SearchCap: The Day In Search, March 15, 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:

• Google Tries to Reassure Brand Owners With New Anti-Counterfeiting Measures

  Counterfeiters seem to love Google AdWords — the company shut down 50,000 AdWords accounts selling counterfeit goods in the last six months of 2010 alone. But some counterfeiters are still on the loose, raising the ire of Google’s advertisers who are selling legitimate versions of the same products. In response to the problem, Google has […]
• Want To Speak @ SMX Advanced London? Here’s How

  The agenda is live, and we’re now accepting submissions to speak at Search Marketing Expo – SMX Advanced London 2011. To increase the odds of being selected, be sure to have read the agenda. Understand what the sessions are about. Ensure that your pitch is on target to the show’s audience and the session. Please […]

• Google To Test Mobile Payments In NY And SF

  While Apple has reportedly decided to forgo NFC-related hardware/software in iPhone 5 because of a lack of standards, Google is to begin testing NFC-based mobile payments at selected stores in New York and San Francisco according to an article in Bloomberg: The company will pay for installation of thousands of special cash-register systems from VeriFone […]

• Could The US Demand That Google Boost Hollywood Sites To Fight Online Piracy?

  Should the US demand that Google, Bing and other search engines give preference to “authorized” sites offering television shows and movies? At least some members of the US House of Representatives pondered the idea yesterday, during a hearing on online piracy issues. The US House Intellectual Property, Competition, and the Internet Subcommittee hearings yesterday on […]

• The Google Dance / Updates Infographic

  Wouldn’t it be great to have a fun and informative infographic documenting some of the major Google search algorithm updates? Well, we now have one, the Level 343 Blog published an infographic documenting the “Google Dances,” the old name for when Google made search results updates. Here is the infographic or you can view a […]

• You Can Hate (Block) But No Longer Love (Star) Google’s Search Results

  Google has disabled the ability to star search results from within the Google search results page. As you may remember, Google replaced SearchWiki with starring results back in March 2010, about 16-months after Google launched SearchWiki. Now that Google has re-introduced a way to block sites in Google, Google has determined you no longer need […]

• Do You Own Your International Search Program?

  One of the outcomes of the Google Farmer/Panda update has been more executives asking the question: “Is my agency doing any of those tactics for my program?” Interestingly, a byproduct has been a number of multinationals who have realized that they really did not know what their local market agencies were doing and are now […]

• How A Bad Reputation Can Affect Link Building

  There is a company that I once bought something from, something that did not at all live up to my expectations, something that was just cheap and tacky and not at all what I wanted. However, it was quite inexpensive and I wasn’t feeling particularly outraged, so I just grinned and bore it. Fast forward […]

• The 4 A’s Of Social Marketing Success

  Every month, I get a reminder email from the team at Search Engine Land to tell me that my post is due. Most months I already have a clear idea of what I want to cover, but some times I find myself staring at the screen, not sure where to start. And in many ways, that’s […]

• Attribution Management: The New Frontier In Search

  Had you exchanged pleasantries at a 2001 cocktail party, describing yourself as a search marketer, you’d have undoubted been met with a moment of uncomfortable silence and a blank stare. A decade later, it’s hard to imagine a company of any size, in any industry, that isn’t using SEO or paid search advertising to market […]

• Google Adds “Sale” Dimension To Product Listings

  In a bid to improve the consumer experience with Google Product Search listings, the search giant will soon be requiring three new types of data for feeds targeting the U.S., and one new type for those targeting the U.K. A fourth type of data, which is recommended, but not required, will allow merchants to specify […]

• Google Relaunches Street View Website

  Google is revealing more about its sometimes controversial Street View product with an expanded web site that just launched today. The new site continues to show where Street View vehicles are currently active and educates people on how to use Street View’s features. But there are new sections about the different Street View vehicles (cars, […]

• YouTube, MSNBC Benefit From Quake-related Search Spikes, Hitwise Says

  Search activity spiked late last week in response to the earthquake and tsunami in Japan and the two sites benefitting the most in terms of web traffic were MSNBC and YouTube. That’s according to a series of tweets from Experian Hitwise this afternoon. As the image above shows, Hitwise says that the phrase “japan earthquake” […]

Search News From Around The Web:

Applications & Portal Features

• Microsoft Adds Do-Not-Track Tool to Browser, Wall Street Journal
• IE9 Release Globally Available for Consumers and Businesses, IEBlog
• Index maintenance and fresh results only mode till March 21, Topsy Service Status
• New Google Apps feature release process, Official Google Enterprise Blog

Business Issues

• Flickr Burning As Yahoo Fiddles: Head Of Service Walks Away, TechCrunch
• Twitter co-founder Biz Stone in his own words, AFP
• Can Google Save Itself From Google?, GigaOM
• Google’s 15 Biggest Acquisitions And What Happened To Them, Business Insider
• On Leaving Flickr at updates, m.blog

Local, Maps & Mobile

• Google Maps Drops Related Maps From Place Pages, Search Engine Roundtable
• Infographic: Owning Your Local Web Equity, Mike Blumenthal
• Yummy! The New York Public is Digitizing There Collection of Historic NYC Restaurant Menus, INFOdocket

Link Building

• The Ultimate Guide to Link Building in 2011, Single Grain Blog

Paid Search & Contextual

• MySpace Streamlines Ad Sales; Unveils Self-Serve Ad Platform, paidContent.org
• Sandbox Maintenance 3/16 from 3-7 PM PDT, adCenter Blog
• Sandbox Maintenance on 3/16 from 3-7 PM PDT, adCenter API Blog for Developers

Searching

• "10,000 Voices Added to British Library Map of Spoken English, INFOdocket
• A New Section of Data.gov is Now Live: Law.Data.gov, INFOdocket
• Hebrew University’s Einstein Archives To Go Online, INFOdocket

SEM Industry

• Bing’s Lesson to Marketers Looking to Help Victims of Japanese Quake, Ad Age

SEO & SEM

• Google and Bing Give Advice to Webmasters at SXSW, WebProNews
• Major Disasters in Poisoned Search Results, Unmask Parasites. Blog.
• 10 SEO Questions with Darren Shaw, SEO Begin
• 3 Reasons Why Google’s “Farmer” Update is a Good Thing, Marketing Words Copywriting Blog
• 3 Tips to Use Paid Search for a Complex Sale, Search Engine Watch
• 30 Yahoo! and Bing Tools for Ecommerce Businesses, Practical eCommerce
• 6 Reasons Why Q&A Sites Can Boost Your SEO in 2011 (Despite Google’s Farmer Update), SEOmoz
• Does Google Like Content Delivery Networks (CDNs)?, Search Engine Roundtable
• Interview with SEO Copywriting Certification Grad, Carole Seawert, SEO Copywriting
• Is HTML validation necessary for ranking?, YouTube
• Microsoft adCenter Scheduled Maintenance Upsets Advertisers, Search Engine Roundtable
• The First PageRank Patent and the Newest, SEO By The Sea
• Traffic Source Diversity is Essential for Successful SEO, SEOmoz

Social Media

• 27% of Small Businesses Using Facebook, My Venture Pad
• Former Myspacers Build Link Curator ‘Tagging Robot’, TechCrunch

Video, Music & Image Search

• Steady, as she goes: better video processing with Green Parrot Pictures, YouTube Blog

Other Items

• Google Hungarian Revolution Logo, Search Engine Roundtable

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

• Infographic: Owning Your Local Web Equity – SMBs are trying to make decisions amidst an onslaught of media buzz. This infographic provides a foundation for understanding the landscape and how to invest in long term marketing efforts.
• SEO Audits – Strategic vs. Tactical – Alan Bleiweiss, a forensic SEO consultant, provides valuable insights into how to structure SEO audits.
• Why SEO needs to be baked in – For new sites, or site rebuilds, it's worryingly common for search engine optimisation to be the last thing considered. This article discusses the advantages of build-in SEO from scratch.
• Get Hundreds of Links to Your Next Blog Post, Guaranteed – Another great post from ViperChill outlining what it takes to get loads of links from your quality content.
• SEO Lessons Learned at SMX West – Vanessa Fox summarizes all the valuable tidbits of SEO information which came out of SMX West this week. Topics include more on Google’s Farmer/Panda update, white hat cloaking, press release and article marketing, and link building in general.
• How Foursquare & AmEx Are Putting a Fresh Twist on Loyalty Marketing – The pilot program started Friday and will run through Tuesday, March 15. Participating merchants have posted “Austin Unlocked” window clings to highlight their participation, and Foursquare users need only register their American Express cards to unlock this new type of special — the Loyalty Special.