SearchCap: The Day In Search, March 5, 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:

• Pew: Cellphones More Important To Users Than Internet, TV, Email
  Anyone who doubts how important mobile phones are and will become as a platform and marketing medium needs only to look at the latest Pew Internet & American Life report. Cellphones are now more important to US adults than the internet, television, landline phones and email. In addition, an increasing…
• Google Analytics Benchmarking Feature, Data Sharing & Audio Ad Charting
  Google Analytics has added three major features today, two of those features are related and the third is a standalone feature. Google Analytics users can now have the option of comparing their site’s data to industry benchmarks. Analytics users can opt-in or opt-out of the data sharing feature by logging…
• Looking For SMX Advanced 2008 Session Ideas (And Speakers)
  I’m often asked what’s the best way to speak at one of the search conferences we organized. The answer is simple. Suggest a great session. Do that, and you’ve got an excellent chance to present. And right now, we’re looking for some great session ideas for our SMX Advanced conference…
• Matt Cutts & The Search Community Interview
  I finally got around to watching Whiteboard Friday – The Matt Cutts Interview and felt it was worth pointing out. Matt Cutts, Google Engineer, is a huge part of the SEM industry. Rand Fishkin’s interview with Matt Cutts explores that relationship. Questions include how Matt got into being the face…
• Obit: A West Coast Digerati Deadpools Ask.com
  Goodbye, Ask.com. You caught my eye back in 1997 as an unusual meta search engine that asked questions to get answers. By 1998, I counted you alongside Google and Direct Hit as shining examples of what to watch in search. You’d dumped depending on others for search results and…
• Yahoo Celebrates Its 13th Birthday; Will There Be A 14th?
  As Yahoo celebrates its 13th birthday, the looming question is: will the company be able to find an alternative to the Microsoft offer or will Steve Ballmer & Co. prevail? According to the Wall Street Journal, Yahoo has recently “stepped up” talks with AOL about potentially folding AOL’s business…
• Google Adds Page Load Time To Quality Score Algorithm
  A WebmasterWorld thread tipped both Search Engine Watch and Search Engine Roundtable (that’s me) off on the fact that Google has added an additional quality score factor to the AdWords ranking algorithm. The new factor is page load time. If your destination URL is a very slow loading page, then…
• Hot Or Not? Finding Hot Prospects With Lead Scoring
  As powerful as search marketing is for B2B lead generation, it has ironically served to increase the ages-old friction between sales and marketing. This is because when buyers use search to research solutions and find vendors, they are extremely early in the buying process—often long before they are ready…
• SEO Site Audit: A Wise Investment For All Companies
  More and more savvy companies are undertaking search engine optimization (SEO) site audits, to assess the current search-effectiveness of a site, what needs to be done to improve it, and to track how a site is performing over time. I’ve been recommending website audits for years—after all, the accounting…
• 10 Reasons to Attend SMX Social Media – Register Before March 15 and Save!
  Early bird registration for Search Marketing Expo – SMX Social Media in Long Beach, CA ends March 15. Register today and you’ll pay only $1195 for all the sessions, keynotes, networking and parties. Space is limited so secure your spot now. This West Coast version of SMX Social Media is…
• Google Tests Additional Search Box Within Search Results
  Tamar tipped me off to people seeing secondary search boxes in the Google search results. I see them myself now. For example a search on amazon returns this search box directly under the snippet but above the URL, here is a picture:…

Search News From Around The Web:

Applications & Portal Features

• 2 hidden ways to get more from your Gmail address, Official Gmail Blog
• Google Certificate Expired: Everyone Makes Mistakes, Tim Gross
• Office Live Workspace vs Google Docs: Feature-by-Feature Comparison, Read/Write Web

Business Issues

• Diller expresses doubt at event, Variety
• ETech: Google Prediction Market Datamining Shows Meatspace Matters, Wired
• Google Likely to Get EU Approval to Buy DoubleClick , Bloomberg
• Job Search Site RiseSmart Raises $1.5 Million Seed Round, paidContent.org
• Q&A with Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg, on hiring, growth, and its platform, VentureBeat
• Stock Sales at Google Send Shivers, Wall Street Journal
• Whatever happened to Google $900?, InfoWorld

Local, Maps & Mobile

• Got 3D data?, Google LatLong
• Google Maps Crashes Australian Passenger Ferry?, Marketing Pilgrim

Microhoo

• Microsoft board to address next step in bid for Yahoo, News.com

Paid Search & Contextual

• 5 Common misconceptions about the Google Website Optimizer, The SEO Scoop
• Monetize Your Search Box with PredictAd, TechCrunch
• Pay-per-click Spyware and Other Scams, Practical ECommerce
• Yahoo launches new video ads, News.com

Searching

• Custom Search on Google Help Centers, Google Custom Search
• Should Search Engines Do More about Malware?, Marketing Pilgrim
• Twing Search for Opinions, Forums, Conversation, Alt Search Engines
• Yahoo!’s Open Search Platform – Could this Be the Future of Search?, SEOmoz
• 6 Ways to Filter Your RSS Feeds, Read/Write Web
• Early Reports of Ask.com Testing Google Results in Core Web Search, Search Engine Roundtable
• Google Ecommerce, ComparisonEngines.com
• Google Updates Design for Advanced Search Page, Search Engine Roundtable

SEM Industry

• Whiteboard Tuesday – SMX West Interviews: Jeremy Schoemaker on Monetizing Your Blog, SEOmoz
• An Interview with Jeremiah Andrick of Live Search Webmaster Tools, Stepforth
• One Small Step for SES NY One Giant Leap Towards Irrelevance, Wolf Howl
• SMX West 2008: Andrew Goodman WebProNews Videos, WebProNews
• SMX West 2008: Stephan Spencer WebProNews Videos, WebProNews

SEO & SEM

• Google Gap?, Andrew R H Girdwood
• Google More Sensitive Towards Automated Queries, Irishwonder
• Research Paper: The Effect of Structural Cues on User Comprehension, Navigational Behavior, and Perceptions, ResourceShelf
• SEO SWOT Analysis — Revisiting Marketing Models, SEOmoz
• The Final Word on Reputation Management Ethics, ViperChill
• Webmasters Report March 2008 SERP Changes, Search Engine Roundtable
• Why Is Preemptive Reputation Management So Difficult?, SEOmoz

Social Media

• Yahoo’s "Twitter For Location" Goes Into Private Beta With Near Zero Functionality, TechCrunch

Video, Music & Image Search

• Flickr giving away 10K pro memberships (to non-profits), News.com

Other Items

• Microsoft Research Unveils Three New Search Projects, Search Engine Watch Blog

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

• Yahoo Automates Usability Consulting
• One Small Step for SES NY One Giant Leap Towards Irrelevance
• SEO Guide for Webmasters [senior Hs Paper]
• Dr. Seuss Created Google – Here’s Mathematical Proof
• How Google handles 301 Permanent Redirects
• Link Building Advice from 12 Uber Link Builders
• Load Time Impacts Google Quality Score!?
• Beginner and Comprehensive Guides to SEO, Link Building, PPC, Social Media, Affiliate Marketing and Blogging
• Twitter Reminds Me of Cheers TV Show
• Search Economics – Automation and Economies of Scale
• Top 10 SEO Myths V2
• Sheryl Sandberg Leaves Google for Facebook
• Social Media is Giving Static Websites New Life
• Those who cannot remember Web 1.0 are condemned to repeat it
• Google Tests Additional Search Box Within Search Results
• Google Senior Vice Pres Dumps $8.9 Million Of GOOG Stock
• Best Thing About Sphinn Are the Comments
• Goodbye Ask.com: A Brand Evangelist Hangs It Up
• Dedicated vs. Shared IP Addresses and SEO
• Should You Use Your Company Name in Search Engine Links?
• Say It Right! The Art of Commenting On Social News Sites
• Why Spam Google Groups?
• 5 Ways to Engage Small Businesses in SEO
• SMX West 2008 Recap: Takeaways, Shout Outs, and Pictures
• Ask.com Kills Search Engine