SearchCap: The Day In Search, May 13, 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:

• New York Times To Restore Links To IHT Stories In Coming Weeks
  

  Over the weekend, the New York Times was once again ridiculed for how links to its former International Herald Tribune web site were not redirecting readers to new locations for IHT stories. The situation, which was first noticed at the end of March, seemed another example of a newspaper that didn’t [...]

• Need A Culture Shift? Build An SEO Taser!
  

  It’s no secret everyone wants to see results these days. Times are tough, revenues down, expectations are up. It’s a fight to maintain market share, never mind grow it. And every day your inbox bubbles up requests for “SEO to drive more traffic, more page views, MORE REVENUE!” You want to help folks, you want [...]

• Hitwise: Less Searchers Clicking On Search Ads?
  

  Paid Search Traffic Share Down 26% from Hitwise reports that paid traffic from search engines is declining. Hitwise’s data said “in the four weeks to May 9, 2009, 7.25% of search engine traffic to All Categories of websites was from paid clicks. This compares to 9.84% in the same four week period in 2008 [...]

• Don’t Miss the Networking @ SMX Advanced – June 2-3, Seattle
  

  We’ve already highlighted the expert level sessions and prestigious keynotes and speakers at SMX Advanced. But there’s another aspect of the show that is just as important and valuable – networking. And with more than 400 companies sending delegates (so far), there are lots of people to network with! Keep reading to learn more about the [...]

• Wolfram|Alpha To Broadcast Its Launch
  

  Several cynical takes I read on yesterday’s Google Searchology event suggest that it and related announcements are directed at stealing Wolfram|Alpha’s thunder. I think that’s incorrect but Google is certainly aware of the new engine’s impending launch and is keeping an eye on it. For its part Wolfram is going to webcast its launch or pre-launch: We’ll [...]

• AdWords Test Quick Links To Product Results
  

  I reported at the Search Engine Roundtable that Google seems to be testing a new type of AdWords ad. The ad is an extension of the AdWords Product Plusbox feature Google has been introducing to advertisers who use Google Base. The new method is to not show the plus box, but instead just [...]

• Google Promotes New “Small Business Network”
  

  Although it’s been around for a little while, Google is doing some promotion of its new “Small Business Network.” Believe it or not it’s a lobbying effort to represent small business interests in Washington DC and at the state level. It’s also a clever way to open a new direct communication channel with SMBs: Google’s Small [...]

• Optimize Forms To Maximize Conversions
  

  Many B2B marketers use web forms to facilitate registrations, generate leads, or to acquire customers. Improving implementation of online forms can have a dramatic, positive impact on increasing conversion rates and maximizing ROI associated with B2B marketing programs. In my last article, Six Usability Tips to Maximize B2B Website Conversion, I briefly touched on [...]

• Google Searchology 2009: The Big Recap
  

  Google’s latest Searchology event happened on Tuesday, and the blog posts and tweets were flying fast and furious. If you found it all to be a little too much to keep track of, have no fear. It’s our pleasure to share this Big Recap of the most important posts and news. Search Engine Land Coverage

  Live Blogging [...]

• Google Webmaster Tools Gets Major Overhaul
  

  Google has announced a major overhaul of Webmaster Tools that’s filled with both major and minor design and functionality changes. The most obvious change is the new dashboard that now shows Top search queries, Crawl errors, Links to your site, and Sitemap information — saving users what used to be several clicks to get this information. [...]

• Ask CEO Safka to Depart
  

  According to the Wall Street Journal, Ask.com CEO Jim Safka is leaving the company. He will become the head of Chegg, Inc., which rents textbooks to students online. The decision to leave is apparently Safka’s, for personal reasons. Longtime IAC executive Scott Garell will take over as “President of Ask Networks.” In its most recent [...]

• SMN Webcast Thursday: Search Marketing For Small Business
  

  On Thursday at 1 PM EDT, tune in to Search Marketing Now to hear Disa Johnson, Coordinator of Paid Search Boot Camp at SMX East, present a free webcast for small business owners – “Search Marketing for Small Business: Basics for Online Success.” According to a recent Nielsen/WebVisible study, there’s a gap between search-savvy consumers and [...]

Search News From Around The Web:

Applications & Portal Features

• Bringing your contacts to the cloud, The Google Apps Blog
• New Fields in Google Contacts, Google Operating System
• Tasks, now in Calendar too, Official Gmail Blog

Business Issues

• Google Executive to Join Bloomberg, Wall Street Journal
• How Yahoo Got To Be So Bloated, paidContent.org

Local, Maps & Mobile

• Behind the scenes of the NYC – Google mapping partnership, Google LatLong
• Google Maps Development History 2005-2008, Mike Blumenthal
• Google reshoots Japan views after privacy complaints, Reuters
• New Local Business Ads Interaction Report, Inside AdWords
• Shall We Play A Game? UMapper’s Virtual Earth Game, Virtual Earth, An Evangelist’s Blog

Link Building

• Link Development Training: How Link Building for SEO is Like Picking Up a Girl, Stuntdubl.com
• Solve Problems and Links will Follow, The SEO Scoop

Paid Search & Contextual

• Advertising – Pay-Per-Click Web Advertisers Fight Costly Fraud, New York Times
• AdWords Downtime: May 16, 10am-2pm PDT, AdWords API Blog
• Case Study: Impact of YouTube campaign on holiday video game sales, AdWords Agency Blog
• Google AdSense Orientation Webinar To Be More Personal, Search Engine Roundtable
• New Yahoo Search Query Expand Report – Not Quite Up To Par With Google, PPC Hero

Searching

• Google Searchology 2009: Search Options, Google Squared, Rich Snippets, Matt Cutts
• Google soft-launches public comments, ZDNet
• Screenshots of Google Squared, Google Blogoscoped
• Real-Time Search-Off, TechCrunch
• Stephen Wolfram’s Introduction to Wolfram|Alpha, Wolfram|Alpha Blog
• What was new at Searchology?, www.dullest.com

SEM Industry

• It’s Not Wise to Fool Search Engine Marketers, Cre8PC

SEO & SEM

• Google Threatens Real Estate Professionals. Or Does It?, BruceClay.com
• Not On Page 1? You Might As Well be On Page 30!, SEO.com
• Did BigMouthMedia 302 Hijack Themselves Out of Google?, BlogStorm
• Google Fixed "Data Not Available" Webmaster Tools Bug, Search Engine Roundtable
• Is SEO the ‘goal hanger’ of internet marketing?, Econsultancy
• Measuring & Selling the Value of SEO for Public Relations, Online Marketing Blog

Social Media

• Are You A Twitter Snob?, Barry Schwartz
• Decrease the Twitter Drop Out Rate & Increase Retention, Search Engine Journal
• Don’t Fight The Stream: Facebook And FriendFeed Redesigns Are Paying Off, TechCrunch
• Online Marketing Tips Video: Community Building, Search Marketing Gurus
• Reddit’s Decline in Democracy, Brent Csutoras
• Small Settings Update, Twitter Blog
• We Learned A Lot, Twitter Blog
• Whoa, Feedback!, Twitter Blog

Web Analytics

• The World’s Best Advanced Segment Contest, Google Analytics Blog

Other Items

• Yahoo! Search Pad Rocks the Relay, Yahoo Search Blog

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