SearchCap: The Day In Search, March 21, 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:

• Google CSE Adds Show Popular Queries But…
  The Google Custom Search Engine blog announced that you can now add a snippet of code on your site to show off the most popular queries (searches) performed by your readers. I am a huge fan of the Google Custom Search Engine but I am not a fan of this…
• Yahoo’s Semel Says Panama Will Show “Exciting Numbers” In 1st Quarter
  Yahoo CEO praises new ad system, says “very happy” from Reuters reports that Terry Semel, Yahoo’s CEO, said at an AdAge conference that Panama, Yahoo’s new ad system, will result in “some very exciting numbers” for the first quarter. Semel said “I’m totally all smiles” about Panama and restated that…
• No Google Phone But Mobile Software Says Google
  Google quashes mobile phone talk from The Sydney Morning Herald reports that Google said they will not be selling a phone. Richard Kimber of Google’s South-East Asia managing director of sales and operations and Google’s chief internet evangelist, Vinton Cerf said that building out a phone would change Google’s business…
• Local Search News: BooRah, Oodle and Rao
  Here’s a quick roundup of some local search news. Restaurant reviews aggregator BooRah announced a partnership with local newspaper publisher Embarcadero Publishing. BooRah will power the restaurant and related community section of Embacadero’s sites. Classifieds aggregator Oodle announced an $11 million round of funding for its next stage of growth….
• Google To Help Space Telescope Science Institute Complete Largest Data Transfer
  Google’s Next-Gen of Sneakernet from Wired reports that Google is going to help the Space Telescope Science Institute transfer 120 terabytes of data, which is reportedly the largest data transfer to-date. They coined the transfer of huge amounts of data “FedExNet.” This effort is to be lead by Chris DiBona…
• Google Wins KinderStart Case Over Site Penalty
  Eric Goldman reports that Google has won the case brought to them by KinderStart over Google downgrading their rankings. The case was first filed before March of last year and then they amended the complaint in September. The bottom-line is that Judge Fogel dismissed the “complaint without leave to amend”…
• PreFound Relaunches, Tries To Rise Above Social Search Din
  The term “social search” is kind of a catch-all category now for a range of companies that are bringing people back into the algorithm. Not only are these companies seeking to improve search results with humans, they’re trying to differentiate vs. Google from a marketing standpoint on that basis as…
• B2B Search Marketing: Branding’s Best Friend
  Despite the key role it plays in B2B purchasing, branding seems to move further and further down the list of corporate priorities. In the drive to generate revenue in today’s ROI-driven world, don’t ignore the influence of corporate branding on B2B sales or focus search marketing solely on product…
• Q&A With François Bourdoncle, CEO Of Exalead
  Exalead is one of those great search engines that most people haven’t heard of. And that’s a shame, because it offers some really powerful and unique features that most information professionals love. Exalead is also the name of an enterprise search company, co-founded by today’s Q&A participant, François Bourdoncle….

Search News Headlines From Elsewhere

Applications & Portal Features

• Easter Egg in Google Personalized Homepage, Google Operating System
• Google quashes mobile phone talk, Sydney Morning Herald

Business Issues

• Yahoo China says to grow in 2007, no layoffs, Reuters
• Google will buy TV ad company, Blodget predicts, News.com
• Larry Ellison: Oracle replaced Red Hat support at Yahoo, ZDNet.com
• Yahoo! nears Google ad revenue after deductions, E-consultancy.com

Local, Mobile & Maps

• Could the Google Phone rank search results by call volume, Mad4Mobile

• The Glacial Rate of Change at Google Maps, Small Business SEM

• Online Map Providers: Oh the Places You’ll Go, Compete.com Blog

Paid Search & Contextual

• New adCenter tool for determining page sensitivity, JenSense.com
• Query String Usage in adCenter: Part 2 – new query strings offered in adCenter, adCenter Blog
• Google Test Google Logo on AdSense at Top Left, Search Engine Roundtable
• (Live) Search Visibility Now Vital To Retailers, adCenter Blog

Privacy & Legal

• Beware of Google Checkout Phishing Attempts or Not?, Search Engine Roundtable

• Film that inspired Will Wright’s “Spore” is focus of latest YouTube subpoena, Google Watch

SEM Industry

• ProBlogger Meetup March 29 in NYC!, Link Building Blog

SEO & SEM

• Sticks and Stones Won’t Hurt Your SEO Campaign, Bruceclay.com

• Jim Westergren’s Complete Guide to SEO for Wordpress, SEO Scoop
• Making a Site Link Friendly, SEOmoz

• Should We Watch Backlink Updates at Google.com Anymore?, Search Engine Roundtable

Social Media

• YouTube Videos is it Working?, Wolf Howl
• Three Hidden Dangers of Twitter, Pronet Advertising

Video & Image Search

• Blip.tv to Track Web Video Ads, RED HERRING

Other Vertical Search

• Yahoo Health partners with educational video network, News.com
• Allth.at Launches Innovative Search Agents App, Read/Write Web
• mywaves Introduces SND2MBL Web to Mobile Video Marketing, Bill Hartzer
• Filtering Google News Searches By Publisher, Search Engine Roundtable

Other Stuff

• Mark Pilgrim to Join Google, SEO by the SEA
• Google Should Buy Ford’s Twin Cities Assembly Plant, Technology Evangelist
• Ultimate Web Analytics Comparison Resources, Web Analytics World
• Microsoft’s Live Search is Now in Hebrew, Search Engine Herald