SearchCap: The Day In Search, June 8, 2007

Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web:

From Search Engine Land:

• Search in Pictures: SMX, Ice Sculptures, Race Cars & More
  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….
• Search Engine Marketing (& Search Engine Land) Not Notable For Wikipedia?
  Earlier this year, Wikipedia pondered whether Matt Cutts was notable enough to continue having a Wikipedia entry. Good sense prevailed, and his entry remained. Now debate has shifted to whether the entry about search engine marketing should go. Oh, and apparently Search Engine Land has an entry that might also…
• Google Maps & YouTube Are Big Traffic Winners in Google Universal Update
  Bill Tancer of Hitwise released new data comparing Google’s web properties before and after the release of Google Universal Search. As we know, Google Universal Search changed how Google’s vertical search results appeared in the main Google web search results. Overall, Google Maps and YouTube saw the biggest increase, while…
• Searcharazzi: Feisty, Feisty
  My, we were a feisty bunch last week. Now that it is all out of our system, let’s look to a bit more benign gossip from the rumor mill For the football fans out there, here’s some water cooler conversation for the off season: last week’s New York Times…
• iProspect Releases Search Marketer Measurement & Performance Study
  Search Marketer Measurement & Performance Study from iProspect and JupiterResearch was released, providing an update to the search marketing landscape. Here are some key points learned from the study. 43% of SEMs cannot measure the ROI from SEO campaigns SEO nets a higher ROI than paid search Traffic is the…
• Google’s Wireless Proposal Takes Heat From Verizon & AT&T
  AT&T, Verizon oppose Google airwave proposal from the Seattle Times reports that the two U.S. telecom giants, AT&T and Verizon, are opposing Google’s wireless airwave proposal. AT&T and Verizon told the Federal Communications Commission that Google has “no legitimate basis” in their proposal to have the government auction off the…
• Baidu Calls European Expansion Rumors “Groundless”
  Baidu denies plans for European expansion from InfoWorld reports that rumors of Baidu expanding to Europe are false. Baidu, the Chinese search engine, released a statement saying, “Recent rumors alleging that Baidu.com is expanding into Europe are groundless.” A UK Telegraph article recently sparked such rumors….
• Minor AdWords Quality Score Update Last Night
  Google has informed me they have made a change to how they measure landing page quality, which will impact the overall quality score of your ads. I was told that this was a minor update and should not impact the “vast majority of advertisers.” However, some advertisers will see an…

Search News Headlines From Elsewhere

Applications & Portal Features

• What Now, Google?, Googlified
• Picasa Web Albums meets Google data APIs, Google Mac Blog
• Mike Tsao on Google Gears, Google Developer Podcast
• Red yahoo today!, SEO Home UK
• Yahoo tests new services in Vietnamese, VietNamNet
• Can You Link Two Google Analytics Accounts to One Google AdWords Account?, Search Engine Roundtable
• Google Maps: Invading Your Privacy? (Not Anymore!), Search Engine Roundtable
• Hindu group making software to partly block Orkut, Reuters

Business Issues

• Feuds: Which rivalries are real?, Valleywag
• LookSmart’s CFO Resigns, But Revenue Increasing, Search Engine Journal
• Google Can’t Grow New Products, Hence the Acquisitions, Marketing Pilgrim
• YouTube sued by country music publisher, eWeek

Conferences

• Search Engine Strategies or Search Marketing Expo?, Search Engine Journal
• SMX Seattle 2007, SEO Wife’s Blog
• The SMX Diaries IV: The Matt Cutts Interview, SEOmoz
• Summarized SEO Tips from SMX Advanced – Part 1, Stepforth
• SMX Conference Wrap Up, Wolf Howl

Local, Maps & Mobile

• Got a Maps Mashup? Make it a Mapplet!, Google Maps API Blog
• Mobile Advertising Guidelines Updated, ClickZ Blog

• Google and Wild Sanctuary Team Up to Bring Sound to ‘Earth’, AppScout

Paid Search & Contextual

• Your account at-a-glance using the Account Snapshot page, Inside AdWords
• Should You Rent Out Google AdSense Units?, Search Engine Roundtable
• Microsoft adCenter U.K. road show reaches Edinburgh, adCenter Blog
• Google Quality Score: What’s the True Measure of “Quality” Anyway?, Google Blogoscoped
• Google Radio and TV Personalization, Ratings, and Advertising Patent Applications, SEO By The Sea
• Google Says They Treat Small Publishers As They Treat Large Publishers, Search Engine Roundtable
• Google, Yahoo ‘Panama’, and Microsoft: Paid Search Market Share May 2007, Rimm Kaufman

Searching

• When In Buy Mode I Click On Nothing But Google Sponsored Links, ShandyKing
• Sputtr: Many Search Options, One Place, Search Engine Watch Blog

SEM Industry

• Pepperjam Signs Exclusive Deal With DoubleClick, Search Engine Watch Blog
• SiteLogic Welcomes Kim Krause-Berg, SiteLogic
• SEO Scoop Birthday where you can win the present!, SEO Scoop
• Reader Poll: What’s Bugging You About Search Marketing?, Online Marketing Blog

SEO & SEM

• In-house Spotlight: Duane Forrester, SEO with Sports Direct Inc., Search Engine Journal
• Effective Keyword Research & List Preparation (for PPC), Reviewlicious
• Using Caps in Google.com Site Command Returns Different Results, Search Engine Roundtable
• Predicting the ROI for Future SEO Efforts, Search Engine Watch

Social Media

• Let’s Go Viral, Search Engine Watch
• In a Virtual Universe, the Politics Turn Real, NY Times

• Wikipedia’s Nerd Bias, Techcrunch

• 5 Signs Digg Has Peaked (and Is Now Declining), Tropical SEO

Video & Image Search

• Flickaday: Take a Picture Every Day, Rev 2 Org
• YouTube Partially Takes Back Interface Changes, Google Blogoscoped

• Get Back the Old YouTube Player!, Googified

• Balancing Video Quality and Search Optimization, Search Engine Watch
• Flickr Censored in China?, Google Blogoscoped

• Flickr Can Automatically Add Title, Description, Tags & More to Your Photos, Cartoon Barry

Other Items

• New/Transferred Domain Names from the GooglePlex, ResourceShelf
• Chris Sacca: Google’s superhero, Valleywag
• Alpha Features are now available to all Askvillers!, Askville Blog
• Blogstorm Shows Blogs’ Most Popular Posts, Techcrunch
• Congratulations Amit, the Mac team is proud of you!, Google Mac Blog
• Webby Awards 2007: Big Winners Include Flickr, LinkedIn, last.fm, Read/Write Web
• Google Checkout Radio Commercial, Google Blogoscoped
• ‘Publishing exec ’steals’ Google laptops in silly demonstration’ of just how little publishing executives understand, Lawrence Lessig