SearchCap: The Day In Search, March 22, 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:

• News Corp. & NBC To Launch YouTube Competitor
  News Corp., NBC pull together to challenge YouTube from the LA Times reports that the two media giants are expected to announce a YouTube-like site as early as today. News Corp. and NBC Universal plan to announce as soon as today that they are creating an online video site stocked…
• Yahoo Says 12 to 15 Percent Of Clicks Are Discounted
  As Greg noted with Yahoo Appoints New Click Quality Czar, Yahoo has come out to say that 12 to 15 percent of their search ad clicks are filtered out due to being fraud, invalid or for other reasons. Reggie Davis, Yahoo’s new Vice President of Marketplace Quality, was clear on…
• Google Adds Related Phrases To Definitions
  Threadwatch spotted that Google has added “related phrases” to the Google definitions feature. For example, a search on define:car shows at the top: Related phrases: car rental cable car trailer on flat car stock car tank car pace car car kit champ car box car racer…
• Microsoft Appoints New Head Of Search & Ads
  Microsoft continues ad exec shuffle from News.com reports that Satya Nadella will be the new head of the Search and Ad Platform Group at Microsoft. Kevin Johnson, the president of Microsoft’s Platform and Services Division, will be Satya Nadella’s boss. Nadella will start his new role on April 19th. Some…
• Yahoo Appoints New Click Quality Czar
  I’ve always believed that click fraud was a bigger PR problem than actual problem for the search engines. Of course there have been raging debates about the percentage of “invalid clicks” that advertisers were receiving and what the click fraud numbers actually are. But the engines historically took the “black…
• Updated: New Google Mobile Phone Search Patent Application(s)
  Is there a Google Phone waiting to be released, or just mobile software that makes it easier for people to use Google to search with? How serious is Google about mobile search? How would such a system work? I ran into a patent application on the World Intellectual Property Organization…
• SEMPO Elects 2007 Officers
  SEMPO has announced the new officers elected by the 2007 SEMPO Board of Directors Announced. Each officer will serve a one-year term and here they are: Hotchkiss, Chairperson Jeffrey Pruitt, President Dave Williams, Vice President Dave Fall, Treasurer Chris Boggs, Secretary Congrats to the new board!…

Search News Headlines From Elsewhere

Applications & Portal Features

• Yahoo Widgets 4, Yahoo! Widgets – Blog
• KML and GeoRSS Support Added to the Google Maps API, Google Maps API Official Blog
• Yahoo Widgets vs Google Desktop, Google Operating System

Business Issues

• Yahoo Telemundo, WSJ Sign Web Pact, MediaWeek
• IAC’s Horan Talks Integration, ClickZ

• TROUBLE IN PARADISE: Google’s second-class citizens, Valleywag

Local, Mobile & Maps

• Google pulling back from the Local OneBox?, Michael Blumenthal
  

Paid Search & Contextual

• The Bleeding Obvious File: Advertising Leads to Increased Search Volumes, Out of my Gord
• AdSense Adds Google Checkout Referral Button, Search Engine Roundtable
• Did Google turn down the revenue knob?, Scobleizer
• Google’s New Text Link Ad Unit, Search Engine Roundtable
• Quality is His New Job, For One, Yahoo! Publisher Network

Privacy & Legal

• Google’s Privacy Policy Is Clearer, Not Tougher, New York Times
• Why Google Wanted a YouTube Lawsuit, Slashdot

• Viacom Sued Over YouTube Parody Removal, Wired

SEM Industry

• Elite Retreat San Fransisco, Link Building Blog
• Second Search Engine Marketing Scholarship Contest Launches, Marketing Pilgrim
• 11 Key Take Aways from Elite Retreat Posts, Search Marketing Standard Blog

SEO & SEM

• Every Site is Linkbait & Linkerati Worthy, SEOmoz
• Teeny Weenie Bikini Linkbait, Eric Ward
• 12 Quick Site Architecture Tips, Ramblings About SEO
• Why Links Matter – Part 3, Search Engine Guide

Social Media

• rss has a flavor, del.icio.us
• It’s Official - Twitter’s a Marketing Medium, ClickZ

• The Ups and Downs of Socializing Your Content, SEO Book.com

• Some Traditional Sites, Aiming to Be Hip, End Up the Opposite, WSJ.com
• Crowdsourcing: A Million Heads is Better than One, Read/Write Web

Video & Image Search

• GData for Picasa Web Albums, Google Code Blog

Other Vertical Search

• Answer.com For Answers, StayGoLinks
• 8 Reasons Why Google Finance is better than Yahoo Finance, Web Analytics World

Other Stuff

• Google is the Biggest Web Spammer, SEO Book.com
• ht://Dig: The Open Source Search Engine (htdig-noindex), Search Engine Roundtable
• How to Dress for Your Google Interview, WIRED Blogs