SearchCap: The Day In Search, June 25, 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:

• Keeping Visitors Engaged With Site Search
  B2B sites tend to be more difficult for visitors to find what they’re looking for. Perhaps it’s because things don’t always fit neatly into more intuitive consumer categories. Perhaps it’s because B2B sites are often laden with so much diverse information. While site owners can engineer enhanced usability, better…
• Behavioral Targeting Under Fire As ISP Backs Away From Tracking Subscriber Activities
  Privacy is dead, get used to it. In the effort to rescue display advertising from its historically dismal performance and so-called “banner blindness” behavioral targeting (BT) was born a few years ago with Tacoda. It has both increased in popularity and infamy since that time. Consumers prefer more “relevant” ads…
• Everything You Wanted To Know About Google’s Android
  Well, sort of. If you’re a developer you can get that information on the Android site. But if you’re interested in the history of Android, how much Google may have paid for the platform and its hypothetical outlook, you can read this long Wired article. (You can also read my…
• Google Posts Official Webmaster Help Group Chat Recordings, Transcript & Presentations
  Google has posted the official blog post summarizing last week’s live chat event. Yes, we did post the unofficial version on Thursday night, but now we have the official version live for viewing. Q&A Transcript available via Google Groups John’s Personalized Search Presentation via Google PresentationsMaile’s Case Sensitivity in Web…
• Wednesday Webcast with Greg Sterling – National Brands Marketing Local
  On Wednesday, Search Engine Land’s contributing editor Greg Sterling will look at the current landscape of local search, and how brand marketers can take advantage of this evolving channel – in a webcast titled “National Brands Marketing Local.” Research indicates that 82% of consumers who use a local search site…
• GooHoo Faces Hurdles, Yahoo And Microsoft In Talks Again?
  Earlier today TechCrunch reported that Yahoo and Microsoft were in acquisition talks again. However Silicon Alley Insider says that’s incorrect and it’s only about search. But that doesn’t make much sense either given the recent rejection of that very proposal by Yahoo, unless the terms now being discussed are substantially…

Search News From Around The Web:

Applications & Portal Features

• Does Your Gmail Suck Too?, GigaOM
• Gmail’s Limitations for Sending Messages, Google Operating System
• Yahoo! Mail! vuln! fixed!, The Register

Business Issues

• Facebook Scores Visa Ad Deal, Wired
• The Evil Side of Google? Exploring Google’s User Data Collection, SEOmoz
• Making Google More Open, Google Blogoscoped
• Suit accuses Google of trade secret theft, News.com

Local, Maps & Mobile

• Google’s Open Source Android Phone Will Free the Wireless Web, Wired
• Virtual Earth Imagery Release – June, 2008, Virtual Earth, An Evangelist’s Blog
• Share and View 3D Places in EarthSwoop, Google Earth Blog
• TheStoreBook Leverages Phone for Deals, Screenwerk
• Yahoo And Publicis Work Together On Mobile Advertising Initiative, Washington Post

Paid Search & Contextual

• SEM Implications of the Yahoo-Google Pact, ClickZ
• Survey: What would you like to see on the adCenter Community? – adCenter Advertiser, adcentercommunity.com
• What Not to Do, Yahoo Publisher Network Blog
• How to Optimize Your AdSense Performance [VIDEO], ProBlogger
• Detailed Screen Shots of Google’s New Ad Planner :: Wow!, Search Engine Roundtable
• New AdWords Content Network Feature – Keywords Placements, PPC Discussions

Searching

• Evri Beta Launches: Search Less – Understand More, Read/Write Web

SEO & SEM

• Quality Search Engine Optimization Consulting Cannot be Rushed, Online Marketing Blog
• SpyFu Launches in the UK get 50% off, BlogStorm
• Best Google Search Engine Submission Programs, SEO Book
• Get Your SEO/M & Usability Groove On, Cre8PC
• Google Prefers Alt Attribute in Images, Search Engine Roundtable
• Google Sitemaps New Error: "Dynamic Content", Search Engine Roundtable
• How to Move to a New Domain With Minimal Ranking Loss and Downtime, Search Engine Guide
• Serving Different Content Based on Search Query: Is This Allowed?, Search Engine Roundtable

Social Media

• Why is Social Media So Hard For Businesses?, Search Engine Guide
• Why Social News Sites Must Implement Social Search, Read/Write Web
• Twellow.com : Directory of Twitter Users, Search Engine Journal
• A look at the Digg "Story Deserves Freshness" algorithm, BlogStorm

Video, Music & Image Search

• Google’s Vint Cerf, ‘Father of the Internet’: "Online Video Will Be Distributed in Download Mode", Beet.TV

Web Analytics

• Exploring Website Demographics with Quantcast , Search Engine Journal

Other Items

• Hires: Apple hires former Google food director as cafeteria wars escalate, Valleywag

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

• Social Media for Firefox 3.0 – New Tool
• The Evil Side of Google? Exploring Google's User Data Collection
• How To Completely Clean Your Hacked WordPress Installation
• Building Links for Geo Targeting
• Rushing Your SEO Doesn’t Mean Quicker Results
• Screen Shots of Google's Ad Planner
• Identifying Market Trends
• Content Doesn't Matter Unless Your Network Measures Up
• What Don't You Trust About SEO? … and Why? 21 Replies Thus Far
• Twitter is Dead … Long Live Plurk (Or some other stupid named micro blogging platform)
• Search Marketer Rob Snell Testifies Before Congress
• "Utah SEO Pro" Jordan Kasteler gets Interviewed by Brian Carter
• The SEO Superlatives Committee Announced! – let the nominations begin
• Do link spammers leave footprints?
• Google Delivers Better ROI than Major Sport Sponsorship By a Mile
• Is Google Trends For Websites Just A Big Google SEO Ploy?
• A Small Blogger’s Guide to Social Media Marketing
• Hyperlocal Blogs: An Emerging Trend in Blogging
• Plurk – An investigation into the benefits and detriments of micro blogging
• How to Land an SEO Dream Job Via LinkedIn
• The SEM Questions A Web Analytics Package Should Answer