SearchCap: The Day In Search, March 31, 2008

Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web.

From Search Engine Land:

• Search Biz: Diller Keeps IAC Control; Googlers To Facebook; Google Earnings Downgraded & More
  IAC stays in Barry Diller’s control. US government agencies look to Google’s search hardware to find information. Google’s hotel-industrial complex that’s coming to Mountain View. Those darn declining paid clicks — will they hurt Google’s bottom line? Yahoo breaks out golden handcuffs to retain employees, while Google loses another…
• Will You Be Sued Over Your Ad Copy Usage?
  Storus Corp just successfully sued another advertiser for use of a trademarked term in the ad copy. This is the first time that I have seen a company sue another advertiser directly without relying on Google as the intermediary for filing trademark exceptions. As PPC advertisers, this affects us…
• Yahoo Takes A “Shine” To Women 25 To 54
  Perhaps the perfection of Yahoo’s vertical strategy is its new blog-inspired site Shine. It’s a broad mix of content from publisher partners such as Hearst Communications, Rodale and Condé Nast. It also aggregates and links to third party content and is encouraging users to blog on the site. Unlike Yahoo…
• SEO Company, Fathom Online, Acquired By Geary Interactive
  Geary Interactive have announced acquiring Fathom Online, an SEO company. Fathom was formed in 2002 and is based in San Francisco. The terms of the acquisition were not disclosed. Geary is a full service digital marketing agency based in San Diego. Some of Fathom’s employees are now working out of…
• Google Dance Is Back? Plus Google’s First Live Chat Recap & Hyperactive Yahoo Slurp
  Is the Google Dance back? Well, not really, but I am noticing Google Dance-like behavior from Google based on reading some of the feedback at a WebmasterWorld thread. The Google Dance refers to how years ago, a change to Google’s ranking algorithm often began showing up slowly across data centers,…
• Local Store And Inventory Data Poised To Transform “Online Shopping”
  The neglected part of the local story is about products. Often local search is discussed exclusively in terms of finding service businesses or small businesses in one’s own area. But an equally important, if less obvious, part of the “local search” phenomenon is shopping in the more traditional sense….

Search News From Around The Web:

Applications & Portal Features

• Google Calendar outages anger users, Computer World
• Tips for importing old email to Gmail, Official Gmail Blog
• 10 Millionth Article Written on Wikipedia, TechCrunch
• Bringing the cloud with you, Official Google Docs Blog

Business Issues

• 4 reasons why DoubleClickers should ditch Google, Valleywag

Local, Maps & Mobile

• Does Local need to be held to a higher standard? Danny Sullivan and Chris Silver Smith Respond, Mike Blumenthal
• Entropist: Google Maps of Science Fiction, Wired
• Good data drives transit directions, Google LatLong
• Google Street View Within A Gadget, SEOish
• Boston.com Offers Local Search Model, Screenwerk
• Does Local need to be held to a higher standard? Ahmed Farooq Responds, Mike Blumenthal

Link Building

• Looking Cool Can Look Link Stupid, The Link Spiel
• Use What’s In Front Of You To Attract Links, Search Engine Guide
• Ask Yourself… Do You Feel Lucky (about getting those links)? Well Do You?, SEOmoz

Paid Search & Contextual

• Your adCenter Questions Answered: Part 2 – Demographic Targeting – adCenter Advertiser, adcentercommunity.com
• How to Check the Status of an Ad Group in PHP (V5) – adCenter API, adcentercommunity.com
• Worth a Look: Google Uses Massive Amounts of Data to Combat Fraud, Traffick
• Study: Web Users Dislike Being Tracked, Even Anonymously, MediaPost
• Content Ad Campaign Keyword Strategy Revisited, Search Engine Watch
• Using Clickbooth as an AdSense alternative, JenSense
• Yahoo! Search Marketing Announces New Customer Support Hours, Search Engine Roundtable

Searching

• Dutch Health Search Engine MediGO, altsearchengines.com
• Google’s Asian Homepages, Google Operating System
• Search Hoops: Exercising Technology to Meeting User Needs : Beyond Search, arnoldit.com
• Semantic Search and Semantic Web, Two Different Things, Hakia Blog
• UK Shopping Search Engine Twenga.co.uk, altsearchengines.com
• Social search approaches and algorithm-based search engines in comparison, altsearchengines.com
• Not Your Ordinary Google Interface, Google Operating System
• Google 404 Error Pages Become Intelligent and More Useful, Digital Inspiration
• APRIL 1st IS THE ANNUAL DAY WITHOUT GOOGLE!, altsearchengines.com
• Google Code Snippets Onebox, Google Blogoscoped
• Google Still Doesn’t Know Where to Place Related Searches, Google Operating System
• Mahalo Updates: Now a Research Engine, Want Pay? Write More Words, SEO Critical, CenterNetworks
• Windows Search 4.0 vs. Google Desktop 5.5, Download Squad

SEM Industry

• Search Standards, Part 1, McAnerin Muse
• Eric Enge interviews Kevin Lee About SEM, Stone Temple
• First to 300 Sphinns: Thank You Bionic Sphinners, John Andrews

SEO & SEM

• From Search Results to Content Creation, Google Operating System
• Free Firefox Rank Checker – Check Your Google, Yahoo!, and Microsoft Search Engine Rankings, SEO Book
• Is Google Seeing index.html the Same as the Root Domain?, Search Engine Roundtable

Social Media

• 10 Features I Wish Twitter Would Implement, Jason Bartholme
• LinkedIn Now Offering Network RSS Feeds, TechCrunch
• How to Deal with Negative Social Network Groups, ViperChill
• Facebook friends not real friends: judge, The Sydney Morning Herald
• Stumbling to Success Part I, endlessplain.com

Video, Music & Image Search

• Google inks Japan copyright pact for YouTube, HollywoodReporter.com
• Google Risks Muslim Backlash By Hosting Fitna, TechCrunch

Web Analytics

• Will Woopra Whip Google Analytics’ Butt?, Marketing Pilgrim

Other Items

• Content owners should drop Yahoo for Google, Calacanis
• Daily SearchCast, March 27, 2008: YouTube Stats, SEO Standards , Daily SearchCast
• Google Ad in Beijing, Google Blogoscoped
• Google launches Dajare in Japan, Googling Google
• Google’s April Fool’s Joke for Japan (Probably), Google Blogoscoped

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

• The Power of Support on Twitter
• Seven Deadly Sins of SEO
• Search Engine Ranking Checking Tool From SEObook
• Free Firefox Rank Checker from SEOBook.com
• SEO Rapper Chuck: The ‘Poetic Viral Marketer’
• IM-NY & BOTW Rally the Search Industry to Raise More Than $16K for the Leukemia Society
• Enterprise SEO: 8 Ways To Stay Sane
• Another Sphinn Spam Rant
• 10 Features I Wish Twitter Would Implement
• Looking Cool Can Look Link Stupid
• We Don’t Need No Stinkin’ Standards. Do We?
• Google Snippet Rules Re Blogs Change
• New SEM Firm Rating Site: Tempting Fate?
• Baiting and Beseeching: Obtaining the right mix of chasing links and getting them to chase you
• Google Bombs, Jew Watch News & the Hypocritical Linking Universe
• The Internet Marketing Unlist: 49 Things You Probably Are Doing But Shouldn’t
• Debauchery, Douchebaggary, & Drunkenness: Being A Twit
• Microsoft adCenter – Where’s The Revenue?
• 96 Women Bloggers to Watch for Spring 2008
• In Praise of Sphinn’s One-Hit Wonder
• What If You Could Take Your Robots.txt File To The Bar?
• Google Offers Robots.txt Generator
• Googles Great Wall of SERP defense