SearchCap: The Day In Search, March 19, 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:

• 30% Of Results For Some Competitive Searches Found To Be Spam
  Researchers Track Down a Plague of Fake Web Pages from the NY Times reports on a recent paper from Microsoft Research released named "Spam Double-Funnel: Connecting Web Spammers with Advertisers" [PDF download] (also note that Gary linked to it Friday). The report categorizes search results spam by industry category, showing…
• TellMe: Is Microsoft Shadow Boxing Against Google In Mobile Voice Search?
  The recent acquisition of TellMe by Microsoft, piqued my interest in the free voice driven directory assistance service, 520-Find and the possible role that Google plays in the service. Mobile directory assistance will have a huge role in both local search and local advertising going forward. Clearly, Google has…
• 1-800-Free411 To Launch Local Category Search
  Jingle Networks’ free directory assistance (DA) service 1-800-FREE411 is slated this week to launch a new "category search" option, where you call to get matches of businesses in an area that relate to a category of interest (such as movie theaters in Los Angeles, or a dentist in San Francisco)….
• Ingenio Adds Medio Systems To Mobile Distribution
  Pay-per-call provider Ingenio has added white label mobile search vendor Medio Systems to its distribution network. In addition to a range of online destinations, Ingenio is working with a number of mobile search sites and providers: JumpTap, Live.com/MSFT, AOL, go2, UpSnap and 1-800-FREE411. Last week Medio put out this release,…
• Link Sense & Sensibilites
  Last week Danny had a great write up on the new anchor text reporting feature Google added to its Webmaster Toolbox. According to Google, they’ve "enhanced the information we provide and will show you the complete phrases sites use to link to you, not just individual words. And we’ve expanded…
• Need A Medical Center Phone Number? Local Search Might Give The Wrong Number
  Mike Blumenthal has a detailed look at some of the inaccuracies Google Maps and other local search engines have when it comes to phone listings of medical centers. He writes: "The medical center phone data is in critical condition and in need of intensive care."…
• GOOG Acquisitions: Trendalyzer & Adscape Media
  A quick heads-up on two new Google acquisitions. First, Google has announced the purchase of Gapminder’s Trendalyzer software. Second, it confirms the purchase of Adscape Media, an in-game advertising company, following rumors of a buy last month….
• YouTube To Hold Online Awards Show
  YouTube to Sponsor Video Awards Show from the Associated press reports that YouTube will be holding the first YouTube Video Awards….
• Travelocity: "Profound Mistake To Think We’ve Figured Out How To Measure ROI On Search"
  Jeffrey Glueck, CMO at Travelocity, offered some controversial, and to some, nearly heretical comments while speaking at the IAB’s Performance Marketing Forum this week in Chicago. According to coverage in Advertising Age, Travelocity has found that it’s a waste to buy non-branded search terms. Fully 96% of Travelocity’s bookings coming…
• Comcast May Leave Google For Microsoft Search Partnership
  Comcast Signals Unhappiness With Google from the Wall Street Journal reports that Comcast is in talks with Microsoft to see if they would give them a larger piece of the search revenue pie than Google currently does….
• Hitwise: Slight Google Rise In February 2007
  Search popularity stats for last month are coming out once again, and I’m diving in with the latest figures from Hitwise. They show Google had a slight rise over the previous month, mainly at the loss of Microsoft Live. The month-to-month figures are below, along with the long term trend…
• Summize: Using Heatmaps In Product Search Results
  I wrote earlier this week about Wize a shopping comparison engine that aggregated millions of reviews to compile a "WizeRank" for each product, based on the total number of positive, neutral or negative reviews found on the web. Today Alex Iskold over on ReadWriteWeb takes a takes a look at…
• Webcast: Alternative PPC Search Programs
  Another webcast alert for SearchCap newsletter readers and anyone who visits Search Engine Land. In just over a week, the Reaping Return From Alternative Pay-Per-Click Search Engines webcast from our sister site Search Marketing Now will be taking place with Search Engine Land executive editor Chris Sherman. The webcast happens…

Search News Headlines From Elsewhere

Applications & Portal Features

• The History of Google Talk Gadget, Google Operating System
• Customize Google Reader’s Clips, Google Operating System
• Google announces partnership with Rwandan Government and Kenya Education Network to provide free communications applications, Google Press Release

Business Issues

• Noogler? Zany Google can make you one, Detroit News
• Non-Google search news, Matt Cutts
• Viacom’s Full-Court Press for Online Ads, New York Times
• DAVID HAYDEN: Jeteye ’struggling’, Valleywag
• AOL France Drops National Search Engine Exalead For Google, Search Engine Watch Blog

Local, Mobile & Maps

• Google’s Patent Application on Advertising Offline, SEO By The Sea

Paid Search & Contextual

• Humor University, Korean Site, Sues Google over AdSense Ban, Search Engine Roundtable
• Making Money From A Blog – February 2007, John Chow dot Com
• Deanna Brown Leaves Yahoo; Joins Scripps As President, Interactive Group, PaidContent.org

Privacy & Legal

• US Customs seizes YouTube records in drug and death threat investigation, Google Watch

SEM Industry

• SES NYC 2007 Coming – What To Know, Search Engine Roundtable
• Eastbound And Down, Oilman
• SEO Bloggers Step Away From the Keyboard, Graywolf
• Search Bloggers: Keep Blogging Please, Cartoon Barry

SEO & SEM

• The Ethics of Reputation Management (or, "Getting Stuff Deleted From Google"), SEOmoz
• Positive and Negative Quality Ranking Factors from Google’s Blog Search (Patent Application), SEO By The Sea
• Move to a New Domain Without Losing Rankings (or Hair), ClickZ
• The Secret to Ranking at the Search Engines (that’s really no secret at all), SEOmoz
• Possible Microsoft Live Search March Update?, Search Engine Roundtable
• SEOmoz Vidcast – Rand Explains Cloaking, SEOmoz
• Google Anchor Text Reports Updated Monthly & Not Finalized, Search Engine Roundtable
• Recovering from NoIndex/NoFollow on Google, Web Analytics World
• Wordpress SEO Title Tag 2.0 Plugin, Search Engine Journal
• BLOGSPOT: Google spams itself, Valleywag

Social Media

• The Skinny on SquidOffers, ClickInfluence
• Whitesoap: Digg Meets Slashdot, InsideGoogle
• The Race of the Big Boys to Create Digg Internationally, Pronet Advertising
• Does Digg Have an Automatic Bury Feature?, Graywolf
• The Beginner’s Guide to Social Media Optimization, Search Engine Guide
• Online Postings Can Haunt Job Search, WSB
• Digg & the Power of Commenting on Blogs, Search Engine Journal
• Twitterholic: Mashable Is World’s 45th Biggest Twit, Mashable

Video & Image Search

• YouTube to expose video upload API, Googling Google
• Guerilla RSS feeds for Daily Show and Colbert, Boing Boing
• Who Embedded My Video?, Google Operating System
• NFL violates copyright law, YouTube collaborates with them, Boing Boing

Other Vertical Search

• Live Twitter Search Engine Opens, Micro Persuasion
• Yahoo! Finance Market Share 52 times Bigger than Google Finance, Search Engine Watch Blog

Other Stuff

• Does Your Business School Have a High PageRank?, Search Engine Roundtable
• Me, myself and my Google twin, Sacramento Bee
• 5 Google Tips To Improve Your Search Experience, InformationWeek
• Google’s Blog Software Hijacked by Scammers, PC World
• XML Output for Google Search Results, Google Operating System
• Skrenta on Naming, Skrentablog
• Spring Break Search Gone Wild!, Ask.com Blog
• Daily SearchCast, March 19, 2007: Google Reports Anchor Text; Ballmer Calls Google One-Hit Wonder; The Youscars & More!