SearchCap: The Day In Search, June 24, 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:

• Google Health To Be Shuttered On January 1, 2012

  Google Health, the company’s attempt to improve health care by letting consumers move medical data online and control who can access it, is shutting down. The service will be retired on January 1, 2012. In a blog post announcing the news, Google says the product didn’t catch on as it had hoped: Google Health is […]
• How To Read & Use Facebook Analytics For Your Page

  Forget the 1-800 numbers, the info@ email addresses, and don’t bother hooking up that fax machine anymore. Facebook business pages are an essential customer and business/brand communication tool that are beginning to replace traditional mediums of customer service and communication between brands and businesses. The ability to keep an audience engaged, updated, and responded to […]

• The 20-Point SEO Account Takeover Checklist

  What should you do if you are stepping into a role as the new “SEO Manager” of a website? This is a question you could ask yourself either as an in-house employee at a company, an agency taking over an account from another agency, or moving into the role from one account to another within […]

• 6 Commonly Ignored Website Requirements & 10 Tips To Remember

  The leading cause for website or software application failure is not having a requirements document prepared and shared with everyone attached to the project. Typically, business and functional specifications, along with possible web design guidelines are gathered. What do most requirements documents miss? The purpose of a formal requirements document is to be sure that […]

• The Shoe Drops: Google Receives Formal Notification Of Review By FTC

  As expected, the Federal Trade Commission has begun its formal investigation of Google’s business practices. In a blog post today, Google fellow Amit Singhal wrote that the company yesterday received formal notification from the agency that it would be conducting an inquiry. Though Singhal writes that “it’s still unclear exactly what the FTC’s concerns are,” […]

• Search In Pics: Google Search Cupcakes, Google Heros & Yahoo Gay Pride

  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. Google China’s 2009 Music Event: Google Search Cupcakes: Google Wall Of Heros: Yahoo Gay Pride Month: […]

• Dilbert Cartoon: Caught For Paid Links On Google

  Yesterday we had a Dilbert cartoon telling us to say no to black hat SEO and today we have a Dilbert cartoon telling us to say no to paid links: The comic reads: Employee: “Google found out that we use fake links to boost our search rank.” Employee: “Now our website only shows up when […]

• Retail Study: 1 Facebook Fan = 20 Visits To Your Website

  A UK based study by Hitwise analyzed data from the top 100 retailers to find how much additional web traffic was generated by each Facebook fan. The metrics showed that each fan of a Facebook page produced an extra 20 visits to the website. In order to generate this number, Facebook traffic was analyzed and compared […]

• Google Rolls Out Behavioral Targeting To All AdWords Advertisers

  Google is finally rolling out the ability to target ads to users by interest — based on their previous browsing activity, or behavior — to all of its advertisers. The company first announced a beta test of this capability more than two years ago, back in 2009, and it has slowly been introducing it to […]

Search News From Around The Web:

Applications & Portal Features

• Google apps split with Google File System, The Register
• Samsung Series 5 Google Chromebook Review, AllThingsD
• Google: ‘At scale, everything breaks’, ZDNet UK

Business Issues

• California State U. Report Warns of Accessibility Issues in Google Services, The Chronicle of Higher Education
• Nevada Passes Law Authorizing Driverless Cars, Forbes
• Facebook’s Twins Push Other Suit, Wall Street Journal
• Being Googley, Matt Welsh
• Angry Yahoo Shareholder Confronts Bartz And Asks For Her Head (Audio Clip), TechCrunch
• Foursquare Closes $50M at a $600M Valuation, TechCrunch
• Google Dublins New Office View, Search Engine Roundtable

Local, Maps & Mobile

• Google’s Form Of The Flaming Bag Of Dog Poop, Search Engine Roundtable

Paid Search & Contextual

• In-Stream Ads Are Coming To Twitter, Will A User Revolt Follow?, TechCrunch
• Google Drops DoubleClick Ad Planner Marketplace, Search Engine Roundtable

Searching

• What Would a Government-Operated Search Engine Look Like in the US?, Eric Goldman

SEM Industry

• Video: Google Panda 2.2 Out, 1 Updates, AdWords Targeting, Filter Bubbles & Poop, Search Engine Roundtable

SEO & SEM

• Getting Started with Automated Rules, Inside AdWords
• What’s Your SEO Blood Type?, BruceClay.com
• SEO: How To Convert Traffic Into Visitors, SEO Book
• 4 Reasons Your Boss Doesn’t Care About SEO, outspokenmedia.com
• Announcing the June 2011 Microsoft Advertising adCenter Upgrade, adCenter Blog
• Google Panda, eHow, and the South Indian Monkey Trap, managinggreatness.com
• Search Engine Optimized Web Copy, Search Engine People
• Spotted: AdWords Ads With 6 Sitelinks, Screaming Frog
• The Value of an In-House SEO, Search Engine Watch

Social Media

• Five Reasons Domains Are Getting Less Important, Evan Williams

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

• The Real Filter Bubble Debate – Gabriel Weinberg of search engine DuckDuckGo addresses the filter bubble and outlines how he believes personal signals should be used, integrated and displayed into search.
• Why Microsoft's Facebook Alliance Is a Threat to Google – According to Dave Williams, the partnership between Microsoft and Facebook could drastically change the way ads are targeted on Facebook, the biggest player in online display. Learn why in this article.
• The Anatomy Of A Compelling Call To Action Button – Compelling post with good considerations and examples of CTA buttons.
• How Guest Blogging Can Send Your Brand and Reputation Straight to Hell – Nice post about how the popularity (and possible abuse) of guest blogging could lead us straight to its demise, causing loss of brand and personal confidence along the way.
• 3 Common Link Building Questions Answered By 4 Experts – Debra Mastaler, Eric Ward, Julie Joyce, and Ross Hudgens tackle 3 common link building questions.
• Where Should You Be Promoting Your SEO, Copywriting and Marketing Blog Posts? – Sphinn or SERPd? Facebook or Twitter? Does anyone have a use for StumbleUpon? If you want to know where best to promote your work, have a read of this.