SearchCap: The Day In Search, March 2, 2009

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

From Search Engine Land:

• Yahoo Celebrates Its 14th Birthday
  

  Yahoo is celebrating its 14th birthday today with a trip down memory lane in the form of a short photo essay on the company blog. Here’s one of the photos — a shot of the Yahoo home page in 1995:

  There’s also a shot of co-founders Jerry Yang and David Filo which, perhaps accidentally, serves as [...]

• Microsoft Live Search Tests: Best Match And Categorized Listings
  

  The latest SEO talk this week has been all about Google’s algorithm changes that presumably favor big brands, but Microsoft Live Search has been experimenting with changes of its own that seemingly would help big brands the most (although ironically, big brands may not like it all that much). Today, I came across some interesting [...]

• New Tool Adds Twitter Search To Google
  

  A new tool takes us one small step closer to bringing real-time search, i.e., Twitter search results, to the Google interface. It’s called Twitter Search Results on Google, and it adds the most recent five tweets for your search query above Google’s regular search results, like this:

  (The tool is actually a Greasemonkey script for Firefox. [...]

• Looking For Session Ideas For SMX Advanced 2009
  

  Our twice sold-old SMX Advanced search marketing conference returns to Seattle this coming June 2 & 3. I’ll be producing the agenda to go up later this month. As part of that, I’m now accepting session ideas for the show. Pitching a great session idea is the very best way to speak at the show. [...]

• Yahoo-Newspaper Consortium Producing Some Mutual Gains
  

  When the Yahoo-Newspaper consortium was announced in early 2007 both Yahoo and the newspaper industry were stronger and in better shape than they are today. (That’s certainly true for newspapers.) Since that time Yahoo has suffered through the MicroHoo episode, gone through a couple reorgs, laid off a meaningful chunk of its workforce and gained [...]

• See Yahoo’s New Image Search Ads In Yahoo News
  

  A couple weeks ago, Yahoo announced they will be going forward with rich ads in Yahoo search. Back then, we only saw a few examples in the raw Yahoo Search results, and they were for mostly video ads. I received a heads up from Gary Price that Yahoo is now showing image ads [...]

• Google Testing Single Line Sitelinks?
  

  Dan Sharp at the Search Engine War blog noticed Google testing a new type of Sitelinks format. Google Sitelinks are the links you find under some of the Google search results. Typically, they are listed out in two columns and four rows, directly under the display URL. To see it in action, [...]

• The Evolving State Of Social Media & SEO
  

  The thumbprint of social media on search engine optimization is evolving. It used to be that the big rage was figuring out how to develop link bait that had a strong chance of making the front page of Digg, Reddit, or other similar social news sites. The results were good, mostly in terms [...]

• Google Wishes Dr. Seuss A Happy Birthday
  

  If you visit Google.com today, you will see a special logo for Dr. Seuss’s birthday. The logo’s alternative text tag reads, “Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss! Courtesy of Dr. Seuss Enterprises.” Here is a copy of that logo:

  Clicking on the logo will take you to a search result set for Dr Seuss including web [...]

• Everything You Need To Know About AdWords Display URLs
  

  The display URL is an often overlooked element of ad copy. It’s most common usage is to signal to a searcher where the ad click leads. However, the display URL is also a quality score factor and has different editorial requirements than the rest of your ad. The display URL is also a prime candidate for [...]

• EveryZing Launches Automatic Metadata Generator For Multimedia
  

  Video search and SEO services provider EveryZing has introduced MediaCloud, an online service that automatically generates search-friendly metadata for video, audio and other rich media content. One of the big problems with rich media is that without accompanying metadata that describes the contents, video and audio files are essentially “invisible” to search engines. MediaCloud seeks to [...]

• Leveraging Social Media For Local SEO
  

  Myspace has quickly become the go-to site for many businesses that can not afford websites to create some kind of online presence. The ability to quickly create a profile, gather friends and customize the page by placing your logo on the page has attracted a lot of businesses. Of course search marketers were quick to [...]

• What France Can Teach Us About Search Success
  

  If you needed evidence that we’re living in the age of Google, look no farther than France. Ville d’Eu (more commonly known as simply “EU”) is thinking of changing its name in order to rank more easily in Google. Search for [EU], says the mayor, and information about the town is drowned out by [...]

• My Friendly Meet Up With Google Israel
  

  I had the privilege of meeting with the Google Israel team in their Tel Aviv office. Eyal Miller, the manager of the technology sector of Google Israel was kind enough to give me the office tour and introduce me to the people. As some of you know, Google has two offices in Israel. One in up [...]

• Search Biz: Google News Courting Legal Trouble?, Bold Predictions About Behavioral Ad Targeting & More
  

  Will the recent introduction of paid ads on Google News lead to legal issues for Google? That question is discussed today on ClickZ, where Sandra Baron of the Media Law Resource Center says publishers will be looking at what Google is doing: “A significant issue for content providers is whether or not what Google provides becomes [...]

Search News From Around The Web:

Applications & Portal Features

• Is Google App Engine the wrong product for the market?, Carnage4Life
• Get Faster Gmail, Google Toolbar and a New Homepage, Google Operating System

Business Issues

• Putting a Bolder Face on Google, New York Times
• Yahoo’s Microsoft tab totaled $79 million, News.com
• Ad Skippers Beware: Ask.com Going After You With TV Crawl, Ad Age
• What An Antitrust Case Against Google Might Look Like, TechCrunch
• Yahoo Fined By Belgian Court For Refusing To Give Up E-Mail Account Info, TechCrunch

Local, Maps & Mobile

• New Imagery Google Earth – 28-February-2009, Google Earth Blog
• Google Maps suffers huge infusion of Remote Call Forwarding Mapspam, Mike Blumenthal

Link Building

• Free Backlink Checkers – Research Anything You Need, Search Engine Journal
• SEO Q&A : Do Social Bookmarks Still Hold Link Value?, Search Engine Journal

Paid Search & Contextual

• Importing 3rd Party Campaigns to Microsoft adCenter Desktop: Import and Upload (Part 2), adCenter Blog for Advertisers
• European Google AdSense Publishers Not Happy About Exchange Rate, Search Engine Roundtable
• Google Delays Payments To Publishers Yet Another Month, Search Engine Roundtable
• Microsoft Advertising Digital Challenge – Make More Than Just An Impression!, adCenter Blog for Advertisers
• Your adCenter PPC & Web Analytics Reports Don’t Match, adCenter Blog for Advertisers

Searching

• Ask.com Crosses The Line: Frames Search Results, Search Engine Roundtable
• Exploring Connections Between Books in Google Book Search, SEO By The Sea
• Personal branding in the age of Google, Seth’s Blog
• New York Scanned and Indexed by Google, Beet.TV
• Why You Should Be Worried About Google Search Wiki, Michael Gray

SEM Industry

• Search engine scams, PressDemocrat.com
• Personal Brands in SEO: Stop Obeying False Idols, outspokenmedia.com
• Searchfest 2009 Interview: Vanessa Fox, SEMpdx Blog

SEO & SEM

• Dig into Your Search Referrals for Content Ideas and SEO, Daily SEO Tip
• The Relationship Between Search Behaviour and SERP Landscape (Part 1), McAnerin Muse
• Weather Report: Yahoo! Search Index Update, Yahoo Search Blog
• Brand Building For SEOs and Internet Marketing Companies, seoroi.com
• Hide SEO Under the Cloak of Usability, All Things SEM
• Selling Your SEO Project, Stone Temple
• Alternative Forms of Keyword Research, Daily SEO Tip
• Don’t Forget the Brand in SEO, PPC and Social Media, Search Engine Journal
• Google March 2009 PageRank Update or Glitch?, Search Engine Roundtable
• Google vs. Duplicate Content – rel="canonical" tag, SageRock
• How to Research Your Keyword Context, Shimon Sandler
• Linkscape Index Update – With Focus on Quality, SEOmoz
• New Use for Canonical Tag – Geolocation, McAnerin Muse
• The Big Brand Lie, Find Resolution
• Two Brand Conversations, One Industry?, Bryson Meunier

Social Media

• Startup Launch: Buzzable Creates Twitter Groups Around RSS Feeds (500 Invites), TechCrunch
• Time For Verified Twitter Accounts & An Easy Way To Do It, Danny Sullivan
• Building Complementary Services: A Powerful Long-Term Social Media Marketing Strategy, DoshDosh
• Facebook’s Thiel Explains Failed Twitter Takeover, BusinessWeek
• LinkedIn Skyrockets as Job Losses Mount, Ad Age
• Skittles: Tweet the rainbow (or racial slurs), VentureBeat

Video, Music & Image Search

• White House ditches YouTube after privacy complaints, news.cnet.com

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

• TinyURL Does Not Pass Value
• 11 Examples of a Perfect Viral Marketing Campaigns
• The Self-Branding Of Search Marketers
• Brand Building for SEOs Companies
• LinkBuilding, FireFox And My Wife!
• French town considers name change to increase SEO
• New Tool Streamlines Social Media Profile Research
• The Big List Of Search Engines & Their Employees On Twitter
• Taking local marketing to the next level