SearchCap: The Day In Search, May 15, 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:

• Carl Icahn Makes His Move To Oust Yahoo Board, Which Has “Completely Botched” Microsoft Merger Talks
  As Danny reported earlier, Billionaire investor Carl Icahn is making a proxy move to oust the Yahoo board in an effort to reignite takeover talks with Microsoft. Just a few minutes ago a press release was issued by Icahn explaining his intentions and rationale….
• Yahoo! SearchMonkey Now Open For Everyone
  Today, Yahoo! is making its SearchMonkey developer platform publicly available and is kicking things off with a launch party and a developer challenge. As we noted a few weeks ago when SearchMonkey launched in private beta, Yahoo! is ecouraging the use of microformats and semantic web standards by providing an…
• How Search Engine Redirect Users To Country-Specific Sites
  Yahoo just started redirecting people in the UK who are trying to reach Yahoo.com instead to its Yahoo UK web site, something that Google has done for a long time. With the change, this seemed a good time to revisit how all the major search engines may intercept people trying…
• Google Maps Adds “More” Button For Displaying Videos, Pictures, Wikipedia & More Content
  Google’s LatLong Blog announced new ways of finding more content on Google Maps, including geo-tagged YouTube videos, pictures from Panoramio and localized Wikipedia content. We already covered the Google Maps Explore feature, but let me take you through similar content by way of the new “More” button. Lets travel to…
• Supercharge Your URLs For Maximum SEO Impact
  When optimizing URLs for high rankings, little attention is given to optimizing the URL for maximum clickthrough. Yet the URL undeniably affects searcher clickthrough rates in the SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages), as demonstrated by MarketingSherpa in their eyetracking study published in the 2008 Search Marketing Benchmark Guide. Specifically,…
• Ask.com Buying Lexico, Owner Of Dictionary.com
  In a move that is interesting and perhaps even surprising for several reasons, IAC/Ask is buying Lexico Publishing Group, which owns and operates “iconic” domains Dictionary.com, Thesaurus.com and Reference.com. These sites get most of their traffic through direct navigation and will increase Ask’s reach by 145 million unduplicated users (or…
• What Are Your Search Questions For Microsoft President Kevin Johnson?
  In about three weeks, I’ll be asking Microsoft president Kevin Johnson, who oversees the Windows and Online Services division, questions relating to search as part of his keynote at our SMX Advanced search marketing conference in Seattle, June 3-4. I want your help! What questions would you like to see…
• Icahn To Make Yahoo Move; Google Worries Yahoo Will Learn From Ad Deal
  More rumors about yesterday’s news that Carl Icahn may want to take control of Yahoo. He apparently plans to nominate 10 directors to replace Yahoo’s board later today, reports the Wall Street Journal, using an unnamed source. But Microsoft might no longer be interested in Yahoo. Plus, that Google-Yahoo ad…
• Eight Keyword Research Mistakes That Are Costing You Money
  One of the reasons search marketing is so effective is that it delivers information on products and services to people who are actively seeking them out. People enter search terms into a search engine and the engine provides sites and ads that are relevant to the terms. This arrangement…
• All New SMX Local & Mobile Agenda Now Up
  This year’s SMX Local & Mobile conference features two jam-packed days of cutting edge sessions, enlightening keynotes and stimulating networking opportunities. See the agenda here for this event, which will be held July 24-25 in San Francisco. SMX Local & Mobile is the only event 100% dedicated to getting internet…

Search News From Around The Web:

Applications & Portal Features

• Embed your forms, Official Google Docs Blog
• Google Spreadsheets Become Wikis, Google Operating System
• Stupid Google Tricks: How often do you cut your hair?, Matt Cutts

Business Issues

• Google to Present at the Goldman Sachs Ninth Annual Internet Conference, Google
• Beating Google ?, Blog Maverick
• Horan to Depart IAC, Join Goodmail as CEO, ClickZ
• Advice For Jerry Yang, Forbes
• Ask.com: We’re Not Dead, Forbes
• IAC’s Safka Calls Me Horsesh##, Barry Schwartz
• Mozilla CEO John Lilly Reveals More Details On Stealth Data Project, TechCrunch
• Stealth Search Engine Blekko Gets Money From Marc Andreessen, SoftTech, TechCrunch

Local, Maps & Mobile

• More Traffic on Yahoo! Maps, Yahoo Local & Maps Blog
• Google Responds to Big Sport in White Space Debate: Geolocation is the Answer, Inquisitr.com
• News flash: Maps now open to Flash developers, Google LatLong
• Where in the world is… (Answers), Google LatLong
• Myanmar maps update, Google LatLong
• CityVoter Pitching Brands on Local, Screenwerk
• EU Warns Google Of Privacy Problems With ‘Street View’ Service, Dow Jones Newswires
• Urban Mapping Expands Databases, Screenwerk

Paid Search & Contextual

• Google social network ad business improving: Brin, Reuters
• SEM Boot Camp – Paid Search Rules, Search Engine Guide
• How to Split Test (A/B Test) Your AdSense Ads, Problogger
• A look at Googles ridiculous Adwords restrictions, BlogStorm
• Quick Bookmark URL for Google AdWords Live Chat, Search Engine Roundtable

Searching

• Advertising, search, and drive-by malware, Geeking with Greg
• Semantics In, Popularity Out, Hakia Blog
• Yahoo! Gets With The IP Delivery, Seoco
• Google Doctype, an Encyclopedia for Web Developers, Google Operating System
• Reading The Wall Street Journal For Free Despite Its Google News Cloaking, Danny Sullivan
• Searching Google and Others for Suicide, Google Blogoscoped
• Tutorial: Implementing Search Suggest with YUI AutoComplete and the Yahoo Search API, Yahoo! User Interface Blog

SEM Industry

• SNow Accepting Pitches For SMX Local , Search Marketing Expo Blog
• Keeping SEO Staff Motivated and Driven, Search Engine Watch
• My Definition Of SEO and How The Death Will Play Out, ShoeMoney

SEO & SEM

• Effectively Using Images, Jane & Robot
• Ranking As The Original Source For Content You Syndicate, Vanessa Fox
• When Google Gets Duplicate Content Wrong, Wolf Howl
• SEO Tool – Site Seer – Coming Soon, Andy Beard
• Webmaster Tools now in 26 languages, Official Google Webmaster Central Blog
• Community: The Human Element of SEO Success, Small Business SEM
• Findability: 5 reasons to let others do the dirty work and to reclaim true SEO, SEOptimise
• How to Bury Negative Online Mentions of You – Intermediate Level Tactics [SearchEngineWatch], Search Engine Watch Blog
• How to Create Printer Friendly Pages Without Creating Duplicate Content – Search Engine Guide Blog, Search Engine Guide
• Of Course Google Indexes Content About Vodka , Search Engine Roundtable
• Should Google Not Index Robots.txt Files in Search Results?, Search Engine Roundtable
• Yahoo Site Explorer Mishandling HTTPS Vs. HTTP Protocols?, Search Engine Roundtable

Social Media

• Social Networking Ad Spending Update, eMarketer
• Blogspotting The Twitter Story I’ve been working on, BusinessWeek
• Facebook suspends participation in Google’s Friend Connect, News.com

Video, Music & Image Search

• Why is video the most popular form of content in Google universal search?, Search Engine War
• Copyfight: How YouTube’s sucking up to Modest Mouse (and other giants of media), Valleywag
• Official Google Blog: Demographics now available in YouTube Insight, Official Google Blog

Web Analytics

• Jim Sterne Interview at eMetrics San Francisco 2008, adCenter Analytics
• Google Analytics How-To Videos, Google Analytics Blog

Other Items

• Google.org announces investment in BrightSource Energy, Official Google Blog

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

• A New Wave of Reputation Management Issues
• When Duplicate Content Really Hurts
• SEO Has No Future? Think Again!
• Jumpin’ Toads! SEW/Blog Turns On Comment-Threads!
• Confessions of a Sphinn-o-holic
• Search Engine Strategies Awards in August
• Different SEO Strategies for Different Situations
• Eight Keyword Research Mistakes That Are Costing You Money
• SEO: Don’t Hire a Butcher to do a Baker’s Job
• What the Digg homepage will look like in 2009
• 50+ Sites To Help You Bury Negative Posts About You or Your Company!
• Advertisers Can’t Sell Hard Liquor But Google Can
• Social Network Marketing is About To Get A Lot Easier
• Pay Per Click Management (PPC Management). A Statistical Approach
• Move Over Facebook and MySpace, Here Comes Google Friend Connect