SearchCap: The Day In Search, May 17, 2007

Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web:

From Search Engine Land:

• Local Matters Launches LocalGuides.com
  Local Matters, a company that provides a lot of behind-the-scenes technology and data for a number of local search services, has released a beta version of its own "social-local" site, LocalGuides.com. Local Matters CEO Perry Evans describes it like this: "In a nutshell, LocalGuides.com is a new approach to creating…
• Universal Search Spawns New Format For Google Maps
  In conjunction with Universal Search, the Google Maps team created a new "text view" that features images of local businesses and a smaller map. The placement of ads is different, below the map on the right. And there’s a pull-down menu to adjust distance. Here’s an example for "coffee houses,…
• "Natalie Portman" Most Searched For Star Wars Term
  For the 30 year anniversary of Star Wars, Lycos has compiled a list of the top search terms related to Star Wars, used by those at the Lycos site. Leading the list overall is Natalie Portman. Portman also tops the "real people" list, while the top Star Wars character is…
• Google’s Promising, But Yahoo’s Doing, Cross Language Information Retrieval
  Yesterday, Google announced that it will soon be launching a cross-language information retrieval (CLIR) feature. As Greg Sterling wrote: "Search queries will be entered in the native language, translated into English and run against Google’s index. Any retrieved pages/sites will then be translated from English back into the native language….
• What Should The SMX Advanced Soundtrack Be?
  One of the fun things about starting up the Search Marketing Expo conference series has been getting involved with lots of the details. Here’s one — walk in music. You know when you come into a session, and there’s music playing? Our SMX Advanced conference will have music like that…
• Searching For An Adult Topic? You’ll Have To Prove Your Age To Google Korea
  Google Korea to censor search results from InfoWorld reports that Google Korea – like other search engines in the country — will require people to prove their age in order to get back unfiltered results for certain searches….
• Democratic Debate To Be Co-Sponsored By YouTube
  Via Mashable, YouTube, CNN partner for presidential debate from the San Jose Mercury News coves how YouTube will be co-sponsoring the first official Democratic debate, along with CNN and others. There are very few details about what the sponsorship means. Would YouTube be airing the debate live? We know YouTube…
• WPP Grabs 24/7 Real Media For $649 Million
  UK based global advertising firm WPP has acquired the publicly traded 24/7 Real Media for a whopping $649 million. The company was previously being looked at by Microsoft (for $1 billion) according to rumor. It follows on the heels of several high-profile acquisitions, including Yahoo’s intended purchase of Right Media…
• Search Friendly CMS Does Not Equal Search Optimized One
  Having a supposedly "search engine friendly" website isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. In fact, it can be quite a disappointment. That’s because it’s not the same thing as being "search engine optimized." I’ve seen the words "search engine friendly" bandied about quite a lot, particularly to market…
• Imagine Live Search – Microsoft’s Test Site Launches
  Spotted via LiveSide, Imagine Live Search is a new experimental search engine from Windows Live. Like those from Ask (Ask X), Google (SearchMash) and Yahoo (Alpha), it provides a mixture of results all on the same page. Below is a look at Microsoft’s new test bed search engine, Imagine Live…
• The Ranking Roller Coaster Cause And Effect
  There are many reasons why your site might lose search engine result rankings. Some of those reasons can be traced to a particular fault while others just occur in the natural course of life. In essence, rankings change because change happens. But understanding what causes typical loss of rankings…
• Mayer Suggests New Ad Units Might Show Up On Google.com
  In December, 2005 after the AOL deal was announced, Marissa Mayer declared, "There will be no banner ads on the Google homepage or web search results pages. There will not be crazy, flashy, graphical doodads flying and popping up all over the Google site. Ever."…

Search News Headlines From Elsewhere

Applications & Portal Features

• MyYahoo Gets Inline Editing, Netflix Module, Mashable
• Google to link Gmail with Docs News, PC Advisor
• AJAX Feed API Slide Show Control, Google AJAX API Blog
• Slideshows for Your Photos, Google Operating System

Business Issues

• Citigroup Sees Google Reaching $600, Praises Introduction of ‘Universal Search’, SeekingAlpha

Conferences

• Marissa Mayer and Brad Garlinghouse Join TechCrunch20 Panel, TechCrunch
• Registration Open: New York City Mixer on June 7, at Hilton NY, PaidContent.org

Link Building

• Link Safari: Gear Up for a Hunting Expedition, Search Engine Watch
• Directory Submission: Do you do it? – Classical Linkbuilding Tactic #1, Performancing
• Choosing your anchor text for incoming links, Jennifer Slegg
• How to Get Links from Harvard.edu, Search Engine Journal
• Google PaidLinks Data, Dave Naylor
• Paid Link Schemes Inside Original Content, Brian White

Local, Maps & Mobile

• The Mobile Knowledge, ClickZ
• Quick Look: LocalGuides.com is Impressive, Small Business SEM
• New Google Earth Layers Update: Amsterdam 3D, Forest Service, Taiwan Roads, Google Earth Blog
• Local Search: Which Hat Shall I Wear?, Search Engine Guide

Paid Search & Contextual

• Computing Optimal Pay-Per-Click Bids In 19 Easy Steps, Rimm Kaufman
• Clicks for charity?, Inside AdSense
• New Analytics, Calendar Features, Yahoo Search Marketing

Podcasts

• Chris Winfield and Kevin Rose on Rush Hour, Pronet Advertising

Searching

• Yahoo Researcher Declares Semantic Web Dead, Search Engine Watch
• Censorsed Search Results in China Changing, SEOmoz
• Universal Search and Other Surprises from Google’s Searchology, Out Of My Gord
• Google Revamps Search Results Landscape with Universal Search, Search Engine Roundtable
• Google.com Recoded Using CSS, Search Engine Roundtable
• The Old Google Search Moves to AOL, Google Operating System
• Google Book Search becomes more comprehensive, Official Google Blog

SEM Industry

• Search Engines as Affiliates, SEO Book
• It’s Advice Day…, Gray Hat News

SEO & SEM

• Using Google to Target Bloggers & the Mainstream Media with Search Queries, SEO Book
• Welcome Dan Horton ex 9XB, Dave Naylor
• SEO Digger, SEO Book
• New Tag Cloud at Search Engine Roundtable: Should Tag Clouds be Blocked from Search Engines?, Search Engine Roundtable
• Google Webmaster Tools Query Statistics Frozen, Search Engine Roundtable
• Does Google Split or Stem Anchor Text?, Search Engine Roundtable
• Pages Ranking Poorly in Yahoo Search But Well in Google?, Search Engine Roundtable
• Temporal Data & the Rankings Rollercoaster, SEOmoz
• What Happens To 10,000 Images When You Nofollow, Noindex, Shoemoney
• Search Engine Optimization Warfare – The Competitive Webmaster’s Guide to Understanding the Dynamics of Top Rankings, Stuntdubl

Social Media

• Collactive – An In-Depth Look, Pronet Advertising
• Making The Switch From Twitter to Jaiku, TechCrunch
• Digg Entourage: Ever wonder how those guys at the top of digg do so well?, Threadwatch
• What Makes Techmeme Tick?  Inventor Gabe Rivera Explains, Wired
• Expo adds new features, improves performance, LiveSide

Video & Image Search

• Dear Rebecca at SEOmoz: Don’t forget the "little" guys, Marketing Shift
• Bloggers Exploit Google Image Search, SiteSell
• EFF Wins YouTube Fight With Universal, Epicenter
• YouTubing–Kara Visits Offsite, All Things Digital
• Copyright Suit Against Google Ripped Off Another Suit’s Wording, Techdirt
• Flickr Co-Founder Addresses Censorship Issue, Epicenter

Other Items

• Star Power, Google Custom Search Engine Blog
• Copernic Desktop Search Feedback, Chris Pirillo
• Google: The immortal Sergey Brin, Valleywag
• Google co-founder’s bride search gets result, Reuters
• Report: Google co-founder Brin ties knot in Bahamas, USA Today
• Google Working To Identify Your Sex, InsideGoogle
• Word-of-Mouth the Most Influential for B2B Execs, Marketing Pilgrim