SearchCap: The Day In Search, March 6, 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:

• Importance Of SEO Makes Front Page Of Los Angeles Times
  

  What a nice surprise to see on the front page of the Los Angeles Times today a story that features how important SEO is to web sites. It’s Web 101 for this experienced intern covers how a former magazine editor, Lois Draegin, has entered a new life of online editing after losing her job with TV [...]

• Search In Pictures: Yahoo Birthday Cake, Ask.com Bus & Google Ski Hat
  

  In this week’s Search In Pictures, here are the latest images culled from the web, showing what people eat at the search engine companies, how they play, who they meet, where they speak, what toys they have, and more.

• Google Maps Allows Third Parties To “Close” Local Businesses
  

  Google has allowed the community to edit Maps listings for some time. That capability has not been generally abused although there have been some persistent issues with mapspam. Today Barry posted at SEO Roundtable that anyone could go in and request that a business listing be permanently removed because the location was, allegedly, permanently closed:

  Let’s [...]

• Microsoft Cashback Comes to the MSN Toolbar
  

  Although I don’t personally use it I’m a fan of Microsoft’s Cashback. That sounds like a contradiction I know. But I thought it was a very clever consumer-advertiser proposition when it launched in May of last year. It gives advertisers a way to stand out in search results* (and only pay if there’s a sale) and [...]

• AdSense Publisher Sues Google And Wins
  

  Why I Sued Google (and Won) from the Huffington Post has a story about an AdSense publisher who sued Google and actually won. The beginning of the story, I have seen hundreds of times in forum threads, emails and via Twitter. Google terminated the publisher’s AdSense account because of “posing a signficicant risk [...]

• Search and Trends On Twitter Begins Showing Up
  

  We recently reported Twitter started testing search and trends directly in their top navigation bar. Now, many Twitter users (not myself) are noticing the new search bar and trends tab. Here is a picture of the new search and trends tab that many users are now noticing at Twitter.

  If you prefer Google, you can [...]

• Is Google Rewiring Our Brains?
  

  Some time ago, I wrote an article called “Are Our Brains Becoming Googlized?” It became my most read Search Engine Land post ever. Apparently I wasn’t the only one fascinated by the prospect of wholesale rewiring of our brains through exposure to technology. UCLA’s Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior is one of the hotbeds [...]

• Google Touts Wisdom Of Crowds For Financial Help
  

  Talk about irony: Although we’re living through a financial crisis that we created ourselves, Google is touting the so-called “wisdom of the crowds” to offer financial help. That’s the premise behind today’s announcement of TipJar. TipJar is sorta like Yahoo Answers, only without the questions. It’s people submitting answers to the question, How can I [...]

Search News From Around The Web:

Applications & Portal Features

• Experimental Features, Google AJAX Search API Blog

Business Issues

• Mahalo: Our hacker employee is no threat to your privacy, News.com
• Why I employed a felon, Jason Calacanis Weblog
• Google Share of China Search Market Inches up in 2008, PC World
• Marissa Mayer On Charlie Rose: The Future Of Google, Future Of Search, TechCrunch
• Robert Scoble To Leave FastCompany, TechCrunch
• Yahoo Wins Approval of Accord Over Microsoft Offers, Bloomberg

Local, Maps & Mobile

• Google Transit at TransITech: A year later and 500% greener, Google LatLong
• Locksmiths flock to Google Maps forum demanding solution, Mike Blumenthal

Paid Search & Contextual

• St. Patrick’s day display ad templates now available, Inside AdWords

Searching

• Detecting influenza epidemics using search engine query data, Nature
• New Craigslist Search Features, Jeremy Zawodny

SEM Industry

• Business Improving Recently? Poll: How Are You Weathering The Recession, Search Engine Roundtable
• SEO and SEM – Friends or Foes?, adCenter Blog for Advertisers
• Video Recap of Weekly Search Buzz :: March 6, 2009, Search Engine Roundtable

SEO & SEM

• Building Up Brands on the Web, Wall Street Journal
• Attainable SEO: Measuring Page Strength & SERPs Competitiveness With LinkScape, AIM Clear Blog
• Google Malware Scanners Do Not Use Google Cache, Search Engine Roundtable
• Preventing Duplicate Content With .htaccess File: Beginner’s Guide, Daily SEO Tip
• SEO Implications of FireBug FireFox Addon, Search Engine Journal
• Whiteboard Friday – Do You Need SEO Consulting?, SEOmoz

Social Media

• 11 Ways to Find Brands & Companies on Twitter, Online Marketing Blog
• What is Social Media :Part 3, CornWall SEO
• European Commission Brokers Safety Deal with 17 Social Networking Sites, THE Journal
• Twitter Ain’t Search, Marksonland

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

• Why I Sued Google (and Won) by Aaron Greenspan