SearchCap: The Day In Search, March 27, 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:

• How Google Shot Microsoft After It Took A Knife To A Gunfight
  

  Google’s a split-personality company. On the one hand, it wants people to believe that it could lose its customers at any time, lest it get viewed as a monopoly. But question its ability on the technical front, and the Big G will go off on you like nobody’s business. That’s what happened [...]

• The Google Wonder Wheel & Other Search Refinement Features Get Live Test
  

  Google Blogoscoped spotted an interesting test at Google allowing searchers to refine their search results in various ways, including clicking through a “Wonder Wheel.” There’s nothing particularly game changing, but the test is interesting if only for demonstrating how Google will react when competitors suggest it is “behind” in the [...]

• Google Expands AdWords Interface Beta Test
  

  If you’re a Google AdWords user, you may be able to kick the tires on the new AdWords interface. Google has opened the beta it to more US advertisers, as well as to new countries (the UK and Australia) and new languages (Spanish, Japanese, French, and Brazilian Portuguese). When you login to your AdWords account, [...]

• Celebrities, TV, & Taxes: Hottest Search Terms In February
  

  Compete.com says we spent a lot of time searching for information about entertainers, TV, and taxes during January. The terms “rihanna” and “chris brown” are Nos. 1 and 3 according to their data, with “irs.gov,” “hulu,” and “american idol” rounding out the top five.

  [...]

• Google Blog Search Fixing Blogroll Indexing Bug
  

  As Barry Schwartz points out today on Search Engine Roundtable, the Google Blog Search team is rolling out fixes to how it separates blogrolls from actual blog posts. Back in December, we wrote about Google’s switch to full-text indexing for Blog Search, but that led to problems identifying blogroll links as part of blog posts. Barry [...]

• Danny Sullivan’s SEO & SEM Q&A Session Via Twitter
  

  Last week, I took questions via my Twitter account (@dannysullivan) about SEO issues and more broadly about search marketing overall. I thought it would be useful to compile them into a post. Here you go![...]

• Google “TV Ads Online” Dangles Multi-Platform Lure For Brand Advertisers
  

  It’s now a cliche to point out that consumer audiences have fragmented. However, once mighty media have seen audiences dwindle over the past five or so years. Accordingly almost all traditional media are struggling, exacerbated by the recession to be sure but caused by the rise of the internet (mobile will fragment audiences further). Many [...]

• Can Reading Online Be As Rewarding As Curling Up With A Good Book?
  

  Have you ever considered how different the experience of online reading is compared to scanning words printed on a dead tree? To me, the experiences are worlds apart. My life as an avid reader began with cereal boxes in the 1960’s. In those days, there was typically a small toy inside the box. The [...]

• Long Time Yahoo Search Scientist Jan Pedersen Joins Microsoft
  

  The Yahoo-to-Microsoft defections continue with news today from paidContent.org that Jan Pedersen is the new chief scientist for Live Search. This one isn’t exactly a defection, because Pedersen comes to Microsoft from Amazon’s A9.com. But he was Chief Scientist and VP, Search and Advertising Technology Group, at Yahoo prior to that. And before his Yahoo stint, [...]

• Yahoo Not Focused On MSFT Sale, Rather On Mobile & 141 Home Page Variations
  

  Three intertwined stories appeared today about Yahoo. The first from Dow Jones Newswires picks up on a Thomas Weisel report about the company, following a meeting between analysts and CEO Carol Bartz. Ironically the report (as described) is highly positive but it sent shares down because it suggests that a Microsoft-Yahoo deal is not going [...]

Search News From Around The Web:

Applications & Portal Features

• Helping your site look great with Google Chrome, Official Google Webmaster Central Blog
• Google is Evil, Worse than PayPal: Don’t use Google Checkout for your business, www.slash7.com
• Google Apps Admins Gain Usage Charts, PC World

Business Issues

• Big Google Product Announcement Coming April 7, TechCrunch
• Amazon Sued For Search Ads, MediaPost
• Microsoft Acquiring Yahoo One Employee at a Time, digitaldaily.allthingsd.com

Link Building

• The Perfect Link Request Email Template, wiep.net

Local, Maps & Mobile

• Yandex Releases Mobile Version Of Its Search Engine, www.altsearchengines.com
• How Can Google Improve? Local Execs Comment, localonliner.com

Other Items

• Singapore Internet Users Spend Half of Online Time on Social and Entertainment Sites, comScore
• An hour for the Earth, Official Google Blog
• Google searches for holy grail of Python performance, Ars Technica
• Google tries to break IPv6 logjam by own example, News.com

Paid Search & Contextual

• Pageview tracking back to normal, Inside AdSense
• Google AdSense Video Units Are Being Discontinued, Digital Inspiration
• Sunsetting video units feature, Inside AdSense
• There is Not a Magic Number for How Many Keywords Should be in an Ad Group, www.bgtheory.com

Searching

• Google Safe Search Filter Bug Still Unresolved, Search Engine Roundtable
• How To Remove Google Porn Suggestions, Search Engine Roundtable
• Bye Bye Ms.Dewey Search Engine, Cre8PC
• Google Adds Comment Numbers To Sitelinks, BlogStorm

SEM Industry

• Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark: Black Hat PPC Tactics, BruceClay.com
• Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark: Black Hat PPC Tactics, outspokenmedia.com
• Help Your Small Business Customers Feel Smart: Search Engine Strategies, NY, Search Marketing Gurus
• Online Communities: A Bonanza of Content for Searchers and Search Engines, outspokenmedia.com
• Social Media Optimization in 2009: Back to Basics?, AIM Clear Blog
• “Massage” PPC With “Not So Clear-Cut Methods”, AIM Clear Blog

SEO & SEM

• How to Improve Non-US Search Rankings, Search Engine Journal
• QuarkBase Provides One-Page SEO Analysis, Search Engine Journal
• Google Releases Major Blog Search Blogroll Algorithm Update, Search Engine Roundtable
• Quickly Find Your Site Duplicate Content Issues, dailyseotip.com
• Whiteboard Friday – Flat Site Architecture, SEOmoz
• Robots.txt Syntax Checker, mcanerin.blogspot.com
• Do Search Engines Read The Anchor Text of NoFollowed Links?, Search Engine Roundtable
• When Local Keyword Research is a Dead End, Small Business SEM
• Hosted by Google, but Not Open to Search Engines, Google Operating System
• SEO Copywriting: Lure The ‘Bots – Don’t Become One, Online Marketing Blog
• Universal Search Video Results and the effect it can have, www.searchcowboys.com
• Use YouTube Keyword Tool to Find Top YouTube Video Searches, www.brysonmeunier.com

Social Media

• Facebook COO on redesign: Still figuring it out, News.com
• Making it Official: Government Agencies Sign Agreements with YouTube, Flickr, Vimeo, and Blip, Read/Write Web
• When Stars Twitter, a Ghost May Be Lurking, New York Times
• Yahoo! Search Marketing Blog – Twitter Me This, www.ysmblog.com
• The Best Way to Build a Twitter Account? Step by Step., blog.hubspot.com
• How to Embrace the Process of Social Media, www.socialmediaexplorer.com
• Twitter: The Real-Time Answer Engine, www.twitip.com

Video, Music & Image Search

• YouTube EDU Launches, So Go Learn Something, TechCrunch

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

• Optimising Your 250 Character SuperTweets
• Universal Search Video Results and the effect it can have
• 5 Reasons Why Design Matters To SEO
• 25 Free Social Media Marketing & SEO Ebooks, White Papers + Other Downloads
• Think Beyond Google AdWords
• What is the Orion update and how will it affect you?
• SEO is a journey, not a destination
• Liveblogging Coverage of SES New York
• Google Testing Increased AdWords Character Limits