SearchCap: The Day In Search, June 12, 2009

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 Analytics Now Considers Bing A Search Engine
  

  As promised, Google Analytics is now logging traffic from Microsoft’s new Bing search engine into the “search engine” traffic source category, rather than in the “referring sites” category. As a result, Google Analytics users can now see for themselves whether all of Microsoft’s Bing marketing is producing more traffic for [...]

• Affiliates: Trusted Allies Or Conniving Cannibals?
  

  It is not uncommon for businesses to find that the relationship they have with their affiliates is one of the most difficult to handle. On the one hand, affiliates can be valuable partners that provide leads and sales for your company. But on the other hand, they are independent entities which require compensation for their [...]

• Google SearchWiki: You Can ‘Check Out,’ But Your Results Don’t Leave
  

  After months of requests from its users, Google has finally added a way to turn off its SearchWiki tool. But, while you can “check out” of using SearchWiki, your customized search results don’t leave. More on that in a moment. Users can turn SearchWiki off (and on) by clicking on the “Preferences” link next to [...]

• Search In Pictures: Sum of Google, Bing Fortune Cookie & Search Schwag
  

  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. Sum of Google Event: Bing Chinese Fortune (Ouch): Yahoo Sofa Chair Scooter: Fancy Techie Google Schwag: Cute Google Baby Schwag:

• Yahoo Improves EU Mapping, Does It Still See Maps As Strategic?
  

  These days it’s hard to remember that at one time Yahoo was the pioneer in dynamic mapping. It introduced enhanced local search features and capabilities into the map before Google, Microsoft and MapQuest. At a certain point, however, Yahoo opted out of the map feature wars that erupted between Google and Microsoft (StreetView, 3D, aerial, [...]

• WolframAlpha Goes Halfway On iPhone Mobile Search
  

  The WolframAlpha Blog announced they have launched an iPhone mobile friendly version of their search engine. If you visit www.wolframalpha.com on your iPhone, you should see an iPhone friendly home screen. It looks like this:

  The issue is, if you conduct any search, it doesn’t give you an iPhone friendly version of the results [...]

• Yet Another Mobile iGoogle For iPhones & Android
  

  The Google Mobile Blog announced yet another shot at an optimized version of iGoogle for iPhone and Android devices. About six months ago, Google quietly dropped the iPhone optimized iGoogle, before that, they had an optimized version since January 2008. After living without an iPhone/Android version of iGoogle for about six months, Google came out [...]

• How To: Excel At Excel For SEM Applications, Part 2
  

  In part 1 of this series on Excel for search engine marketers, I started off by applauding the tool and pointing out how important it is to our industry. This week, before I get into the tips and tricks, I’d like to talk a little about training. Excel, like any sophisticated tool, can be dangerous [...]

• Bing Zaps Commercials On The Daily Show (& More Shows Coming Soon)
  

  Microsoft’s ad campaign for Bing took a(nother) turn for the clever tonight on The Daily Show with a new campaign called “Fast Forward.” It’s the first in a week-long run of advertising that will see Microsoft paying for several minutes of commercial time, only to air a 30-second spot in place of several ads. The ad [...]

• Yahoo Hires Morse As CFO
  

  Yahoo has announced the hiring of Tim Morse as Chief Financial Officer. He’ll report directly to CEO Carol Bartz. Morse most recently was CFO at Altera, and before that served as CFO for General Electric Plastics. According to Yahoo’s SEC filing, Morse gets a base salary of $500,000, a signing bonus of $500,000, and has a [...]

Search News From Around The Web:

Applications & Portal Features

• The Big Fat RSS Lie, Michael Gray
• Voting for iGoogle photo themes now open, Official Google Blog

Business Issues

• White House CTO Aneesh Chopra Lauds Google’s 20% Time, Wall Street Journal
• Ask Japan To Shut Down, Search Engine Roundtable
• E.U. Criticizes Microsoft Plan to Remove Browser, New York Times
• Google Losing Market Share to Baidu In China, Digital East Asia
• Yahoo Eyes Lockport, NY for Data Center, Data Center Knowledge

Local, Maps & Mobile

• Display your public Latitude location on your Google Profile, Official Google Mobile Blog
• Discovering cities with the Tranist Layer, Google LatLong
• Google’s Street View Batcave, Google Sightseeing

Link Building

• Linkscape Review – New Tool – SEOMoz Linkscape Visualizer, Stuntdubl.com

Paid Search & Contextual

• Getting ready for the new AdWords interface, Conversion Room

Searching

• Farecast team looks to take Bing Travel to new heights, TechFlash
• Philippines Independence Day – 2009, Google Logos Collection

SEM Industry

• YouTube and Yahoo Logos Offer One Last Reminder About The TV Broadcast Transition, TechCrunch

SEO & SEM

• Are CSS-based layouts better than tables for SEO?, YouTube
• Get Down & Dirty With Your Website Code, SEO.com
• Google Quickly Fixes Webmaster Tools Issues, Search Engine Roundtable
• Make Money Online Scams Owning Google News, ShoeMoney
• Resolved: Gadgets, Sitemap submission and Change of Address problems, Webmaster Help Forum Announcements
• SEO Company Websites Fail To Convert And Meet Their Profit Goals, The SEO Scoop
• Whiteboard Friday – SEO for Local Search, SEOmoz
• Your Content Should Educate, Engage, Entertain and Entice, outspokenmedia.com

Social Media

• An In-Depth Look Inside the Twitter World, Sysomos
• Share YouTube Videos on Facebook, Twitter and Google Reader, YouTube Blog
• Tweet Tips For Max ReTweets (RTs), StayGoLinks
• Twitter Launches Verified Accounts, mashable.com
• Twitter Sells $3 Million Of Computers For Dell, Business Insider

Video, Music & Image Search

• Flickr Tests Twitter Integration With Email Uploads, TechCrunch

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