SearchCap: The Day In Search, March 4, 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:

• IAC Cuts 8% Of Ask.com & Kills Search Engine
  IAC’s Ask.com to Cut Staff, Outlines New Search Strategy from the Wall Street Journal reports IAC has cut 8% of Ask.com’s workforce, by letting go 40 people. Not only that, the Wall Street Journal says IAC is changing the strategy of the search engine to “focus to better answering search…
• Facebook’s New Chief Operating Officer, Ex-Google VP, Sandberg
  Facebook announced Sheryl Sandberg as the new Chief Operating Officer of Facebook. Sandberg worked at Google for six years at Google as Vice President of Global Online Sales & Operations. Sandberg will join Facebook on March 24, 2008 and is responsible for helping the company scale its operations and expand…
• Search Illustrated: Building Trust Through Search Marketing
  Search marketers know it’s important to optimize company websites in order to be found on search engines. But, customers’ trust can be grown through so many additional avenues. Today’s infographic demonstrates how various SEM tactics—in addition to just SEO—allow buyers to find out about products, not only on companies’…
• Say It Right! The Art of Commenting On Social News Sites
  One of the most overlooked but important keys to success on social news sites is commenting (expressing a personal opinion or belief). One of the biggest draws for many social news sites is that you can interact with fellow members and the submitters through comments. Many users go to…
• How Social Media Becomes Link Fertilizer
  The title of this article doesn’t mean I’m changing my position on social media as link driver. Yes, it’s possible, but for the overwhelming majority of web sites, a widespread and costly social linking strategy is a waste of time and money. Go ahead, call me a heretic, but…
• Need More Link Building Advice? Here Are 12 Experts
  Pole Positioning Marketing has compiled yet another link building advice article. This one is very good, it asks 12 link building experts to provide a link building tip that you might not find elsewhere. The advice comes in both short and long form from Patrick Altoft, Hamlet Batista, Jim Boykin,…
• Yahoo onePlace: Think Of It As MyYahoo For Mobile
  This morning Yahoo announced a new mobile application called “onePlace.” The application isn’t yet available but appears to be an elegant mobile bookmarking system that is highly customizable and features an RSS reader, but can accommodate any type of content: news feeds, web sites, videos, images, search queries. A shorthand…
• And The SMX West 2008 Schwag Awards Go To…
  As many of you exhibitors knew, Danny Sullivan sent me on a mission to find the best schwag ever at SMX West because I am a schwag addict. In the end, you all had a lot of great schwag, and it’s super hard to choose the “best” piece. Therefore, I’m…
• Google: Not American’s Most Admired Company (But Almost)
  FORTUNE magazine released its America’s Most Admired Companies of 2008 list and guess what? Google was not rated number one. Hard to believe? Well, they did make number four. Apple took the top position, which doesn’t surprise me since everyone I know is buying Macs, even oureditor-in-chief, Danny. Google ranked…

Search News From Around The Web:

Applications & Portal Features

• Add Feeds to Google Reader in Internet Explorer 7, Google Operating System
• Google, Why Did You Take Away My Favorite Button From ‘Docs’?, InformationWeek
• Hey Google Maps and Google Calendar, www.wolf-howl.com
• Google Groups Grapples With Porn Spam, InformationWeek

Business Issues

• Gates: Google Does Not Understand Business Needs, eWeek
• Look Who’s Suing Baidu, Forbes
• Yahoo! launches R&D lab in India, www.livemint.com
• Google falls through 52-wk low for first time, Reuters
• Why data matters, Official Google Blog

Local, Maps & Mobile

• Google Maps:The Authoritative SpamBox?, Mike Blumenthal
• Finding that free space, Google LatLong
• Google Maps: The cacophony of complaints continue, links to the dead?, Mike Blumenthal
• Shifting Google Gears to mobile, Official Google Mobile Blog
• Google Gears in Your Pocket, Google Gears API Blog
• Google Maps solves your parking woes, Bloggle
• Off to the races, Google LatLong
• The Battle Today for What You Can Do on Your Phone Tomorrow, New York Times

Link Building

• 3 Tools to Quickly Submit Your Sites to Web Directories, Jason Bartholme
• Calling All Link Building Success Stories!, Link Building Best Practices
• Why Link Pages & Directories Might Not Work, Search Engine Roundtable
• Role of Directories in Link Building, SEOmoz

Microhoo

• Gates on Yahoo, Google and the next president, SeattlePi
• March 13: D-day for Microsoft’s Yahoo intentions, ZDNet
• Microsoft says no new developments on Yahoo offer, Reuters
• Tracking the Microsoft-Yahoo Deal ‘Spread’, Seeking Alpha
• Microsoft-Yahoo combo could mean one fewer exit for upstarts, News.com
• Yahoo elephant follows Microsoft, Gates, News.com

Paid Search & Contextual

• Best GMail Targeted Google AdWords Ad Ever, Search Engine Journal
• AdWords Downtime: March 8, 10am-2pm PST, AdWords API Blog
• Google Becoming More Efficient: Improved CTR, Efficient Frontier
• Google Says Use Spammy Looking AdSense Unit, Search Engine Roundtable

Searching

• 2007: Year in Review, Google News Blog

SEM Industry

• Hiring SEOs Search Engine Optimization Jobs at TopRank, Online Marketing Blog
• Whiteboard Monday-SMX West Interviews: Will Critchlow on Ranking Foreign Domains, SEOmoz
• Lose Diller, Not The Ask.com Engine, BruceClay.com
• My 2008 predictions, Matt Cutts
• Six Months in the Inside - Am I evil yet?, Scott Hanselman
• SMX West 2008 Recap: Takeaways, Shout Outs, and Pictures, Techipedia
• SMX West 2008: Danny Sullivan WebProNews Videos, WebProNews
• SMX West Round-up, Search Engine Journal

SEO & SEM

• At FOWA, WordPress’ Mullenweg talks about scaling and spamming, News.com
• Increase in Reports of Google Caching Wrong Pages, Search Engine Roundtable
• Yahoo Automates Usability Consulting, SEO By The Sea
• Barack Obama vs Hillary Clinton, If Search Defined Things, Who’d Win?, Search Marketing Gurus

Social Media

• The Future of Social Networks at Graphing Social Patterns, Read/Write Web
• Social Media Marketing is Branding, Search Engine Guide

Video, Music & Image Search

• VideoEgg Dumps Video Hosting Clients, Silicon Alley Insider
• Vodafone Sends a Message with Otello Image Search, Marketing Pilgrim
• YouTube to Improve Usage Metrics, PC World

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

• And The SMX West 2008 Schwag Awards Go To…
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• Surprise! Not All Women Think Alike
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• Sphinn Community - Who’s the Best Star Trek Captain?
• IM Etiquette: 8 Tips from Top Social Media Users
• 7 Gadgets That Are Sure To Enhance the Twitter Experience
• My #1 Tip for Creating Better Content: Write in Advance
• Link Building Secrets Revealed by Top Linking Experts
• 41 Blog Success Tips from 10 Years of Blogging
• 25 Reasons Why Your Business Blog Sucks
• Danny’s Moving Back To California
• Understanding what the “No Follow” tag can do for your site
• Bees Do It, Even NonProfits Do It. Let’s Do It, Let’s Fall In Link Love
• One Really Annoying Search Result at Google
• Be the WordPress Ping King…
• Forget about anchor text start building trust
• Structural SEO for WordPress Blogs - Gettin’ Friendly with the Engines
• Interview With Kalena Jordan Of Search Engine College
• Gmail Tips and Tricks - 35 Cool Gmail Hacks