SearchCap: The Day In Search, March 24, 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:

• Report: Microsoft Taking On Google Street View With “GeoSynth”
  

  Since it was introduced more than two years ago, Microsoft’s innovative Photosynth technology has been “under-leveraged.” I’ve written a number of times about Photosynth and its potential. Now, according to an article in Fast Company, Microsoft is going to compete more aggressively with Google StreetView by soliciting user-generated photos and then geotagging and Photosynthing them. [...]

• BioNumbers – Specialty Biology Answer Search Engine
  

  Today, I met with Dr. Ron Milo who works in the field of plant sciences at Weizmann Institute in Israel, who showed me a specialty search engine project he built from the ground up named BioNumbers. In short, BioNumbers is a collection of common biological numbers that is useful to one’s research. For [...]

• Google Insights For Search Adds Valuable New Features
  

  Three new features just announced this week will make the already valuable Google Insights for Search an even stronger keyword research tool. Here’s a look at what’s been added: 1.) New data sources

  In addition to web search, you can now do keyword research for Image, News, and Product search, too. This opens up new opportunities for different [...]

• Search Veteran Gerry Campbell Becomes CEO Of “Real-Time” Search Engine Collecta
  

  Gerry Campbell was at Alta Vista and later spent several years in the search unit of AOL before joining Reuters as “President/Global Head of Search & Content Technologies.” Among other roles, he was an advisor to Summize, acquired last year by Twitter. And now Campbell has joined “real-time” search service Collecta as CEO. Collecta hasn’t launched [...]

• Google Implements ‘Orion’ Technology, Improves Search Refinements & Adds Longer Snippets
  

  Google is announcing two changes to search results this morning. The first involves the use of longer “snippets” (text extracts containing the keywords) when users input queries of three words or more. The objective is to provide more context to help the user determine if the site is worth visiting. Many search engines have attempted [...]

• How To Avoid The Link Vacuum Effect
  

  I recently came across a post explaining why Twitter isn’t great for SEO. This quote in particular really got to me: “In addition to being a nofollow vacuum, Twitter has the danger of becoming a linking vacuum. In the ideal scenario, people will find a link on Twitter and then link the post in their own [...]

Search News From Around The Web:

Applications & Portal Features

• Hackers steer clear of Google Chrome, say too challenging, ZDNet
• Live Search: Active Answers give you flight status, blogs.msdn.com

Business Issues

• Google design: The kids are alright, fury.com
• Follow The Hires: Twitter Looking To Ramp Up Search And Platform APIs, TechCrunch
• Google deal machine adjusts to slow times, Reuters
• Online Ad Spending To Fall 8%-9%, MediaPost
• YouTube Tries Bigger Home-Page Ads, Ad Age
• Blue Sky for Baidu?, Reuters
• YouTube Being Blocked in China, Google Says, New York Times

Local, Maps & Mobile

• Court Allows Dentist To Sue Writer Of Bad Yelp Review, MediaPost
• UK Google boss escapes cameras, technology.timesonline.co.uk
• Mapping the big melt, Google LatLong
• Leveraging Small Business Customer Reviews and Testimonials Online, Search Engine Journal
• Google Maps: Telephone validation not working properly in Canada?, Mike Blumenthal

Other Items

• Google UK supports World Tuberculosis Day, blog.arhg.net

Paid Search & Contextual

• Video: Speed Up Your Landing Page Testing, WebProNews
• AdWords Agency Blog: Upcoming Webinar – Search’s Impact on TV Tune-In, adwordsagency.blogspot.com
• adCenter “81% more likely to convert”, David Naylor
• Optimizing Keywords and Match Types Using the adCenter Add-In for Excel, adCenter Blog for Advertisers
• Results of Our Second Tier PPC Search Engine Survey, PPC Hero

Searching

• Google Translate, Added to the Navigation Menu, Google Operating System
• Google Will Own Realtime Search by Indexing, Filtering and Ranking Tweets Better than Twitter, Jonathan Mendez’s Blog
• Google’s Wonder Wheel Experiment, and More, Google Blogoscoped

SEM Industry

• Marketers Moving to Social Media, www.emarketer.com
• Presentation Skills for SEO, SEOmoz
• Opening keynote SES New York: Guy Kawasaki, Search Cowboys
• SEO – Where To Next, outspokenmedia.com
• Advanced SEO Strategies: Integrating Analytics, Usability, Persuasion and Journalism, outspokenmedia.com
• Budget Migration: Going Digital Without Impacting Your Brand, outspokenmedia.com
• Entrepreneurs and C-Suite Executives: A Fast-Track to Search Marketing Fluency, BruceClay.com
• Herding Scaredy Cats: B2C Search Strategy-2009, AIM Clear Blog
• Landing Pages: Test,Tune & Test Even More!, AIM Clear Blog
• Survival of the Fittest 2.0, BruceClay.com
• Thinking Outside Sites: Branding Without Borders, AIM Clear Blog
• Thinking Outside Your Website: Branding Without Borders, outspokenmedia.com
• Universal SERPs: Vertical Detail in First Results, AIM Clear Blog

SEO & SEM

• Too Many URLs Spoil the SEO: Fixing a Common Ecommerce Duplicate Content Problem, www.getelastic.com
• Video: Discover Who Links to You, WebProNews
• Two questions about the link: operator, www.youtube.com
• Video: Maximize Your Online Marketing Campaign to Its Full Potential, WebProNews
• 4 SERP Trackers Reviewed: How to Monitor Your Keyword Rankings, Search Engine Journal
• How Long Should the Page Title Tag Be?, Search Engine Journal
• Analyze Your Site with Google “Text Only” Cache, dailyseotip.com
• How I Got a Link from CNN, SEOmoz
• Why does Google index blogs faster than other sites?, www.youtube.com
• Create A Brand From Scratch: Branding & Search, Search Engine Journal
• Proof Google Uses Anchor Text For Sitelinks, BlogStorm
• SEO is a journey, not a destination, econsultancy.com
• Get Noticed, www.verticalmeasures.com
• SEO is like a running race, www.sitemost.com.au
• Will Longer Keyphrases Hinder the Effectiveness of Your Copy?, www.marketingwords.com

Social Media

• The Four Faces of Social Media, www.theharteofmarketing.com
• Guy Kawasaki: Twitter As a Tool for Social Media, outspokenmedia.com
• Twitter Tweaks Its Title Tags For Better Google Juice, TechCrunch
• Ultimate Guide to Twitter Hashtags, Search Engine Journal

Video, Music & Image Search

• Number of Hulu Video Viewers Increases 42 percent in February, according to comScore Video Metrix, comScore

Web Analytics

• Back to Basics: Is your website a ‘closer’?, Google Analytics Blog

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

• Infinite Twitter Capabilities: What's More?
• Guy Kawasaki: Twitter As a Tool for Social Media (or Guy Kawasaki is a Twitter Tool?)
• New Tool To Help Fight Web Site Hackers
• UK Press Will Link For Cash
• 7 Simple Steps for Decoding Website Analytics
• Business Model Begins – Twitter to Promote FM and Microsoft Backed ExecTweets
• Canonicalisation issues – why it’s bad and how to fix it
• URGENT News: Don't "Unpause All Campaigns": Deleted Campaigns Will Get Clicks Too! Don't Be Evil Pffffft.
• Google's Disappearing Blog Post Phenomenon
• 5 Link Building Tips for New Websites
• Why SEO is an important facet of Online Public Relations
• The Beginners Guide to Qualifying a Link Prospect
• Big Brands Are What's Wrong With America
• The Stumble Effect: StumbleUpon Hits the Big Leagues