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 Adds Numeric Scale And CSV Downloads To Google Trends
  Google Trends has been a popular tool since its launch in 2006. It is one of several free tools that provides some helpful insight into search query popularity and by extension search volumes (although the tool doesn’t explicitly report on search volumes). Since launch Google has added features, such as…
• Trust the Linkers, Not The Links
  As much as I hate to pile on, run it into the ground, or beat a dead horse, when the topic is link bait I can’t resist, thus this week’s Link Week column. The recent fake-news-story-as-successful-link-bait event and the surrounding firestorm has bugged me and had me thinking, which…
• Landing Pages: Part of the Site, or Part of the Ad?
  Quick question: how do you think of your landing pages? (a) As part of your site. (b) As part of your ads. When you reflect on it, the answer probably should be a little of both. For most online marketing campaigns, landing pages are transitional — a bridge from the…
• Smooth Sailing Through The Rough Waters Of A Down Economy
  Economic waves rise and fall and Internet retailers are as vulnerable to capsizing as any business. Why do some local businesses seem to ride it out more easily than others? What can you do to help your business stick around until the next break in the storm? Here are…
• McCain Using Google To Vet VP Candidates
  According to Reuters presumptive Republican nominee John McCain is using Google as a tool to do background checks on potential running mates: "You know, basically it’s a Google," he said to laughter at a fund-raising luncheon when asked how the selection process was going. "What you can find out now…
• Search Illustrated: Search World 2008
  Search engine results aren’t realized simply from optimizing your web site anymore. This week’s infographic shows that gaining an understanding of the multi-channel nature of the Internet is key to successful online marketing campaigns:…
• Instant (Bad) Karma’s Gonna Get Ya: AdWords Account Quality At Startup
  This one’s for all of you consultants, agencies, and in-house SEM’s who find themselves "inheriting" a sloppily-built account started by someone else. It’s also a cautionary tale for anyone thinking about "casually" starting out an AdWords account. Hopefully I’ll save you some cash today, but in particular I hope…

Search News From Around The Web:

Apps & Portal Features

• Google Docs to Add PDF Storage, Google Operating System
• Rumor: A WebKit-based GBrowser?, Google Blogoscoped

Business Issues

• Yahoo Shareholders Seek Repeal of Severance Plan, New York Times

Link Building

• Cross Sell to Build Links and Increase Rankings – Search Engine Guide Blog, Search Engine Guide
• Organizing Your Link Lists for Effective Link Building, Search Engine Journal

Local, Maps & Mobile

• Bringing Richer Data to a Local Search Near You, Google LatLong
• Street View turns 1, keeps on growing, Google LatLong
• Google Maps Mashup Award Winners!, Google Maps Mania
• Google Maps meets ‘Grand Theft Auto’, News.com

Paid Search & Contextual

• Clinton Needed More Search: Q&A With Google’s Greenberger, ClickZ
• Inside AdSense: The AdSense Pub(lisher) Crawl, Inside AdSense
• New third parties for the Google content network, Official Google Blog

Searching

• Amazing Firefox Search Engines Selection, Brian White
• Hot Searches from June 09, 2008, AOL Hot Searches
• Lingro: Possibly The Coolest Dictionary and Translation Service We’ve Ever Seen, Read/Write Web
• Is Google Making Us Stupid?, The Atlantic

SEM Industry

• 3 Tips to Help You Find Your Next SEO Job, Search Engine Journal
• BIGLIST SEO Blogs Update 060608, Online Marketing Blog
• Do We Need SEO Forums?, Search Engine Roundtable
• Is black hat SEO advanced enough to be called advanced SEO?, SEO Theory and Analysis Blog
• Online Ad Spend Intact Despite Weakening Economy, Search Engine Watch

SEO & SEM

• 3 Best Desktop Backlink Checking Tools, Search Engine Journal
• A Googler’s Sage Advice on Absolute vs. Relative URLs, Search Engine Roundtable
• Search Freindly, Unfriendly and Meh-Friendly Links, Search Engine Guide
• SearchMonkey Apes The Chicken Co-op, MediaPost
• Keyword Discovery Process for Small Businesses, SEOmoz
• Silverlight Optimization, Interview with Jonathan Hochman, Search Engine Journal

Social Media

• Online Marketing Tips Video: Business Tips for Twitter, Search Marketing Gurus

Web Analytics

• FeedBurner’s New Home, Google Operating System

Other Items

• Google Street?, Brian White

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

• There’s No Such Thing as Advanced White Hat SEO
• Top 7 Must have Firefox Extensions, Plugins, and Tools
• AdWords 911: The 4 Step Emergency Fix for Dying AdWords Accounts
• Relationships and Online Social Networks: The Value of Sites Like Twitter and Plurk
• Title-tags for dummies? How-to explain basic SEO concepts to clients and prospects
• Does Google Use Click-Thru Rate (CTR) in their Organic Listings too?
• Defeat Google with Guerilla Warfare
• Small Business PPC – 26 Mistakes That Cost You Money
• 3 Tips to Help You Find Your Next SEO Job
• Hey Google, Eat My Shorts!
• Reddit Adds the Random Box

Related Topics: SearchCap

---

About The Author: Danny Sullivan is editor-in-chief of Search Engine Land. He’s a widely cited authority on search engines and search marketing issues who has covered the space since 1996. Danny also oversees Search Engine Land’s SMX: Search Marketing Expo conference series. He maintains a personal blog called Daggle (and maintains his disclosures page there). He can be found on Facebook, Google + and microblogs on Twitter as @dannysullivan. See more articles by Danny Sullivan

---