SearchCap: The Day In Search, March 14, 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:

• Search In Pictures: American Airlines Google Billboard, Yahoo’s Birthday Party & Chris Gardner @ Yahoo
  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….
• Yahoo And Microsoft Hold Informal Talks About Combining Companies
  In what may be a sign that Yahoo is starting to accept the very real possibility of being acquired by Microsoft, various sources, including the Wall Street Journal and CNET, are reporting that informal discussions were held between the companies on Monday in Silicon Valley. According to the WSJ’s report,…
• The Google Quality Raters Handbook
  Brian Ussery has discovered a revised copy of the Google Quality Raters Guidelines, which he archived on his own site. The documents are used by Google Quality Raters to aid them in classifying queries, measuring relevancy and rating the search results. To do so, the Quality Rater must understand how…
• Google Sky Now Viewable From Any Web Browser
  Google announced that they have taken Google Sky from Google Earth and now made it viewable on the web at sky.google.com. Many of the Google Sky features found within Google Earth are also available on the browser version. You can: SearchBrowseChange the video between infrared, microwave, ultraviolet, or x-rayTelescope galleries…

Search News From Around The Web:

Applications & Portal Features

• Google Calendar Offline Access Soon, Googlified
• Google Docs to Add a Menu and Print Layout, Google Operating System
• Keeping up with Google Apps, Official Google Blog
• Breaking Google Captchas for a Day, New York Times
• Google Grand Central Why Are You Not Integrated with Gmail, Gray Wolf
• Sleep soundly: Back up your photos, Google Photos Blog

Business Issues

• Yahoo to move European headquarters to Switzerland, International Herald Tribune
• Buffett Turned On by Google, Fool.com
• IAC-Liberty ruling expected in late March, Reuters
• Is KickApps Next to Board AOL’s Gravy Train?, AllThingsD
• MSN exec Bradford leaving for ad company, SeattlePi

Local, Maps & Mobile

• Put down your language learning books, we’ve got transliterated tiles in the API!, Google Maps API Blog
• Google Exec: Android Will Outsell iPhone, Yahoo! News
• March vector updates in Google Earth, Google LatLong

Link Building

• How to Build Links with Email Marketing, Search Engine Journal
• Official: General Web Directories Are Dead – JoeAnt is PageRank 3, More Aggressive Hand Editing by Google, SEO Book

Paid Search & Contextual

• Webinar: Introduction to AdWords Editor, Inside AdWords
• Google Ad Manager Adds Special Icon to AdSense Ads, Search Engine Roundtable
• Google Teases Advertisers By Reversing March 2008 "Google Slap" For Half Day, Search Engine Roundtable
• Google’s Trojan Horse: Let the Free Ad Serving Begin, New York Times
• Perfecting Pay-Per-Click Advertising With Analytics – adCenter Analytics, AdCenter Blog
• Understanding goals, adCenter Advertiser Community
• Why Monetizing Every Success Event Is Key To PPC Performance, SEM Geek

Searching

• Connectivity is Not Semantics!, Hakia Blog
• Would you like help with that?, Google News Blog

SEM Industry

• An Incredible Milestone – 2000 PRO Members – and a Request for Feedback on SEOmoz V4, SEOmoz
• German Webmaster Blog turns one, Official Google Webmaster Central Blog
• Happy Pi Day – No Logo from Google?, Search Engine Roundtable
• Help Spread SEO Goodness Around the Globe, SEO Book
• How To Win An iPod Touch at SES New York!, Stone Temple
• Making the Most of a Search Marketing Conference, Search Engine Watch
• SMX West 2008: Dana Todd WebProNews Videos, WebProNews

SEO & SEM

• Relative Complexities of Paid and Organic Search, and Implications for Marketing Effectiveness, Traffick
• Defining Yourself Through Search, Search Engine Watch
• Google Showing Robots-Excluded Links in Sitelinks, SEO Speedwagon

Social Media

• Visualizing Twitter, Twitter Blog
• Find more friends on orkut, Orkut Blog
• FriendFeed Is This Years Twitter, But Why?, TechCrunch

Video, Music & Image Search

• Universal Pictures Part II: Sizing up the Local Video Market, Search Engine Watch
• YouTube Videos in High Quality, YouTube
• YouTube’s Embedded Player Updated, Google Operating System

Web Analytics

• Track Your Google Docs With Analytics, Google Blogoscoped
• Using log data to help keep you safe, Official Google Blog
• Google Analytics Graphs Still Lagging Behind, Search Engine Roundtable

Other Items

• Google your way to a wacky office, BBC NEWS
• March 12, 2008: Google’s Now An SEO, The Google Earth Town , Daily SearchCast
• March 13, 2008: AOL Buys Bebo; Google Offers Ad Management; Yahoo Details Search Monkey, Daily SearchCast

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

• Lyndon Antcliff: Audio Inteview with a Link Building Master
• 10 Cool Uses of Twitter
• Yahoo Embraces The Semantic Web
• Twitter Puts the “Full” in Useful: Overheard on Twitter #1
• How To Blend PPC Into Your SEO Keyword Research
• SES NYC – 3 Women Spotlighted at Search Engine Strategies
• DaveN – Nofollow sculpting my take
• Link Bait Kindergarten: Creative Thinking Must Come First
• We Build Pages Buys SEOClass.com, Offers 4 Live Training Dates
• Really Cool – A Small Business Marketing Success Story: Pink Cake Box
• Traffic Statistics for Wikipedia Articles
• Everybody Hates Lawyers…and SEOs
• Dude: Nobody CARES About Your Blog!
• Running Out of Reasons to Fear Google Analytics – Really?
• SEO – Do or do not, there is not try!
• Natural SEO FAQ – Linking In And Out
• Top 9 Reasons I’m NOT Following You on Twitter
• Principles of Advanced Search Engine Optimization
• Balancing Link Diversity, Link Velocity and Link Volume!
• First SEO Link Building Rule: Never Buy Paid Links…Until Now
• 9 Essential Tactics For Reputation Management In Social Media
• Link Mass: How to determine how much effort it takes to rank for any particular keyword phrase
• What you need to know about SEO in 2009
• Search Within a Search – How This Could Mean Bad News for Your Site