SearchCap: The Day In Search, May 4, 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:

• Microsoft & Yahoo Said To Be Talking Merger, Cooperation
  Both the New York Post and the Wall Street Journal are reporting that sources say Microsoft and Yahoo are talking again about how they might merge or cooperate….
• Goodbye Yahoo Photos; Yahoo Loves Flickr More
  TechCrunch and USA Today have news that Yahoo is to close its popular Yahoo Photos service completely in the coming months, telling people to either switch to Flickr or leave to a number of other competing photo sharing services. From USA Today: Yahoo has said that it kept both…
• YouTube To Share Revenues With Popular Users
  YouTube Elevates Most Popular Users to Partners from the YouTube blog covers how YouTube is now starting a "user-partner" program on an invite-only basis, to allow those producing content on YouTube and growing a large audience to share in revenues that YouTube earns. From the post:…
• Contest: Win SEO Training For You; Help A Non-Profit Site
  Looking to learn more about search marketing? Bruce Clay is running a contest for newbies to gain training through his company plus a ticket to our upcoming SMX Advanced show. There’s a further twist. You need to find a non-profit group that can get helped along with you. Review the…
• Yahoo, Google Test New Search Results Pages
  Both Yahoo and Google seem to be testing new search results pages. Karl Ribas found that Yahoo is testing a design that has a thin top blue bar above search results. The blue really doesn’t remind me of Yahoo—Yahoo to me is about the purple and white colors. But the…
• Thailand Taking YouTube To Court Over Insulting Video
  Remember that case where YouTube was hosting a video many Thais felt was insulting to their king? Thought it was all resolved? Think again. The Thai government plans to go after Google in court. Most stories I’ve seen so far talk about Google getting sued, but the AP reports this…
• Kicking The Tires On Shopping Search, Part Two: The Independents
  A few weeks back, we looked at how the major engines, Google, Yahoo and Microsoft, handled shopping search. This week we look at four of the dedicated shopping search portals: BizRate.com, Shopping.com, Shopzilla.com, NexTag.com, and a relative newcomer to the space, Become.com. Each of these properties matched up quite…

Search News Headlines From Elsewhere

Applications & Portal Features

• Calendar on the go, Google Blog
• New Improved Desktop Gadget Designer, Google Desktop Blog
• Google Gadget Designer still sucks, Googling Google

Business Issues

• Jerry Yang explains his mingling strategy, News.com
• Baidu claims 57 per cent of China search market, IT Week
• IAC/Interactive Net Rises 32%; Shares Fall on HSN , Bloomberg.com
• Google Is Top `Dream Company’ for MBA Students, Survey Finds, Bloomberg.com
• Google SVP Sells Company Shares, AP

Local, Maps & Mobile

• Introduction and Yahoo! Pipes, Google Maps API

Paid Search & Contextual

• Conversion Tracking Part 2: Installing the Script, adCenter Blog
• Don’t run the risk of click and miss, Inside AdSense Blog

Searching

• Exalead’s Wikipedia Search, Google Blogoscoped
• "How to Get a…" in Google Suggest, Google Blogoscoped
• Search Paper: Is Relevance Relevant?, John Battelle
• Google Scholar Added to Google’s Homepage, Google Operating System

SEM Industry

• The Life of a Forums Owner, Cre8PC Blog
• SEW – Live! Columbus, OH, SES Blog
• Hit the Ground Running with In-House SEO, Search Engine Watch
• Gord Hotchkiss Search Insider Summit Interview, Online Marketing Blog
• Who Coined the Acronym “SEO”?, Alchemist Blog

SEO & SEM

• 6 Common Retail SEO Pitfalls (and How to Avoid Them), Small Business SEM
• Finding Good Writers For Your Blogs, Performancing
• Tips and Tricks: An Introduction to Google’s Webmaster Central, 10e20

Social Media

• FeedBurner Adopts Two-Year-Old, Renames it ‘FeedSmith’, FeedBurner
• WhatsThePlan Launches Event Planning with a Community, Mashable
• Are Diggers Done Digging, Graywolf
• Natural vs. Unnatural Patterns on Digg, 10e20
• Bullshit: Why Digg’s quiet CEO is suddenly talking, Valleywag

Other Stuff

• Google Print (Newspaper) Setup Screens, PPC Discussions
• Google Checkout – US Take-Up and UK Launch, Hitwise
• Converging Search and Browse, ClickZ
• AACS vows to fight people who publish the key, Boing Boing