle, Google Operating System

• So Easy to Send Spam Using Google Alerts, Digital Inspiration

• Google Desktop for the Mac 1.0.3, Google Mac Blog

Conferences

• Cshel’s SMX travel schedule, Cshel
• Google Developer Day 2007 Gallery, Google Blogoscoped

• SMX Weather Alert, Small Business SEM

• Yahoo! Search at the Inaugural Search Marketing Expo, Yahoo! Search Blog
• SMX Seattle Next Week - SEO Meet SMM, Stuntdubl

Business Issues

• Baidu to appoint Shen Haoyu as new COO, Interfax China

• A Look At Whom Google And Yahoo Are Hiring, Seeking Alpha

• YouTubers and Viacom CEO weigh in on copyrights, Between the Lines
• Trouble at Yahoo?, Mediapost Blog

• Google hires former DOJ lawyer to lobby, Seattle PI

• Google’s Internal Company Goals Revisited, Google Blogoscoped

Local, Maps & Mobile

• Top 15 Google Street View Sightings, Mashable
• Calling all ‘Maps and Local’ Hackers, Yahoo Local Blog

• Google Plans Adsense for Maps, Read/Write Web

Paid Search & Contextual

• adCenter Help is available again, adCenter Blog
• Improving Text Segmentation for Displaying Advertisements and Filtering Search Results, SEO By The Sea
• Yahoo! Bolding Domain Names in Sponsored Results (Search Ads), Search Engine Roundtable
• Nobody Likes to Hear Their Baby is Ugly, Search Engine Watch
• AdCenter and the travel industry: CruisesOnly case study, adCenter Blog

Searching

• J.D. Power and Associates ranked Dogpile.com “Highest in Customer Satisfaction” in its 2006 , InfoSpace
• What search engines know about us, BBC NEWS

• hakia Invites You to Play With Our Semantic Resources, Hakia Blog

• Startup Search Exposes the People Behind Web Startups, Read/Write Web

SEM Industry

• The PPC Queen Gets Reviewlicious, Evil Green Monkey
• Bruce Clay Welcomes Mike Grehan to the Family, Bruceclay.com
• What Should “Search Engine Optimizers” Call Themselves?, Search Engine Roundtable
• Search Engine Land Hiding Text & Spamming Search Engines, Said Sullivan, Search Engine Roundtable
• Bruce Clay, Inc., Mike Grehan

SEO & SEM

• 525,600 Metrics – How Do You Measure; Measure a Link?, SEOmoz
• June Google Update?, Search Engine Roundtable
• Five reasons why you need an SEO strategy, E-consultancy.com
• Sponsored Review SEO Spyglass, Wolf Howl
• When Buying Links, PageRank is Not the Final Answer, Search Engine Roundtable
• Online marketing the cold call SEO tips lessons learnt, DaveN
• Can SEO be Automated?, Threadwatch
• Search Relevancy & Keeping Promises, SEO Book
• Search Engine Strategies Mythbusting, Traffick

Social Media

• Meet the people of the Web, Yahoo Yodel
• ‘Second Life’ publisher must go to court in property case, News.com
• Twitter by Default in Netvibes, Twitter Blog
• 3 Common Misconceptions Regarding Digg, Pronet Advertising
• Book world tunes into Internet social networks, Reuters
• Sproose: Human Powered Search Meets Digg, Techcrunch
• LiveJournal Faces Community Backlash for Deleting Accounts, Marketing Pilgrim
• ‘Second Life’ takes tough stance on taboos, News.com

Video & Image Search

• Search Flickr Photos & Download them in a Batch, Digital Inspiration
• The Local Video Revolution, Search Engine Watch

Other Items

• New Real Estate Info Database: Trulia Hindsight, ResourceShelf
• 7 steps to writing better spam email (or, what to do if you’ve got an overstock of viagra), Vanessa Fox
• Plumbing the web, Official Google Webmaster Central Blog
• Google, Like God, Knows What You’re Doing, MarketingVOX
• More Content Being Added to Microsoft Live Book Search, Don’t Forget About Other Sources Including Amazon’s Search Inside the Book, ResourceShelf
• Google Hamburg Office Gallery, Google Blogoscoped
• Forget Googlewhacking, Try Finding a Googlenope, Marketing Pilgrim
• How Smart Do You Have To Be To Work For Google?, Search Engine Journal
• UK PR firms fail to track online media coverage, Distilled