SearchCap: The Day In Search, May 3, 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:

• Free Webcast Next Thursday: Successful Feed-Based Search Marketing
  Most search marketers focus their efforts on organic search optimization or sponsored search listings. But there’s another channel that offers unique opportunities to reach additional viewers and potentially drive conversions that might otherwise never be realized. On Thursday, May 10, I’ll be presenting the webcast Successful Feed-Based Search Marketing: Shopping…
• The Art Of SEO For Wikipedia & 16 Tips To Gain Respect
  Wikipedia’s importance as an authority site is undisputed. It’s at the point where it seems a bit ridiculous how often Wikipedia shows up in the first page of Google for just about every search imaginable. In many cases, these Wikipedia entries are extremely light on content. Oftentimes they are…
• Belgian Papers Back In Google; Begin Using Standards For Blocking
  Belgian newspapers that sued Google to be removed from its index are now back in, having agreed to use the commonly-accepted blocking standards that they initially rejected as not being legal. Google and the group representing the papers, Copiepresse, have issued a joint statement. That’s below, along with a look…
• Free Web Design Tools From The Big Three: SEO Friendly Or Not?
  Today’s article is a follow-up on our earlier review in which I looked at the capabilities and usability of the big three search engines’ free site creation tools. The focus was on how easy each software product was for a non-technical person to master. The three tools reviewed were…
• Google Features Volkswagen, Which Happens To Be Search Spamming
  The Google Enterprise Blog recently featured the Volkswagen web site for using Google Enterprise search to power a new feature on the VW web site. As you can see, the Volkswagen home page has a huge search box in the middle of the page. Cool, right? Danny and I…
• Google Leading Wireless Challenge Against Broadband Incumbents
  Google Goes Wireless from BusinessWeek reports on Google’s lobbying in Washington DC to open up a government auction of licenses for those wanting to provide new wireless services. We know that Google, Microsoft and others would love to use a slice of these radio waves to run their own…
• Microsoft Buys EU Mobile Ad Firm ScreenTonic
  Microsoft announced earlier today that it had acquired six-year-old European mobile ad platform company ScreenTonic. Last February, Microsoft acquired European mobile search provider MotionBridge. This past March Microsoft bought Tellme. Thus, the company is putting together an impressive suite of mobile assets for both consumers and carriers….
• Yahoo Rolls Out oneSearch In Canada And Europe
  Yahoo isn’t waiting for consumers to download its mobile application Go or for handset makers to distribute it. The company is stepping up its push to make Go’s central feature, oneSearch, available via any Web-enabled mobile phone. This evening Yahoo oneSearch, which launched in the U.S. in March, replaces existing…
• Return To The Search Engine Shoot-Out
  My colleague Chris Sherman briefly looked at the PC World ‘Search Engine Shoot-out’ article the other day, and I also mentioned it in my own weblog. I read through the article briefly, but something about it kept nagging me, so I wanted to go back and look at it in…
• Google & Gatorade, Together In Oklahoma
  Google makes it official, they’re moving into an industrial park where citizens of Pryor Creek, Oklahoma were already thrilled about for having attracted Gatorade. Pryor Mayor, Jimmy Tramel said, "Gatorade and Google are just unbelievable to think about," he adds "What’s next?" Tulsa World reports the initial Google construction can…
• Now Starring: The Algorithm – Ask.com To Focus On Ranking System In New TV Ads
  Ask.com Hopes Ads Compute to Buzz from the Wall Street Journal reports that Ask.com is launching a new TV and web ad campaign today, to try to generate buzz about the Ask.com search engine. The article says this ad campaign is "gearing up to a relaunch of the site…

Search News Headlines From Elsewhere

Applications & Portal Features

• Google Reader Improves Email Feature, Search Engine Roundtable
• There are people who don’t use feed readers?, Google Reader Blog
• Better Notifications in Google Calendar, Google Operating System
• Yahoo Web-ifies its chat application, News.com
• Yahoo’s Web Messenger, Google Operating System

Business Issues

• Google Chairman and CEO Sells Shares, AP
• Google to Host Annual Stockholders Meeting, Google Press Release
• Q1 Revenues: Idearc and AOL, Screenwerk
• ValueClick Net Up 90%, Beats by a Penny; FTC Investigation?, SeekingAlpha
• Is Mama Ripe for a Takeover?, SeekingAlpha
• Comscore and NetRatings Agree to IAB Metrics Meeting, ClickZ
• AOL Slips to No. 3 on Internet, NY Times
• Google Sets up Regional Office in Singapore, Appoints New Head of Sales, SDA India
• Ask’s New Ad Campaign: Will It Be Effective?, Screenwerk
• Domain Name Transfers, Acquisitions & More from Google and Microsoft, ResourceShelf

Link Building

• Wikipedian on Nofollow Discussion, Google Blogoscoped
• Don’t Trust Jason Calacanis, Graywolf
• Checking for Clean Links, Online Marketing Blog
• Tools to Check a Sites True Google Toolbar PageRank Score, Search Engine Roundtable

Local, Maps & Mobile

• Yahoo! Pipes Supports KML, Google Earth Blog
• Yahoo! Pipes Adds Geo Data Support, O’Reilly Radar
• Take a trip across the earth with Google Maps, Download Squad

Paid Search & Contextual

• Google AdWords Advertiser Interface Slows To Halt, Search Engine Roundtable
• Extreme makeover for the AdSense homepage, AdSense Blog
• Following Yahoo-Right Media, Yang Suggests Chinese Ad Exchange, PaidContent.org
• Microsoft Getting Desperate, Garbitrages IntelliTXT, Threadwatch
• Six Degrees of ABCs, Yahoo Search Marketing Blog
• Google AdWords Telephone Number, Dave Naylor

Searching

• Search For Better Search – What Do Web Searchers Want?, Hakia Blog
• How Linking Between Documents Could Have Allowed Google to Group Search Results, SEO By The Sea
• Explicit vs. implicit data for news personalization, Geeking With Greg
• Yahoo Testing New Search Look?, John Battelle
• Sky Maps, Google Blogoscoped
• New! AOL Search Gadget Launched, AOL Search Blog

SEM Industry

• More SEOmoz Stats than You Can Shake a Stick At, SEOmoz
• SEO Contest: Help People, Get Training, Go to SMX, Bruce Clay
• Blogging Contest at Web Analytics World, Web Analytics World

SEO & SEM

• Lessons from an SEO Contest, Performancing
• More Sitelinks Hijinks with Google Duality : A Tail of Two 301’s, Intrapromote
• Robots-Nocontent | How To Spot Abuse By Sneaky Webmasters, Andy Beard
• Yahoo! search going to torture Webmasters, Sebastian’s Pamphlets

Social Media

• Online Communities Mapped, xkcd
• HerFabLife is Bookmarking for Trendy Women, Mashable
• Disney Targets Pre-Teens with New Social Networking Portal, Techcrunch
• Wakoopa Launches Social Network for Software, Rev2Org
• Blogger Blocked in Ethiopia?, Google Blogoscoped
• Bloggers and podcasters get their own magazine, News.com
• Blog Law » 12 Important U.S. Laws Every Blogger Needs to Know, Aviva Directory
• Gatsb is Twitter for Geo-tagged Photos, Mashable
• 5 Reasons Not to Put Content on Mini-Sites, SEOmoz
• Traditional Publishers and ‘Branded Syndication’, Screenwerk

Video, Audio & Image Search

• A Brief Interview with Tom Wilde, New CEO PodZinger, John Battelle

Other Stuff

• Pronto Now Powering Ask.com Shopping Search, ComparisonEngines.com
• Google gives $200,000 to plug-in hybrid car group, SiliconBeat
• Google’s Bring Your Kid To Work Day, InsideGoogle
• Google Video Ad Mockups with XSS Potential, Google Blogoscoped
• Yahoo’s Semel to keynote Microsoft advertising powwow, All About Microsoft
• Newspapers in Google Print Program, PPC Discussions
• Podcast: Yahoo Offers New Robots-Nocontent Tag; Belgians And Google Make Peace; What’s That Hidden On The VW Site & More!, Daily SearchCast