SearchCap: The Day In Search, May 5, 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:

• Facebook Search Box Is Low-Hanging Fruit For Microsoft
  Now that the Microsoft play for Yahoo appears to be over (appears to be), everyone and their grandparents are speculating about what Microsoft and Yahoo are going to do now. One quick thing that Microsoft could do to increase its potential reach in search is encourage Facebook to put a…
• Cinco Doh! Mayo: Ask.com Spells Cinco de Mayo Wrong
  If you take a look at the Ask.com home page, you might notice a glaring typo on the Cinco De Mayo theme. Ask has a glaring typo, where they spelled ‘De’ as “Do.’ However, if you click through, Ask.com does link the result to the correct spelling….
• Make Your Ads Better: Three Powerful Techniques
  Tomorrow I’m giving a talk at the eMetrics summit in San Francisco. A search marketing perspective can often seem “refreshing” in the context of the discipline of marketing in general; it even seems to go against the grain a bit. I’ll be telling the eMetrics audience a bit about…
• Use Universal Search to Leapfrog Local Rankings
  Most locally-oriented sites focus their natural search optimization efforts on the big cities of the world — metros like New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles. Yet there is a lot of traffic to be found in the long tail of search queries involving the many tens of thousands of…
• Seven Tactics For Leveraging Paid Search To Build Brand Awareness
  Everyone managing cost-per-click (CPC) campaigns lives by three magic letters that can make the difference between a friendly pat on the back and a hefty push on the back… out the door. Those letters are ROI (return on investment). Put another way, are you bringing in more money from your…
• Changes To Google UK Trademark Policy Will Result In Lawsuits
  In the US marketers may use competitors’ trademarks as keywords, so long as they don’t appear in the ad text itself. Previously Google used a more restrictive policy in the UK, not allowing use of competitors’ trademarks at all. Last month the company changed its UK rules to conform to…
• I Believe In the Google -60 Penalty
  Whenever people say there’s a new Google penalty, often there’s not confirmation from Google that such a thing exists and even other webmasters may disagree that the penalty does exist. But with the -60 penalty that’s going on, there are more clues that make me think this is indeed real….
• Beware: Google AdWords Phishing Attempts Continue
  Google adwords fuel new URL attack from IDG News reports that the AdWords credit card phishing attempts continue to be a problem. Emails disguised as official Google AdWords emails are being sent to advertisers asking them to update their billing information. When advertisers go through the link and update their…
• Yahoo Next Steps: Google Deal, AOL Purchase & Pleasing Investors
  The question of the day seems to be how low will Yahoo go when the US stock market opens later today. Even I, optimistic about Yahoo’s chances on its own, don’t expect it to rise. But maybe the latest blog spin from Yahoo, along with formal news of a deal…
• Leaving Las Yahoo: Microsoft’s $5 Billion Mistake?
  If Microsoft’s walkaway from the Yahoo deal is indeed a ploy to save $5 billion, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer may have proven himself pennywise and pound foolish. He was prepared to spend billions to finally make Microsoft a serious rival to Google. For a bit more, he may have destroyed…
• Microsoft Yanks Its Offer For Yahoo
  Microsoft has decided to withdraw its offer for Yahoo and not pursue a hostile takeover bid, according to a letter from Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, just released: “Clearly a deal is not to be.” This marks an amazing turn in the MicroHoo drama. When the acquisition bid was first announced…

Search News From Around The Web:

Applications & Portal Features

• Customize Google Docs Forms, Google Operating System

Business Issues

• Google yanks open-source project after copyright complaint, News.com
• WebTrends goes Google, Portland Business Journal

Local, Maps & Mobile

• Google Maps – Avoid being delisted, Mike Blumenthal
• Avoid the Pitfalls of Mobile Marketing, Search Engine Watch
• Google Accuses Verizon of Planning to Dodge 700 MHz Open Access Rules, IP Democracy

Link Building

• When Your Title is Linkbait and Your Post Isn’t, Gray Wolf
• Is Traffic The New PageRank? No, The Link Spiel
• Poll: Can A Competitor Hurt Your Google Rankings with Links?, Search Engine Roundtable

Microhoo

• Yahoo’s Tough Week Ahead, TechCrunch
• Alibaba Shares Fall After Microsoft Scraps Yahoo Bid, Bloomberg
• Giving Up on Yahoo, Microsoft Rethinks Its Internet Options, Wall Street Journal
• Microsoft Stunned by Yahoo’s Snubs, CNBC.com

Paid Search & Contextual

• Audio, and Video, and Print, oh my!, Inside AdWords
• Google Finally Begins Enforcing The Display URL Policy, Search Engine Roundtable
• Tom Cruise promotes his site using AdWords?, Search Engine Journal
• Campaign Timeline Report – Track Multi-Channel Campaigns – adCenter Analytics, www.adcentercommunity.com
• Google MCC Accounts – Generating Invoices, Shimon Sandler
• Want to Double Conversions in One Month? Split Those Ad Groups, Search Engine Watch

Searching

• Microsoft on Organizing Information in Storylines, SEO By The Sea
• Monitor Google’s Homepage with Page2RSS, Google Operating System
• Xobni launches email organizer for Outlook, VentureBeat
• Google Improves Semantic Search, Search Engine Roundtable
• Google OneBox for Premier League (and Other Sports Results), Google Operating System
• One third of Techmeme’s headlines come from the Long Tail, The StatBot

SEM Industry

• First Annual SES Awards for Best Search Engine Strategies, Search Engine Watch Blog
• Online Reputation Management eBook is now Available!, ViperChill

SEO & SEM

• 6 Surefire Ways To Make Your Blog Look Like Spam, BlogStorm
• Traffic estimation with Google’s traffic estimator, Joost de Valk
• Part Of Your Site Needs a Google Review? You Need To Verify That Section With Google Separately, Search Engine Roundtable
• Building a Better Spam Detector, SEOmoz
• Findability, New and Better SEO? Experts Disagree; 12 Findability Resources, SEO 2.0
• Globe Trotting Search Marketing, ClickZ
• Rewriting the Beginner’s Guide Part VI: How Usability, User Experience and Content Affect Search Engine Rankings, SEOmoz
• Top 5 Non-SEO Ways to Increase Your Search Rankings, Search Engine Watch
• Training Your Search Marketing Employees – Part 1, Search Engine Watch
• Webmasters Report May 2008 Google SERP Updates, Search Engine Roundtable

Social Media

• Does Facebook Social PPC Belong at Search Marketing Conferences?, AIM Clear Blog
• Orkut Adds Status Update, Googlified
• Understanding the Value of "Friends" in Social Media Websites, www.doshdosh.com
• Urgent Changes Are Needed To Facebook Messaging, TechCrunch
• Twitter Can Be Liberated – Here’s How, TechCrunch

Video, Music & Image Search

• New Inbox And My Contacts Features Are Live, YouTube Blog
• Video Sitemaps: How We Find Great Videos, Official Google Video Blog
• Lycos Cinema: More Social Than Hulu, But With A Lot Less Content, TechCrunch
• YouTube Down, CenterNetworks
• Video Recap of Weekly Search Buzz :: May 4, 2008, Search Engine Roundtable

Web Analytics

• New Board of Directors for the Web Analytics Association, Search Engine Watch Blog

Other Items

• Tell the Tale: Holocaust Remembrance Day, Official Google Blog
• Doodle: Queen’s Day, Googlified
• Google: Those TV Spots Better Be Good – Advertising Age – Digital, Ad Age
• Podcast: Google & Yahoo Do Ad Deal; Indiana Jones Search & Google News Hits The iPhone, Daily SearchCast
• Daily SearchCast, May 5: Microsoft Bails On Yahoo, Daily SearchCast
• Moving to Unicode 5.1, Official Google Blog
• Statistics & Fast Facts: Cinco de Mayo 2008 (Stats about Mexican Americans, Trade With Mexico, Etc.), ResourceShelf

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

• Top 5 Non-SEO Ways to Increase Rankings
• The Ethics of Linkbait. Again.
• Understanding the Value of “Friends” in Social Media Websites
• Leaving Las Yahoo: Microsoft’s $5 Billion Mistake?
• Is Traffic The New PageRank? No.
• Six Questions With Vanessa Fox
• Want That Post to Go Popular? Here’s The Best and Worst Times to Post It
• The Decline and Fall of Quality on Digg
• Target the Long Tail with Better Writing
• 7 Habits Of Incredibly Effective Bloggers
• Just Another Crappy SEO Article
• SEM Bootcamp: Three Steps to Creating New Content
• SEO Career Advice from an Out-of-Work SEO
• 13 Twitterers Confess Why They Unfollow
• Is Texting causing teens to lack Interpersonal Skills?
• Don’t Be Fooled By April’s Links – This Month In SEO 4/08