SearchCap: The Day In Search, May 31, 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:

• Revealing The Sources Of Google News
  American journalists and news reporters never reveal their sources. Google News follows suit, nowhere providing a list of the more than 4,500 English language news sources it claims to track. However, Henk van Ess, an investigative journalist from the Netherlands, offers a service that reveals the names of 1,256 news…
• Google’s YouTube Signs Major Deal With EMI Group
  YouTube signs broad licensing pact with EMI from Reuters reports that Google has struck a major deal with EMI Group. EMI Group, one of the world’s leading global music companies, will allow YouTube users to not only watch EMI’s videos and music but also create user generated content around the…
• 100,000,000 Ways To Invest In SEO
  There are over 200 signals analyzed by search engines, creating an endless combination of tactics and strategies that can be employed to achieve exposure, rankings, and—by far the most important—conversions. To successfully deploy these tactics and strategies, however, requires a tremendous investment of time. To say that SEO is…
• Searcher Behavior In China
  Attendees of Search Engine Strategies conferences in North America and Europe know that the searcher behavior panel has grown into one of the most popular sessions of the show. No surprise why: sophisticated search marketers have mostly mastered the tactical aspects of their craft, and in looking for a competitive…
• You Can’t Fake Real Content
  If you read SEO articles and forums, you’ve surely read over and over again how important “good content” is for your SEO efforts. You’ve heard how you need to write lots of informative articles about whatever it is you offer. Some SEO types even say to write an article…
• Google Street View Raises Privacy Questions: Amusing To Some, Upsetting To Others
  Privacy is back – or at least the issue is back. A range events, announcements and investigations over the past several months have put privacy back in the headlines. And today the links are coming in showing funny, revealing or potentially embarrassing photos of people on Google’s new Street View…
• Google Checkout Now Supports Mobile Devices
  The Google Checkout Blog announced that they now support Google Checkout over mobile devices and mobile enabled sites. The only difference, for a buyer, is when checking out over Google Checkout mobile is that they verify themselves with a PIN as opposed to their Google account login (i.e. email and…
• News Corp. & NBC Universal Sign Video Content Deal With Sundance Channel & TV Guide
  News Corp, NBC sign more deals for online venture from Reuters reports that News Corp. and NBC Universal signed video content deals with Sundance Channel and TV Guide for their online video site. Those two providers as well as FUEL TV, Oxygen and SPEED will provide non-exclusive rights to News…
• Mark Stockford, Ask.com New Senior VP Of Operations
  Ask.com has appointed Mark Stockford as the new senior vice president of operations today. Stockford will be responsible for the planning and operations of technology and engineering departments at Ask.com as well as all of Ask.com’s data center operations. Stockford previously held employment at eBay, PayPal and Excite@Home. Chuck Geiger,…
• Google Buys Panoramio, Photo Mapping Software
  Google announced last night the acquisition of Panoramio to help continue to complete the Google Earth application. Eduardo Manchón of Panoramio said he “couldn’t imagine a better scenario than selling Panoramio to Google.” He adds that the acquisition will enable them to work on “a better infrastructure to improve the…
• eBay Buys StumbleUpon
  As expected, eBay has purchased StumbleUpon for about $75 million. “StumbleUpon is a great fit within our goal of pioneering new communities based on commerce and sustained by trust,” said Michael Buhr, senior director, eBay. “StumbleUpon’s downloadable toolbar provides an engaging and unique experience to its users, but it is…
• Google Gears Brings Offline Web Applications To Life
  Today at Google Developer Day 2007, Google released Google Gears. Google Gears is a browser extension that will help developers create offline web applications in the open source framework. Gears is powered by JavaScript APIs enabling data storage, application caching, and multi-threading technologies for offline browsing and application use. Google…
• Mahalo Launches With Human-Crafted Search Results
  Mahalo, the expected people-powered search engine backed by Jason Calacanis, has now gone live in an early "Alpha" test release. In Mahalo, human editors have crafted shows up in the top search results for popular queries. For example, search for [paris hotels], and human editors at Mahalo have assembled…
• Google Mapping Announcements Revisited
  Yesterday I discovered Google’s new “Street View” by chance, looking for directions, and blogged it, before it was officially announced and before I’d had a chance to talk to anyone at Google. At Where 2.0 yesterday I spoke to John Hanke, Google Maps GM, after the official announcement about Street…
• Yahoo’s CTO, Farzad Nazem, Resigns
  Yahoo! Tech Chief Checks Out from The Street reports that Yahoo’s Chief Technical Officer, Farzad Nazem is leaving Yahoo by June 8th. In a SEC filing posted today, a separation agreement declared Mr. Nazem will be receive a “lump-sum payment as of the Separation Date equal to” Nazem’s base salary….

Search News Headlines From Elsewhere

Applications & Portal Features

• Google, Yahoo, Facebook Extensions Put Millions of Firefox Users At Risk, Wired Blogs

• Google Apps for WordPress bloggers, Official Google Enterprise Blog
• GWT Reaches 1 Million Downloads, Google Web Tool Kit

• Oh Sam I Am, can I read it on the tram?, Google Reader

• A Look at Google Gears Working with Google Reader, Search Engine Roundtable
• Search Coming to Google Reader Soon?, Googlifed

Conferences

• Why Google loves developers, News.com

• Hear Me Speak in Hawaii on June 12th for Just $7!!!, Marketing Pilgrim

Business Issues

• Yahoo! shows biggest UK search share gains, E-Consultancy

• Eleven years, 12,000 Yahoos, and one great ride, Yodel Anecdotal
• Don’t trust Google Toolbar, researcher says, ComputerworldUK
• EU decision on Google data privacy months away, Reuters
• MySpace, The Globe.com settle lawsuit, Reuters
  

Local, Maps & Mobile

• Sounds in Google Earth, Google Operating System

• Google Releases KML 2.2 (beta) Documentation, Google Earth Blog

• Vote Your Favorite Street View Sightings, Wired
• Driving Directions Support Added to the Google Maps API, Google Maps API Blog

• Technology Behind Google StreetView – Immersive Media, Google Earth Blog

Paid Search & Contextual

• A Real Alternative To AdSense, Performancing
• Why Nobody Clicks Your AdSense Ads, SEO Book
• Google AdSense Preview Tool Causes Frustration, Search Engine Roundtable

Podcasts

• The Marketing Pilgrim Podcast – Episode 8, Marketing Pilgrim
• How do you get started monetizing a blog?, Beginning SEO Podcast

Searching

• Search For Better Search: Winning Users’ Trust, Hakia Blog
• Technorati Suffers Major Data Accuracy Loss, David Dalka

SEM Industry

• Reader Poll: Best SEM Email Newsletters, Online Marketing Blog
• Dan Thies New SEO Fast Start 2007 Out, SEO Book
• Rand’s Knowledge Dump from China, SEOmoz
• The Vast Ocean Between Shoemoney & SEOmoz and Why You Should Be Able To Trust Blog Links, SEOmoz
• My RSS Reading Trends – The Numbers, Cartoon Barry

SEO & SEM

• Avoiding Low-Quality Links and Link Networks, Search Engine Watch
• StepForth Tutorial: Blogs 101, Part 3, StepForth Blog
• Wordze Keyword Research Tool, SEO Scoop
• Local SEO – Comparision of Abingdon Hotel Websites, SEOptimise
• Does Google Pay Per Click Influence Organic Search Results?, Search Engine Roundtable
• Do Nofollow Tags Really Pass Link Love?, Search Marketing Standard

Social Media

• Twitter Back On The Straight And Narrow: Interview With Founder Biz Stone, Twitter Blog
• knowhow Adobe and del.icio.us work together?, del.icio.us blog

• Yahoo Answers : Brand & Link Building via Social Media, Search Engine Journal

Video & Image Search

• Court Upholds Student Suspension For YouTube Video of Teacher, Eric Goldman
• Warner to put ad-supported video archive online, Reuters
• YouTube enters the Living Room – Move May Backfire for Apple, Digital Inspiration
• Get Popular On YouTube Through Mediocre Content, Pronet Advertising

Other Items

• Soft Launch For Google Audio Ads, Techcrunch
• Use Offline Marketing to Build Online Presence, Viperchill
• The Associated Press can now track their content with technology from Attributor, Editors Weblog
• New RealPlayer allows YouTube video download, News.com