SearchCap: The Day In Search, March 14, 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:

• Twitter Says Activity Levels Are Soaring

  With the five-year anniversary of the first tweet approaching, Twitter says user activity is soaring. In a blog post that details tweet and account activity, Twitter says it’s “growing at a record pace.” Here are some of the details: Users are now sending one billion tweets per week. Over the last month, users posted an […]
• The State of the News Media 2011: Americans Shifting to Online News, Still Only Paying for Print

  Everyone knows that print newspaper circulation is declining and consumers are increasing accessing news online. Some may wonder why newspapers are slow to move way from print, but the truth is that print still provides the bulk of newspaper revenue and at this point, print heavily subsidizes online efforts. Print, then, enables newspapers to experiment […]

• Google’s Mayer: “We Do Have Too Many Products” In Local

  Google Maps. Google Places. Google Earth. Google Hotpot. Google Latitude. Google Street View. Different mobile and desktop versions of some of those. Different Android and iPhone versions of some. The list could go on. If you think Google has too many locally-oriented products, you’re not alone. Marissa Mayer, Google’s VP of Search who recently began […]

• Hot At Sphinn: Underrated SEO Tactics, SEO Excel Guide & More

  If SEO is your thing, Sphinn was a good place to be last week. Almost all of the most popular stories on our sister site had something to do with SEO. At the top of the list is our “Discussion of the Week,” which asked what’s The Most Underrated SEO Tactic? That topic generated about […]

• Why Mobile SEO Is Mobile-Friendly

  No, you’re not seeing double from last week. I wanted to extend the theme Bryson initiated in his column last week, titled “Why Mobile-Friendly is Not Mobile SEO,” in response to Google’s recent change in its position towards mobile content. I agree with his interpretation: you’re not going to drift into #1 in mobile search […]

• In-House PPC Programs For Big Companies – Part II

  Having just spent a spectacular few days at SMX West, the real challenge was getting past the buzz around content farms. But if you bothered to dig a bit deeper, there was an astounding amount of great, um… content, covering the many facets of search marketing other than search algorithm changes. Aside from the usual […]

• 10 Steps To Setting Initial Bids

  Craig Danuloff wrote a very interesting, somewhat controversial piece a few weeks back arguing that advanced bidding strategies should take a back seat to core campaign development, keywords, adgroup architecture, ad copy and landing page assignments for most advertisers. We agreed that good bidding can’t save a badly constructed program, but as Bradd Libby correctly […]

• Google Adds Video Instant Previews To Some Results

  Google has added a new type of instant previews to the Google search results. The new previews are designed specifically for video results. The video instant previews show you several frames from a video and may even play the video preview when you mouse over the thumbnail image. I should not, not all video results […]

• Sergey Brin & Bono Up For Gorbachev Awards

  What does lead U2 singer Bono and Google co-founder Sergey Brin have in common? They are both in the running for a new award named the Gorbachev Awards. The Telegraph reports the former Soviet leader, Mikhail Gorbachev, is holding an international award designed for honoring “people capable of changing the world.” The award will be […]

• Google’s Top Paid Bonuses For Executives Of 2011

  Business Insider reports on a recent Google SEC filing showing the top bonuses paid to Google executives in early 2011. The top bonuses do not list Google’s co-founders or current CEO, but here is what they do list. Nikesh Arora, chief business officer: $20 million in stock and $2.7 million cash. Patrick Pichette, CFO: $15 […]

• Behind The Scenes With Google’s Logo Doodlers At SXSW

  Search Engine Land has long been chronicling Google Doodles, the special logos the company produces to celebrate a wide variety of occasions. So, of course, I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to hear the stories behind the Doodles, when Doodle team creative lead Ryan Germick, along with user experience designer Marcin Wichary, took the stage […]

• StumbleUpon Expands Ad Platform With Brand Advertisers In Mind

  StumbleUpon has just launched a new ad platform that it’s targeting toward brand advertisers. It’s called StumbleUpon Paid Discovery and it offers additional features and analytics, along with a higher cost than the existing StumbleUpon ad program. Paid Discovery has two price options: 10 cents or 25 cents per visitor, compared to five cents under […]

• Google Preparing To Launch Social “Circles” — Or Maybe Not

  There’s lots of buzzing and posting this morning based on a couple of tweets from Tim O’Reilly and Steve Case. They state that “Google Circles” (which is “awesome”) is going to launch “possibly today.” (See updates below.) ReadWriteWeb has a lengthy discussion of the reportedly impending product launch. It’s based largely on hearsay but here […]

• Google Earth Shows Before & After Images Of Japan Earthquake And Tsunami

  Google has captured a bunch of new satellite imagery that shows the devastation of the 8.9 earthquake and tsunami in Japan. You can see those images in Picasa or on Google Earth with a KML file (Japan Earthquake and Tsunami). Separately Google has set up a “people finder” for those still missing in Japan. It […]

• Bing Apologizes For Japan Quake Tweet

  Bing has just apologized on Twitter for a tweet earlier today that many viewed as a way to gain exposure in the name of raising money for victim’s of Friday’s earthquake in Japan. The apology reads as follows: We apologize the tweet was negatively perceived. Intent was to provide an easy way for people to […]

• Lessons Learned at SMX West: Google’s Farmer/Panda Update, White Hat Cloaking, And Link Building

  An amazing amount of great information came out of SMX West this week. Below is a summary of some of what I found to be the most actionable and useful. Google’s Own Words About the Farmer/Panda Update Google’s Matt Cutts said that while the change isn’t 100% perfect, searcher feedback has been overwhelmingly positive. He […]

• Four Sites Impacted By Google’s “Farmer Update” Speak Out

  It has been a little over two weeks since “hell broke loose” with Google’s Farmer/Panda algorithm update. Some sites that had been relying heavily on organic traffic saw that traffic plummet, while others gained. The changes impacted roughly 12 percent of US search results according to Google. The Online Publishers Association estimated that the changes […]

• Google’s Mayer Envisions Future Of Location-Based Services At SXSW

  Austin’s beloved Amy’s Ice Cream got a shout-out from Google’s Marissa Mayer at the SXSW Interactive conference today, as the new head of local shared her vision for a future enabled by the search company’s technologies. In the scenario Mayer described, she was at Amy’s — which she’d visited for the first time last night […]

Search News From Around The Web:

Applications & Portal Features

• Google patches Pwn2Own WebKit bug in Chrome, Computerworld

Business Issues

• Google’s 8-Point Plan to Help Managers Improve, New York Times
• AOL Taps Twitter’s Biz Stone as an Adviser, Wall Street Journal
• Going to Google, Yaroslav Bulatov
• The Demand Media of Search Engine Marketing, BoostCTR, Raises $1.6 Million, TechCrunch

Local, Maps & Mobile

• 1UP: The importance of platforms, and how we’re extending ours, Foursquare Blog
• Facebook Plans to Test Groupon-Inspired Service That Offers Discount Deals, Bloomberg

Link Building

• Scaling White Hat Link Building – Scaling Content, SEOmoz
• The Lost Art of Link-Building, Daily SEO Tip

Paid Search & Contextual

• API SSL Connection Reset Issue, adCenter API Blog for Developers

SEM Industry

• Google v. Bing: The SXSWi Smackdown, The Atlantic
• Pi Day 2011 in Wolfram|Alpha, Wolfram|Alpha Blog

SEO & SEM

• How a Search Engine Might be able to Tell Whether an Image is an Advertisement, SEO By The Sea
• Super Long List of the Best Local Search Citation Sources, Zipline Interactive
• 2 Ways to Protect Your Site From SEO Attacks, Search Engine Watch
• 404 vs NoIndex vs 301 With Google’s Farmer Update, Search Engine Roundtable
• Do you recommend article marketing as an SEO strategy?, YouTube
• Google: Ads "Don’t Play A Big Role" In Search Algorithms, Search Engine Roundtable
• How to Get Content Ideas with Keyword and Market Research, Search Engine People
• How to Handle Tag Pages, Shimon Sandler
• Meta Description and Content Management Systems – SEO and Social Media Factors, Search Engine Journal
• Surely Google doesn’t think Mashable is a content farm?, Malcolm Coles
• The affiliate’s guide to dominating big niches with SEO, econsultancy.com

Social Media

• Bloomberg Game Changers: Twitter, Bloomberg
• Facebook Users Who Are Under Age Raise Concerns, New York Times
• How to Draft a Company Social Media Policy, outspokenmedia.com
• Making Content Work for Social Networking, blueglass.com
• Twitter once again proves its worth in Japan earthquake aftermath, Royal Pingdom

Other Items

• No Google Logo For Pi Day 2011, Search Engine Roundtable

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

• Is the Huffington Post Google's Favorite Content Farm? – If Aaron's example is not "garbitrage" content farm content, then I don't know what is.
• Making Content Work for Social Networking – Many social media marketers claim that content is king and should be the focus of every social media strategy. However, which content should be placed on what social network is just as important as the content itself…
• Redeeming the 9 Sins of Google Analytics – I've been working with Google Analytics since, well, before it was Google Analytics (remember back to the days of Urchin On-Demand?) and I've seen the product evolve time and again.  While everyone has their gripes with GA (I certainly have mine), I've seen time and again that people take shots at Google Analytics with uninformed ammunition.  There is a long list of myths circulating out there about GA – in this post I hope to dispel a few of them.
• How To Use Twitter Search For Sentiment Analysis – Using the simple smile or frown allows you to access some basic sentiment analysis of people's tweets
• How to Track Highlighted Text on Your Site with Google Analytics – This post on SEOgadget gives up a hack to track highlighted text on your site (users highlighting what they read / copy) through Google Analytics Event Tracking. Written by James Morell and Sam George.
• Which Social Sites Are Best for Which Marketing Outcomes? [INFOGRAPHIC] – Being effective at social media can be a difficult task, as everyone's goals are different. Are you building a brand, reaching customers, driving traffic, or looking for an SEO benefit. This chart can you get a better understanding of which sites might be the best match for you.
• Ask the SEOs Recap from SMX West – We’re down to the last session!  If you’re still with us, I want to say thank you. I know it’s been a virtual fire hose the past few days, but we’re not done yet so hang in there!  Up next is the coveted Ask the SEOs session with some of this industry’s greatest and most decorated veterans. Speaking we have Greg Boser, Bruce Clay, Vanessa Fox, Todd Friesen, Stephan Spencer, and Jill Whalen.  You don’t need any banter from me. Let’s just do it!
• Critique a Web Page in Less Than 15 Seconds – The easiest and most objective way to evaluate your site is to do it within 15 seconds or less. You don’t have to stand upside down with socks on your hands while squinting through one eye to critique your site, here are some simple techniques to aid you in your own critique.
• Quick & Dirty Competitive Research for Keywords – The low down on how to get great competitive research data from free tools.
• Google's Matt Cutts Talks Down Keyword Domain Names – Aaron asks a very valid question: have you considered the direction Google is taking and adjusted your SEO and general online marketing strategy accordingly?
• 5 ways for Local Businesses to grow their Twitter Followers and Business – Nice concise piece about how businesses can effectively use Twitter to boost their local marketing efforts.
• The 5 Pillars Of International SEO Forensics – Great tips on how to analyze where your international website marketing efforts are breaking down.
• Google Bans Itself Again By Banning BeatThatQuote.com – Just after purchasing the domain beatthatquote.com Google has added a penalty to the domain.