SearchCap: The Day In Search, March 25, 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 Closes The Cabin Door On FareChase
  

  FareChase, Yahoo’s discount travel search engine, is shutting its doors today. An alert on the FareChase web site indicates that today is the service’s final day, and encourages users to instead use Yahoo Travel. In her first conference call back in January, new CEO Carol Bartz said “everything’s open for examination” when it comes to streamlining [...]

• Google Voice Search & My Location Now On Blackberry
  

  Google has announced the addition of voice search and My Location on the Google Mobile App for Blackberry. The new Blackberry additions are features that have been available on the Google Mobile App for iPhone since November. The My Location feature lets you search without needing to input a city name or some other geographic modifier. [...]

• In A Down Economy, Engagement Matters: 4 Tips To Boost Your Efforts
  

  Better. Faster. Cheaper. That seems to be the mantra of senior management as they pressure marketers to do more with less during these trying economic times. But B2B marketers aren’t the only ones feeling the squeeze. Many of your customers and prospects are facing similar challenges. But what can you do about it? A lot [...]

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Search News From Around The Web:

Applications & Portal Features

• AOL Search on IE8, searchblog.blogsmith.com
• Citizen participation that scales: a call to action, Official Google Blog
• White House Using Google Moderator For Town Hall Meeting. And AppEngine. And YouTube., TechCrunch
• IE8 best at blocking malware sites, says study, www.computerworld.com
• Charts, charts, charts!, googleenterprise.blogspot.com
• Find (and replace) my favo(u)rite colo(u)r and much, much more, googledocs.blogspot.com

Business Issues

• Google invests in e-commerce start-up Pixazza, News.com
• Life After Google, Forbes
• Pixazza "Product in the Picture" Service: AdSense for Images, BusinessWeek
• Why Google Web Designers Keep Quitting In A Huff, CNN Money
• Top Google execs: $1 salary, no bonus, no options, News.com
• Twitter Confirms Paid Pro Accounts On The Way, Business Insider

Link Building

• Are Foreign Links Considered Spam?, Search Engine Roundtable
• Weakest Link, The SEO Scoop

Local, Maps & Mobile

• Citysearch Debuts Clever Vertical Strategy, gesterling.wordpress.com
• Google Maps Interface Tweak, Mike Blumenthal
• Home Made Street View for Google Earth, Google Earth Blog

Other Items

• Catching the Phishers, www.ysmblog.com
• In Google We Trust, Google Operating System

Paid Search & Contextual

• Keywords went from 7/10 average QS to 1/10 overnight. Any ideas?, Google
• New feature for improved payment control and convenience, Inside AdWords
• Let’s Take it Offline: Google TV Ads: Reaching Far and Wide, Google Traditional Media Blog
• Daniel Brandt on Google/ DoubleClick Tracking, Google Blogoscoped
• Five Tips to Improve your Microsoft adCenter ROI, adCenter Blog for Advertisers
• Embracing New Pay-Per-Click Media Formats, Search Marketing Standard
• Google AdSense With Matt Cutts Banners, Search Engine Roundtable
• Google: More AdSense Ads = Higher Revenue Per Impression, Search Engine Roundtable
• How to benchmark your keyword’s quality scores against the competition, Brad Geddes
• Video: Advertising Based on Factual User Data, WebProNews
• AdSense is a-Twitter, Inside AdSense
• Google AdSense joins Twitter, www.jensense.com
• Overview of the New AdWords Interface, www.youtube.com

Searching

• Live Search: Answers about your madness – March Madness, that is!, blogs.msdn.com

SEM Industry

• Advanced SEO Strategies: Integrating Analytics, Usability, Persuasion and Journalism, BruceClay.com
• Bad Economy? Party Like 1999, Market Like 2009, AIM Clear Blog
• A Disciplined Approach To Managing A Client Relationship, SEM Geek
• Beyond Googling: Where Will Your Customers Be Searching in Five Years?, BruceClay.com
• SES NY: Social Media for the Little Guy, Online Marketing Blog
• Small Voices, Big Impact: Social Media for the Little Guy, BruceClay.com
• Pay-for-Performance: Winning Strategies for Advertisers and Agencies, outspokenmedia.com
• Small Voices, Big Impact: Social Media for the Little Guy, outspokenmedia.com
• SES Thought Leaders Discuss The Future Of SEO, AIM Clear Blog
• The Future of SEO is Digital Assets and Conversions Tracking, Cre8PC
• Universal & Blended Search Update from SES New York, www.search-mojo.com
• The Imperative: Successful Site Architecture, AIM Clear Blog
• Evolve or Die! Next Gen. Business Models at SES, AIM Clear Blog
• Launching a Global Website: Don’t Bite the Wax Tadpole!, AIM Clear Blog
• Matt Bailey on Advanced (Persuasive) SEO at SES NYC, Search Marketing Gurus
• Pay Per Conversation/Search Experience Optimization at SES NYC, Search Marketing Gurus
• Will ‘Google’ Still Be a Common Verb in 5 Years, AIM Clear Blog
• Advanced B2B, BruceClay.com
• Preview of the New Google AdWords Interface, www.search-mojo.com
• Search on a Dime, Search Engine Guide
• Search on a Dime, outspokenmedia.com
• Small Voices, Big Impact: Social Media for the Little Guy, Search Engine Guide
• The State of Search – A Maturing Marketplace or Poised for More Growth?, outspokenmedia.com

SEO & SEM

• Google Patent Granted on Web Link Spam, SEO By The Sea
• 50 SEO tips for online retailers, econsultancy.com
• A treatise on the ethics of search engine optimisation, econsultancy.com
• SEO Today: Adapting and Evolving, www.weboptimist.com
• Using FAQ Pages To Capture Organic Search Traffic, www.seo.com
• 3 Development Trends That Will Impact SEO, Search Engine Journal
• A Day in the Editing Life, blog.dmoz.org

Social Media

• Facebook Preparing To Tweak Site Design, Wall Street Journal
• MySpace Toolbar Launches To The General Public, TechCrunch
• Pupils to study Twitter and blogs in primary shake-up, The Guardian
• Responding to Your Feedback, blog.facebook.com
• There’s Twitter the company, and twitter the medium, latimesblogs.latimes.com
• Twitter vs Digg for links and attention, BlogStorm

Web Analytics

• Web Analytics Tips & Tricks: Using Google Analytics to Create an Optimization Plan, Google Analytics Blog

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

• 16 Ways to Measure a Link’s Marketing Value (Beyond Search Rank Influence)
• Told You Twitter Was Testing Ads!
• Are You Using BLVD Status to Track Which Sites Are Sending You Twitter Followers?
• How I Got a Link from CNN
• Create A Brand From Scratch : Branding & Search
• The Ultimate Guide for Everything Twitter
• Presentation Skills for SEO
• Leveraging Small Business Customer Reviews and Testimonials Online
• Big Brand Media Wants A Google Bailout