SearchCap: The Day In Search, June 29, 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:

• The Long Tail of Paid Search Account Effort
  

  If you spend enough time sitting at your desk in summer, you can go slightly insane. That aside, daydreaming sometimes leads to back-door observations, studies show. Glancing out the window, it’s evident that it takes a lot of resources and coordination to run a neighborhood. Schools, crossing guards, street sweepers, garbage collection, public pool maintenance, snow [...]

• Google Tests Dropping Off Country Specific Search?
  

  The SEO Home blog has noticed that Google UK is now testing removing the radio button to only show “pages from the UK.” If you visit google.co.uk you may notice the radio button, but some are noticing that the radio button for that country specific option is now missing. Google UK With the Country Specific [...]

• Google: We’re Not Really That Big But If We Are, We Aren’t Bad
  

  The NY Times offers a broad article about Google’s efforts to define, explain and clarify its place in the market in the face of increasing anti-trust scrutiny (Google Makes a Case That It Isn’t So Big). There are currently three Justice Department investigations pending that involve Google, concerning its Book Search settlement, overlapping directors with [...]

• Google Slides On Ranking Issues
  

  The Google Webmaster Central blog posted slides on traffic drops and site architecture issues. The slides are from an SMX London 2009 presentation.

  For more information, see the Google blog post.

• Funny: “Googling With Bing”
  

  Monday’s can be rough for many people, so I thought I share with you a funny video named “Googling with Bing.” It basically is a Bing commercial, but they replace the word “search” with “Google.”

  See more funny videos and funny pictures at CollegeHumor. Hat tip to TechCrunch for spotting this.

• Next Great Thing: Bing Draws On IYP Connection
  

  Everyone seems to be chiming in with their reviews of Microsoft’s new search engine — oops, I mean “decision engine”. Can it compete with Yahoo? Will it become a verb like Google? Why’d they name it after the Chandler character on “Friends?” I don’t know if Bing will grow legs or if it’ll get lost amid [...]

• Riding The Rail: Plenty Of Time To Ponder Search
  

  I’m going just a bit off topic this month. It may seem a stretch, but bear with me, there is a modicum of relevance to this column. You see, most of my ideas for Industrial Strength columns, as well as the bulk of my SEL column writing, take place on either the Capitol 523 or [...]

• Google Thinks Michael Jackson Died At Age 65 In 2007
  

  Oops. Bad, Google. Occasionally the service inserts direct answers to searches at the top of its results. It makes guesses at this, and in the case of michael jackson died, it’s making the wrong guess. Henry Elliss tipped us that Google’s showing that Michael Jackson died in 2007, at age 65. The problem? Google’s drawing on [...]

• The Bogus Google Give-Away
  

  Here’s a new one on me. I just got an email telling me that I’ve won nearly $1 million from a “drawing” randomly selected from those searching on Google. Suffice to say, it’s a scam. I can assure you that Google’s done no drawing like this. Add the spam to those about missing fortunes in [...]

• Michael Jackson’s Death: An Inside Look At How Google, Yahoo, & Bing Handled An Extraordinary Day In Search
  

  An extraordinary day of breaking news on Thursday led to record-breaking traffic spikes as people searched online for information about the deaths of Farrah Fawcett and, especially, Michael Jackson. And just like their counterparts in traditional media, the news divisions of Google, Yahoo, and Bing responded with sometimes extraordinary measures to ensure they were giving [...]

Search News From Around The Web:

Applications & Portal Features

• Link from Yahoo breaks traffic records at New York Times, Nieman Journalism Lab
• Teenage Entrepreneurs, Building Their Own Job Engine, New York Times
• Google Reader Lite, Google Operating System
• Keeping News of David Rohde’s Kidnapping Off Wikipedia, New York Times

Business Issues

• 48% of Americans Would Drop Mobile Data Service Completely, Strategy Analytics
• Consumer Alert: Avoid Scams Claiming How to Make Easy Money on Google, SEO Book
• Google mocks Bing and the stuff behind it, The Register
• Microsoft puts Razorfish up for sale, FT.com
• A Google monopoly today means packet snooping tomorrow, The Register
• Bing Marketing Dollars at Work: Farewell, Michael Jackson, AllThingsD by Kara Swisher
• Facebook Nabs New Payments Director from Google, Inside Facebook
• Facebook Selects New CFO: Former Genentech Exec Ebersman, AllThingsD by Kara Swisher
• Google Scams Getting Worse, Search Engine Roundtable
• Sixth Lawsuit Filed Over Google AdWords, Plus an Assault on Google’s Organic Search Results–Ascentive v. Google, Eric Goldman

Local, Maps & Mobile

• Bing’s Local Listing Center Lacks Forethought, StepForth
• Extending Google services in Africa, Official Google Blog
• Thieves ‘using Google Earth to steal koi carp’, Telegraph
• Tips to help Google users find and connect with your business, Mike Blumenthal

Link Building

• Link Building Strategy | Climbing The Heights Of Mount Google, andybeard.eu
• Improve Google Pagerank: Custom Link Love For Wordpress Comments, Hobo

Paid Search & Contextual

• Update: New date for Landing Page webinar, AdWords Agency Blog
• Bing’s Quality Based Ranking Team for adCenter, Search Engine Roundtable
• Quick Look: Pay-Per-Click Metrics All Campaign Managers Should Understand, PPC Hero

Searching

• So How Is Bing Doing?, Cuil Blog
• Aardvark Open For Business Via Facebook Connect, TechCrunch
• New Features Added to the Wolfram|Alpha Community Site, Wolfram|Alpha Blog
• Vark Comes Out of Private Beta, Screenwerk
• Advanced Custom Search Configuration, Google Custom Search
• Query Logs and the Slang of the Web, SEO By The Sea
• Stephen Wolfram on the Quest for Computable Knowledge, Wolfram|Alpha Blog

SEM Industry

• Video Recap of Weekly Search Buzz :: June 26, 2009, Search Engine Roundtable
• Keyen and John J. Farrell Fail Again, Shoemoney
• Upcoming search engine marketing conferences, Pandia

SEO & SEM

• Intersection of SEO, Public Relations & Social Media Marketing, Online Marketing Blog
• site architecture and seo – file/page issues (sem 101), Bing Community
• 150 killer SEO tips, econsultancy.com
• A Call to News Publishers: How to Share Your Video, Google News Blog
• Google brand update hits the UK, BlogStorm
• Google Search Spanks The Adult Porn Industry?, Search Engine Roundtable
• How can I optimize my site on a small budget?, YouTube
• Removing a Ban from Google, SEO.com
• SEO Best Practices – Correlation Testing, Natural Search Blog
• Why the new HTML 5 specification will have high importance to Video and SEO, Bruceclay.com.au

Social Media

• Confirmed: Glam Media Shares (Some) Details On Twitter Ad Network Plans, TechCrunch

Video, Music & Image Search

• Media and citizens meet in the YouTube Reporters’ Center, Official Google Blog

Web Analytics

• Google Analytics on your Mobile Phone, Google Analytics Blog
• Trendrr Pro: Buzzing Data-Obsessed Metric- and Stats-Aholics, Ad Age

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